Cleaning AES carts? Alcohol bad?

I picked a bundle of carts on ebay and some don't work at all. I tried to clean them with an eraser and nothing improved. Will alcohol damage these carts? I know some boards you can't use it on.

Rubbing alcohol will NOT harm your games, period. It's a highly recommended and easily available cleaning solution for pretty much any electronic device, it evaporates quickly which reduces the chances of corrosion (if there's any chance at all really). I've heard mixing in a bit of water helps, I'm not even sure if that's true or not so don't take my word on it.

Take some rubbing alcohol and some Q-Tips (cotton swabs), dip the Q-Tips in the rubbing alcohol and rub the edge connectors on the bottom of each cart. Depending on the dirt concentration it may take several Q-Tips. Keep cleaning until no more dirt comes off the carts and make sure to let everything sit for about 5 minutes to let the alcohol evaporate.

Do you have this problem with your other carts and not just the ones you recently got off eBay? If so, take an old toothbrush and rubbing alcohol, dip the bristles in the alcohol and lightly scrub the cartridge connectors inside your AES, be delicate with this, try not to drip too much inside the connectors and make sure everything is dry before testing.

BTW, if that bundle is entirely cart only I think I saw that lot on eBay before, kind of funny I'd see who actually won that auction.

EDIT: I noticed you mentioned an eraser. Combining an eraser and rubbing alcohol/Q-Tips is really good for cleaning cartridges, I personally use this method.

Koopa64 said:

I've heard mixing in a bit of water helps, I'm not even sure if that's true or not so don't take my word on it.

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... This works great on monitors BTW. For carts and well electronics in general I just go straight isopropanol.

I use just a Q-tip and water. It gets the dust off, maybe doesn't always totally clean the pcb edges. If the edges are corroded (the black stuff?), then you might need something stronger. Gold doesn't corrode, but I think they are just gold plated, and once the gold wears off the silver-colored metal underneath can corrode(?).

Becareful of statics and not to leave any liquid left on pcbs, avoid putting alcohol on the point where re-soldered flux used. Also whitens some of the surfaces. Absolute ethanol prefered.

Absolute ethanol prefered.

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Especially on the rocks with a twist of lemon

Seriously, isopropyl is fine.

Spion said:

I picked a bundle of carts on ebay and some don't work at all. I tried to clean them with an eraser and nothing improved. Will alcohol damage these carts? I know some boards you can't use it on.

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Make sure you are putting the boards back in correctly.

get yourself some game cleaning paste and residue remover. i always have problems with yatons dirty carts.
until i clean them!

Good advice, fortunately they have different key way slot gaps on the cart pcbs, to get them inverted would require some force. If they slot in comfortably all is well.

If you use water, make sure it's distilled. Minerals in the water could promote rust/corrosion. Same reason you shouldn't blow/spit on a cart.

I never understood why people use Q-tips on electronics, especially little metal pins. You would think it would leave cotton lint all over everything. They say you're not even supposed to use Q-tips in your ears anymore, so is there anything they're good for?

I used some alcohol with q-tips and an eraser. Now all the carts work.

P.s. Redbull and Vodka is the bomb, too much in public is bad.

Thanks for all the help.

Neo Alec said:

If you use water, make sure it's distilled. Minerals in the water could promote rust/corrosion. Same reason you shouldn't blow/spit on a cart.

I never understood why people use Q-tips on electronics, especially little metal pins. You would think it would leave cotton lint all over everything. They say you're not even supposed to use Q-tips in your ears anymore, so is there anything they're good for?

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The amount of cotton lint Q-Tips leave behind is minimal, only if stray fibers catch on a sharp edge, usually on the edge of a circuit board. If there's any lint left behind, just wipe with another Q-Tip, it's not hard to use them properly.

FIRE BAD !!​