Did Blowing into Nintendo Cartridges Really Help?

[UKDarkJedi]

There's nothing that can't be solved by a good old blow...

[LaP]

they just wore out faster than expected.

Seriously ? My NES started to had problem reading the cart something like 10 years after it was released ...

BTW it's still working ... sort of lol it can takes 10 min to properly load a game and it can stop working anytime while playing it.

[Charisma Veteran]

If somebody didn't get dizzy before nearly every gaming session, you were doing it wrong :D

[Ottawa Gamerz]

it did work if it was nintendo u blew dust out of it

[gameboy1977]

no, it doesn't work on me before. I had to buy cleaning kit for nes, and it worked very well than blowing the games.

[.Neo]

I don't care what the experts say. Blowing helped, or millions of people were insane.

As we all know the majority is always right.

[AJerman]

I ran one of those Nintendo World Class Service centers back in the early 90's and the main problem was actually the design of the NES. When you put the cartridge in and then press it down, you are spreading the pins of something called the 72-pin Flex Connector. Over years, this action spreads the pins too far apart and causes weak contact, nonetheless add that many people didn't use the cartridge dust jackets. What you have is now a dusty, dirty connections.

Did blowing in some cartridges fix them, for a short period of time? Yes! But not for the reasons you'd think. Your breath contains condensation which when blown in the connectors, would loosen up some of the dirt. When you then put this into the NES Control Deck, the dirt would then be 'scraped' off causing contact of the pins. Over time, you'd find that this was not sustainable.

Nintendo did release a cleaning cartidge and deck cleaner, which mainly used rubbing alcohol as the cleaner. You could save yourself the $14.95 and simply use your own alcohol and a few cotton swaps. (This wouldn't however, clean the control deck.) The main fix for that was to have the 72-pin Flex Connector replaced, which I must have replaced hundreds of them.

You can indeed still get these, and Amazon actually carries them now:

http://www.amazon.co...t/dp/B000A3IA0Y

(I used a parts depot between NOA and Parts Express... I think I paid about $8.00 each or so, but I also used to buy 100 at a time.)

I have 6 NES Control Decks and all of them work as excellent as they did when they were new.

Cheers!

Drew

See, I would have always assumed that there was a slight possibility, however remote, that the moisture from blowing into it could do something. Obviously any electronics knowledge at all would tell you it doesn't make a difference, but dammit, I say it worked!

[ahhell]

Reseating without blowing would ave worked to.

False.

[fusi0n]

Blowing 100% helped.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Ooo, I remember the pink cleaning brush.

I do remember blowing usually "working". That or rapidly slamming the seated cartridge up and down a few times.

Good memories with Rad Racer and Punch Out. :yes:

[~Johnny]

Obviously did help. You could try turning it on 10 times in a row, but as soon as you blow, it works perfect :p

[fmanchu]

It was the moisture in your breath that helped.

[Lord Method Man]

Obviously did help. You could try turning it on 10 times in a row, but as soon as you blow, it works perfect :p

Because taking it out to blow on it reseated the connectors.

[~Johnny]

Because taking it out to blow on it reseated the connectors.

That's not it - I'd always take it out and put it back in and it wouldn't make any difference. The only thing that would get those cartridges working was blowing on them :p

[devBrian]

I ran an NES repair business for a few years back (seriously, there is a market for it even today) in the early to mid 2000s. As was said previously, blowing does help, but because of the moisture in your breath.

I've replaced hundreds of 72-pin connectors with my own connectors that I imported. They were "gold" coated and didn't wear out as fast as the original Nintendo product. The pins would wear down or separate too much to get good contact with the NES cartridge. It was hardly ever the cartrdige's fault, unless you had scratched off the contacts completely, somehow.

I miss that job :(

[reactionary007]

Blowing always worked and still does work to this day on the NES at my mom's house. Spit all over the connectors? Dust removal? Don't know why it works, just does.

[Lord Method Man]

I replaced the 72-pin connector in my original NES a few years ago. I also picked up one of the top-loaders. I just wish I could get ahold of one of the rare top-loading models that also had the AV-Multi out port...

[2xSilverKnight]

1. Blowing into cartridge

2. Take a Q-Tips with alcool and rub the contacts with it.

Always worked for me when No1 didnt work.

[Mando]

Those of us old enough to have used a cartridge based console remember insering the cart, the game failing to start, taking it out and blowing out the dust which we all thought was why the game wouldn't start.

LOL some of us are old enough to remember having 8 bit computers with cartidge slots for games :p

long live chickenhead!

[ANON86364]

I would stick them in the freezer for a few minutes. After reading some of these repair stories, I now understand that it was the condensation that did the trick. The more you know :)

I wonder if I can find my box of Nintendo consoles...

[nub]

Blowing definitely did help.

[Sranshaft]

Maybe blowing into the cartridge didn't work but using the "Catch lip while pushing it down and jam it in" method worked all the time.

[Steffan]

Yes it helped. There are even times I used rubbing alcohol on the connections to clean them.

[Nashy]

:pinch:

I know. Apparently people can't smile at their own childhood magic, sorry about that. All humour shall cease immediately.

Are you seriously having a go because I missed your humour in your forum post, made using generic text?

How was I meant to tell the difference between you being funny, or you just not being able to read and calling BS on an article?

[Nothing Here]

Well, I think it helped. Because the cart got all glowy and heated right up. :o