SketchMan3 wrote:

so when you blow on a cartridge the oxygen from the Carbon Dioxide that humans exhale bonds with the contacts and oxidizes them? Interesting. I always thought it was blowing dust off of the contacts that helped, not the humidity. I always tried to blow into the cartridges with a more closed embouchure. Does that mean it'd actually be better to use a wider embouchure to allow more humidity to escape?

I'd be willing to bet it's neither humidity nor dust that makes the biggest difference. Surface dust is not likely to be a big issue and small amounts of humidity won't likely do much of anything.

I think a majority of the effect is in the re-seating of the cartridge. Pulling the cartridge out and replacing it allows a chance of better contact and maybe even causes both a degree a scraping of that oxidized layer (which is pretty thin).

That said, the best cleaning technique is with alcohol and scrubbing. For extremely bad cases, a very, very light grade of sandpaper used conservatively will make a big difference.

I always use a Q-Tip with/without rubbing alcohol.

so when you blow on a cartridge the oxygen from the Carbon Dioxide that humans exhale bonds with the contacts and oxidizes them? Interesting. I always thought it was blowing dust off of the contacts that helped, not the humidity. I always tried to blow into the cartridges with a more closed embouchure. Does that mean it'd actually be better to use a wider embouchure to allow more humidity to escape?

I'd be willing to bet it's neither humidity nor dust that makes the biggest difference. Surface dust is not likely to be a big issue and small amounts of humidity won't likely do much of anything.

I think a majority of the effect is in the re-seating of the cartridge. Pulling the cartridge out and replacing it allows a chance of better contact and maybe even causes both a degree a scraping of that oxidized layer (which is pretty thin).

That said, the best cleaning technique is with alcohol and scrubbing. For extremely bad cases, a very, very light grade of sandpaper used conservatively will make a big difference.

Chowdit1 wrote:

I think they say that blowing into the cartridge is bad, because it blows a little bit of wind, and the wind scratches the "cartridge board".

what

"What?" What do you mean "what"?

I think they say that blowing into the cartridge is bad, because it blows a little bit of wind, and the wind scratches the "cartridge board".

what

so when you blow on a cartridge the oxygen from the Carbon Dioxide that humans exhale bonds with the contacts and oxidizes them? Interesting. I always thought it was blowing dust off of the contacts that helped, not the humidity. I always tried to blow into the cartridges with a more closed embouchure. Does that mean it'd actually be better to use a wider embouchure to allow more humidity to escape?

I think they say that blowing into the cartridge is bad, because it blows a little bit of wind, and the wind scratches the "cartridge board".

more likely one of the ICs.  its unfortunate they are all COB and blobbed like that... 

do you have a programming device you could try to pull the ROM off with, perhaps?

its good you know the cart at least used to work.  the battery is most likely dead, in a traditional setup this would only affect the SRAM's ability to hold data during power off,

but....  since everything is covered in goo who knows what they've done.

just speculating, but changing the battery might have an effect on the cart other than just allowing for data retention.  i don't see why they would have integrated other features of the cart to be reliant on this, but its possible (if they wanted to not use a vreg is all i can think of, but that'd be a whacky decision to make).

thats really going out on a limb. 

its something that is probably needing to be addressed anyways (the battery)

Isn't the purpose of that "goo" supposed to be hiding the tiny chips (EX. C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6)?

kitsch wrote:

oh, wait...

have you tried this in a color console instead of the pocket?

the sticker indicates they are color ROMs, not all GBC ROMs play back on non-color devices.  the Nintendo ones like this give you the nice incompatibility screen, but since this is a pirate cart who knows...

worth a shot!

You have a good point, I just tested it in a GB boy color, it didn't work

Is there a chance that the problem may be the resistor or the capacitor, or the chip itself? By looking closely at it I can't see anything burned or wrong.

Thanks guys

Well, if it didn't work with the GB Boy Color, also, the cartridge could be fried. Did you check the consoles, with another cartridge?

maybe its a combo of blowing dust off and humidity? 

maybe there is no cart failure inside a tropical storm and/or hurricane even

do you have a programming device you could try to pull the ROM off with, perhaps?

its good you know the cart at least used to work.  the battery is most likely dead, in a traditional setup this would only affect the SRAM's ability to hold data during power off,

but....  since everything is covered in goo who knows what they've done.

just speculating, but changing the battery might have an effect on the cart other than just allowing for data retention.  i don't see why they would have integrated other features of the cart to be reliant on this, but its possible (if they wanted to not use a vreg is all i can think of, but that'd be a whacky decision to make).

thats really going out on a limb. 

its something that is probably needing to be addressed anyways (the battery)

bitjacker wrote:

1. insert cart
..........................X10
2. remove cart

then blow into the gameboy.
its the oxygen that makes it work.

Can't tell if you're joking here. Oxygen is what causes cartridge not to work, they're surrounded by it all the time, hence "oxidation."

Blowing in a cartridge isn't really going to do anything but damage it more in the long run.

of course i was joking.

oh, wait...

have you tried this in a color console instead of the pocket?

the sticker indicates they are color ROMs, not all GBC ROMs play back on non-color devices.  the Nintendo ones like this give you the nice incompatibility screen, but since this is a pirate cart who knows...

worth a shot!

You have a good point, I just tested it in a GB boy color, it didn't work

Is there a chance that the problem may be the resistor or the capacitor, or the chip itself? By looking closely at it I can't see anything burned or wrong.

Thanks guys

have you tried this in a color console instead of the pocket?

the sticker indicates they are color ROMs, not all GBC ROMs play back on non-color devices.  the Nintendo ones like this give you the nice incompatibility screen, but since this is a pirate cart who knows...

worth a shot!

its the humidity which helps when you blow in them (helps make contact better momentarily). 

but, yeah, doesn't really solve anything.

there is this nifty stuff called 'contact cleaner' just for this sort of thing...  it cleans oxidization off electromechanical parts/etc (people use it to clean dirty pots a lot).  check it out!

(although, tbh, the alcohol should have done the cleaning well enough)

its also REALLY important to note....  if you are cleaning the cart, but not bothering to clean the contacts in the gameboy too, you aren't eliminating the problem most likely.  its like when people change out the NES fingers for new ones, then stick some dirty cart into them which sort of defeats the whole point.  so, clean both.  when i was stocking the NES edge connectors this came up all the time