Topic: Got a new N64 cartridge connector, it's in bad shape

I was trying to clean up and get my old N64 in working order again in order to install HD mods to it, but I was having trouble getting it to work. Most of the time the power light came on but there was no sound or image. I eventually tracked this down to the cartridge slot, it seemed loose, if I held the cartridge down at an angle it worked fine every time. I don't have any tools that I can use to try to bend the pins back and last time I tried to do it with the memcard slot in my N64 controller I just ended up breaking the pins, so I tried to find a replacement connector.

Trying to find a replacement however was a nightmare. Almost every attempt to find a N64 connector just auto"corrected" me to NES connectors.... and the very few N64 connectors I could find were clearly 3rd party ones intended for use in DIY cartridge-reader projects or emulators, not as a replacement for the actual cartridge slot in a real N64.

I was finally able to track one down on eBay.... I got it a few months ago, but wasn't able to get around to installing it for a while.

Today I got ready to install it... and I noticed that it was in pretty bad shape. There was a lot of corrosion all around it. I tried cleaning it off with alcohol, with Deoxit, and even scraping it off with a razer blade... but it didn't help. The Alcohol and Deoxit didn't seem to do anything, and the razer blade sometimes scraped the corrosion off, but usually did nothing or even scratched the connector itself. Here are some images of it:

Is this thing beyond salvaging? Or does somebody have a suggestion for how I can clean this out properly? Anyone have any suggestions what I can do?

I'd say don't try and use that. It's hard to tell from the pics, but that is perhaps either very severe and long-term water damage, or possibly burn damage if the N64 it came from was fried somehow.

You're probably better off just picking up a working N64 and salvaging it for parts (or just using it for the HD mod you're working on).

Get a new N64 before you start damaging your games. Or do a professional repair and source all the parts you need. It's hard to tell from the pic but that pin could be fine to use. The corrosion you see will be like that on a lot of N64. Just sitting in a garage with humidity will do that.

A N64 system is cheaper then a lot of the games. Which is not a expensive system to collect for to begin with.