Hardware [FIY] If your New 3DS / XL <= 9.2.0 breaks, you are screwed

[d0k3]

I already have a thread about my personal New 3DS woes. In my case, the internal L button unit broke (definitely broken, blowing it, won't work), and I'm now sitting on a basically unusable (for playing, I also use it for development) unit. I don't want to rant, this is just to sum up the situation.

Now, assume you are one of the lucky ones who has a New 3DS or a New 3DS XL with a FW <= 9.2.0, what if anything breaks? Here are your options:

• Send it to Nintendo for a warranty repair (if you still got that): Forget it - you'll get a refurbished New 3DS / XL back, which is practically guaranteed to have a bad FW version.
• Send it to Nintendo for a non warranty repair: See above. Plus, Nintendos repair fees are pretty steep.
• Just get the spare parts from somewhere and do it yourself: Spare parts for New 3DS / XL are not yet available from anywhere. And no, not even China shops. You can't use O3DS spare parts, they are incompatible with the N3DS.
• Get a defective N3DS / XL unit and grab the parts from there: Good luck finding a defective unit. If you look around eBay, there are basically none. Most people still have warranty and just send it to Nintendo (see above) instead of selling. If a defective unit comes up somewhere, the price will be pretty high because of the rarity.
• Just get a new N3DS / XL unit <= 9.2.0: Again, good luck. Good FW New 3DS / XL units run for ~280$ here in germany, and I doubt it is better anywhere else. You could let Nintendo replace your defective one (see above) and sell the replacement, but that won't get you anywhere near $280.

The only cheap option you have is to get a replacement / new one with a bad FW. But, even with Ninjhax 2.0, that's not an option if you are a dev and / or want to do more with it than Sky3DS allows.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

There's another option, wait for replacement parts to turn up. It's bound to happen.
Also there's always the option of going back to an o3DS for hacking purposes, keeping the n3DS for legit content or selling it.

 

[thaikhoa]

If there is something strange in the ticket.db on Nand, Nintendo will reject the warranty and ship back to customer with unrepaired one.

 

[mgrev]

WAIT! I'VE GOT AN IDEA! What if you take out the MotherBoard out (Given that it's not broken. do nand backup before anything too) send it to nintendo for a paid repair, and when you get it back, simply replace the mobo

 

[_v3]

WAIT! I'VE GOT AN IDEA! What if you take out the MotherBoard out (Given that it's not broken. do nand backup before anything too) send it to nintendo for a paid repair, and when you get it back, simply replace the mobo

You do realise that if you screw with anything on the motherboard (or even dissasemble your device) you void the warranty that nintendo gives you?

 

[d0k3]

There's another option, wait for replacement parts to turn up. It's bound to happen.
Also there's always the option of going back to an o3DS for hacking purposes, keeping the n3DS for legit content or selling it.

Yeah, that's an idea, but if you don't already own a O3DS, it will get expensive again. And that, for a downgrade. Spare parts will get available at one point, but how long will it take?

If there is something strange in the ticket.db on Nand, Nintendo will reject the warranty and ship back to customer with unrepaired one.

Yeah, I might have installed some legit CIAs in the past, and they might show up in the ticket.db. Even uninstalling won't solve that, correct?

WAIT! I'VE GOT AN IDEA! What if you take out the MotherBoard out (Given that it's not broken. do nand backup before anything too) send it to nintendo for a paid repair, and when you get it back, simply replace the mobo

Yeah, then I could also just send the defective L button unit for replacement. But they don't do that. If you where to send them the whole motherboard - remember that the NAND memory (and the FW version) are also on the motherboard, so you'd again be gambling.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Yeah, that's an idea, but if you don't already own a O3DS, it will get expensive again. And that, for a downgrade. Spare parts will get available at one point, but how long will it take?


Yeah, I might have installed some legit CIAs in the past, and they might show up in the ticket.db. Even uninstalling won't solve that, correct?


Yeah, then I could also just send the defective L button unit for replacement. But they don't do that. If you where to send them the whole motherboard - remember that the NAND memory (and the FW version) are also on the motherboard, so you'd again be gambling.

I think he meant send in the 3DS without the mobo, which I don't think Nintendo will be too willing to "repair", and it would be costly to have the mobo replaced.

 

[thaikhoa]

Yeah, that's an idea, but if you don't already own a O3DS, it will get expensive again. And that, for a downgrade. Spare parts will get available at one point, but how long will it take?


Yeah, I might have installed some legit CIAs in the past, and they might show up in the ticket.db. Even uninstalling won't solve that, correct?


Yeah, then I could also just send the defective L button unit for replacement. But they don't do that. If you where to send them the whole motherboard - remember that the NAND memory (and the FW version) are also on the motherboard, so you'd again be gambling.

Correct. Uninstalling won't help to remove objects in ticket.db

 

[d0k3]

Correct. Uninstalling won't help to remove objects in ticket.db

On that subject, even if it goes a little of topic.... My ticket.db doesn't seem to contain the tickets for the legit CIAs that I installed (on the SD card). I'm not completely sure. If it it does, there should still be the possibility to dump the CTRNAND, alter the ticket.db (remove the suspicious tickets) and reinject. And yeah, that works on a N3DS via Decrypt9.

