Problem w/ SS4 japanese cart

When I insert the cart its very touchy and I often times get the grid screen, but if i take it out and insert again the problem goes away...I figure this is probably the cart needing to be cleaned, but then I notice another problem today.

I got the cart yesterday and I always play as player 2 on my cab because 2nd player is a tight joystick, and 1st is a loose one, since my roomate and I prefer different types. Today we tried to play each other and when we started the game we noticed that that 1st player joystick wouldn't allow him to select charector, style or grade at all. He couldn't move the joystick at all for 1st player until the fight actually started. Anybody have any ideas on what might have caused this?

It might be a bootleg, no ?
Who did you buy it from ?

It was a partial buy/trade from Decepticon....I opened it and it doesn't look to be a boot though....I definitally dont want to claim that...because I really dont want his name getting dragged in the dirt

Well, the best thing to do for now would be to contact him (if you didn't already) and ask him if he had this problem etc.