Viewpoint MVS problem

[Billkwando]

You need to remember that the Unit as a whole is brand new, the mobo iside isn't. As with the JNX, AI, Omega and other CMVS builders, the boards inside are used unless you specified you wanted a new board which would cost a lot more than normal. With that being said, I can not comment on their cleaning methods since I never asked but for my customers, I personally handwash each board to get rid of any gunk and residue then I clean the slots twice, once before testing and again before shipping out.

It's a good idea to clean your slots at least once a month and always use contact cleaner on your carts edge when ever you insert it into the system. The process of applying contact cleaner to every cart helps keep the slots clean and promotes connectivity between the cart and system.

I just picked up a can of Deoxit D5 from Radio Shack today ($18, holy shit!). Do you recommend doing the t-shirt/paper towel thing the first time I clean the slots, rather than spray the cart, so I can try to get the bulk of the gunk out of there?

Could you describe exactly how you apply it? Do you spray it onto what you're wiping with, or do 4 sprays (1 for each row of Neo contacts)? Considering this stuff is obviously liquid gold, I don't want to waste it! (really though I just want to do the job right)

Should I pink eraser the games too?

Also, I've been having connectivity problems on my Genesis, but I own one of those official cleaning carts (that I haven't used yet). Should I just spray the Deoxit on the scratchy pads and go to town?

Edit: Unrelated, but can you explain what you mean by "handwash the boards"? I'm picturing Donnie Yen in rubber gloves, with a bunch of boards in a sink, and Dawn suds up to his elbows. Probably better to clarify before some noob gives that method a try.

 

[skinny503]

Edit: Unrelated, but can you explain what you mean by "handwash the boards"? I'm picturing Donnie Yen in rubber gloves, with a bunch of boards in a sink, and Dawn suds up to his elbows. Probably better to clarify before some noob gives that method a try.

Thats how I do mine. I prefer the "simple green" brand of products myself but dawn does wonders as long as you dont get the crap with lotion in it.

 

[Xian Xi]

I just picked up a can of Deoxit D5 from Radio Shack today ($18, holy shit!). Do you recommend doing the t-shirt/paper towel thing the first time I clean the slots, rather than spray the cart, so I can try to get the bulk of the gunk out of there?

Could you describe exactly how you apply it? Do you spray it onto what you're wiping with, or do 4 sprays (1 for each row of Neo contacts)? Considering this stuff is obviously liquid gold, I don't want to waste it! (really though I just want to do the job right)

Should I pink eraser the games too?

I usually buy the liquid one and just put it on a qtip, if you bought the aerosol version you can use an old liter bottle and spray it in there until all the liquid is out and then pour the liquid into some eye dropper type bottles, you can get those bottles on ebay for cheap as well.

I always pink eraser the games if I have them open before I apply the D5. If anyone ever comes across heavy corrosion they can try D100 which is basically 100% of the corrosion fighting stuff in Deoxit, D5 is obviously 5%.

Also, I've been having connectivity problems on my Genesis, but I own one of those official cleaning carts (that I haven't used yet). Should I just spray the Deoxit on the scratchy pads and go to town?

Absolutely, I wouldn't spray it but once you do the above liquid extraction then it makes it easier to dispense on the cleaner cart.

Edit: Unrelated, but can you explain what you mean by "handwash the boards"? I'm picturing Donnie Yen in rubber gloves, with a bunch of boards in a sink, and Dawn suds up to his elbows. Probably better to clarify before some noob gives that method a try.

By handwash I mean just that. Using warm water you spray off all the debris if any, I then use a toothbrush and liquid soap and scrub everything clean. It takes off years of gunk and helps expose any corrosion if any. Then rinse it with warm water and finish with some distilled water to leave no residue like calcium deposits. I use canned air to get the water out from under the chips and let it sit and drip dry for about 30min to an hour then I hang it in the sun for 2-3 hours to completely dry it out. I then confirm all the water is gone, clean the slots and edge with D5 then test the board with the Diagnostics bios to see if there is anything of concern. If a board completely checks out I then place it in a sealed bag and place it in storage for when I need it.

If you don't want to wash your boards, people should at least dust them. Use a chip brush from home depot or where ever, only about $0.50 get a 1" or 2" one. Works great especially in the sound section with all the caps.

