NES with GREY Screen and Flashing RED LIGHT | Revisit

This is the Nintendo Entertainment System I couldn't get working from this previous video: • A Subscriber sent me a...
It had a flashing red light at times, and also a blank grey screen. Is it the PPU at fault?, the lockout chip?, or is it just a dirty connector?
Let's see if we can get it working!
Hope you enjoy!
Steve
PS. I'm not an expert in repairs at all. I do this for fun, and it may not be the best or safest way to go about repairing broken stuff. I'm pretty good at melting plastic though. Please don't copy me - I'm an idiot.
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[@stevefox3763]

That is NOT dirt, its a reaction between the metal and the polish, it will keep coming up black till you polish away all the metal!

[@StezStixFix]

Glad I didn't keep scrubbing! 🙂

[@scaleartsg]

@@StezStixFix you might have no metal left! 🤪

[@welshtony1]

Im glad someone said this before he keeps going in the future haha.

[@Jimmy-Jaffa]

@@StezStixFix what flux do you use please?

[@joshkelly4682]

I only use IPA and a pink eraser and 99% of the time all contacts end up looking new

[@antonsmith1497]

When I was an apprentice long time ago, my former boss said always "use sockets, it`s easier to replace the chips afterwards". My experienced colleague refused/ignored this and told me "I had too often problems in connectivity with those sockets". Amazing to see this issue being proofed decades later on youtube. Well done.

[@ianholmen888]

Hey I just wanted to give you props. I just fixed a radio for a car, and it was all thanks to the videos you make. They ordered a new one for 800$ so I decided to take it apart as it was getting replace anyway and i was able to look at it the way you do. I found an obvious problem and it was a super simple fix but I couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks so much from South Carolina USA

[@StezStixFix]

Awesome! Great job on the fix, and I'm glad my videos came in useful! 👍

[@adamlatham6465]

Hi Steve. I miss the cow/moo animation when you use the desoldering vacuum gun!! :D I respectfully request its return lol. Love your channel by the way. :)

[@StezStixFix]

Request accepted! 😁

[@swingstylez]

I'm so glad you put the original PPU back in after changing the socket. I would have had an itchy brain if you hadn't have tried, even though I was expecting the PPU to behave bad, like it did in the donor system. Great vid!

[@mottzilla4858]

If you can identify the pins that were shorted together by their number it's possible to know what signals specifically are causing the problem on the bad PPU. My guess is that they were pins 39 - 36. From the Castlevania screen that was messed up it looks like pin 37 (PPU AD1) might be having a problem. If you examine the incorrect letters on the screen you can see that bit1 is behaving as always 0 in the tile numbers. I don't know if this can be overcome. You could try a 1K ohms or higher resistor connected to pin 37 and the other end to pin 40 which is +5v to give it a pull up. It could be that when they were shorted together it ended up burning out an internal pull-up resistor that existed inside pin 37. I've seen MaskROMs fixed by using external resistors so it may be worth a shot here. Better than throwing the PPU in the trash.

[@StayCoolKeto]

*Great info* 👍💪

[@arturb2996]

He should definitly try this! Fixing a chip would be a new level of repair

[@Senteri]

I have 0 technical knowledge but reading comments like these is awesome.

[@brandonkick]

Sounds like you have more knowledge of the PPU than I do, but for sure I wouldn't blindly try repair attempts without some degree of confidence at the very least that the repair attempt won't damage anything further. I know we have logical implementations of the PPU in terms of FPGA cores. I wonder if the knowledge is out there... basically the schematic (there's another word for it... it escapes me... delidding the chip to trace it's die) for it to be possible to make an educated guess at what a repair attempt might look like? I fully agree though. There is only a finite number of PPU's left in the world. I hate to see any die off as a result of a botched mod attempt.

[@mottzilla4858]

@@brandonkick Testing it with a 10k ohms pull-up resistor for a short period of time to see if it makes a difference is unlikely to damage anything. It's not really a blind attempt. And yes it is possible to replace the PPU with a FPGA. I don't believe anyone has actually put in the work to make a drop in replacement yet, but it's possible. If the problem isn't a bad internal pull-up it could be a broken bonding wire which would be an even worse problem to have. With the PPU already malfunctioning I think it's worth a try doing a quick test with an external pull-up resistor. I would start with a 10k ohms and then if nothing changes try a lower value, but without going lower than 1K ohms. He could get lucky and it might result in a fully working PPU again and it would make for a nice video outcome.

