Cart won't work and pcb becomes really hot

[fcgamer]

I recently purchased a copy of Sachen's Great Wall, and when it arrived, I was excited to play through it, as I enjoy Sachen's puzzle games and stuff like that.  The first time I put the game in the machine, it loaded up, but it quickly became glitch and it was apparent that something was wrong.

I tried cleaning the game a bit, testing the game in several Famicom clones, etc, but nothing could get this game to run properly.  One thing I did notice though, was that the game would load partially (display the Sachen screen) before crapping out, but only the first time I would try to get the game to run.  If I tried consecutive times in a row, the Sachen screen wouldn't even appear, but if I let it still for awhile and tried again later, it would appear.

Tonight I took the pcb out of the case and took a look at it, and stuck it in my Famiclone.  Same problems, but when I went to take the game pcb out of the machine,  it was very hot!  Normally I don't put bare boards into the machine, so I have no idea if this is normal or not, but perhaps this is the problem as to why the cart won't work properly.  Anyone have thoughts on this matter?  Maybe this cart is able to be repaired?

[aha2940]

Hi!

I have used bare boards several time on mi famicom (both, famicom cartridges and NES cartridges with adapter) and they never get too hot to touch. Not even warm. I've tried both, cartridges with real integrated chips and globtops. I think yours is having issues.

Regards.

[fcgamer]

BUMP another old thread. pcb itself can't get hot, but some IC's. Photo of pcb with spotted hot chip will help.

Yeah it was most likely one of the components on the pcb that had gotten so hot.

I no longer have the cart though, I eventually found a (non faulty) copy of the game, and I sent this one off to a buddy of mine in South America to fool around with.

[HVC-Man]

The cartridge becoming burning hot means a chip is shorting. This is permanent death to chips (unless the chip is designed to get hot).