DAE try cleaning a game cartridge with plain vodka and get a worse result than the $6 kit

Wade Wells · 2026-10-27T02:00:06.458233+00:00

My old N64 copy of Mario Kart kept freezing on the title screen, so I read somewhere that plain alcohol works fine. I grabbed the cheap vodka from the back of the cabinet, dabbed a q-tip in it, and swabbed the pins. Next thing I know the game won't boot at all, just a black screen. I panicked and hit up a repair guy near me in Tacoma, and he said the sugar and junk in cheap liquor leaves a film on the contacts. He cleaned it with a real 99% solution and it booted first try. So yeah, skip the bargain booze trick. What do you all use on dirty cartridge pins?

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DAE try cleaning a game cartridge with plain vodka and get a worse result than the $6 kit | Broken Gadgets Help - Rigidtalk