Screw these games

now im starting to get pissed. what is wrong with nes/snes carts?

i opened two cartridges with the security bit screwdriver, but now i cant screw them back, the "screw holes" seem to be loosened and it doesn't hold the screw. it happened 2 times, now my track&field and super metroid are screwed! well they are unscrewed, that's the problem! they now have their shit kept together with tape -_-

is this common? was it my fault?

Comments

  • You may not be lining up the 2 just right. It should form fit together just as they need to be before you put the screws back in.
  • im sure the 2 clams are well aligned, infact one of them even seems to close but the screw keeps spinning, i mean it doesnt stop in place as it should, and i can snap the cart open with bare hands.
  • What happens if you try to put the screw in without the back of the cart does it tighten up then
  • yep. with the back on the screw just cant reach the bottom.
  • Hairline cracks in old plastic can happen naturally, or from over-tightening a screw. Sounds stripped.
  • Sounds like loose holes. Not a good problem to have.



    Have you screwed them too hard before? Were you the last to screw them?



    I believe someone had an interesting fix for this on another thread. I cannot seem to find it though.
  • this is the first time i open carts, i ve recently bought the 2 security bits. i honestly cant remember if i screwed the holes too hard (lol). this makes me afraid of opening any cart from now on. if i ever do again ill try to be as gentle as i can.

    if you could find that fix it would be great, thank you for your time.
  • Originally posted by: PDork87



    Sounds like loose holes. Not a good problem to have.



    Have you screwed them too hard before? Were you the last to screw them?



    I believe someone had an interesting fix for this on another thread. I cannot seem to find it though.

    If you stripped the hole, you can put a super small bit of putty into the hole (like a booger sized bit) and then screw the screw back in.   Won't hold up to repeated unscrewings, but at least the screw won't fall out. 



    Next time, be gentle and actually turn the screw backwards lightly so it settles in the hole properly before screwing back in.  



    From your description, it almost sounds like you busted the plastic on the front of the shell rather than stripping anything though.



     
  • Just realised the play on words in the title. Well done




  • here's a pic. the right and center stay up, the left one falls through. could it be my fault? i wont rule out this possibility, i mean you could never know.. ill try to put...something in the hole to try and tighten it up.

    has anybody ever experienced this by the way?
  • Take a piece of paper, rip a small piece and roll the paper up it should be long enough but not too fat to plug the full hole, just experiment with different sizes (start small).



    Same thing cptmorgan suggested just with paper, been doing this with screws on things like door knobs that dont tighten fully for a while and it works really good. Hell go around your kitchen afterwards and do it to all the loose screws on all your drawers and cupboards if you have time.
  • It looks like there is thread locker on one of the screws there, so I would imagine there was some repair work done to the carts. If you don't have any thread locker, you may have to replace the shells.
  • Screws in plastic do not tolerate being tightened repeatedly unless you are carful to not cross-thread them. Because they are self-tapping, the originals threads are no machined. You need to drop them in and lightly back out until you feel them rise and stop the moment they fall back down. Then turn the other direction to tighten them. Stop slightly before they get as tight as they were before because stressing the plastic back and forth loosens it and making it equally tight means making it too tight.



    If there is thread locker on there then I have to wonder if some rental companies did this.
  • as suggested, ive put a piece of thin cardboard in the hole, now the cart doesnt pop open anymore thanks for the tip!

    and yes, 3 out 3 defective holes had a screw with a thread locker, the other 2 didnt have it and are fine, what does that mean? they have been opened(and possibly damaged) in the past?

     
    Originally posted by: BertBerryCrunch



    Just realised the play on words in the title. Well done

    i couldnt pass up the opportunity lol



     
  • i usually put a bit of super glue in the holes that dont hold wait for it to dry and screw it in
  • Originally posted by: magma



    as suggested, ive put a piece of thin cardboard in the hole, now the cart doesnt pop open anymore thanks for the tip!

    and yes, 3 out 3 defective holes had a screw with a thread locker, the other 2 didnt have it and are fine, what does that mean? they have been opened(and possibly damaged) in the past?

     
    Originally posted by: BertBerryCrunch



    Just realised the play on words in the title. Well done

    i couldnt pass up the opportunity lol



     

    I've never seen it used on games but I've seen plenty of tamper seals and perhaps someone used it like a tamper seal.



    Typically, permanent thread locker (the red stuff) requires heat to loosen, at least for machined threads. It's also typically done just to keep things from loosening with vibration (engines) or heat cycling (brakes). Plastic, on the other hand, will probably just sheer the threads off with it. Obviously, heat isn't good for plastic either. I've seen plenty of laptops and stuff use black or blue thread locker but they always screw into metallic threaded inserts and not directly into plastic.
  • Speaking of tamper seals, this was a recent purchase of mine:

    http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/281913251446



    The rental company wasn't content with just tamper seals. To prevent label swaps they cut diamond patterns in the label to simulate the functionality of the cuts you find on most price tags (makes them hard to peel off in one piece) *and* glued their tamper seal to it. I'm using every trick in the book to clean this up and I'm making progress, but DAMN.
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