I recently bought my first nes, controller, and a couple of games at a thrift store. I got home, plugged everything in, and was ready for an afternoon of retro gaming paradise when I discovered that none of my games would load. I tried getting one of the games to read over 100 times, and the most I got was Super Mario with so many graphical errors that it was unplayable. After a quick Google search I stumbled upon this thread, and decided to give it a shot. First I used sandpaper to scrape off the majority of corrosion. Then I boiled my connector for 10 minutes, rotating every so often for even flavor. I then let it cool and dried it with a hair dryer. Finally, I used a sitting needle to bend each pin upwards for better contact. After reassembling and once again plugging the system in, I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. I popped Dragon Warrior in and crossed my fingers. The game booted up immediately, with no graphical problems and without being pushed down on the very first try. I then tried the rest of my games and all of them had a 100% success rate without being pushed down, playing on the first try. I've been playing different games all day, and still haven't had to push any game down or try more than once for a game to boot. Thank you very much for this great information, without it my nes would be a useless lump of silicon and plastic.

I decided to try this on my original NES that my grandpa gave me back in the eighties. I think I actually busted the pin connector. The system just loads to a solid black screen. At first I was able to get it to boot to the game by resetting it a couple times. I also disabled the lockout chip, which seems to have worked fine since there is no blinking, even when the system is powered on without a cart.

Ah well. Guess I'll order a new pin connector.

Trying this right now... Will let you know how it goes for me in about 10 min!

Welp, it totally made the games work!... but for some reason the cartridge loader wouldn't stay down... it still plays and doesn't need to go down.. now i just need to figure out why the games wont stay down.

Easy fix... tightened the screws too tight... classic


"Hahah, driving drunk... classic"

-Alan, The Hangover

You probably did not tuck the little black piece of plastic up under the motherboard in the front. I did this for years not knowing either, until a local collector friend told me about this. Basically the black tray that the game sits in has a plastic lip towards the front of the system. This lip tucks up under the PCB (green board part) Once it is tucked it will then sit completly flush/flat. You cant over tighten the screws and its perfect. 

As for this thread i still use this method, but i have a few more tips.

First off before boiling i use one of those Pink NES System cart cleaners (the one with the handle) Cover it in weimanns and insert it in and out of the connector 15+ times out of the system over the sink. The weimanns almost sands the pins cause its a little gritty removing the real tough stuff. Then wash it in the sink and get all the weimanns off. THEN boil it, dry etc. Bend some pins if needed. PERFECT!~ I hit it with a toothbrush and weimanns too, and then a toothbrush and alcohol after boiling. 

If you do this method to your pin,  your games have to be equally clean. Honestly you get lazy and insert one gunked up dirty game, your new connector is done. You have to clean it again. 

4/4 brought back from the dead using this method tonight. Thanks for the info!

Is it normal for systems not to work 100% after replacing a pin connector? Back in 2005 when I got into collecting I bought a refurbished NES with a new pin connector on Ebay. That is my main NES now (though my first toploader that I got this past Christmas has been getting some serious use lately) and it works like a champ. Every game works as long as it is clean.

A couple years back I picked up the two NES systems from my parents house that I had as a kid. One was given as a Christmas gift in the eighties and one was purchased second hand about ten years later because the first one barely worked anymore.

Anyway, last week I tried this method on both of them and also disabled the lockout chip. The eighties NES displayed a solid green screen and the nineties NES had a solid black screen, although that one played a few games before quitting altogether.

Bought new pin connectors and took the systems apart again. After removing the connectors this time, I spent some time scrubbing the connectors on the board with windex and a toothbrush. Put the new connectors on. Nineties NES still displays all black screen but the eighties NES works about 75% of the time now.

I have given up on the nineties NES/black screen system for now. The other one works ok. Some games it plays perfectly every time on the first try. Most games, you have to mess with it and jiggle the games around in the slot before they will work.

I am guessing I have a bigger problem than the connectors. But is it normal to replace a pin connector and not have it work all the time? The only NES I had with a new pin connector was that one I got from Ebay in 2005 and that one always works. I expected the same from these two.

I did this to about 10 NES systems months ago. All of them as good as new! NEw pin connectors are a waste of time and money! Who was the first person to figure this out?

I love coming back to this thread and seeing new stories every so often of resurrected systems warms me heart.

boil method work temporarily i have tried it more then once and the connector came to life and then stoped working 2 days later i still think just replaceing it is the way to go

I've done this a bunch. Works like a charm

I will have to try this sometime. I have just been using new pins when needed but this may be a bigger saver.

Tried this last night. Works like a charm! All 3 of my systems fire up first try now. Thank you!

I just did 4 NES systems last night that weren't working really well, even with clean games.

Now, 3 works first try and one need 2 tries sometimes. You have to clean your games too if you want it to last!

I was given a nice, boxed NES toaster for my last birthday.  Unfortunately, I have never been able to get the thing to run well.  I had issues getting games to boot and when they would, they would never have the full color palette--it was basically grayscale only.  I thought the pin connector was bad, so I picked up a replacement from a reputable seller.  No dice.  Still have inconsistency getting games to boot, flashing gray screen with red blinking light, and overall muted colors.  Came across this thread and thought I would try the boil technique on my OEM connector.  Sadly, there was no change.  Can anyone offer any different advice?  My games and system pins have all been heavily cleaned many times over.  I am wondering if some sort of graphics chip or something else on the PCB is failing?  After having no luck last night, I hooked up my Retro Duo and all games ran fine on first try . Here is a picture of Double Dragon 2 and what I always see, if I even get it to run.  

i tried this and it was still the same, i think the pins are loose or somthing cause when i took it out and put my game in it, the game coulda fell right off of it i i had it upside down, is there anyway to like make it so the game fits more snug on the adapter, i think thats what my problem is

Safety pin, a steady hand, and some free time. Bend the bottom row of pins upwards a bit, just not enough that the top and bottom rows make contact. They get flattened with age.

Worked great for me! First boot everytime!

Cool -- Of the 5 that I boiled, 3 are working well, but 2 are a little spotty. Thanks for the guide!

It appears to do a decent job of getting it to work better.

All I can say is black magic I was not really expecting it to work, but it did like a charm. Now I can finally try out Nomolos and not leave the cartridge smelling strange (was using a Generation NEX which left a weird smell on the pins of any cartridge inserted into it... alas Battle Kid). Thanks for the tip!

I got 18 nes units that I accumulated from different game lots over this year and they all don't work, going to boil some soup tonight.

Good luck with that ^^^

Post the results

This method worked for me on the one toaster I tried it on. Seems to boot up better from the get-go. Thanks, ZoOmer!