 

[Billkwando]

Thats how I do mine. I prefer the "simple green" brand of products myself but dawn does wonders as long as you dont get the crap with lotion in it.

Wow.

The vast majority of every layman ever born would assume that would straight up break them shits.

I knew you could get a board wet with water, and that it would be fine as long as you let it dry before powering up, but I never dreamed you could (actually and intentionally) wash an MVS board in soap and water.

 

[Billkwando]

I usually buy the liquid one and just put it on a qtip, if you bought the aerosol version you can use an old liter bottle and spray it in there until all the liquid is out and then pour the liquid into some eye dropper type bottles, you can get those bottles on ebay for cheap as well.

I always pink eraser the games if I have them open before I apply the D5. If anyone ever comes across heavy corrosion they can try D100 which is basically 100% of the corrosion fighting stuff in Deoxit, D5 is obviously 5%.



Absolutely, I wouldn't spray it but once you do the above liquid extraction then it makes it easier to dispense on the cleaner cart.



By handwash I mean just that. Using warm water you spray off all the debris if any, I then use a toothbrush and liquid soap and scrub everything clean. It takes off years of gunk and helps expose any corrosion if any. Then rinse it with warm water and finish with some distilled water to leave no residue like calcium deposits. I use canned air to get the water out from under the chips and let it sit and drip dry for about 30min to an hour then I hang it in the sun for 2-3 hours to completely dry it out. I then confirm all the water is gone, clean the slots and edge with D5 then test the board with the Diagnostics bios to see if there is anything of concern. If a board completely checks out I then place it in a sealed bag and place it in storage for when I need it.

If you don't want to wash your boards, people should at least dust them. Use a chip brush from home depot or where ever, only about $0.50 get a 1" or 2" one. Works great especially in the sound section with all the caps.

What about for cleaning the cart slots on the Neo? Do you just dropper it on to the paper towel or what?

Figures it can't be something simple like "stick in straw, hose down", but that's the price we pay for doing the job right!


Edit: about dusting the board, would a foam chip brush do? I have those laying around the house.

 

[skinny503]

I actually learned this from a old timer that worked for sega's arcade division. I was looking for something that could be sprayed on a board to clean it and I was told dawn dish soap and hot water. Works great and can be a great stress reliever. I have heard horror stories about techs finding boards with nicotine stains, rat piss, soda, and even melted candy on boards. Good scrubbin and most arnt as bad as they look.

Wow.

The vast majority of every layman ever born would assume that would straight up break them shits.

I knew you could get a board wet with water, and that it would be fine as long as you let it dry before powering up, but I never dreamed you could (actually and intentionally) wash an MVS board in soap and water.

 

[RabbitTroop]

For DeOxit, I buy the oiler bottle with the needle tip. This goes a LONG way and one bottle will clean dozens of carts. I've cleaned probably fifty to sixty of my games, thoroughly with this stuff, so multiple applications until the cotton swab comes up clean, and I've only bought two bottles to date. So, yeah, pricey, but it does last a while.

My method for cart cleaning is:

1. Use alcohol on a cotton swab to remove any surface dirt. I don't like wasting DeOxit on just getting dirt off the pins, so I clean the cart thoroughly first.
2. Apply DeOxit D5 directly to the cart pins, working one side at a time, in a single thin line. I just grab the bottle and give it a good squeeze down one side of the cart contacts. The product comes out really slow, so this doesn't make a mess at all.
3. Use a cotton swab to buff and clean the cart pins.
4. Repeat while the cotton swab is still coming up dirty/dark or until I get nothing but pink on my cotton swab when I'm done.
5. Use a clean cotton swab and remove most of the residue, leaving a thin layer to help protect the contacts.
6. Repeat on the next side of the board/contacts.

This is a time consuming processes, but really worth it for those stubborn games. I've gotten into the habit now where I clean all of my MVS games before they get played. If the game has previously been cleaned this takes a couple seconds... Just wipe down, remove the fresh corrosion, and you're done. If it's a cart I haven't played in a decade, it is more of a pain, but I figure instead of tackling my whole collection at once, I just do it as I play them

I can't express enough how awesome this has made my Neo run. I no longer have to reseat carts half a dozen times just to get them to play correctly. Games work perfectly the first, or very rarely the second time they're seated and I know that these games are being cared for properly.

