Topic: Blow on NES and SNES carts

I read that blowing on the old game cartridges is not a good solution. The problem is that’s the only way to get the carts to load. Some old games start right up when I turn on the power but others I get a blank screen. When I puff a bit of warm air the cart works but after I turn the power off it doesn’t boot up again until I give it another puff. Is there a way to get these cart to boot up when turning on the power instead of having to blow on it to work? What happened to these carts that they show blank screen and why does puffing hot air at the connector get it to work?

For the most part, blowing on the cartridge only works because you have to take it out to do so.

What's really happening is that reseating the cartridge may sometimes fix a bad connection where a pin has been slightly bent or a contact worn.

You get the same thing with all electrical connections, but nobody seems to think that blowing on a light bulb or wall plug is going to fix anything.

@Don Blowing a cartridge is an old wives tale, yes we did it as kids but we didn't know better. What's actually happening is it's the connector pins in the cartridge especially if you are using an old toaster style North American NES. After years of pushing down the connectors get bent and the connection isn't quite as good, that and also they do get dirty over time.

The are videos on Youtube that show how you can clean and replace the connector pins and of course there are clone systems now like the RetroHub AVS where the cartridges aren't pushed down they just slide in. I advise checking those out before blowing into the cartridges as that is not a solution to that problem.

@Matt_Barber
I will try reinserting the cart instead of blowing on the connector and see if that alone solves the problem.

@Tasuki
I think it might be dirty cartridges because I had problems with top loading consoles too including the newer NES model and Super NES. I haven’t had problems with cartridges for newer consoles or handhelds such as N64 and GBA. This problem was confined to NES, SNES and original Game Boy.

@CactusMan
Sounds like all older cartridges will eventually have this problem including the ones that work well now. I guess it’s better to leave the game in the system rather than taking it out and putting it in for each round of play.

@Don

Clean the Connectors with Alcohol (Isopropanol) and Cotton Buds.
The Connectors are often very dirty, it solved such Problems in 99% of the Cases.

@Don If it's dirty contacts just get some rubbing alcohol and Q-tips. That should fix your problem.

I was using the UK equivalent of Windex to clean all my old Mega Drive carts until it ran out (and they seem to have replaced every glass cleaner with a solution that has ammonia in it which I’m sure isn’t good for carts). That on a question q-tip got every single one to works (I used an old T-shirt and credit card to clean the slot on the console with it too). I’ve found that using the q-tip on its own does a daily good job too.