Disable 10NES chip on your NES toaster

Ever been infuriated by a game that appears to be starting correctly but the NES still does that annoying blinking power light and flashing screen ?   Thats the handy work of the 10NES chip installed by Nintendo on the front loader (toaster) models of the NES.

The purpose of the 10NES was to prevent pirate or unauthorized games from playing on the system by checking to see if the a chip on the cartridge matches up to the 10NES chip on the NES mainboard , but a slightly dirty or misaligned cartridge can trigger the 10NES chip into getting a bad reading and constantly resetting the console.  In retrospect this attempt at controlling the software that could be published to the console by using the 10NES seems to have been an exercise in futility as Tengen and other unauthorized publishers were able to reverse engineer the chip and come up with their own solutions that allowed the games published by them to be playable on the system.

 So, at this point if you decided that the 10NES is more trouble than its worth, lets get that thing disabled.

First thing you will need is a NES of course, and a phillips screwdriver.  I like to place my console on a clean towel to give myself a soft place to work and help keep screws and parts from rolling away.

Flip the system over and remove the six screws from the bottom of the case -

Once those are removed turn the unit back over and gently lift the topcover off.

Underneath the topcover you will find the RF shielding metal cover.  There are 7 screws around the perimeter that you will need to remove.

Once those have been removed carefully lift the RF shield off the unit.  It can sometimes catch on the projection on the ride side where the power supply unit is, and may take a bit of wiggling to come loose.

Now there are 4 screws that need to be removed from the cartridge tray (in red below) and two screws on either side of the power supply (left side of RF jack and below the RCA jacks on the right).

Now carefully lift the mainboard off the bottom case and turn it over, making sure none of the power button or controller port wires get caught on any of the plastic mounting posts.  There are 3 connectors that will need to be carefully removed, make note of which controller port wire connects to which port to prevent confusion later (the first controller wire is the shorter one and connects to the port that points directly at the controller port at the front).

Once the connectors are removed take the mainboad off the case and set it on your workspace.  The bottom RF shield should lift right off.

Now your looking at the bottom of the mainboard and you will need to locate the 10NES chip (in red).

We will be cutting the pin highlighted in Red to disable the chip.  I used a very sharp exacto knife to gently saw through the pin (its quite soft).  Be very careful to only cut the one pin and not to damage any of the capacitors near the 10NES chip.

Its not necessary to remove the pin entirely, just to break contact.  once you've cut through it completely, bending the unconnected lower piece away should be sufficient.

Now just reassemble in the reverse of how everything came apart and test out your now unblinking NES !

Repair your NES 72 Pin Connector by boiling. Yes BOILING.

So i had an extra NES toaster console that i received a while back while purchasing some other games and items but it absolutely refused to work no matter how clean the games were.  I had mulled over getting a new 72 pin, but my experience in the past with one i purchased for another unit left me with a bad impression due to the low quality of the one i received which paled in comparison to the OEM Nintendo connector.

We are going to clean/refurb the original connector by boiling it in water.  Yes, water.  Thanks to ZoOmer over at nintendo age for bringing the idea to my attention.  NA thread is here: boil NES 72 pin

Ok !  Lets do this !
first thing you need is an NES and a place to work.  I like to use a clean towel to help keep any screws or parts from rolling away.

 Now flip that thing over and take out the six screws that hold the top of the unit to the base.

Once those are removed turn the unit back over and gently lift the topcover off.

Underneath the topcover you will find the RF shielding metal cover.  There are 7 screws around the perimeter that you will need to remove.

Once those have been removed carefully lift the RF shield off the unit.  It can sometimes catch on the projection on the ride side where the power supply unit is, and may take a bit of wiggling to come loose.

Next remove the 6 screws that hold the cartridge tray to the mainboard.  Note that two of the screws are longer than the other 4 and need to be placed back in the correct spot for everything to fit back together correctly.  These 2 longer screws are the second from the top on the back of the cartridge tray looking down on it from the front of the NES.

Now there are two last screws that need to be removed and are located on the top left of the power supply (in right rear corner of the NES next to the RF jack) and the far right front of the power supply (next to the red audio RCA jack).  With the mainboard free you can now slide the cartridge tray out the front.

Now carefully lift the entire mainboard assembly from the bottom case plastic.  Be wary of any of the controller port wires or power/reset switches getting caught on anything.

Now you should be able to gently wiggle the 72 pin connector off the main board with gentle upward pressure (mine was a bit stuck after 28+ years).

Now take the 72 pin connector and head to the kitchen to find a small saucepan that it will fit in and will allow it to be completely submerged with an inch or two of water above it.  Bring to a boil, turn down the heat a bit (careful not to boil over), drop your connector in and let the whole thing boil for 10 minutes or so.  Don't worry about the plastic melting as long as there is water in the pan the temperature of the pan will never get hot enough to melt the connector.

After 10 minutes, take the pan to the sink and dump the water out (careful not to scald yourself) and place the connector on a towel to dry.  After an hour or so you should be ready for reinstall, just verify that the connector is completely dry.
Some people take an extra step here and use a piece of cardboard (cereal box thickness) or an NES cleaning kit to work the pins a bit and polish up the contacts.  I did not do this as after boiling the contacts looked fine so depending on the condition of your connector this extra step may be useful.

To reinstall, carefully slide the 72 pin back onto the mainboard making sure that it is fully and firmly seated.  place the mainboad back into its correct position making sure the bottom RF heatshield is laying flat and that none of the controller or power button wires are being pinched between the bottom mounting posts and mainboard.

The tricky part here is to make sure the cartridge tray is correctly reinstalled as there is a small plastic tab at the front (behind the white piece in picture below) and needs to slide over the bottom of the mainboard.  If this is not installed correctly you make damage your mainboard or cartridge tray or at the very least your tray will not operate correctly.

Now reinstall the six screws holding the cartridge tray to the mainboard ensuring the two longer screws are in the second from the back holes.

Put the RF shield back over the top of the cartridge tray and mainboard and reinstall the seven screws that hold it down.  Once those are snug, reinstall the topcover and put your six screws back in and you are done !  Enjoy a much more reliable first try game startup experience ! (provided your games are clean).

When i first read about this on Nintendo Age, i was pretty skeptical that it would actually work, but i had a toaster unit that would absolutely not work under any circumstances and decided to give it a shot.  Low and behold, upon reinstalling i slapped a tetris cart in (not bothering to put it back together in case it didn't work) it fired up on the first try and i became a believer.  I have since done this to all my NES units and am a firm believer that this really works.

Happy Gaming !!

Remove yellowing from your retro consoles (gentler alternative to retr0bright)

Got an old video game console or vintage computer who's casing or accessories have seen better days and are now yellowed and discolored ?  Follow along and i'll show you how you can remove much of the yellowing and get a much better appearance from your retro consoles without harsh chemicals or expensive products like retr0bright.

Looks bad but we can help that -

For small projects such as this NES controller i am using for the write-up you can simply use regular 3% hydrogen peroxide that you can get at most any store.  This is ideal for small projects as you don't need to mess with any mixing or preparing any solutions. 

For the NES controller i used a small plastic food container and filled it with enough peroxide to cover the entire controller case in the liquid.  I also placed a small glass on top of the controller casing to keep it submerged under the peroxide, this did not seem to affect the outcome in anyway but i'm looking for a more elegant solution.

I also left the D-pad and buttons in with the peroxide hoping that it might help clean off the 25 years of sweat and grime that was encrusting them but it didn't seem to help at all and i found that simple dish soap and an old toothbrush works wonders on that. :)

Now that the bath has been prepped take your item out to a nice sunny location and wait for a couple of hours. 

While we're waiting on that, now is a good time to clean all the rubber controller connectors and the circuit board contacts.  For that i find a clean, dry cotton swab rubbed in a small circular pattern works well to remove the crud and corrosion off the contacts.

After about 6 hours i brought everything back inside and gave everything a good rinse with cool water and a once over with an old toothbrush to knock some of the dust and crud out of the inside.  After setting on a towel to dry i got a look at the result. 

Much better !!!   Here are pics for comparison before and after. 

Now, i have also done bigger parts in a tub such as the top of a NES toaster console and for that I bought a tub of "Oxy" laundry booster with the ingredients of sodium percabonate and sodium carbonate.  when mixed  with water this produces a peroxide solution and will net the same results as the above.   For the oxy booster i use it at twice the recommended dosage. 

I have had very good results using both of these methods and have not seen any "bleaching" or "spotting" that i have heard of from using harsh mixtures of higher than 3% peroxide or some of the other homebrew mixtures that are floating around on the net.  The methods i have outlined may take a bit longer due to the low concentrations of the active ingredients, this seems to be to be a worthwhile trade off for the extra time needed or to even repeat the process a couple of times over rather than cause damage during the restoration process.

Let me know if you need any more info or have comments in the comment section below.   Thanks !