The other benefit is, with that tiny bit of residue the cart slots are also getting cleaned every time you play a game. A lot of the times, the corrosion you see on a previously cleaned game came from the cart slots themselves, so eventually the whole system and games is running better just for doing this!

 

[RabbitTroop]

Also, for my pricey games that I really want to go bonkers on to protect, like the NG-Dev team games, and SS5S and etc... You know, those games you never really admit to your friends how much you paid for them, I use DeOxit Gold. I just buy the small brush bottle of this stuff because it's SUPER expensive in the oiler bottle, and I use it so sparingly. This stuff goes on after D5 and is a protector/enhancer layer and it's probably completely excessive and not worth it, but I figure for those pricey games... Why not.

 

[Billkwando]

I can't express enough how awesome this has made my Neo run. I no longer have to reseat carts half a dozen times just to get them to play correctly. Games work perfectly the first, or very rarely the second time they're seated and I know that these games are being cared for properly.

I have a feeling this is going to make my MVS converter 1000% less of a pain in the ass to use.

Can anybody give me a detailed rundown of how you'd do a cart slot? I'm going to have to do my home cart system, my MVS converter, and my MV1 (MVS machine)....so many slots you wouldn't belieeeeeve!


(and my Saturn cart slot, and my Genesis cart slot, and my 32x cart slot, and my Nintendo cart slot, and my Atari cart slot, and my SNES cart slot, and my TG-16 card slot, and my...)

 

[Xian Xi]

What about for cleaning the cart slots on the Neo? Do you just dropper it on to the paper towel or what?

Figures it can't be something simple like "stick in straw, hose down", but that's the price we pay for doing the job right!


Edit: about dusting the board, would a foam chip brush do? I have those laying around the house.

For the cart slots I actually use a dismantled NES eliminator. It's just the right thickness to give enough pressure on the slot pins to clean them.

Use a regular chip brush, non-plastic bristles.

 

[Billkwando]

For the cart slots I actually use a dismantled NES eliminator. It's just the right thickness to give enough pressure on the slot pins to clean them.

Use a regular chip brush, non-plastic bristles.

So for the cleaning cart thing, do you just wrap a paper towel around that? (like the picture you poster earlier with the dirty paper towel). Considering the black gunk that's coming off my previously "cleaned" (with alcohol) carts, I would imagine one pass in one cart slot would be enough to ruin the cleaning pads on the cart thing.

I have one of those Performance Universal Cleaning Kits I can use:



or I can use the t-shirt + credit card method (which I also learned from you!)


Speaking of cleaning carts, what I've been doing is this:

1. I spray a small amount of Deoxit into an old pill bottle (that I close between dips...stinky stuff, no idea how fast it evaporates) and I tilt the bottle slightly so the liquid goes up the side....then I roll the tip of the swab in the little bit of liquid at the top, only absorbing enough to wet the cotton.

2. I rub one side of the swab up and down one side of the cart connector, rotate it one quarter turn (so it's on a clean part)and do the other side of the cart connector, then rotate another quarter turn and do one side the other cart connector, and then rotate one last time and to the other side of the 2nd connector.....then I flip the swab and dip the other end and do the whole process again, so each end of the swab is getting used 4 times.

I keep doing this until the swab comes away clean. I end up using about 6 (double-ended) swabs of cleaner per cart before all the blackness comes off.

Does this sound like an ok method or do you think I'm going overboard/using too much cleaner?


Edit: I've got another 10 or 12 MVS carts to go, plus about 35 home carts + MVS converter (not to mention all my other cart systems). Hopefully this can o' stuff holds out, lol.

Oh yeah! I've got a scratchy/dropouty volume slider on my MV1 board, but since all I can see is plastic, and it's that weird bridgey-looking kinda design, I'm not sure where to spray it, cos I can't see any of the contacts. Suggestions?

I assume the board should be OFF when I spray it?

Thanks a bunches!

 

[Xian Xi]

Don't use contact cleaner on a volume slider, you'll ruin it. You need fader lube. I think Caig (Brand that makes Deoxit) also carries a fader lube.

 

[Billkwando]

Don't use contact cleaner on a volume slider, you'll ruin it. You need fader lube. I think Caig (Brand that makes Deoxit) also carries a fader lube.