 

[thaikhoa]

On that subject, even if it goes a little of topic.... My ticket.db doesn't seem to contain the tickets for the legit CIAs that I installed (on the SD card). I'm not completely sure. If it it does, there should still be the possibility to dump the CTRNAND, alter the ticket.db (remove the suspicious tickets) and reinject. And yeah, that works on a N3DS via Decrypt9.

How could you remove piracy objects from ticket.db? I'm looking for a proper way to do that. I have decrypted ticket.db of Nand on hand.

 

[d0k3]

How could you remove objects from ticket.db? I'm looking for a proper way to do that. I have decrypted ticket.db of Nand on hand.

There's no software for that at the moment, but there's a description of the ticket.db file structure on 3Dbrew.org. It is somewhat dangerous, as things may go wrong. It should be tested by someone with a NAND mod first. But yes, I think it is completely possible. Only the tickets themselves are encrypted, not the number of tickets in the database and there is no hash for the ticket.db file itself (afaik).

 

[thaikhoa]

There's no software for that at the moment, but there's a description of the ticket.db file structure on 3Dbrew.org. It is somewhat dangerous, as things may go wrong. It should be tested by someone with a NAND mod first. But yes, I think it is completely possible. Only the tickets themselves are encrypted, not the number of tickets in the database and there is no hash for the ticket.db file itself (afaik).

I have a nand modified 3DS. I'd give it a try but there is no tutorial for that such of thing.

 

[d0k3]

I have a nand modified 3DS. I'd give it a try but there is no tutorial for that such of thing.

I'll look into that and get back to you about it, okay? I just need to study the ticket.db format some more first.
Also, you already know how to dump / inject the CTRNAND partition? If not I'll provide you with the instructions for that later, too.

 

[thaikhoa]

I'll look into that and get back to you about it, okay? I just need to study the ticket.db format some more first.
Also, you already know how to dump / inject the CTRNAND partition? If not I'll provide you with the instructions for that later, too.

Got it

 

[mgrev]

I think he meant send in the 3DS without the mobo, which I don't think Nintendo will be too willing to "repair", and it would be costly to have the mobo replaced.

yes that's what i meant

 

[d0k3]

Got it

Alright, two pieces of bad news (and not one good):

1. Tickets for legit CIAs are stored inside the ticket.db, I just tried. 13 'preinstalled' games. Suspicious as hell. Great. Not that letting Nintendo 'repair' it would have been a valid option, anyways.
2. We don't have enough information to completely understand the format of the ticket.db. We have a description of the basic database format, and we have a description of the ticket format, but that still leaves a lot unexplained. What we could do is overwrite the tickets themselves with zeroes (to delete them), but I'm pretty sure that will do nothing to make your ticket.db look less suspicious.

As for 2., the ticket.db contains a lot of stuff besides the tickets. While we actually have enough understanding of the ticket structure, we don't have enough understanding of the full ticket.db structure. So, back at square one? I'm pretty sure it's not impossible to modify your ticket.db. However, if your goal is to make it look less suspicious, no idea if that is possible at all, as custom modifications may be detected.

 

[thaikhoa]

Alright, two pieces of bad news (and not one good):

1. Tickets for legit CIAs are stored inside the ticket.db, I just tried. 13 'preinstalled' games. Suspicious as hell. Great. Not that letting Nintendo 'repair' it would have been a valid option, anyways.
2. We don't have enough information to completely understand the format of the ticket.db. We have a description of the basic database format, and we have a description of the ticket format, but that still leaves a lot unexplained. What we could do is overwrite the tickets themselves with zeroes (to delete them), but I'm pretty sure that will do nothing to make your ticket.db look less suspicious.

As for 2., the ticket.db contains a lot of stuff besides the tickets. While we actually have enough understanding of the ticket structure, we don't have enough understanding of the full ticket.db structure. So, back at square one? I'm pretty sure it's not impossible to modify your ticket.db. However, if your goal is to make it look less suspicious, no idea if that is possible at all, as custom modifications may be detected.

Thanks for researching. I just want to remove fake tickets which are GBA VCs and unwanted cia apps. Hope that in the future there will be a simple way to do that.

 

[d0k3]

Thanks for researching. I just want to remove fake tickets which are GBA VCs and unwanted cia apps. Hope that in the future there will be a simple way to do that.

We could try it, but it might mess up your 3DS (no problem as you have a backup and NAND mod). I checked and found three places were tickets would have to be removed (the tickets themselves and two database entries). No idea if that is everything plus it will most likely make your ticket.db look more suspicious than before. We could also overwrite these places with some duplicate system ticket data instead of zeroing it out.

 

[nccom]

In my case, the internal L button unit broke (definitely broken, blowing it, won#t work), and I'm now sitting on a basically unusable (for playing, I also use it for development) unit.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Left-Right-...02?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item463d94c402
I'm 99% sure that new 3ds uses same microswitches:
https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/jUueFIMQQa2P6sLL
so order this, find somebody who can solder stuff (very easy to do on these buttons) and replace your broken button. Or just wait, chinese manufacturers will start making these for new3ds soon.
Replacing motherboard or sending it to Nintendo for simple button repair is overkill.

 

[andre104623]

It can be easily fixed. Soldering on tact switch's are cake just look in the WTS forms someone can fix it hell I could fix it. It's just the L button?