Your N64 powers on but the screen stays black

94MER / Repair Guides / N64

N64 · Symptom guide

The power light is on, the console is warm, and the television shows nothing at all.

The N64 will not boot with an empty Memory Expansion slot. That slot has to be terminated by either a Jumper Pak or an Expansion Pak. People pull the Jumper Pak out, lose it, and end up with a console that looks dead.

Do these first. They cost nothing.

Check this before you buy anything

  1. Lift the lid on top of the console and look

    If the slot is empty, that is your fault and you have found it in five seconds.

  2. Reseat whatever is in there

    Pull the pak out and push it firmly back in. Oxidised contacts are common and reseating often clears them.

  3. Clean the pak contacts with isopropyl

    Same routine as a cartridge. Costs nothing.

  4. Rule out the cable

    Swap the AV lead before you buy anything. A dead cable also gives a black screen.

If every one of those comes back clean, now it is worth buying a part.

If that did not fix it, here is the part

N64 Jumper PakN64 Jumper Pak$13.99N64 Expansion Port CoverN64 Expansion Port Cover$4.99SNES / N64 / GameCube AV CableSNES / N64 / GameCube AV Cable$7.99

Before you order

Fits all NUS-001 consoles. If you want the extra RAM for the handful of games that need it, you want an Expansion Pak instead.

What this is not

A Jumper Pak is not an Expansion Pak. The Jumper terminates the bus so the console boots. It does not add the 4MB of RAM that Donkey Kong 64 and Majora's Mask require.

Related faults

The console powers on but the TV shows nothingAn import N64 cartridge will not drop into your console

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