Nintendo NES won’t hook up to TV

[Blackmagic71]

I just picked up a refurbished Nintendo NES that only displays wavy gray lines on my TV when I hook it up. The TV is a flatscreen Panasonic from 2009(ish).

Things I’ve tried:
-Multiple different cartridges
-Double and triple checked the connections
-Different A/V cables
-Different power cable
-Different input (video 1 vs Video 2)
-RF cable instead of A/V cables

What am I doing wrong?

[AnarchicArctic]

I’m pretty sure you need an old tube tv to handle that ancient hardware

[Chuck E Ducky]

No only to use the duck hunt gun. NES works on modern TV it just looks like crap because the TV today are so big.

[AnarchicArctic]

Right on. I loved the gun games. You ever play Gotcha?

[Chuck E Ducky]

Yeah I have it but my CRT TV craped out on me so my I can’t play it. But mega man, Gun smoke, Top gun, Zelda was my jam. I mainly play my PieCade when I’m feeling nostalgic. Oh and road rash but I think that was SNES.

I still have an OG NES that I rebuilt but the games themselves are starting to go bad. You can rebuild them but it’s much easier just hooking up the piecade with its HDMI port. I have the running pad, the pistol / rifle and the joystick for Top gun.

[Shaftski]

Do you get audio?

[Blackmagic71]

Im pretty sure I’ve seen YouTube videos of a NES hooked up to a relatively current T.V.

No audio.

[JeepDVLZ45]

Last I knew, blowing in the cartridge fixes any NES ailment.

On a serious note. I have a buddy who has an original NES hooked up to his flatscreen (maybe 2 years old). I’ll see if he can let me know the trick. He said he doesn’t get audio though.

[nak81783]

I get out an original NES for my boys when it rains up north at my in-laws. We play on a very modern flatscreen.

I'm pretty sure a CRT TV is required for Duck Hunt (and other Zapper games), but the others should work.

The blow thing is 50/50. The real trick is to leave the cartridge ever so slightly out, so that it scrapes pretty hard on the front end of console cartridge pocket when you press it down. I will say, however, that I don't think I've seen those gray lines before. It's usually a quick power on/off with a black screen, blue screen, or title page of the game flashing as the power cycles on/off.

[Seajay]

I did a little research and the RF cables or A/V cables will work. You might need to go into the TV settings set it to analog.
There are some mods and stuff out there, I found this video interesting which talks about an NES on modern TV's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3QNALuSkLA

[Dragunov151]

Try a q tip and rubbing alcohol and clean the game.There’s a 72 pin connector in the nes and the pins get dirty over time.

[Alexndl]

Running retropie on a raspberry pi work great for game emulation
solve all the issue of screen and sound compatibility since the output is already HDMI
Allow you to play E.T. on Atari 2600 on a big flat screen TV
Pong is also available

[Chuck E Ducky]

The one and only fix.

on a serious note the games can lose memory over time from what I understand. They are way past there shelf life. But are rebuildable. I keep mine just to have on the shelf but invest in a piecade. You can build one for around $100.

I rebuilt a Mrs packman table top unit with one and it works and looks awesome for my dad for Father’s Day one year came out super cool. It’s a retro unit I put a raspberry pie in. Has like 2k+ games.

[Cunha]

I've seen almost zero broken NES carts but the consoles start to need capacitors. I fully recapped one like 10 years ago and when i wsa selling it on craigslist later some guy messaged me all pissed off saying I was full of shit and stuff. I was pretty upset I inhaled a lot of lead solder in a basement working on that thing.

[Seajay]

That smoke always goes right to your nostrils! I use a very low powered fan to give just enough airflow to push the smoke away from my face.

[Blackmagic71]

I can’t seem to find a setting for changing my TV to analog.

Might try to bring this NES to somebody else’s house and just try it on a different TV.

[Axel]

I had this exact problem last year and never did find a fix. I did find a Retron 3 console that my wife bought ten years ago, and that did work, mostly (some cartridges don't work or are glitchy, e.g. Donkey Kong Country froze up on me, but it let me scratch the itch with plenty of solid titles)