3ds is not reading .firm files?

[Entity283]

so the 3ds was previously hacked, (this is my brother's console, and he was trying to get a larger sd card, he bought a new sd card but after he ran into some issues he went into the 3ds settings and 'wiped' the console but this did not get rid of the custom firmware. He asked me to hack it and after seeing that there was still CFW I tried skipping a few steps, and installing other apps, (FBI, Homebrew launcher, etc) I got multiple errors, finding this strange I tried reinstalling luma3ds and other such CFW firmware incase it was outdated or smthn, but after some messing around I realized that whenever a boot.firm file was on the sd card, it would just flash on and then off without trying to boot up. I don't really know what to do, if anyone has a solution to get the CFW working that would be great, It does not matter if it isn't possible to install or smthn like that as long as the CFW is working my brother will be happy since all he really wants to do is play games, and use homebrew applications and such, if needed I could provide more information but for now even just a hint would be useful because I have been searching the internet for answers or someone who has also had this problem and have not found anything so it would be greatly appreciated for someone more knowledgeful to comment on the subject, thanks!

 

[godreborn]

Might be on a9lh. Put luma iirc below 7.05 on the system

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Ah. Another one of those "let's delete everything". Is this some religious sacrifice when people delete their user data in order to "fix" things?

So. The 3DS turns on without SD. Please hold (Select) on power on and tell us the Luma3DS version that is on the top of the upper screen:
Luma3DS v???? configuration
====

Independent from everything else: Backup your data and please run h2testw or F3 on the freshly FAT32 formatted. We have to rule out possible SD issues.

 

[godreborn]

another possibility is the wrong b9s version. if it's outdated, I don't think the newest lumas will boot. needs to be 1.3 or 1.4 or use fastboot 1.2.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

another possibility is the wrong b9s version. if it's outdated, I don't think the newest lumas will boot. needs to be 1.3 or 1.4 or use fastboot 1.2.

This is why I want to know the Luma3DS version on CTRNAND. It will tell us what entrypoint is used (A9LH, B9S 1.0 or current B9S).

 

[Entity283]

the luma version is 10.2.1, and the problem is not the sd card, i have verified and tried another trustworthy sd card, but neither worked.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

the luma version is 10.2.1, and the problem is not the sd card, i have verified and tried another trustworthy sd card, but neither worked.

Okay. Not an early B9S version. Try providing another valid firm file (GodMode9.firm renamed to boot.firm) or SafeB9SInstaller.

If you have B9S 1.4, try getting additional information with the LED (see readme.md)
https://github.com/SciresM/boot9strap/

 

[Entity283]

I do not think that my brother's 3ds is on B9S 1.4 because it will not show any LED, and when any boot.firm file, even if it was something else, like SafeB9SInstaller.firm or GodMode9.firm when renamed to boot.firm it will not boot up and will momentarily turn blue on the power LED before shutting off.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Is GodMode9 available from CTRNAND? Hold (Start) on power on without SD.

Sounds like a problem with the SD reader to me.

 

[Entity283]

yes, godmode9 is available from CTRNAND so should I then look into buying tools to open up the 3ds and look for disconnection or maybe replacing the card reader?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

yes, godmode9 is available from CTRNAND so should I then look into buying tools to open up the 3ds and look for disconnection or maybe replacing the card reader?

Try if you can access the SD from GodMode9. Insert the SD when godmode is loaded.

If you can in fact still use the SD reader, consider trying Fastboot3DS. Of course any modification is potentially dangerous with questionable hardware. But this is the thing I would do. (And/or trying to ntrboot into an SD-based boot.firm file)

 

[Entity283]

Try if you can access the SD from GodMode9. Insert the SD when godmode is loaded.

If you can in fact still use the SD reader, consider trying Fastboot3DS. Of course any modification is potentially dangerous with questionable hardware. But this is the thing I would do. (And/or trying to ntrboot into an SD-based boot.firm file)

it is able to read the SD Card in GodeMode9, and I just barely googled Fastboot3DS but one issue I recently saw, is that whenever the SD Card is inserted into the device, all of the data in the folders other than the Nintendo 3ds folder, is deleted, this does not happen to the data on the root of the card, only inside of folders such as luma, cias, gm9, etc which is likely causing many issues.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

it is able to read the SD Card in GodeMode9, and I just barely googled Fastboot3DS but one issue I recently saw, is that whenever the SD Card is inserted into the device, all of the data in the folders other than the Nintendo 3ds folder, is deleted, this does not happen to the data on the root of the card, only inside of folders such as luma, cias, gm9, etc which is likely causing many issues.

