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disabling the NES lockout chip so your games will actually work, a how to guide with sarcastic commentary
by Evil Overlord in video gaming, FAQs in the mid-afternoon on April 28th, 2006: 2 years, 4 months ago

Disclaimer
tylerwillis.com is not responsible for anything you might do to yourself, your NES, or any goats during the process of repairing your NES. Taking this action will void your warranty. If you’re a moron, you might electrocute yourself, the NES, or a goat. As with any electronic project, it’s best if you’re a nerd doing this on Friday night because you don’t have a date.

So you’ve tried cleaning the NES, and you’ve tried cleaning the carts, and your POC NES is still not working? Well, there’s one more step, but it’s a bit tougher than the first two.

Here’s the deal: we’re gonna try to disable the NES lockout chip. For some odd reason, the lockout chip can cause some sort of weird short in the contact between a cart and NES. Yeah, that’s a very technical explanation, but I didn’t want to go over anyone’s head. So if ya disable it, it just might get ya back to working.

As far as I (I being the whole sum of internet intelligence) know, this will not cause your NES to malfunction. I’ve done it multiple times, but since I’m a genius, your mileage may vary.

First, you’ll want to open up the NES (as explained in a previous FAQ).

Now that you have your NES right where you want it (nice and vulnerable), you want to continue unscrewing with it. Look at the green arrows to see where more screws might be. The goal will be to swing that circuit board out, and you shouldn’t have too difficult a time with it. There’s a metal piece on the righthand side that you’ll want to remove (after removing the screw) – worry not, for it is easy to get back together.
The above pic shows what the NES looks like now that you’ve carefully swung open the circuit board – you were careful, right? Ya didn’t use those manly biceps (built by many hours of Counter-Strike, I’m sure) to rend it asunder in some sort of feeble attempt to verify your manhood? Er… not that I’ve ever done such. Just lookin out for ya, that’s all. That’s why I’m the Evil Overlord.

Note the red box in the pic. That’s some sort of alien advancement known as a zoom box. You put your eyeballs in there. You can also put your weed in there, but that’s not gonna help the whole NES blinking issue. However, hiding your roommate’s weed in there does result in great fun. Withrawal symptoms are much fun to watch up close.

Now look very carefully at the pic. You don’t want to go cutting the wrong thing. Since you’ve already sacrificed the goat (you did do that step, right?), your options of “things to cut” should be narrowed somewhat.

Your chip may not look *exactly* like the one pictured, but it should be fairly close. The number may be slightly different, but it should say Nintendo on it. (For fun, feel free to scrape the Nintendo off and paint a Sony name on it. Send to your local Nintendo fanboy site. Swear by all the holy things you can think of that it’s real. Laugh. Find new fanboy site. Repeat.)

Look closely, you want to take a knife or a pair of needlenose pliers and cut the 4th pin from the left on the side that’s closest to the cartridge contacts. That’s right, you want to cut it. Make it so that the two parts of it don’t meet. Break it, even. Just be sure that that pin is the only thing you break.

Now you get to reassemble the thing and pray to the Nintendo gods. May their blessing be bountiful.

Conclusion
Now that all is said and done, you ought to have a working NES. Congratulations. Give me money. Of course, you can try some of the other links below, if you haven’t already. You’ll need a few more goats though.

 
Fixing Your NES
  1. repairing your NES's blinking issues, a how to guide with sarcastic commentary
  2. Cleaning of Your Nasty, Scurvy, Ill-Begotten NES Cartridges, a how to guide with sarcastic commentary
  3. disabling the NES lockout chip so your games will actually work, a how to guide with sarcastic commentary

13 Responses to 'disabling the NES lockout chip so your games will actually work, a how to guide with sarcastic commentary'

  • a gravatar 1
    On May 18th, 2006 at 12:55 am - 2 weeks, 5 days after eating a large pile of turbid eel - a craven pillager of ill-repute, having made irregular edicts before blowing up teh intraweb, flourishing the taboo Firefox 1.5.0.3 on Windows XP and who might sign their John Hancock as Brian, believed:

    Sweet, this mod worked perfectly fine for me, and now all my games work 100% perfect. Thanks Alot.

    [Quote]
  • a gravatar 2
    On December 7th, 2006 at 6:30 pm - 7 months, 1 week after the fact - a lying hero who spends too much time coming up with funny phrases for this list, having made 1 accidental prevarications precedently, holding the shocking Firefox 2.0 on Windows XP and who is commonly named by those who are fearful Kazuo, alleged:

    Wouldn’t disabling the lockout chip cause certain games to stop working?

    Just wondering, cause I recently got a new connector for the console, cleaned the shit out of my games, and they don’t want to work. It’s pissing me off.

    Thanks

    [Quote]
  • a gravatar 3
    On December 7th, 2006 at 6:53 pm - 7 months, 1 week too late to prevent ice-9 - a craven martial arts master who speaks entirely in mime, having made 141 insane manifestos earlier, flourishing the ratty Opera 9.00 on Windows XP and whose nickname is Evil Overlord, verbalized:
    tylerwillis

    Kazuo on December 7, 2006 at 6:30 pm said:

    Wouldn’t disabling the lockout chip cause certain games to stop working?

    Just wondering, cause I recently got a new connector for the console, cleaned the shit out of my games, and they don’t want to work. It’s pissing me off.

    Thanks

    I’ve never had any trouble, but, as with all mods, it’s your risk. I’d say that if you’ve cleaned your carts and replaced your 72-pin connector, then there’s not really much for ya to lose.