I have some of that radio shack tuner cleaner shit with the mineral oil in it. Should I try that or just leave it alone?

Any thoughts on the my other questions? Thanks!

 

[xsq]

Don't use contact cleaner on a volume slider, you'll ruin it. You need fader lube. I think Caig (Brand that makes Deoxit) also carries a fader lube.

SHIT! I wish someone told me that earlier... I've been trying to get stereo out of two 1slots I own and it just wouldn't work... guess the volume sliders were dirty when I got them and then I fucked them up with contact cleaner.... any way to revert this? Do I need to replace them? (Is there an exact replacement part available?)

 

[Xian Xi]

Any thoughts on the my other questions? Thanks!

For cleaning, I always start with the eraser method then finish it with the D5. Once you D5 it, upkeep it by applying D5 every time you play it.

A lot of times people send me carts to fix saying there is something wrong with the cart and 98% of the time it's either a dirty cart or slot and 95% of the time it's a dirty slot that is supposedly clean.


As for cleaning the system slots, if you do not trust yourself with a cloth and credit card you can also apply a liberal amount of D5 to the edge of a CLEAN cart and then insert and remove it from your system about 5 times then run a D5 soaked qtip on the cart edge again, repeat until the qtip comes out clean.

It's always best to have the power off when ever you do any kind of cleaning to the board.

 

[Billkwando]

For cleaning, I always start with the eraser method then finish it with the D5. Once you D5 it, upkeep it by applying D5 every time you play it.

A lot of times people send me carts to fix saying there is something wrong with the cart and 98% of the time it's either a dirty cart or slot and 95% of the time it's a dirty slot that is supposedly clean.


As for cleaning the system slots, if you do not trust yourself with a cloth and credit card you can also apply a liberal amount of D5 to the edge of a CLEAN cart and then insert and remove it from your system about 5 times then run a D5 soaked qtip on the cart edge again, repeat until the qtip comes out clean.

It's always best to have the power off when ever you do any kind of cleaning to the board.

Thanks a bunch for all the excellent advice! I'm comfortable with using a credit card and cloth, but my concern was that I was using a white cloth, and no black crap was coming out of my MVS converter's cart slot, when I know it's gotta be dirty as hell, just like the cart connectors on it were. I was thinking of trying it with a clean cart but wanted to see if you answered back with something even better.

I just wanted a way to gauge my progress and make sure I was really getting it clean, and the cart method seems like the perfect way, so thanks again!

Lastly, I heard (after buying it, of course) that there's more than one kind of D5 (something about quick drying?). The one I got, I think was D5S something. Was that the right kind? It doesn't seem particularly fast drying, but since it seems like it's supposed to leave a coating behind, I probably got the right stuff anyway.




(Oh, super off topic, is the D5 only bad for sliders, or can I not spray it in my guitar pots either? The can seems to indicate it's good on everything, including eggs.

 

[Xian Xi]

You might want to try using 2-3 credit cards if there isn't enough friction.

 

[Billkwando]

That is a fine idea. My only concern is accidentally overdoing it and putting too much pressure on the contacts.... Like, maybe my slot is actually pretty clean and that's why there's nothing coming off, then I go and screw it up using something the size of a pop tart. That's why I like your cart idea...at very least I know what I'm putting in there is the right size.

Still I'm tempted to give my cleaning kit a try, but I'm disheartened to learn that the slot cleaning part in my universal cleaning kit is just plastic covered in some pink rubbery looking film, so not even a pad to absorb anything.

I dunno if it's supposed to work from friction or stickyness or what.

 

[Tyranix95]

Hey Bill,

Remember: If it ain't broke, don't use Billkwando on it.

 

[Billkwando]

Hey Bill,

Remember: If it ain't broke, don't use Billkwando on it.

LMAO!!! Would you believe that in the 15 years I've been using that name, that was the FIRST time anybody's made a joke like that??

 

[Billkwando]

For you folks that wander in from Google or wherever and decide to try the cart-as-cleaner method, make sure you use one with all the pins!



I tried Fatal Fury Special first....that's the one missing all the pins. The one above is Fatal Fury, and it has all the pins, so it's perfect.


Also I realized, after expressing my concerns about sticking stuff that's too thick in the slot, that I'm an idiot: