CLEAN YOUR GAME CARTRIDGE WITHOUT OPENING IT

It amazes me how many stories I hear on the internet from people throwing away game cartridges and systems because they don't work properly. In most cases all they need is a little cleaning. One of the methods I hear everyone using is the "Q-Tips & Alcohol" method. While this does get your game working in most cases. Q-Tips just don't have enough strength and abrasion to remove all of the dirt from the contacts. This guide will show you how to thoroughly clean the contacts on your cartridge so they sparkle and look brand new. Its very easy to do and costs next to nothing. Lets get to the cleaning!

Here's the materials you will need.

Clean Rag (An old t-shirt or small towel)

Rubbing Alcohol (It doesn't matter what %)

Here we have our dirty cartridge and our rag and rubbing alcohol.

First we take our rag and fold it into a "wedge" as seen below and generously soak it with rubbing alcohol. I use a spray bottle, but you can just spill it onto the rag. Don't be afraid to use a lot of alcohol, any excess will evaporate. It will not harm the cartridge no matter what the label on the back says.

Now with our alcohol soaked rag, we want to wedge it into one side of the cartridge connector. Once again, don't be afraid to use a little force. Now you want to move the rag back and forth from one end of the connector to the other, BE AGRESSIVE! Re-position the rag and use more rubbing alcohol until the contacts look shiny and gold, as they should. Once your done with one side, repeat with the other.

Now here is the cartridge taken apart, just to show you how clean the contacts should be. This cartridge was cleaned using this method and was pulled from the bowels of a gamestop drawer many years ago. Now it looks like brand new!