Hacking Luma3ds and the Black Screen of Death

aragorn23 · Mar 27, 2017

Hi everyone! I posted about a week ago trying to figure out what the problem was with my N3DS XL I bought broken via ebay. As I said previously, the micro sd card on it appears to have Luma3ds on it, but when I press the power button the blue light comes on and then shuts off right away (nothing on the speakers or on the screens).

After some suggestions, I double-checked all files on the sd card (they were fine). I checked all ribbon cables inside (they all look great). I even replaced the micro sd card reader (it was only $7 on ebay) to ensure that wasn't the problem. I still get nothing.

So here are two questions

1) Is it possible for Luma3ds to completely brick a 3ds? Does that happen?

2) Is there a way to roll-back? Is it possible to install some sort of software on the microsd card that will roll back with a 3ds reboot? I know this sounds silly, but I am grasping at straws here in the hopes something will work. Nothing to lose at this point since it's never worked.

Any suggestion would be helpful here!

GerbilSoft · Mar 27, 2017

Are you absolutely sure you have arm9loaderhax.bin on the SD card, and that it doesn't have a .bin.bin extension because Windows hides extensions by default?

dAVID_ · Mar 27, 2017

Hmm... do you have arm9loaderhax.bin at the root of your MicroSD?
Yes? If that's the case, restore a NAND backup via hardmod.
No NAND backup? Your 3ds is a paper weight.

aragorn23 · Mar 27, 2017

GerbilSoft said:
Are you absolutely sure you have arm9loaderhax.bin on the SD card, and that it doesn't have a .bin.bin extension because Windows hides extensions by default?

Here is what is on it.

GerbilSoft · Mar 27, 2017

Remove the ".bin" from arm9loaderhax.bin and try again. Note that "lumaupdater" isn't showing ".txt"; you have file extensions hidden.

aragorn23 · Mar 27, 2017

dAVID_ said:
Hmm... do you have arm9loaderhax.bin at the root of your MicroSD?
Yes? If that's the case, restore a NAND backup via hardmod.
No NAND backup? Your 3ds is a paper weight.

I bought this on ebay already broken. There was no NAND backup. Would a replacement motherboard fix this?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

GerbilSoft said:
Remove the ".bin" from arm9loaderhax.bin and try again. Note that "lumaupdater" isn't showing ".txt"; you have file extensions hidden.

Removing ".bin" from the arm9loaderhax.bin. Still nothing. I also have file extensions enabled now. Nothing appears to be named oddly.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I also assume a NAND backup file wouldn't be on this micro SD card, correct?

(Sigh).

In any case, is there some way to get a fresh copy of all these files and try them out on a different SD card to see if that helps?

Tenshi_Okami · Mar 28, 2017

aragorn23 said:
I bought this on ebay already broken. There was no NAND backup. Would a replacement motherboard fix this?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Removing ".bin" from the arm9loaderhax.bin. Still nothing. I also have file extensions enabled now. Nothing appears to be named oddly.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I also assume a NAND backup file wouldn't be on this micro SD card, correct?

(Sigh).

In any case, is there some way to get a fresh copy of all these files and try them out on a different SD card to see if that helps?

Try updating to the latest Luma3DS .Bin

And if that does not work, try a different SD card with only the updated arm9loaderhax.bin in it

Yepi69 · Mar 28, 2017

My guess is that the person you bought the console from updated his console without updating Luma first, thus the black screen.
Rename the arm9loaderhax.bin.bak to .bin and see if you can get it to boot, if not then you're gonna need to hardmod it and restore a NAND backup.
Check the files9 folder and see if you can find a NAND backup there.

aragorn23 · Mar 28, 2017

Tenshi_Okami said:
Try updating to the latest Luma3DS .Bin

And if that does not work, try a different SD card with only the updated arm9loaderhax.bin in it

How do I update to the latest luma3ds.bin? I downloaded the 7zip file and don't see such a file in the archive.

Tenshi_Okami · Mar 28, 2017

aragorn23 said:
How do I update to the latest luma3ds.bin? I downloaded the 7zip file and don't see such a file in the archive.

Should be called arm9loaderhax.bin

aragorn23 · Mar 28, 2017

Yepi69 said:
My guess is that the person you bought the console from updated his console without updating Luma first, thus the black screen.
Rename the arm9loaderhax.bin.bak to .bin and see if you can get it to boot, if not then you're gonna need to hardmod it and restore a NAND backup.
Check the files9 folder and see if you can find a NAND backup there.

Okay. Here is what is in the files9 folder. Which one is the backup, and is there a how-to walkthrough of how to restore it?

By the way, thanks everyone for your help. Even if I don't get this working, I appreciate you all taking time to offer assistance.

Yepi69 · Mar 28, 2017

aragorn23 said:
View attachment 82600

Okay. Here is what is in the files9 folder. Which one is the backup, and is there a how-to walkthrough of how to restore it?

By the way, thanks everyone for your help. Even if I don't get this working, I appreciate you all taking time to offer assistance.

NANDmin.bin
NANDmin.bin.sha

RHOPKINS13 · Mar 28, 2017

It might not be a bad idea to try copying the files to a different microSD card and trying that one instead, just in case.

aragorn23 · Mar 28, 2017

RHOPKINS13 said:
It might not be a bad idea to try copying the files to a different microSD card and trying that one instead, just in case.

Tried that. Didn't work, but thanks for the suggestion!

I suppose I need to hardmod my n3ds now to throw the old NAND back on the 3ds since nothing happens on the screen, eh?

Tenshi_Okami · Mar 28, 2017

aragorn23 said:
Tried that. Didn't work, but thanks for the suggestion!

I suppose I need to hardmod my n3ds now to throw the old NAND back on the 3ds since nothing happens on the screen, eh?

It still turns on and off?

aragorn23 · Mar 28, 2017

No boot. The blue light comes on briefly and then shuts off. Nothing happens on the screens or on the speakers. Would hardmodding even do anything if it doesn't turn on to begin with?

Tenshi_Okami · Mar 28, 2017

aragorn23 said:
No boot. The blue light comes on briefly and then shuts off. Nothing happens on the screens or on the speakers.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I ran out of ideas...

RHOPKINS13 · Mar 28, 2017

I had a similar problem with an O3DS, I'm just curious. Does the blue light stay on if you hold down "Home" while turning it on?

aragorn23 · Mar 28, 2017

RHOPKINS13 said:
I had a similar problem with an O3DS, I'm just curious. Does the blue light stay on if you hold down "Home" while turning it on?

Nope. Nothing changes no matter what I press. It's truely a puzzler.

pixelmasher · Mar 28, 2017

Looks like a fairly recently a9lh'd console by the files in the files9 folder.
Getting a fresh copy of latest nightly of Luma3DS didn't work?

Hacking Luma3ds and the Black Screen of Death

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Jill-sandwiched

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Jill-sandwiched

Geek

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Geek

Active Member

Gaming Gamer

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum