Hacking Luma3ds and the Black Screen of Death

aragorn23

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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

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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_

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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

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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?
Click to expand...

Here is what is on it.
sd card contents.png
 
GerbilSoft

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Remove the ".bin" from arm9loaderhax.bin and try again. Note that "lumaupdater" isn't showing ".txt"; you have file extensions hidden.
 
aragorn23

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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.
Click to expand...

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.
Click to expand...

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

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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?
Click to expand...
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

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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

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2017-03-27.png
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
aragorn23

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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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
aragorn23

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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?
 

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