N64 Glitching Out

On 04/04/2013 at 12:06 AM by Super Step

What Happened: After playing DK64 a decent amount of time, screen froze, and there was a noise like someone stomping on crunchy grass.

After playing 1080 for a few minutes, in Training and Contest mode, my character disappeared, and there was white noise and a very thin red line like the color of the flag markers flickering across the screen; I still had control of my character, they were just invisible, and the course was clearly seen, but distorted.

My Own Troubleshooting Thoughts:

- There was something northeast of us the pizza guy heard when he came to our house that correlated with our lights flickering, and the TV going out, with white fuzzies and such; only thing is, I'm watching the same TV that happened to now, typing on the computer that restarted after whatever that noise was, and have no issues with either. Plus, the N64 wasn't even plugged in at all when that happened, so don't think that's it.

- I was fiddling around with the A/V cables quite a bit trying to get DK64 going though (can never remember the color order, and have to turn the DVD on to get sound with a partial image, then off to get the full image and sound) and may have ended up using the Gamecube's A/V cables somehow ... but they look like the exact same thing, soo....

- Then again, I did turn the system on and off with various stages of A/V cable insertion...

- Also, I had to turn it off and back on so that my DK64 save files would show up, so there's that

I mean I pretty much did all that A/V cable crap the last time I hooked the thing up, so I'm confused.

Anyone have any suggestions? I turned it off and unplugged it for now, going to see if I have more luck tomorrow.

Jason Ross Senior Editor

04/04/2013 at 12:40 AM

I would guess that the issue is actually one involving the pins in the N64 that connect to the cartridge. Some of those things resemble things that happen when cartridges aren't inserted correctly, and such, I believe.

Super Step Contributing Writer

04/04/2013 at 12:50 AM

Hadn't thought of that, thanks! I'll troubleshoot with that in mind tomorrow.

Coolsetzer

04/04/2013 at 01:22 AM

Could be that it's dirty, especially if it's been in storage for a long time. Contact Nintendo, see if they will clean it up for a modest fee. The # is 800-255-3700.

04/04/2013 at 02:14 PM

Thanks! Might call later today, after I fire off my resume a few times!

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/04/2013 at 03:25 AM

"noise like stomping on crunchy grass".... an N64 isn't supposed to do that. Hopefully something didn't get fried inside.

My N64 sits in a plastic box these days. We had some good times though.

04/04/2013 at 02:15 PM

I probably should have put it in a plastic case... the room it was in wasn't exactly well-kempt...

goaztecs

04/04/2013 at 12:00 PM

The sound is not a good thing. Jason has a good idea in checking the pins. Hopefully its just that and nothing with the guts of the system

I hope so, too.

teemuroo77

04/04/2013 at 06:52 PM

Classis Nintendo Fix.........Blow into the cartridge!!!!!!Try this first, always worked on the NES ans SNES

04/04/2013 at 07:44 PM

That was the first thing I tried. We had an NES and SNES growing up, I know the drill. I wouldn't post a blog about it if I hadn't already done that. lol

PixlBit