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  • a gravatar 4
    On December 25th, 2006 at 1:56 am - 8 months after the world ended - a poor charlatan with giant anime eyes, having made irregular manifestos earlier, managing the voracious Firefox 1.5.0.9 on Windows XP and named jeff gonth, voiced:

    i tried it too and now i’m stuck with a white screen. At least the light stopped blinking. Any idea on the subject?

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  • a gravatar 5
    On December 25th, 2006 at 12:23 pm - 8 months since using the bathroom - a sordid hooligan from the den of vice, having made 141 indiscriminate assertations before this, waving the psychotic Opera 9.00 on Windows XP and whose alias is Evil Overlord, reported:
    tylerwillis

    jeff gonth on December 25, 2006 at 1:56 am said:

    i tried it too and now i’m stuck with a white screen. At least the light stopped blinking. Any idea on the subject?

    Just a white screen? I’d guess that you needed some cleaning done - to the carts and/or to the connector itself. I’ve seen the white screen before, and it usually meant that I just needed to do some more straightforward cleaning. Every once in a while, it’s a sign that the 72 pin is dead beyond recovery, and you’ll need to get a new one.

    In either case, as far as I know this mod doesn’t hurt anything in such a manner as to cause the white screen. The white screen is likely a symptom of a different problem.

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  • a gravatar 6
    On February 20th, 2007 at 2:57 pm - 9 months, 3 weeks after the fact - a contemptible whiz kid who will end the current Age, having made 1 stupid proclamations before watching Roswell, playing with the dysfunctional Firefox 2.0.0.1 on Windows XP and whose name must not be spoken Arne, recited:

    I too had a problem with some games giving white/grey screen when trying to start; the solution (at least on my system) was simple - push the cart down like it’s “supposed” to (in addition to just pushing it in). Seems like that’s a contact issue, even though I recently replaced the 72-pinner *and* cleaned all my games. Anyways, I’m playing all my eBay treasures now, and it ROCKS! Thanks a bunch, Tyler! :)

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  • a gravatar 7
    On May 7th, 2007 at 3:14 am - 1 year after jettisoning mankind’s last hope - a scurvy gunman who is very sorry about all that, having made casual assertations before smacking down on Wrestlemania, running the horrible Safari 419.3 on MacOS X and who might sign their John Hancock as Dr. Zombie, divulged:

    Thanks so much for the excellent guide. About ten years ago my Dad brought me back a 76-in-1 cart from Hong Kong. Thanks to your detailed walk-through on disabling the Lockout chip, I’m finally enjoying my Dad’s present!

    [Quote]
  • a gravatar 8
    On October 31st, 2007 at 11:43 pm - 1 year, 6 months too late to be of any good - a scurvy daredevil who once accidentally mooned the Queen, having made 1 insane assertations before using the Force to eradicate a small village, exploiting the zippy Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP and whose cognomen is alisa, philosophized:

    your excellent humour and your great detail on how to fix the problem was excellent. thanks heaps!!! i was getting a tad frustrated that i had paid good money for some u.s games and didn’t realise there might be a problem with them not working in my aussie console. after cleaning both games and console i looked on the net to see if there was another alternative. i stumbled upon your site but i was a little scared it may not work and would completley ruin my nintendo, but thought ‘eh i can just get another from ebay’ i followed your instructions and ALL of my games work perfectley now!!! many thanks for your help, from myself and my daughter whom the u.s games were brought for!!!!!!

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  • a gravatar 9
    On December 8th, 2007 at 3:43 pm - 1 year, 7 months too late to participate in sordid activities of a questionable nature - a dastardly forager with huge tracts of land, having made 1 insane comments already, making use of the billowy Firefox 2.0.0.11 on Windows XP and who is the alleged ívar logi, claimed:

    Thanks so much it works all games yessss =) no proplem at all =)

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  • a gravatar 10
    On February 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pm - 1 year, 9 months too late to prevent ice-9 - a ribald voyager who is now lost in an alternate space-time continuum , having made 1 arbitrary speeches before using the Force to eradicate a small village, capitalizing on the wretched Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows ME and whose trade name is F1Tomato, gushed:

    thanks a lot. i cut the pin and my NES works like a dream. :)

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  • a gravatar 11
    On August 12th, 2008 at 9:46 pm - 2 years, 3 months after watching Dora the Explorer - a villainous hero who is trying to engulf the world in flames, having made 1 purposeless ramblings before beaming up, making use of the beautiful Firefox 3.0.1 on Windows XP and whose cognomen is Murray Ferguson, whispered:

    works good, i had done the trick to pry up all the “stuck” pins before and i was still getting the flashing lights, i did this lockout chip trick last night and everything works great. thanks

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  • a gravatar 12
    On August 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pm - 2 years, 3 months too late to prevent me from pushing the button - a vile highwayman who is seeking the Holy Grail, having made 1 feverish directives before declaring everyone else insane, running the spurious Firefox 2.0.0.16 on Mac OS X and who is the self-styled Brian, broke silence:

    Hey there, I did this and the pin cleaning a still not working. It started as a blinking light so I did the pin cleaning. Still blinking so I did the lockout mod. That stopped the blinking but now a blank screen. Tried a few different games that work on a different system. Anything else that can be done?

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  • a gravatar 13
    On August 14th, 2008 at 11:11 pm - 2 years, 3 months after declaring sushi to be the coolest thing ever - a reprehensible charlatan from the bowels of heck itself, having made 141 vituperative remarks beforehand, operating the imaginary Opera 9.51 on Windows XP and whose common moniker is Evil Overlord, disclosed:
    tylerwillis

    As far as I know, that’s it. There may be other tricks buried in the depths of the internet.

    [Quote]

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