Removing and replacing the original cartridge connector in the Sega Mega Drive 2 console.
Damaged Cartridge Connector
Recently I was send a pair of Mega Drive 2 consoles with dodgy cartridge connectors. The story was that some previous owner had been rather fond of those cheep Chinese clone cartridges or multi-game carts (not EverDrive, don’t worry) As a result both machines had damaged or crushed pins in the cartridge connector slots.
Its not easy or practical to repair a cartridge connector slot, although sometimes it can be pit right if its only a minor problem. In this case we decided to just replace the whole connector.
Removal
Firstly I dismantled the console and removed the RF shield section. Annoyingly this Mega Drive had also been modified with a switch for region and video selection. the extra wires didn’t cause a problem, but the fact that the switch had been super-glued to the case did annoy me slightly.
After I freed the board I removed the 2 large screws holding the rear retainer plate. The cartridge connector is also attached to the board with 2 hollow rivets. I drilled the tops of these off.
Now it was just a case of desoldering the cartridge connector with my trusty desoldering vacuum gun. This tool makes nice clean removals and speeds up a job like this no end. I hate to think how long it would take to do this with a normal soldering iron and a normal solder sucker…
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With all the solder and rivets removed the cartridge connector simply lifted out. The solder points were cleaned up to remove what little solder escaped the desoldering gun.
Replacement
I found a few listing for replacement 64-pin connector edges on both Aliexpress and eBay. I went with these ones. They shipped from China and go to the UK in about 2 weeks.
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Installation was as simple as press it in place, making sure all the pins lined up, then solder. Easy.
Now I reassembled and tested the Mega Drive.
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I must point out that I have not tested these cartridge connectors in the long run. I don’t know how it will stand up to continues use. They do seem to hold the cartridge firmly and worked without any problems as far as I can see. I didn’t spot any oblivious scratching to the edge connector on my EverDrive MD after inserting and removing a number of times.
Everything seems to be fine with these replacement connectors so far.
Thanks for reading.
8bitplus – 2018
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