[@DoNotEvenAsk]

The original modder probably put in too much solder on the socket's pins and it bridged on the other side. NES boards are an absolute nightmare to work on for beginner modders, especially if they're using cheapo tools.

[@John-ns9lr]

Yeah thought the same thing.

[@emmanuelwolfmusic410]

Just wanna say ,I love your comedic timing, it's brilliant

[@claimhsolais3466]

Congratulations Steve! You've done a tremendous job. Is so satisfying achieving success after so much hassle, isn't it? Since NES has so many great mods, like the RGB, audio expansion to name a few, I'm most definitely looking forward for another revisit soon!

[@ReiverBlue1971]

Congratulations on your persistence. I did tech support for about 15 years so I can understand the frustration and the joy when you finally nail a particularly difficult problem ;D

[@wryyyy]

To elaborate on the flashing screen. It's the lock out chip checking the cartridge chip for authenticity, and why it flashes is because when it does the check and doesn't recognise the cartridge/cartridge fails to communicate, the console forces a reboot and the cycle keeps repeating. So technically valid games might run, but they run only for that very short time when the console is communicating with the cartridge for the authenticity check. The lock out chips are notorious for being extremely unreliable.

[@SMAAAASHTV]

Never recommend using metal polish for cleaning any plated metals, as it will strip the plating right off the contact and usually results in the pins corroding down the lines, as they have no seal from oxidizing anymore. While the pins did seem really dirty, you would have been better off continuing to use the Eraser and IPA. It might never come out completely clean.

[@AmstradExin]

What the old buffoon did was corroding oxidizing) the pins with his polish. Beginner's mistake. :D

[@Grant-H2O]

if you want to get crazy with it just use a magic eraser

[@ManjiVegeta]

I loved this little repair roller coaster.

[@NSDaishi]

Thank you for coming back to this. And also I am glad you post where you fail to fix to at least have something to watch.

[@MagralhoPT]

I was here for the "stupid game" and you did not disappoint! thanks for fixing stuff so I can get my fix on that lovely outro!

[@thegrayghost3043]

Great repair! Thanks for taking the time to go through it and explain it. Plus, I always look forward to your Patreon rap. 😃

[@dr.decker3623]

Remove the connection pin for the lockout chip. it's probably dusted. Some say clip and bend it, but just clip it twice and remove the leg entirely.

[@stevenlayton4493]

I've become addicted to this channel, without really understanding many of the things you're doing and using. What is it you apply to the solder points before you solder? What do you use to clean the boards after working on them?

[@eggstu]

Flux helps melt the solder and probably rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol to clean.

[@diytechspirit914]

Flux helps solder to flow more easily and redirects it where it is suposed to go, melting is done by the soldering iron/tip and has nothing to do with flux. IPA is most commonly used as a cleaner for electronics.If you are interested in this stuff try it you dont have to spend much to get started and it is a great hobby.

[@StezStixFix]

Yep, flux to help the solder flow and Isopropyl Alcohol to clean up. 2 of the most important items you'll need (aside from a soldering iron 😁)

[@Arikayx13]

When warm enough to flow the solder really wants to stick to itself and other metals but oxides get in the way. Flux removes these oxides and prevents more from forming and clogging up the mix.

[@pedromimoso8804]

Perseverance pays up Captain Bodge! Very well done, Steve! 😁

[@K.P.Alexander]

Love your videos, Steve! Avoid metal polish on contacts, use contact cleaner instead.

[@UnCoolDad]

Autosol is lovely stuff. The black stuff you rubbed of isn't dirt, it is metal residue.

[@Damyrr]

Before using the desoldering station, add some more tin in the solderweld, then desolder it, works every time!

[@MarcStift]

Hey Steve, if you ever do another Nes fix or mod and you need to disable the lockout chip, there is a way to do it without damaging the lockout chip pin 4. You just have to ground pin 4 using two wires and Consoleunleashed has a guide to show you how to do it.

[@Jared-C]

Glad you got it working! At least your entire day of staring at a board got you somewhere. I hate when I sit there all afternoon and it's just as broken as when I started.

