Cleaning Old Carts (Rubbing Alcohol?) *Misc Ramblings* >I find that a soft non-abrasive pencil eraser can be helpful when cleaing >the contacts on badly gunked-up carts. In my experience, "non-abrasive pencil eraser" is an oxymoron. >Sometimes the cleaning fluids don't do the job. >I had one old 5200 cart that I had to use some very fine steel wool on. Stuff like that should only be used as a last resort, of course. The more you use abrasive stuff like pencil erasers, the more of the gold plating comes off, making the problem worse. But if you have problems that bad, you probably need to clean the contacts from the cart socket. I stuck my presumed-dead Burgertime into my 7800 and was surprised to find it work. Then I stuck the Star Trek cart back in and it didn't work. Apparently my Burgertime had gunked the contacts, so I cleaned them a bit with one of those boards from a cleaning kit. >Oh, the eraser trick also works for cleaning the insides of 5200 controllers, >too. The double-sided tape and aluminum foil trick works better. >Makes 'em good as new...for a while... ----------------------------------------- >I must live right, or something. I went through my box of six 5200 controllers >tonight, armed with rubbing alcohol, swabs, erasers and contact-cleaner spray, >and ended up with: I went through a box of eleven 5200 controllers doing a double-sided tape / aluminum foil modification and came up with: 7 fully functional, perfect (six had previously had an Elmer's Glue / foil modification and only three of those still worked perfectly. Glued foil chits tend to fall off of the fire buttons with use.) 3 dead because of damage to the flex circuit, and one of those had a top shell that wouldn't hold the start-row bezel in anyhow. One of these may have had bad pots/cable, but I don't remember for certain. 1 I didn't find until a couple of days later. It had six non-working keypad buttons because the bridges in the flex weren't working. >1) functional, start-pause-reset flex circuit is creased beyond repair > thanks to the LAST numbnut who tried to fix it, one left-side > fire button doesn't work. That's one of the oddities about 5200 controllers. Two of my still-dead sticks had a fire button pad absolutely savaged, apparently in frustration. Another had a soldering-iron hole near the start button, and half of the start button pads missing. Those things are not for the faint of heart. Usually you don't find out until *after* you've opened them a few times that the start-row bezel comes off, and should be done first. I know better and still forget. >Not bad, for a controller whose inner workings appear to have been designed >by a small, malnourished aardvark with jaundice... >>What is the *BEST* way to clean old cartS? Rubbing Alcohol and Q-tips? I find that a soft non-abrasive pencil eraser can be helpful when cleaing the contacts on badly gunked-up carts. Sometimes the cleaning fluids don't do the job. I had one old 5200 cart that I had to use some very fine steel wool on. Mainly, though, the cleaning kit stuff works fine. Oh, the eraser trick also works for cleaning the insides of 5200 controllers, too. --------------------------------- >I find that a soft non-abrasive pencil eraser can be helpful when cleaing >the contacts on badly gunked-up carts. > >Sometimes the cleaning fluids don't do the job. Seconded. I picked up a 2600 Masters of the Universe today, and was ready to give it up for dead before I tried an eraser as a last-ditch effort. Afterwards, it worked fine. (And demonstrated that it was hardly worth all of my effort to get it working.) ;) >Oh, the eraser trick also works for cleaning the insides of 5200 controllers, >too. > >Makes 'em good as new...for a while... Well, it helps as much as anything can. I must live right, or something. I went through my box of six 5200 controllers tonight, armed with rubbing alcohol, swabs, erasers and contact-cleaner spray, and ended up with: 2) fully functional, perfect. (they were like this before) 1) fully functional, start-pause-reset row is slightly touchy. 1) functional, one left-side fire button doesn't work. Otherwise fine. 1) functional, start-pause-reset row doesn't work. 1) functional, start-pause-reset flex circuit is creased beyond repair thanks to the LAST numbnut who tried to fix it, one left-side fire button doesn't work. So I have three standard 5200 sticks that are fine, one that merely requires I use the bottom right fire button instead of bottom left, and two more that will serve as 'controller 2' for Space Dungeon nicely. All six joysticks and keypads work fine. Not bad, for a controller whose inner workings appear to have been designed by a small, malnourished aardvark with jaundice... ----------------------------------------------- > >What is the *BEST* way to clean old cartS? Rubbing Alcohol and Q-tips? > >-- Kevin Heider > It is possible to find 99% Isopropyl Alchohol (Swan makes some). The store I usually get it at didn't have the 99% this time, so I bought the 91% (Cumberland-Swan, Inc., Smyrna, TN 37167). It was $0.72 for a 16 oz. bottle. I prefer the cotton swabs with the plastic shafts, since they don't break. You can also take the cotton off both ends, bend the shaft in the middle, and use it to "trick" an Atari brand cartridge into opening so you can clean it. I use two cotton swabs at once to get a wider cleaning surface. -------------------------------------------------- >I am refering to the "pink" type pencil eraser vs. the quite gritty >"white" erasers often used to erase ink. While all erasers are abrasive, >I've never had any damage done with the pink-types. Pink erasers are less abrasive, but they're still abrasive. Take a board out of a cart case, use a pencil eraser on it and look at light reflected off of the contacts. There will be a grain of tiny scratch marks in the direction you rubbed the eraser. Rub the eraser in a different direction over a couple of pins and notice that they don't reflect light the same way. >>The double-sided tape and aluminum foil trick works better. >An the replacement microswitch trick does better still, if you want to go >to that much trouble. On a 5200 stick? How do you fit microswitches in there? Dome switches (like you see in regular Atari 2600 joysticks) I can believe, but not microswitches. And wouldn't you need a different flex circuit designed for them? It sounds like more trouble than making a dongle to let you plug in a PC joystick and a couple of Video Touch Pads. Especially since the joystick is already a wristbuster. "You can't polish a turd, Beavis." I'd also like to try painting the circle pads with conductive ink.