Cartridge Warmup?

[dharmajones93]

So, story...

Picked up a few games from a new game store in town (anyone from the Cincinnati area checkout RLA Games in Eastgate Mall!!!, Awesome quality!). I get home and neither of the snes games will load (Darius Twin and Space invaders). Click the power button and nothing. I'm playing through a framemeister, rgb scart, top quality cable. Because both games don't work I start to freak out.

I had just tested a Genesis pickup (Virtua Racer) through the same setup (Framemeister , rgb scart) and it worked flawlessly. Okay, so not the setup.

I try a different cable, s-video, on the snes. Nothing from either of the new games. Try an older game, Kiby superstar. Nothing. Try another, super Mario world, works instantly, flawless picture.

Okay, so I try a few more, some work (turtles in time, star fox), some don't. After a few more tries with with space invaders, I finally get a black screen (instead of the default framemeister no signal blue screen). I wait a few seconds then hit the restart button. Comes up flawlessly. Turn off then back on and it's working. I take the cart out to try Darius Twin again. Nothing. Put space invaders back in, and nothing again, except this time I leave it on for about 15 seconds. Turn off, then back on, and it's working again.

This time I put Darius Twin back in, turn on (nothing) and let it sit for about 20 seconds. Hit the reset button, and Bam it's working flawlessly (played for about an hour and died on the last boss...)

Thinking I'm on to something, I put Kirby superstar back in. Turn on, and nothing, but let it sit 20 seconds. Hit the reset button and, you guessed it, fired right up perfectly.

TLDR: do your carts need to warm up ever? Is there something about my snes or my carts that would cause this? I tested with a few Genesis carts i've had work inconsistently in the past and sure enough leaving them in with the power on for about 20-30 seconds cause them to boot up from blank screens.

I do have a few theories:
- the power supplies in a few of my consoles might be on their way out and are failing to provide adequate voltage until the cart has time to build up.
- the capacitors in my consoles/some carts may be going bad (didn't check to see if these particular carts had capacitors) and take time to warm up.
- flash memory must be "refreshed", with manufacturers advising you to power up flash memory every 2-3 years to ensure the memory holds data and to keep the cells healthy. Could these carts literally just need to be refreshed? This one is hard to believe as my NES carts don't exhibit this behavior, only (per my testing) my 16 bit carts. Could be something about the memory used during this time period?

Anyway, thanks for reading. Next time your cart doesn't work, try laving it in with the power on for 20ish seconds then reset the console!

[oldgamerz]

Yes mine needs to warm up as well. there is a couple of things you could do sometimes to make this warmup process faster, first in some cases you just gently  blow on the cartridge connection edge from left to right, and then insert it, flick the on switch harder than normal (like if you were trying to light a spark), if it don't work turn it off first then repeat this process.


try this 3-5 times or sometimes more, if it still don't work than you may need to gently  clean your cartridge with a little (not a lot) of 97% isopropyl alcohol/rubbing alcohol along the edge of the cartridge with some cotton swabs also known as Q-tips but never use cotton balls.

If your cartridge has any green colored corrosion on the cartridge edge. sometimes that can mean that the game can't be fixed or run properly until you remove the rust oxidation and or corrosion. Google says never to use a pencil eraser to do this though.


although this next step sounds a little risky some say. I also sometimes insert and re-insert my cartridges while the power is off. That technique that I learned from someone who works for Nintendo in america. that technique works  sometimes with most of my stubborn Nintendo 64 cartridges even when all else failed


but never insert take out or and reinsert any cartridge game this with the power left on,

Also helps if your console or device that uses the cartridge, to make sure that the pin connector where the game plugs into the console or device is not bent or loose. a lot of NES original models don't read the game because the console's pin connector is not making enough contact with the cartridge chip.

[sworddude]

There is something with your console than

Carts on both snes and sega should fire up instantly every time

or maybe you didnt clean those carts dirty contacts if it only happens with certain games

I've had a few games wich where truly broken wich I left in a console for several minutes they sure as hell did not boot up your carts where probably just dirty or if it can happen with pretty much all your games the problem is with your console.

instead of dirty cardridges them pins on the console could also be dirty. a bit harder to clean since you usally need to open the console up

Never had to wait 20 ish seconds for a cart to boot up unless it's truly broken in wich it will just never boot up anyway 

[tripredacus]

It is the console and not the carts. My first thought is that some components may be out of their expected tolerance range and/or you have a failing capacitor.

[oldgamerz]

It is the console and not the carts. My first thought is that some components may be out of their expected tolerance range and/or you have a failing capacitor.

I used to have a Nintendo 64 that would barely start up at all, most of the time. it was dirty and my cartridges were not clean either. But strangely once I got the game running, I never had any issues with the game turning off or freezing , just like the OP @dharmajones93

I could be wrong but (edit) according to research you could be right

I would think that if is was something wrong with a capacitor it would not work at all, or the game would both freeze up and have trouble booting up

I just kept trying using the various steps above and I got the game to work 100% of the time, although looking back my Nintendo 64 was extremely dirty at the time I had issues and a different console.

the SNES and Genesis always gave me  a lot less trouble though

[dharmajones93]

The carts are clean. I'm confident it's not the carts, or at least not the contacts.

I thinking it's components on the consoles themselves.

[shadowzero]

Agree with failing capacitor theory as well.  Almost everything made in the 1990s had sub par capacitors and is the number one reason most things fail now.  One must also consider that even though the contacts may be clean there is also wear issues especially with good games that have been played a lot over the last few years.