Does the boiling trick actually work? That sounds like it will just damaged the plastic around the pins or warp them.

Yes. Apparently, as someone said in the original "Just boiled my first old ass 72 pin and sorcery happened" thread: http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess..., the plastic has a high melting point and can handle the heat. I was also concerned about it.

When I took the pins out of the water the plastic was still very hard and nothing seemed affected by the water. I watched over them like a HAWK. 5 minutes in, OUT (insert cart "trick"). 5 more minutes in, and OUT.... quick. I was also stirring to make sure the plastic wasn't making contact with the pot (which the bubbles were doing a good job of anyways).

I also bent the pins back so they make actual contact with the cart (BEFORE boiling).





So I would think that if you're not comfortable boiling the pins, you could still just take them out, bend them back into place, and then scrub them with alcohol and a toothbrush.

But, have confidence!! Bring the water to a slow boil and drop that bad boy in like it's a baby egg. I watched it and stirred for 5 minutes and removed. Inserted a cart 12 times to help get grime out, then boiled again for another 5 minutes.

It was honestly way easier than I thought.

Tap the excess water out with your hand... leave in front of a fan for an hour. You can see when it's totally dry. Put it back in and play. Just insert the games, don't press them into the down position as that's what bent them in the first place.

With bending the pins and boiling it my NES works like a freaking charm. Read the thread on it, too. It's very helpful with lots of positive feedback.

This guys video helped with my confidence by actually SHOWING someone do it, haha....

I use stock pins in all three of my toasters that I have hooked up. There's no reason to replace them, it's an unnecessary "repair" in 99% of cases.

Air Villian, I understand that you want to keep your NES stock, but listen to yourself. You will refurb your original connector again and again until it finally breaks from the stress of rebending the pins again and again and again. Why are you so against the BLW? There's no option that will keep the NES "stock" without yielding to the same bad design flaw.

Me and many others are happy with our BLWs, and many more people have preordered or are waiting for their updated BLW to ship. I fail to see why you have taken a vendetta against the BLW, that fixes the blatant design flaws with the stock NES, without any cosmetic changes to the exterior. It is a great product, works no gimmick, does exactly what it says.

You want to keep refurbing your pin connector again and again while others seek a more permanent solution? Fine. But don't knock others for wanting something better than a flawed original loading tray.

Also my two cents, I voted indifferent on your poll,because I frankly don't care what others do to their NES. Mine is by no means stock, as it has had it's lockout cut, an ultra-bright blue power LED, 10k volume pot with big red knob for PowerPak audio, CopyNES, and most recently a BLW.

I gave my system a thorough cleaning a few years back and it has worked like a champ ever since. I was worried I would have to replace the pins eventually, but its still going strong.

I bought a new pin about 10 years ago when I first got back into retro gaming, and it still works like new today. I didn't know about the boiling method until recently.

Thank you, sir.
 
Sounds like your NES could do this:





Haha, just kidding... but really, I'm NOT going to have to keep fixing my NES. I won't be bending the pins down. If I did, every 30 years I'll spend 1/2 an hour fixing an NES. Not too bad.

Here's my major beef with the BLW & Replacement pins: They're not OEM. They didn't come from the original manufacturer, and were not meant to be used in the NES system. I don't want some frankenstein piece(s) in my NES. This reader goes to that reader and that chip and blah, blah, blah... all it needs is for the information to be transferred through some pins. Simple.

If I wanted to play famicom games, I'd get a famicom.

Like many others have stated, replacement pins and BLW's are simply unneccesary.

I'm confident all the people installing the BLW could easily recondition their pins, and understand NOT to push them down in the system. If they insist on pushing the games into the down position, then they can rebend the pins again in however many years.

There's a very simple option to keep your NES stock & working: Clean/recondition your system.

I'm not a car guy, but if I was I wouldn't want some lawn mower engine running my lamborghini.