[@moderusprime]

Always remember to also refurbish the 72pin connector itself. Bend the pins back to factory(the cartridge pins, not the ones that connect to the board) and give it a good clean. A lot of people tend to miss this step.

[@richardstone8615]

Facts

[@wryyyy]

It's a shame lot of people just outright swap out the connector, as the replacement connectors aren't built the same way, so they aren't true ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) connectors, and actually put much more stress and wear on the cartridge connectors.

[@moderusprime]

@@richardstone8615 I've refurbished over 100 NES consoles. So many times people thought it was a PPU or CPU issue when it was the pin connector not making contact with all the pins but enough to clear 10NES.

[@paulghignon4092]

You can also potentially clean a 72pin by saturating the pads on the cartridge heavily with alcohol, then inserting and removing it a few times quickly; it will be an easy way of cleaning them. I used to do this as a way of cleaning many handheld cart slots like the Gameboy and GBA, back when I refurbished those. It's a bit better for handhelds than in the case of the NES, mostly because there's replacement connectors out there that are designed better; combined with people building systems using OpenTendo.

[@DecibelAlex]

@@wryyyy ​ oldest trick in the book. I'm sure most people have tried that before replacing the connector. It's really just a temporary fix of course the replacement connectors will wear out the cartridge faster than the original ones that hardly make contact after 30+ years of use, but beats having to disassemble the console when you want to play something

[@retroanderson]

Just an FYI, they do some Russian 'clone' PPU chips Called the UMC UA6538. And CPU clones called UMC UA6527P. I bought some on ebay years ago and i'm in NZ using a Pal system as well.

[@TheCavacat]

The VOS rap this week was epic - the best one yet for sure! 😃

[@dereks6129]

You are my favorite channel to watch while I'm eating

[@seanpetermcdonald]

Loved the video, you know if this fixing lark doesn't work out for you, you could always go back to song writing I loved Elbow back in the day and you guys should get back together

[@wolfmercer]

Nice to see you persevered. and save this from becoming scraped.👍👍👍

[@craigellis680]

Excellent rap today Steve. Alot better than normal. 84k subs... So close to that 100k rampant rabbit special. Can't wait to see how you go about putting the rabbit under a stress test in that one

[@TheSaxon25]

Dang man faulty socket could have had you running around in circles for days. Nice catch 🍻

[@martijnappeldoorn8686]

We use to have snake rattle & roll back in the 90’s, my younger brother was quite good at it, I wasn’t, but I enjoyed seeing him play it.

[@BuyitFixit]

Great Job Steve! weird goings on with that socket tho..

[@APSuk2]

"because quite frankly, I can't be ar..." Honesty is always the best policy 😄 Great fix Steve, glad you got to the bottom of it.

[@brandonkick]

One easy thing I would have recommended, would have been taking the edge connector and tray off the donor board and try on the broken board. I was sure that was it, until you confirmed the PPU was damaged. I tried like holy heck to clean one of those "U" shaped edge connectors (the part the game actually connects too). Boiled it, tensioned the pins, adjusted it a few times as far as it's fitment on the NES board. That sucker just wouldn't work. Took the cheap pot brass $7 replacement 72 pin connector that came with my NES ebay lot... swapped it in, works first try. Granted... it has a death grip on the cart, but so what. I keep my chinese junk flash cart in it. It works. Party on? Good job Steve! Love the channel!

[@TracyA123]

My home boy Steve be droppin fresh rhymes and solving them electronic mysteries playa!!!! That looked seriously frustrating..wow. All of that work and the original mod socket was the culprit. Well done brother!!👍

[@super10nano1]

I've never seen a person more happy than you when it worked. Amazing patience and a great video!

[@dr.frankenstein5421]

Mine does that all the time. Someone told me years ago to use rubbing alcohol and a q tip and clean the video game cartridge contacts. While the contacts are a little bit wet, insert game in system, pushing it back n forth to clean n make good contact. Then turn it on, works pretty much every time.

[@Stefan_Payne]

Gratz for finding the issue. Sucks that the modder destroyed a PPU...

[@Pholiage]

Snake rattle n roll. One of my favorites ever. Nice fix mate

[@americansupervillain4595]

Helpful tip, if you are going to open up an NES, you might as well replace the 72pin connector. They are about $12 to $15 dollars on Amazon.

