My Vectrex won't load cartridges

[Alex Perez]

Hi there.

Two days ago, a dear friend of mine gave me her brother's old Vectrex.
Needless to say, I was happy to take it off her hands, but I've
discovered that it does not want to read any of the four cartridges that
came along with it. The internal asteroids clone plays fine, so a
repair seems to be in order. Can anyone here tell me what the most
common failure is that would cause this problem, where I might order
replacement parts within the USA, and what I should expect to pay for them?

I'm totally new to Vectrex, but have experience with a soldering iron
and am not afraid to use it.

Thanks in advance for all replies.

Regards,
Alex

[Richard Hutchinson]

The first thing to try, is to clean the contacts on the cart socket (on
Vec).

The easiest way is to take out the PCB from one of the carts and clean the
contact edges with a pencil eraser (so you're not depositing any more dirt).

Then, plug the cart in and out about 20 times to try to dislodge whatever is
causing the bad connection.





Richard H.

[maccallan]

if richards method doesn't work (i.e. if contacts are VERY oxidated - i
had one of these when buying a "defective" vectrex) get alcohol or
isopropanol wrap a sheet of paper around the cardridges cointacts and
soak it with the alcohol. plug in/out 2-5 times and contacts will be
like new.

[RED MARTIAN]

I'm opposed to using alcohol (though it will probably work) because it has
a tendency to dry things out. I use a pencil eraser (rubber) and have
done so for about 20 years and that seems to work well for me.

[kokovec]

Isopropanol should be fine.
We have used it to clean very expensive professional video tape heads for
years.
Personally I use Isopropanol and a lint-free cloth.
Make sure to give some time for the alcohol to evaporate before using the
cart.

Post by RED MARTIAN
I'm opposed to using alcohol (though it will probably work) because it has
a tendency to dry things out. I use a pencil eraser (rubber) and have
done so for about 20 years and that seems to work well for me.

[Robert Bernardo]

Post by kokovec
Personally I use Isopropanol and a lint-free cloth.

I use denatured alcohol, which has no water in it.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[r***@gmail.com]

Remember that the isopropyl alcohol for cleaning tape heads doesn't
have any other compounds in it that can gum up other things -- as
compared to the rubbing alcohol you can buy off the shelf which
contains traces of other solvents and compounds used to denature it so
you can't drink it (not that you'd want to be drinking iso anyway)

[StarHawk79]

Post by Alex Perez
Hi there.
Two days ago, a dear friend of mine gave me her brother's old Vectrex.
Needless to say, I was happy to take it off her hands, but I've
discovered that it does not want to read any of the four cartridges that
came along with it. The internal asteroids clone plays fine, so a
repair seems to be in order. Can anyone here tell me what the most
common failure is that would cause this problem, where I might order
replacement parts within the USA, and what I should expect to pay for them?
I'm totally new to Vectrex, but have experience with a soldering iron
and am not afraid to use it.
Thanks in advance for all replies.
Regards,
Alex

Hey guys

I had the same problem with my Vectrex. When I took it out of storage to
play with it for the first time in two years, the game would play for a
while and then in a middle of a game the Vec would black out. The way I
solved my problem was by putting the cart in and out of the slot about 3
times. After doing that, the game would play fine.

Pat

[Matt J. McCullar]

I recently pulled my Atari 2600 out of storage and I had to clean the edge
connector contacts of about half of my old game cartridges because they'd
oxidized. If they wouldn't load, pulling them out and re-inserting them
about a dozen times sometimes worked, but I decided to take the carts apart
and clean off the contacts with a pencil eraser. That fixed it.

I've never done this with Vectrex carts, so be sure to keep track of how the
circuit board inside is positioned. You don't want to flip it upside-down
and therefore accidentally plug it in backwards.