I know that's an extreme example, but it's true. Maybe this is a better example: I wouldn't want to use a straw as an engine hose.

There's a million analogies I could make.

The point is this: New pins and BLW's are not necessary. Why replace something that doesn't need to be replaced?

It also boils (no pun intended) down to not creating more e-waste. If the piece works, why create more waste (While increasing demand on new electronics) by replacing it?

No thanks to repro pin when the originals just need a little bit of cleaning. It isn't even like its laziness imo, you need to open the system up either way. Save your 6 bucks and keep the high quality genuine pins in the console.

Same here, it was probably 2004-05 when I replaced my pin connector and threw away the original. It still works like an absolute charm.

My understanding is that many years ago, the replacement pin connectors were the same quality of the original Nintendo connectors.  So they will still fail over time, but they should last many years as the originals did.  However, the past few years, it seems the the replacement pin connectors are cheaply made and typically don't even last a full year.  I know a few different game shop owners who refuse to even stock the replacement pin connectors anymore because of the low quality. 
 

Who cares.  If it works, it works.

I've cleaned out my 72 pin connector and still had games with issues.

I backed the Blinking Light Win campaign and love it tbh.

Question for OP: how do you feel about clipping the lockout chip?

I could care less about original vs aftermarket 72-pin, so long as it works and doesn't damage my games. I've personally boiled, and use my cleaning kit a lot. If a BLW was for sale in a local shop, though, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

For someone worried about permanent damage/modification to their hardware, you don't even need to completely clip the pin to the lockout chip. Just lift it enough to release it and bend it back so it's no longer in contact with the chip.

Just food for thought.

Nice video. Lots of references to 80s pop culture, especially Weird Science and back to the future. But if my NES I could transform into a hot babe, and my fiance found out, she would probably slap me into next week and back. It's bad enough I have 8-bit pr0n in my collection...

My NES toaster is still mah bitch though. First one I ever had. Except sometimes I flirt with mah other hoe the AV Famicom. It's 99% stock except I wrired D3 and D4 of the P2 port to he expansion pins for Zapper compatibility. That and I'm seriously considering doing the red power LED mod underneath the switch. Sorry I can't leave well enough alone. But seriously though if consoles were hoes than I'd be a pimp by now. I've got a dozen not counting handhelds, spanning from Atari 2600 to Wii-U.

Haha, yeah... Can't have any Weird Science stuff going on, that would not go over well with the gf...

All good, I know what you mean. It's hard to NOT buy it if you see it, haha. I'd love to find me a famicom one day...

 

LOL on the wierd science. Every time I see that Energizer commercial where the kid turns the toy dinosaur into a real brontosaurus, I am reminded of Wierd Science with the barbie doll...

Yeah get yourself an AV Famicom. NES adapters work but are fugly IMO. Ironically, I got the AV Famicom because cramming an adapter into the already flawed-by-design loading tray failed more often than not. Now I don't get any trouble the same adapters with the BLW, and even oversized Famicom carts now fit in my toaster, provided they aren't any "fatter" than normal carts. Still, having an AV Famicom to play famicom carts is much sexier way to do it. Also I use my Tototek adapter which have the NES cart facing forward instead of backward in my AV Famicom, for those neat Xmas carts with the LEDs...

So, I decided to take the dive and boiled the pins of one of my three original NES 001s. It was having red blinking light problems and I thought, what the heck, since I have three NESes and one of them could be a sacfricial lamb if it doesn't work.

I am happy to report that the boiling worked great! Games boot up right away and there is no blinking light at all. This works! I did not, however, bend my pins back. I did not feel confident doing it. I tried doing one off them and it just felt like I was forcing it too much, so I still have to push the cart down in the tray of this particular NES. But yes, I can now attest to the boiling method. I, however, did not blast a fan on the pin connector for an hour...didn't think it was necessary.

