N64 Game Won't Boot - Nasty Nintendo Cartridges - Part 2 - Fixing Ebay Junk
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ม.ค. 2025
- Part 2 of 2
Here I tackle the badly damaged Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Cartridge. A battery exploded, eating away at a capacitor and several legs on the SRAM chip. I am able to harvest replacements from a donor to fix this one.
#RetroGames #RetroRepairs #FixingEbayJunk
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Thanks for watching
the time lapse for the desoldering gun sounded hilarious lol
Meep meep meep
oh well i'm not the only one soo...
9:32 -- "HEENK" 😆
4:16 Good to know that there are capacitors that look like resistors. Thanks for pointing this out.
Adam, I've seen nearly all of your videos and I truly enjoy watching your process. Showing every step including the missteps along the way is extremely valuable, informative, and entertaining. I appreciate all of the time you take bringing the videos to us.
Thanks! Glad you enjoy them.
the cleaning part is always my favorite lol it feels so satisfying
DrNoD ya me too
I don't know why I watched this, because I don't do any of this stuff. But I was absolutely fascinated the entire time.
Ikr
Just wanted to say that I've recently found your channel and love it. I do slot machine/part repair and never had the desire to get my own soldering station at home until watching your channel! My amazon cart is packed with stuff to get started doing what you do. Keep making videos, buddy. I really enjoy watching them.
You are a hero bro, keep fixing these gems for future gamers. I think what you do is super cool
“Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is corroded and very messy.”
Ah. A crime against humanity, I see. Yes, this will need to be rectified
I would just swap the roms, and see if it worked, then swapped the lockout chip if it needed it too. That zelda board looked like hot garbage.
Yeah... just looking at all the screwed up connectors on the board, that was my first inclination too.
If I was doing the fix for myself I would do a rom swap as well but the video is a lot more interesting this way. It was about fixing the Zelda cartridge one problem at a time. Not just turning Wrestlemania into Zelda.
Yeah, I would have put the Zelda rom on the wwf board. The wwf was in super good shape in all aspects. If you could salvage the Zelda rom, and then clean the cart. Who cares about the wwf cart. They’re everywhere.
Fixed the battery in my son's Pokemon silver so thank you for the helpful videos.
Playing your video while recapping a Game Gear. Feels like we are colleagues lol.
just repaired my copy of Diddy Kong Racing after watching this. It was a short between a capacitor and a pin. Thanksl
Thanks, I enjoy seeing this process to give me confidence in doing my own repairs, be they retrogames or other electronics.
I have to admit, the desoldering gun really makes things clean and simple. Great info to get out so that people don't just toss out broken carts. That board did look ultra janky, but you brought it back to life. And you are right, more people are going to care about and use a classic like OoT than Wrestlemania. It is the sad arithmetic of vintage electronics, but I think you did the right thing.
Yeah looking at the boards I would have just swapped the Rom chips and lockout chip if needed. Even after cleaning, that board was rough.
What happens if you get flux on the capacitor? (Asking for my friend Marty)
You're going to see some serious shit.
There will be a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull.
@@RetroRepairs This was legit the greatest reply to that comment. Props sir.
😆
There’s probably battery acid under the chips on that zelda board. That corrosion will persist. It may have been smarter to pull the ROM and swap that. Or soak the board in vinegar.
Great video bud! That cart looked like someone left it out during winter. So sad to see. Glad that you were able to clean up and repair that treasure.
Great video. One of your best. I have learned lot of your videos how to test electronic and how to solve issues. This one shows working with a multimeter, desoldering, soldering and how to fix a broken copper line with a thin wire. Awesome.
Watching these vids makes me wanna learn to solder/ de solder and fix a few of my games that don’t work
I would have never thought using a toothbrush was an option. It worked great. Love the videos. Subscribed
Broke: Grey's Anatomy
Woke: RetroRepairs
I agree with everyone who says swapping the rom chip is the better choice for the best fix but the video is a lot more interesting this way. The video is about fixing the Zelda cartridge. Not turning Wrestlemania into Zelda.
Exactly
i enjoy these videos thank you for helping everyone save these carts
HELP. I have my old Super Mario 64 that won’t boot past the load screen. I get the “buboop Itsa Me, Mario” then it just stays black. I tested the tracers and found no issue there. Any suggestions? Have cleaned it extensively
I once took a DSP chip off of a Pilotwings cartridge by tying a weight to the chip and using a heat gun to heat up all the pins. The chip fell right out! Saved myself about an hour of desoldering time, since I don't have a desoldering gun.
That's a good way to get it done, then just clean up the pads and holes with desoldering braid
thsts pretty cleaver , i like how you think.
congratulations, fixing the game of zelda, thank you for showing to us.
@36:49 "Quarter of a centimeter"? The metric system exists so we DON'T have to use fractions :P
Your right.
Two and a half millimeters... oh crap.
@@RetroRepairs if you wanna turn decimals into fractions, that's on you ;)
@@landolakes 0.025 Decimeters?
@@RetroRepairs Now you're getting the hang of it, you cheeky, cheeky boy. Easy to add and subtract!
Side note: love the vids. I've learned a bunch of soldering tips and tricks.
Appreciate the videos, i'm planning on repairing game carts as well, very helpful info.
Garbage Day!
6:20 it is a date code 0002 = 2nd week of 2000 , 9844 = 44th week of 1998. The number after it is probably either the weekday, or a batch number
Poor cart looks like it went through a lot! Dunno' if the battery explosion did all of that or if it got dropped in the ocean to boot, but very nice work getting it working again! It would have been a shame if this epic game would stay unplayable as it's too good to not play!
I guess since it's battery powered, the save RAM would be wiped once the battery is disconnected
Correct
Finally, a cheap cash-grab sportsball game is useful for something.
Hey! The N64 wrestling games were actually pretty good.
Also calling wresting "sport" is being pretty generous.
@@Doctors_TARDIS More like soap opera for men.
It's a fantastic game. You don't even need to be a pro wrestling fan to understand this.
It's a fantastic game. You don't even need to be a wrestling fan to understand this.
Love your channel. As a fellow Canadian it has inspired me to fix all my retro duds!
New watcher here, You saved my butt. I have a desoldering gun but i need to use braid sometimes...it has never worked for me. I Just purchased your brand and omfg it works so much better. (also just purchased a broken swan and color with digimon to try to fix. Thank you! I forgot these existed!)
The wonderswan video led me here btw
Any particular reason you didn't chemically clean the corrosion off the board?
I liked this video a lot, it's always kinda cool to know why things are broken and what it needs to work.
Most any missing leg can be fixed on an ic just alot of work but sometime worth it. Great video!
love your vids dude ...you have re-sparked an interest in soldering and repair. New soldering station on order lol
Is it an American/ Canadian thing with these dead cartridges because after all this time searching on eBay in England I haven't found a single liquid damaged/ corroded cartridges. What are you searching for?
They're not very common to find on ebay noted as broken. Often they just say "untested"
Plus the U.S being the 3rd largest country in the world probably helps. Using the n64 as an example, 33 million units sold worldwide, 20million in north America.
omg im glad this exists! im starting to build my collection and i was thinking about repairs in the future
ive always wanted to soldier but was scared and never had the chance to fix something
I think in order to learn im gonna start fixing old cartridges also
I hate that the n64 is so old now ; -;
i wish a company would make safe crt screens so i dont have to worry about my old tv either
Glad that you took the more work route. ^_^
Were you able to go back and figure out the correct value on the capacitor? I came up with the same calculated value 990 nF. I saw white white yellow black brown color bands. Should be +/- 20% of 990 nF.
very useful i still don't have problems with my cartridges, but good to know.
what desoldering gun do you use? I do this professionally and I'm tired of how messy the analog soldering pump is. lol
Hakko fr-301. Bought it a while ago, love it
Great repair!! Looked like quite an undertaking, but always awesome to see positive results from diligent work. Nice Harrison Smith jersey btw :)
Thanks. Got it signed too, so it lives in the frame.
@@RetroRepairs Awesome! As it should!
You fixed ocarina of time.
A true hero!
@RetroRepairs Loving all these videos and the way you troubleshoot everything! Do you have a list somewhere of what tools and equipment you use? I'd love to repair an old Genesis game that broke when I was a kid.
🤔...💬 I've heard that there is a company that well do replacement pcb boards .. it seems like you would have looked into seeing how much it would cost you just to replace the board if it would be cost effective just to buy a new board and unsotder all the components from the old board and sotdering them to the new board
Ive got one in visble perfect condition besides some rust on the heatsink connection that I cleaned off. It mustve still had contact since I didn't get the semi green screen like when you stick in just the pcb. There was a broken pit of the pcb next to a screw hole (parts of the plastic shroud were also snapped so someone wasnt carful at some point) and finally the battery still reads 3v although doesnt have that yellow ring of insolation around it. For a second I thought there was no seal of approval but the paper looks like it got alcohol on it at some point and some of the red text is pink coloured. I finally opened it up after 15 years bc my grandpa happened to have made his own bolt driver that fit and was thin enough (Thinness came in handy when taking apart the n64) only problem is he doesnt have a solder sucker/desoldering gun and I don’t have a boltdriver that fits at home
Can't believe I watched the entire thing. That was freaking awesome.
did you put the C4 Cap in the oppsite orientation of removal the white bands went from being on the left on removale to being on the right on installation?
People like you make me happy that N64 can always be fixed 😂
WOW... really great job... you saved the princess! :)
i have a n64 cart that has a brass pin that short like yours is there a way to make it longer? or is that even an issue as my cart is allso zelda and make it another issue.
I have that game it quit working and the board seems to be in great condition I checked all the leads and everything checked out is there a way to check the chips
What's the other 10% percent they don't work? I've got one one that has overall good continuity. Still doesn't work. Should I suspect the caps?
Why don’t you use brasso or bright boy on the contacts.
This is exactly what I’m looking for. I have a bunch of old games that have moisture damage
Can you put a list of the model number and brand of your tools in your description? That would be super helpful! Thanks for any consideration!
Im working on a video with the tools I use.
My main soldering iron is a Hakko FX-888d.
My hot air/soldering combo (the one i put the knife tip on) is a Yihua 952D+
Desoldering gun is a Hakko FR-301
I think that more or less covers the equipment
Well I think somebody miscalculated the nano feriets based on that battery explosion. It seems kinda like someone took the single generator and touched the wrong terminals so that battery exploded and caused damage to the pins on the chip.
I always pronounced it Oh-carina growing up and I've never heard anyone else call it that until today lol.
Are you Canadian?
@@Oborowatabinostk Nah
The majority of languages (including Japanese) only use the long O (plus half the time in English), so your pronunciation is correct.
I always have too
You can actually find those sharp chips online. Instead of “lh52v246ad” drop the “d” you can readily find the larger variants of the chip it would work just the same. The n64 board even has the holes to accommodate the larger profile chip.
Everywhere I've looked had them as out of stock
RetroRepairs I see them on utsource, usually with these old proprietary chips you will get a bunch of vendors trying to sell in bulk and then sell they’ll offer their price upon inquiry. A bit inconvenient to jump through an extra hoop but it’s worth it to find the lowest price and not cannibalize any games.
I’ve recently had to source a Pokémon fire red sram chip to replace the old one.
Try Utsource or Digchip
@@PunkNDisorderlyGamer cool, thanks I'll check it out
curious question.. Where does the solder go with the vacuum solder gun??
There's a chamber that holds it, you have to empty it occasionally. I made a video a while ago unboxing this one
@@RetroRepairs thank you so much!
Thank you for your terrific video! Thanks to your instructions, I was able to save Paper Mario 64!
I use my Crest ultrasonic cleaner with Bronson cleaning solution. My boards come out super clean and it gets under the chips as well. It's makes it so easy to fix these boards when they are filthy, in some cases corroded with out even heating up my rework station.
Ive been meaning to look into an ultrasonic cleaner. Would be great for handhelds and controllers too - they get nasty
@@RetroRepairs I use it on Laptop boards and basically anything electronic that I fix as long as it fits. It's especially good at removing flux.
Hot damn, just looked them up. Unfortunately that doesn't fall in the budget today. Going to need a couple million more subscribers first.
i have a copy of OoT it works but i cant save the game play. i change the battery but still unable to save. Do i need to changes the SRAM on the cart? also the board is in very good condition visualy i cant see any damged on the chips or the capacitors.
Someone replaced the battery but didn't cleaned it off.. ugh!!
Also shoutout to Kona
Been watching Louis Rossmann do microsoldering under a microscope for years, but this is new and interesting.
If the corner that holds the screw in but also serves as a ground is broken off, will the cart still work?
Cannot the chip leg be repaired like the traces or doing little bridges? 2:30
Yes, it can. You can grind away the black part and solder to the exposed leg
The De soldering gun looks like just as much work as the braid. Do you really find it easier?
I had to use a doner board to rescue a mario Kart I had bought at a flea market. The past you slide in the system was snapped from one end to the other. After that experience I've when a game has broken traces or any board issues I just get a sonar board so I buy as many cheap titles as I can.
Where can I find a desoldering gun like that?
I bought mine on Amazon. It's a Hakko FR-301
That desoldering gun sounds like the firing of a GAU-8 Avenger.
Boom, capacitor issues; thank you , sir! Can an electrolytic cap not be used if it is facing the correct direction?
Adam I really enjoy your videos keep up the good work. I feel that if I continue to watch them I will be a professional myself in no time lol :)
Is it possible to do customers games because I have a DS that doesn't work and I had it for years I don't know what's the issue and I also have a psp that needs work let me know how to contact you and work something out please and thank you
As a pcb board quality inspector you did a bang up job fella i will let you off with putting the pth ceramic cap back to front as it doesnt really matter lol
ps cotton cloths are a million times better than swabs but then i might be biased as i hate swabs lol
looks like a disconnected resister too.. doh, capacitor. What is your desoldering gun? Is it standalone or hooked to a station? It looks to give much better results than my manual sucker.
That part's actually a capacitor, but yes one of the legs is rusted clean off
I saw that Life Brand Alcohol. You must be Canadian
Yep, shopper's drug mart
@@RetroRepairs Ahhhh yesss my fellow homies!
Where do you get these broken games? I love to tinker and would like to take on a challenge like this. Also, I noticed that you put the capacitor on backwards and thought that might've caused it to not work, but I was wrong. A quick google search told me that ceramic caps aren't polarized.
Correct, you have to be careful with electrolytic capacitors, as those are polarized but ceramic ones can go in any orientation. I usually get stuff either through a local sale or eBay, but sometimes some viewers will email me and send me stuff to put in a video
This is high quality education. Thank you!
Great repair, nice job getting it working. You should try to keep that alcohol off your skin, it's not just bad for your skin it gets into your system as well. Too much cleaning in a day and you could get sick. Maybe wear a glove on your left hand or something.
What are the soldering and desoldering guns that you are using?
Hakko fx-888d and hakko fr-301
RetroRepairs thanks
So the best way to clean a cartridge's connection is to rub IPA using a q-tip?
Not the first N64 cart repair I've seen you do.
Really makes me wonder about how the black plastic piecs could possibly damage traces like that.
Sharp edges and they're tight to the board. Snes/genesis carts have the dust protection molded to the cart with rounded edges, so it doesn't rub against the board.
@@RetroRepairs Thanks for the detailed explanation. I've never opened up any of those carts so I've never noticed, and I've seen you do a few SNES games, but since it doesn't seem to be a problem there it's not something that I've seen you point out on those carts.
@@RetroRepairs Maybe this might sound like a silly idea but maybe you could make a 5 minute video out of that? I might not be the only person watching your vids who ever wondered why. It could be a quick and informative vid.
Great video keep up the great work 👍 hope to see many videos in the future
I have a copy of Ocarina of time and it doesnt save but ive replaced the battery with a known good one and it still doesnt save. Any clue?
Does it crash or fail when it saves? Or do you turn it off and the save is gone? Could be an issue with the sram chip like in this video
I have the same issue, it says that it saves, but after a reset, it acts like nothing happened, even with a new battery
@@RetroRepairs It doesn't crash or fail the game works perfectly fine. What would be the best way to try to fix it? Should i get a game with the same board and swap the rom chip and the lockout chip?
You could, the sram might not be getting voltage from the battery. Im not sure which pin it comes in on. Might check all the traces first.
@@RetroRepairs well i just checked the sram and it appears to be getting voltage on a few of the pins from the battery so I guess I'll probably try swapping the board. Do you know what games might use the same pcb so I can try to pick one up for cheap? Or if there is anything else I should try first?
So this might be a stupid question but i just watched a video of this guy working on a conkers bad fur day cartridge and it didn't have a battery so why does this zelda game have one?
Most n64 games use a newer style of memory that doesn't require a battery. Older games need a constant supply of power otherwise the memory is lost
I like to tack the pins in the same way and then start at the opposite end so I don't accidentally untack them.
I just replaced the battery on my ocarina game. It boots up, but when I press start, the game beeps and the screen goes black.. anyone know what my problem might be?
Have you ever found broken traces below the chips.
There was one where i found a break between two chips, but i can't recall which video it was. But by far the most common place is right above the cartridge pins
I've heard about dishwashing boards. Seems like that might have been a good way to get the corrosion out from under that ROM chip... Audio I totally wouldn't have broken yay that falling pin from that RAM - keeping it on would have made it not that hard to repair that particular pin
I need to get an N64 for my collection. Very nice video, and ill be following your advice when i get one. cheers
I enjoy your videos. What desoldering gun are you using? Do you recommend it?
Quick question! I read that Flux can be really toxic, but you aren't wearing gloves. Are you using a safer brand?
You'd need a lot to absorb through skin. I try not to breath it in. Ideally you have a fume extractor
I guess there is not enough space in the cartridge to use sockets for the ICs.
It also just adds extra cost, they probably wanted to keep manufacturing as cheap as possible too
@@RetroRepairs I know that the manufacturers are very reluctant to use sockets for ICs due to costs. The question is if you can put in sockets later on if you have to replace ICs anyway. Usually it is the lack of space that prevents this.
@@Escylon ah, I gotcha. I'm not sure, with the extra shielding, space might be too tight.
Kona just want to make sure you did a good job...she's kind of your supervisor. Great job..right kona? Right.
Kona is 100% my supervisor. Comes to check every so often that im not slacking or there's no heroin in my package
what brand and model is your desoldering gun??
Hakko fr-301