The NES Blinking Grey Screen of Death...

[Megamixer]

I KNOW there's been threads on this before but I just cannot remember where they are

Anyway, I've got a NES that I want to get rid of but first I want to make sure it's working. I recently bought a loose SMB cart to test it with (I never bought any games for it) and when I played it, it was all glitchy and badly messed-up on the screen.

Any subsequent tests just result in that infuriating flashing grey screen...

So the inevitable question is...how do I go about cleaning the thing to get it working again and what should I use?

Thanks in advance

[Fred83]

Does the led on nes blink when you have the grey screen?,usually when led blinks thats a sign of an fault in the pin slot of the nes or the cartridge is dirty or its an import,so if cart is dirty gently blow on the slot of cart and nes slot, if you can get your hands on another nes game to try out on first that would be good idea because your mario cart could be faulty,or you could open the nes and clean the cart slot terminals and cart terminal with dab of alcohol and let them to dry,all else fails i found a pin replacement guide here-

http://www.jandar.net/nes72pin/

[Megamixer]

Yep, the LED blinks as well. I've blown into the cart several times but nothing. Only thing is that I'm trying to sell the NES when it's working so I'm reluctant to keep buying carts for it to test it

[Fred83]

well,maybe one of nice members here will give you a lend of a cart?..

[Megamixer]

Hmm...think I might know the problem. Just checked the cart code and it says NES-SM-FRA on it. Is this some kind of French cart that won't work on my NES?

[Fred83]

i assume its france with fra,and i think it should had still work since we technically europe,came across the same info here about your code,think what could do mate is go on ebay and find the crappiest cheapest game for nes on ebay and test it with that?

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/archive ... 18610.html

[Megamixer]

Oh, I'm sure I read somewhere that French carts were incompatible or something...probably wrong though.

[MikeHaggar]

If it's an unmodified PAL-A UK console, then French PAL-B games won't work on it.

[resident paul]

There is repair videos on You-Tube.
I give you a link for a good one.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MgD_U8ymkk

[Megamixer]

Well, I sorted it in the end. Opened the thing up and the pins were spotless. I just had really bad luck with the carts. The first was French which I didn't realise at first and the second one was actually too dirty to work so needed it's connections cleaning with alcohol on a cotton bud.