Put the pin connector in an oven set to "warm" or the lowest temperature on the dial. It will dry it out in short order. "Warm" setting is actually cooler than the water you boiled it in so the pin connector will not melt or deform. I boiled my original pin connector once but it did nothing to help it. Mine had been sodomized by the game genie multiple times however. It was the only wat to make it work...

grip of death doesnt last forever. The last few Ive bought have been better about that actually.

Reconditioning old pins works for a little while but doesnt last. Not worth the hassle. If you dont sell systems then you have no clue what people want. They want the game to work first try, minimal effort or they raise hell and bitch about it. New pins are clean and work. Old pins dont last and ill be getting contacted on how their nintender doesnt work. NEW Pins all the time unless the original has nice grip and works first try with a clean game.


People buying an NES right now for the first time? they dont give two shits about original pin. They want it to work so they can play their mario and ninja gaiden. Replacing the pin is the easiest way for a buyer to get a solid working system. If you havent sold NES systems in any quantity before you wouldnt understand the hassle of doing so. Most annoying system to sell ever. Customers are idiots.

Yup. Replacement pins are good but BLW trumps it 1000%

 

How long do you expect reconditioned pins to last? That sort of brings me back to the final question of my original post;

Side question: How do you play your NES? With the pins bent and cleaned I don't need to put any extra pressure on the pins by pressing the game slot down so I leave it in the "upright" position. Works great.

So, I'm under the impression, from what I've gatherd from the interwebs, that keeping the NES cartridge in the "up" position in the game tray will PREVENT the pins from getting bent too far to contact the game (And is perfectly safe for the NES/game). This is entirely logical. Is that true?

I mean, if the pins DO get bent without pushing the games down in the tray, then I'll just bend them back when I need to. If they don't, which at the very least they will incur minimal damage, then theoretically I just need to keep them clean... Example: I just rebent my pins after 30 years, If they last 1/2 that long (15 years) without being abused then I think that's a pretty good amount of time.  

And I can respect what you have to say about not actually have sold an NES. I think these could be separated a bit... 

I think there's 2 different ways this goes: 1) Personally cleaning and re-bending the pins for MYSELF and 2) Doing it for a customer.

#1 takes little/no customer service as I just have to deal with myself, haha, obviously. I tell myself that I don't need to push the game down in the tray and the pins last longer. Simple.

#2 takes a LOT of customer service. So, do you tell people NOT to push the games down? If not, and I can understand if not (in certain situations), then I can see why it would be annoying dealing with customers.

As in, if I could talk to someone face to face, I'm sure I could explain to them how to properly take care of their NES. Online sales are totally different, and scary, monster.

Either way, I see what you're saying. Dealing with the average joe would be tricky and people are idiots.

For the most part, being here in Gamer's Gauntlet, I was specifically wondering how people here at NA fix their systems for themselves to play. As in, we are already taking the time to preserve and keep these games in working order so we are obviously somewhat interested in the preservation of their working order, how many people fix their systems for themselves. Especially when most times the "fix" actually just involves cleaning and maintenance, the same thing you'd expect from any hobby/electronics (train sets for example).

Was talking with SumerNivek in the BLW thread about re-bending the pins. Here's what I used:


4pc Pick & hook set. The one with the 45 degree angle seemed to work very well.

I was able to get the head underneath the pin and then by using the leverage of the tool and the plastic pin holder as the fulcrum was able to push the pin up by putting a slight amount of pressure on the tool... Just a few light touches and you'll see the pin come up. Make sure it's even and you're all good.

Ps. The rock is the pin... Fulcrum is the rock on the ground and the plastic seat in the pin connector. Long stick is the aforementioned tool. The guy is your hand.

Do that 36 times and you're gold.
 

This thread is pretty awesome. I've got a set of replacement pins in a drawer that I have yet to install. I've always been super nervous about trying to boil my pins, mostly because I'm nervous about melts plastic, but reading this I may give it a shot first and hopefully leave those pins in a drawer. You guys are my nes nerd heroes