Not too long ago my snes started to show completely messed up graphics although everything apart from that was working flawlessly. I was just swapping out my NBA Jam TE cart so I could play some mariokart and I find a hideous title screen. Thinking it was just the cart connectors I took out the cart and cleaned the contacts. I put it in to find the same result. I try with just about every other game I have and all have this problem. It wouldn't freeze, sound was perfect and it took input from my controller just fine. Its just the graphics that are the problem....
I see flickering tilegarbage in almost every game which completely kills the gameplay. With some games it makes it entirely unplayable like tetris attack. No blocks are visible at all.
I've taken 2 pics (I suck with photography) of my TV with 2 of my favourite games. Mariokart and Street fighter 2.
I just dont know what I have done that would have caused this...I know several people with SNES's and none of their systems have picked up this problem. Has anyone from here had this problem and know what causes it?
Probably a bad cart connector. Hold the cartridge against the back side of the SNES and reset, then try the front and reset. If the game locks up when you wiggle the cart, then you have a bad cart connector.
Could be cartridge connector problems in the SNES, or a bad PPU as suggested before. It could also be a bad RAM chip in the system, I've seen arcade PCB's with odd graphics problems caused from bad video RAM.
I'd pay to have a system that displays a picture like that!
I remember getting video like that from NES rental units. Since their graphics rom was separate from the actual code rom, if the contacts were dirty in a particular spot or you stuck the game in crooked, you'd sometimes get a perfectly playable game with cool effects such as those.
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And given that it's a big world out there, yes your SNES is probably internally damaged.
On the off chance, do you have the Nintendo Cleaning Kit where you have that black cartridge you insert into the control deck itself to clean its contacts? It won't do a bit of good if all your cartridges are clean, but the SNES itself has a dirty connector.
Since I've never opened the unit up, does anyone know if there's a heatsink attached to any of the chips in the SNES? This happens quite often with other systems, where they get so old that the white gooey heatsink compound actually dries out starts acting as a thermal insulator.
All manner of glitches starts appearing, and they more often than not will actually go away when you reseat all of the chips and put on new thermal compound.
I regularly clean the contacts of my carts (cotton tip with a small amount of water and rub it on each metal contact) so they are reasonably clean. I took a look at my SNES connectors and all 62 pins look perfectly fine. There is nothing caught between them and no foreign objects ever went in there (I think). I did trywiggle a cart while the power was on and it did freeze after a shifted it around alot.
I have next to no knowledge of the inner workings of the SNES but I suppose it is the VRAM chip like someone suggested before. Mode7 scales, rotates just fine. Sprites move around like they should. Its just that the tiles being rendered are all wrong.
I can only hope I find a new deck in a pawn shop but last time I checked(about a couple months ago)they had none of them.
A bad connector will still look fine. The problem is that the pins are no longer tight enough to make a strong connection with both sides of the cartridge PCB. This can come from leaving a cartridge inserted too long, or just using your SNES too much. Metal will bend, so the contacts will inevitably lose their "springyness" eventually. This is the same problem that the NES suffers from, but the NES problem was compounded by the unusual design of the cartridge loading mechanism. Replacement cartridge connectors can be purchased on eBay. I already repaired a couple of model 2 SNES units (the smaller redesigned system). These seem to wear out more quickly than the old SNES!
The problem is usually accelerated if unlicensed devices are used with the SNES. Many of them have thicker PCB's which stretch the pins wider than a normal cartridge would. The Game Genie for the NES was the worst offender. Many found that they couldn't play their games without one after using it.
Ichinisan wrote:
The problem is usually accelerated if unlicensed devices are used with the SNES. Many of them have thicker PCB's which stretch the pins wider than a normal cartridge would. The Game Genie for the NES was the worst offender. Many found that they couldn't play their games without one after using it.
That's because the Genie had to engage the pins on the ZIF socket without the ZIF being closed.
My SNES has no problems from Genie usage.
I remember hearing that Saturn cart ports get FUBARed by unofficial products. Not just too thick, but rough edges too. Can rip pins out if your unlucky.
an easy way to clean the snes contacts is to rub a cart's pins with a q-tip dipped in alcohol, a little more alcohol than you normally would use. then shove the cart into the snes a few times, then using a dry q-tip rub the pins of the cart. I can see dirt and shit on the dry q-tip even after I cleaned the cart this way.
I have also tried a few times taking a piece of plain old paper, ripping it to the width of the pins and the length of say the cart, putting alcohol on the paper in the middle (not too much) then putting this paper around the cart so the soaked part is over the pins, then shoving it into the snes a few times. don't pinch the paper with your fingers tight, because due to the shape of the connector, it will conform the paper as you push in to wrap around the inside of the cart and the pins. when you pull it all out you have a nice trace of all the pins and a little dirt.
