Neo Geo Home System restarts and choppy video

Greetings,

This is my first post so first of all hello to everyone and thanks for your responses ahead of time.

Here is my situation. I have a Neo Geo Home System that I bought brand new back in 1990. I had been collecting carts over the years but when I decided to go to college 4 years ago I sold most all of my collection but 3 games. I just picked up my system from my mom's house where it had been sitting in the basement untouched for the past 4 years as I have already been rebuilding my collection. I plugged it in tonight and put in a game and have been having problems with the system restarting and the video is scrambled and choppy when I turn it on. I am finding that when I tip the system up in the front and away from me the video seems to go back to normal. I am finding though that if I touch the system on the sides or even pick it up, depending on what game in loaded, it will just automatically restart and go to the Neo Geo splash screen.

Any ideas on what could be wrong with it? I have always taken great care of my video games over the years and this system looks brand new. If it helps my system serial number is 90A 027928. Not sure what that means or if it helps.

That would be great if someone could tell me how to open the Neo as well if they think I should open it up. I can only see one visible screw unless they are under the sticky pads on the underside.

I have searched the site but wasn't able to come up with anything that describes my exact situation.

Thanks again!!!!

The video problems are most likly due o dirty contacts between the cart and the console. The resetting could be due to the same thing or maybe there is a loose joint where the power lead connects to the console. As a first port of call I would advise cleaning your carts and the console connections.

Raz

Thanks for the advice. I would be up for cleaning the console and game contacts but I am not sure of the best way to do so. From what I can gather from the forums is that I should use like a 93% sandpaper on the game contacts. If someone can verify that - that would be great. What should I use to clean the console contacts with though?

http://hardmvs.com/html/cleaning.htm
I don't recommend that you open your AES carts...MVS only!

http://hardmvs.com/html/slotCleaning.htm

32V04Mach1 said:

Here is my situation. I have a Neo Geo Home System that I bought brand new back in 1990. I had been collecting carts over the years but when I decided to go to college 4 years ago I sold most all of my collection but 3 games. I just picked up my system from my mom's house where it had been sitting in the basement untouched for the past 4 years as I have already been rebuilding my collection. I plugged it in tonight and put in a game and have been having problems with the system restarting and the video is scrambled and choppy when I turn it on. I am finding that when I tip the system up in the front and away from me the video seems to go back to normal. I am finding though that if I touch the system on the sides or even pick it up, depending on what game in loaded, it will just automatically restart and go to the Neo Geo splash screen.

Click to expand...

It's funny you bring this problem up because I've experienced the same issues after buying an AES. It seemed like the only time I'd have the resetting problem is when I hook the console up from out of the box. In other words, if I put the AES back in the box after using it, I'd only experience the problem after hooking it back up at a later time. If I left it out when finished playing, it wouldn't happen again. Pretty strange, but that's how it was with me.

I hope the advice you (and I!!) get from this thread helps out!

My system (serial #17314) has the same problem, minus the garbled video. Mine just resets. I bet the contacts are worn. I am going to try carefully bending the pins back to their original shape with a small screwdriver and see if it works!

Well, on the bright side so far it sounds like I am not the only with this problems and some of you are just as curious as I am.

ki_atsushi - let us know if you were able to fix it by bending the pins back. Be careful though so you don't end up in worse shape though.

ki_atsushi said:

My system (serial #17314) has the same problem, minus the garbled video. Mine just resets. I bet the contacts are worn. I am going to try carefully bending the pins back to their original shape with a small screwdriver and see if it works!

Click to expand...

See if you can use smaller like needle nose pliers to do it, or hospital clamps work haha. If you use a screwdriver the pins can get slanted since they kinda pop out from the small amount of plastic on the corners keep it from comming out.

Hmm, well I just picked up about 6 games to add to my collection and the funny thing is I can't get the system to restart anymore when I touch it or pick it up. Don't get me wrong, that is a good thing, but it just makes me wonder even more what the deal was before. Perhaps the games I had were just dirty from not being played in like 4 years. If I pull the top of the cart forward while it is loaded in the system the colors will get all screwed up again though so I might still need to check the connections inside and even clean the terminals.

Can someone advise on how to open the Neo Geo AES System so I don't do it wrong. Thanks!

Usually the reason for resetting in cart based systems is the contact that the cart has with the cart slot and for example my SNES resets if i touch the cart while it is running, so seeing as your system was bought back in 1990 i'd say it's dieing of old age.

If its been in storage for so long then maybe some cockaroaches have made a home inside of the machine? heaps of consoles that i have bought second hand have been filled up with that sort of crap.

Berty said:

If its been in storage for so long then maybe some cockaroaches have made a home inside of the machine? heaps of consoles that i have bought second hand have been filled up with that sort of crap.

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Damn, that is an interesting thought. Maybe I will just keep the cover on instead.

Check the PSU, and also clean the carts to get rid of garbled video. Power supply sometimes leads to this issue.

My ultimate cleaning method, safe and works:

I know this sounds funny but keep putting in carts and taking them out and try to play them. Sometimes its just the oxidation built up on the contacts of the system and carts. I would use a toothbrush and dip it in rubbing alcohol then shake and clean the contacts of the system lightly for while, then let it dry for 30 minutes. After that you can take off the loose dirt and stuff with using an index card folded to the right thickness and then lightly put rubbing alcohol on the card. Then insert it and take it out several times, you be surprised at how much dirt that comes off. Also use the dry side of the card to clean it some afterwards.

This made it so my Neo Geo plays carts flawlessly as far as resetting and glitching in that sense. The only games that glitch are the ones that are just slightly corrupted carts like my Fatal Fury 2 that does it on my previous 2 systems before.

SNKNostalgia said:

My ultimate cleaning method, safe and works:

I know this sounds funny but keep putting in carts and taking them out and try to play them. Sometimes its just the oxidation built up on the contacts of the system and carts..

Click to expand...

Well, this seemed to work. I have added about 9 more games to my collection since I started this post and I have been playing the hell out of the system since. I think that just using the system again and making it actualy do something other than collect dust did the trick. Hopefully the system will last for some time without any more issus as I just added a CDZ System to the collection and I don't have the $ to replace my cart system right now.

SNKNostalgia said:

See if you can use smaller like needle nose pliers to do it, or hospital clamps work haha. If you use a screwdriver the pins can get slanted since they kinda pop out from the small amount of plastic on the corners keep it from comming out.

Click to expand...

Thanks man, i'll try that!