[@danielsundqvist8413]

Yeah and get a deathgrip 72-pin. N-e-v-e-r replace the original 72-pin, if you can clean it.

[@americansupervillain4595]

@@danielsundqvist8413 I did not have that problem after I replaced my 72pin.

[@YesMir]

omg Steve , you have the patience of a saint ! nice work

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Mart! 👍

[@teslasapple]

Mooing turned into a small man yelling Bob! Nice 👍

[@StezStixFix]

🤣🤣🤣

[@afronob]

Dude you inspire me. I love your sens of humor, don't change a thing. Thanks for all of theses videos. My regards to Dave.

[@adrianbestboy98]

You can fix the faulty PPU you just need a 1K resistor between pin 37 and pin 40, sorry if i'm late

[@gravedigga71]

Nice one Steve, was a pleasure to watch.

[@GiovanneTorres]

Nice troubleshooting Steve! Great video

[@octavovisitare3439]

That was a really nice rap! Had a nice 90s West Coast feel to it

[@cheronecom]

Your edits are the perfect amount of showing what you've done without making it tedious to watch.

[@jaylo912]

Comments such as "I will do this off camera so I dont bore you to death"....not only is almost correct, but also genuis. Fair play and thanks for the videos. Awesome stuff.

[@f75gunslinger]

That's what's left of the metal you're taking off the contacts mixed with the paste . It isn't dirt .

[@mikengo9306]

Oh gosh. "You're kidding me!" I shouted. The PPU mount was shorted all along. Never thought it has messed up this way. Must be a solder blob went across the pins. Well, the donor board has it value after all, a good working PPU. Great video. Enjoyed the video. Good game. Just once. 😆

[@RobertPucovsky]

I got a "broken" NES that had the same symptoms as yours. All I had to do is boil the 72 pin connector and bend the cartridge side pins a little back up. Now every (good shape) game boots up every time even without me pushing down the cartridge with the lockout chip intact as well. I also wouldnt recommend disabling the lockout chip because it's a good indicator of how good your game is. If it needs cleaning, it will show up.

[@JamesWon6]

I'm happy for you it did work. And thanks for all the work you put in just for our entertainment.

[@rachelc2022]

That was a great repair! I love seeing one of my favourite old systems get back up and running. I’m glad the bad socket didn’t damage the good PPU when you tested it. Nice work!

[@unseen1228]

So pleased you did this

[@Retro-cabin]

Got a few nes that I’ve repaired and lock out disabled, and some times after powering on just hitting reset sorts it out. And it’s best not using the rf feed as 9 times out of ten the caps are bad in the rf modulator. 👍🏻

[@AdeJohnson]

Glad to see the Patreon list growing mate

[@zohairnaqsho3309]

Beautiful song

[@reddevil630]

8:55 I hope am not the only one that miss the cartoon cow.

[@sambra1979]

Nice vid as always, snake rattle n roll was an incredible game back in the day.

[@chrisj2848]

Nice bit of detective work Steve! Great Video 👍

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Chris! 👍

[@eduardogarcia3049]

I was waiting for the “get in there!!” After it worked. 😂

[@eggstu]

Dave is the real hero of this video

[@dr.robertnick9599]

I know this is an older video and maybe other people pointed that out already, but I am a bit concerned of the way you are desoldering the sockets and the big ICs. It looks like the desoldering iron with the pump can't suck out the solder from the other side of the board and it looks like it is very easy for the trace to come out with the pin it is connected to. It certainly happened to me before with SMT pads. I guess THT pads are more robust thanks to the plating inside the hole. What I had great results with, was a desoldering alloy. Add a little bit of it to the solder joint with the iron and it starts melting at 80°C. Then you can very easily extract the part with a hot air solder station (There are very cheap and suprisingly well working ones on Aliexpress) set to a low temperature, so it can not melt any plastic parts close by. The heat capacity of the solder also keeps it molten for a surprisingly long time. Removing it with copper braid is also very easy but also necessary if you are going to install the part somewhere else. You can buy the alloy on Amazon. It is a little bit expensive, but you also don't need that much of it.