I'll think about it tomorrow. Sounds strange.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

it is able to read the SD Card in GodeMode9, and I just barely googled Fastboot3DS but one issue I recently saw, is that whenever the SD Card is inserted into the device, all of the data in the folders other than the Nintendo 3ds folder, is deleted, this does not happen to the data on the root of the card, only inside of folders such as luma, cias, gm9, etc which is likely causing many issues.

Mhhm. If you are 100% sure that the SD and the SD reader/writer on the computer are okay, this behavior doesn't make any sense.

An SD that went to read-only mode can cause such issues… but if you tried and tested two different SDs, this is very unlikely. I would suspect the SD reader in the console to be defective.
@CoolMe Any ideas here? I'm really not able to think straight ahead… desperately trying to bring forward my own little project.

 

[CoolMe]

and the problem is not the sd card, i have verified and tried another trustworthy sd card, but neither worked.

Your issue does sound strange.. How did you check/verify the sd card?
What files/folders do you have on the sd card?
Do you encounter any kind of errors, freezes or crashes when using the 3ds without the sd card inserted? I would suggest playing a game with a cart for a while, testing system apps etc. If it's a faulty sd card reader it would interfere with the system' normal function, hell it wouldn't even allow the system to boot. So i'm not too confident to tell you that it's the culprit. Maybe something else..
Also, check if you have "disable Arm11 exception handlers" in the Luma3DS menu enabled. Uncheck it if it is.

 

[Entity283]

Your issue does sound strange.. How did you check/verify the sd card?
What files/folders do you have on the sd card?
Do you encounter any kind of errors, freezes or crashes when using the 3ds without the sd card inserted? I would suggest playing a game with a cart for a while, testing system apps etc. If it's a faulty sd card reader it would interfere with the system' normal function, hell it wouldn't even allow the system to boot. So i'm not too confident to tell you that it's the culprit. Maybe something else..
Also, check if you have "disable Arm11 exception handlers" in the Luma3DS menu enabled. Uncheck it if it is.

the current sd card in the 3ds has not been verified by h2testw however, the second spare sd card that I have has been tested and when using the verified sd card it will not either. Both have been formatted to fat32 and the second sd was the one used previously before my brother tried to switch to a larger one, and it worked fine. Something happened during the transfer and deletion of the sd card data that made it so neither currently works if there is a boot.firm file on the card, otherwise it will work just fine excluding any attempt to install some sort of homebrew in which case it crashes. One major problem is that other than the Nintendo 3ds file provided by the 3ds any other folders provided on the sd card will have any data within them deleted when inserted into the console, this does not affect files or folders on the root of the card. The 3ds will boot as long as there is no boot.firm file on the card, it will also boot if the card is not inserted with no problems, crashes, etc, as far as I am aware, last time I checked these were all the problems with the device, and "disable arm11 exception handlers" is disabled.

 

[CoolMe]

the current sd card in the 3ds has not been verified by h2testw however, the second spare sd card that I have has been tested and when using the verified sd card it will not either. Both have been formatted to fat32 and the second sd was the one used previously before my brother tried to switch to a larger one, and it worked fine. Something happened during the transfer and deletion of the sd card data that made it so neither currently works if there is a boot.firm file on the card, otherwise it will work just fine excluding any attempt to install some sort of homebrew in which case it crashes. One major problem is that other than the Nintendo 3ds file provided by the 3ds any other folders provided on the sd card will have any data within them deleted when inserted into the console, this does not affect files or folders on the root of the card. The 3ds will boot as long as there is no boot.firm file on the card, it will also boot if the card is not inserted with no problems, crashes, etc, as far as I am aware, last time I checked these were all the problems with the device, and "disable arm11 exception handlers" is disabled.

I would test the other sd card with h2testw, and it should be formatted as Fat32 32kb cluster size before and after the test.
If it passes the test, do not put the "Nintendo 3DS" or anything else other than boot.firm (Luma3DS) and GodMode9. Plug it back and see if it behaves the same.