My SNES cart slot crapped out during a full playthrough of Chrono Trigger

I was on my couch in Portland, 40 hours deep into a save file, and suddenly the screen froze right before the Lavos fight. The pins were bent on the cartridge slot, so I tried the old blow-on-the-cart trick, but it kept resetting. I ended up tearing the console apart, found a broken connector on pin 12, and soldered it back with a $15 iron from the hardware store. Has anyone else fixed a dying 16-bit slot, or should I just hunt down a working replacement on eBay?

2 comments

2 Comments

sagew5025d ago

Oh man, pin 12 is usually the clock signal for the cartridge... you might've just fixed the one thing that was actually working fine. Those connectors bend in a specific pattern, and the one that breaks is almost always tied to the CIC lockout chip, not the data lines. Soldering it back with a $15 iron is impressive though, that's a tiny joint to hit without pulling a trace. But honestly, if it's still resetting, you might have a cold solder joint on the pin you just reflowed... I'd recheck that before buying a whole replacement. Those eBay boards are usually pulled from other dying consoles anyway, so you're just trading one problem for another.

alice_palmer2025d ago

Trading one problem for another" feels a bit dramatic, honestly. These old consoles are held together with hope and corrosion, so a used board is just a different flavor of the same gamble. If it resets, yeah, check the solder joint, but don't act like buying a new one is a sure fix either.