[@johnbowen4222]

Fun fact about the nes when you push the cartridge in you dont have to push it down it makes contact and plays just fine if you push the game cartridge in and just turn it on

[@tahirsutube]

Well done for sticking at it! 👍

[@GloBusST]

Question....Why did you not try the antenna connection as the first Thing. Why only use the coax... I think the fault chip would have worked if you used the antenna connection...

[@markharrisllb]

Well done, I actually learn more off you than the other channels.

[@MrFixiit]

Maybe worthwhile checking the legs on the Faulty ppu maybe some Corrosion or a solder blob causeing bad contact.

[@wryyyy]

Those RGB kits are fairly valuable, and not too easily aquired. I think it's one Australian bloke who makes them.

[@StezStixFix]

Yeah, Tim Worthington in Oz. 👍

[@Allerick178]

Great work Steve. So cool that it is working. Love the 8 bit nintendo bring back memorys. Good work Steve.

[@StezStixFix]

Thanks Frederick! 👍

[@fjniedercorn]

Thanks to you I bought an hot air soldering station an I clearly don't know what I'm doing ! I have a good teacher ^^

[@Geoffrey-Mason]

whenever I here shake rattle and roll I think of the movie clue. great work !

[@marcopasta]

Many times, the zif connector pins bend in and you need to boil it in order to let the pins go back to their original position. Also with the cic chip it's best to run a wire from the pin to the ground plain

[@buzzmx]

I was going to post the same info. I got about 40 NESs back to life when I was managing a game store back in the day. To test if the CIC bypass has worked try Zelda as it has a CIC inside in it.

[@davidrowlands8548]

7:36 - "yeah, ... there's something not right there, is there?" bit of an understatement that.

[@stephenhepworth3113]

entertaining as always, and worth it in the end.You carry on where others ( including me) would have given up ages ago. brilliant, informative and funny to boot! keep up the good work 👍👍😆

[@soycarcare9866]

You broke the no 4 pin trying to solder it out, well happy to see you all workup..🤓

[@DougUnfunny]

YOU DID IT! GOLD STAR.

[@Kaneo_3987]

As usual, a fantastic video Steve!

[@Thertra70]

Looking forward to part 3 with the mod chip working!

[@FixDaily]

Great video. 3:33 you are removing metal with that polisher... it only ends when you have no more metal If you use a regular eraser, you make your work faster. I have one regular white rubber (They don't leave stains) and one of those "blue pen eraser rubber" when i want to be more abrasive. You can also use "Automotive break cleaner instead of contact cleaner" but you have to clean it afterwards because it is corrosive.

[@aidshusten240]

StezStix we have the same Binoculars, "Nature Product" on the inner right bar is written.On the left inside is written 52 [ ]17

[@bellafiasandpuppies4220]

Nicely done

[@Yabbadabba54321]

That was impressive trace work

[@evilgibson]

9:01 the sped up solder sucker sounds like a person calling for "Bob!" Bob! Bob! Bob! Bob! Bob!

[@YaffleTank]

Been looking forward to this

[@michaeltime1185]

Hello. I’ve heard that when you pull the pin from the lock out chip you should also connect it to ground to prevent future failures. Please check up on that because I’m not quite sure.

[@gkimble90]

Awesome mate 👏 👌 👍 🙌 😎

[@mrpetit2]

This is definately the weirdest repair channel on youtube. I still don't understand why I keep coming back.... 😄

[@serious409]

Weird?

[@mrpetit2]

@@serious409 Definately! 😁

[@SuperHamsterGaming]

My first thought when those pins were shorted together was that on the arcade ppu there are 3 pins responsible for RGB that are tied to ground on the NES ppu because the pins do essentially nothing on the NES. But you proved that thought wrong.

[@Hypercube9]

That "faulty" board isn't faulty. It just works differently! I had a similar glitch happen to me when these things were new and the defect allows you to see the invisible blocks that turn into Mario's power ups!

[@kylebeattie8305]

Patron rap was fire this video 🔥🔥

[@briangoldner4095]

That is one of my favorite NES games!

[@Venca182]

keep it clean

[@tkzins.mp4]

damn, nice work Steve, glad you break that stupid falty socket

[@paulb4uk]

Superb job finding the fault.

[@Tim_3100]

Great video as always stez 🙂

[@harveybrimer1054]

Lol nice job, love your channel!!👍