I recently bought a used N64 along with some games and accessories on eBay. Unfortunately, some of the games don't start consistently. For example, I usually have to flick the power on and off several times to get Banjo-Kazooie to work but Super Mario 64 starts on the first try every time.

Also, the system sometimes resets randomly during game play. It's happened with a few different games so far, so I'm not sure if it's a problem with the games or with the console.

The only thing I can think of is to try to give the games a good cleaning. Anyone have any other ideas on what the problem could be? Do you think any of these problems could have been caused by the shipping process? The items could have been packed better IMO.

console and carts are pretty sturdy. the contacts will just need a clean. i was lucky to find one of these:

http://store.videogamecentral.com/n64syandgacl.html

to clean the console contacts with. if you cant find one of these, then just clean the cart contacts as best you can with q tips and either alcohol or windex. opinion seems to be a little divided on which is best.

once the cart is cleaned, you should find that inserting it and pulling it out a few times will help everything contact. if it doesnt work with the first cart, try the next, until youve tried them all. some carts tend to be more worn than others and so the contacts dont connect as easily. right now for instance, i have goldeneye007 playing in the background as i type! this cart always seems to work. i put it in when i couldnt make my wipeout64 cart work.

generally, switching the machine on and off isnt really doing anything to help remedy the situation.

as a last resort, you can breathe heavily (not blow, the idea is to get some humidity in there) into the cart contacts. this makes things a little humid, and helps make contact. This is a last resort to see if any of the carts work at all though. you can imagine that doing that all the time, is actually going to help corrode the contacts even further, making it even harder to get going in the future...

edit: oh, and dont forget to give the same treatment to the expansion pack...