Hardware Misc Original o3DS soft-bricked, would like to keep original firmware

[eggcorp]

I got this water damaged o3DS a while ago and yesterday I tried recovery mode on a whim after it was sitting for like 3 years and it turns out recovery mode is operable. I don't know what firmware is on this thing, and I'd like to keep it intact because if it's old enough it could be rather nostalgic.

Other details:

• It has no SD Card or stylus (so, literally like any other secondhand 3DS )
• Pressing power can bring up the "try sleep mode" screen. Pressing HOME causes the system to display the loading screen thingy and then freeze.
• Taking off the back cover and battery reveals that the board itself looks fine, no issues that I can see.
• The 3D screen works.
• The battery appears to work somewhat, allowing the system to enter recovery mode without a charger.
• The bottom screen does have bright and dark spots from the water.
• Model number CTR-S-USZ-C0.

 

[SylverReZ]

I got this water damaged o3DS a while ago and yesterday I tried recovery mode on a whim after it was sitting for like 3 years and it turns out recovery mode is operable. I don't know what firmware is on this thing, and I'd like to keep it intact because if it's old enough it could be rather nostalgic.

Other details:

• It has no SD Card or stylus (so, literally like any other secondhand 3DS )
• Pressing power can bring up the "try sleep mode" screen. Pressing HOME causes the system to display the loading screen thingy and then freeze.
• Taking off the back cover and battery reveals that the board itself looks fine, no issues that I can see.
• The 3D screen works.
• The battery appears to work somewhat, allowing the system to enter recovery mode without a charger.
• The bottom screen does have bright and dark spots from the water.
• Model number CTR-S-USZ-C0.

Open it up to check for any damaged components.

 

[eggcorp]

...I did, unless you want me to do a full teardown on it.

Popped it back open and even the water sticker seems mostly untouched:

It's not even all the way pink!

 

[Rasa39]

I mean, there's corrosion right there. Sure it's only on what looks to be an anchor point, but leave it long enough and it could eat through that test point too, I'd say take the board out and inspect it fully. It's likely there corrosion elsewhere depending on what was spilt and how the 3ds was positioned or stored.

I get the sarcasm but liquid damage indicators can sometimes be completely dry even if there is major liquid damage causing corrosion on the board elsewhere (especially if it was a fizzy drink or anything with sugar in it). They're just kinda there to help tell you, but whatever spills in the console can sometimes completely miss the indicators.

Not had a liquid damaged unit in a while but personally I always crack them open first to check because in some cases if it hasn't been turned on in a while, it might seem to work, but it can be very short lived and you risk further damage if there are bridged contacts or components.

Sometimes a good clean with some ipa can fix all your problems, so long as the liquid didn't cause internal shorts.
Just be careful of ribbon connectors (especially the screen ones) and use a decent screwdriver and these things are fairly easy to take apart, so long as you follow a guide and don't forget where the screws go.

 

[eggcorp]

I don't have a soldering iron I do see some other corrosion spots now that I look more closely (nothing extreme of course) but it seems pretty stable because last time I picked it up years ago everything was the same with the power menu. I'd need so much more equipment to go further though, cause even the SD card daughter board is soldered.

 

[Rasa39]

Iirc you shouldn't need an iron to get the board out. For the corrision, even on the joints, you'd just need a soft/medium toothbrush depending on how hard you scrub (not too hard or you can pop things off the board). Dip it in IPA/rubbing alcohol and go over the problem spots on the board until the corrosion is gone.

You can use the same technique to clean the ports too if you're gentle and the corrosion isn't too bad. I'd visually check the ports first though because don't go sticking things in them if you don't have to, if a port works it's probably not affected if you can't see any liquid damage either.

I don't remember needing a soldering iron last time I had an o3ds. You shouldn't need to separate the parts from their respective boards unless they are internally shorted or badly damaged. if you can't check for shorts then just clean up the damage and see if there is any difference in the consoles behaviour after the IPA dries.

That yellow square in the picture is part of the zif connector that the sd card uses to connect to the main board.
Have a look at this guide and judge for yourself on what you think you can follow. You'd only need to follow until the board is out. I'd also recommend checking the comments for extra/corrected info cos sometimes the guides can be a teeny bit iffy.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+3DS+Teardown/5029
(you won't need a head gun for what you're doing btw so don't worry)

 

[eggcorp]

Wow, appreciate the information. I'll definitely get to that Soon™, but I guess it seems to me that it isn't a hardware issue. Behaves a lot like a soft-brick, so I thought it was NAND corruption. But I'll definitely see if that works, too -- I'd just like an idea of what else it could be, and how I'd go about finding the software version if it is a NAND issue.

 

[Hayato213]

Make sure to get 99% isopropyl alcohol

 

[eggcorp]

I'm a little confused -- All the screws seem to be out, but the motherboard isn't budging at all. Is this where the iso alc comes in? And I suppose I better get some plastic tweezers of some kind soon if I wanna do this.

 

[Rasa39]

Did you remove all of the daughter boards (that you can) and also the thumbstick. That can be a tricky part as it passes through to the other side of the shell but that part does pop off, it might just need a tiny bit of force to separate, just be sure to pry up on the right board, the one shown in the photos of the guide.

After that, make sure that if it does lift, you do it slowly and be careful as the screen ribbon cables are connected from underneath the board, so they will still be attached and honestly are the most tedious and delicate part of this process imo.

For some reason the guide just skips over these cables, opting to link to the older dsi guide which shows how the cables are connected on that console, which is very similar to the o3ds, but don't know why they just gloss over it in the guide.

With the o3ds shoulder buttons facing up, these cables would be in the top right part of the console, so whatever you do, don't lift or pry the board out from the top near the cart slot or anything, and be absolutely sure you have every cable removed and clear of getting caught on the board (especially the clear looking one that they forgot to remove in the first photo on step 13, it's at the top centre of that image).

I think all of these ribbon cables have locking tabs so be sure to lift those before removing the cable as you can easily tear them if you pull them out by force, which is fairly easy to do btw it doesn't take much. Once you have everything loose it should lift from the bottom easily.

You can see the screen cables in the bottom right of the second photo on step 13. That is how they connect once the board is flipped up from the bottom.

 

[Kwyjor]

I don't know what firmware is on this thing, and I'd like to keep it intact because if it's old enough it could be rather nostalgic.

Not sure what you mean by this? Old firmware looks just like new firmware; I can't imagine what would be "rather nostalgic" about it. Many games require you to upgrade to some minimum firmware version before they'll even run. The only reason to keep old firmware is to install CFW, and even then it's not essential.

 

[eggcorp]

Did you remove all of the daughter boards (that you can) and also the thumbstick. That can be a tricky part as it passes through to the other side of the shell but that part does pop off, it might just need a tiny bit of force to separate, just be sure to pry up on the right board, the one shown in the photos of the guide.

So the SD card daughterboard did apparently have screws beneath it while also being soldered. After a bit of fiddling with the plastic piece beneath it you can start to slowly and carefully work it up to here:

Essentially the solder acts almost like a hinge. So now the board is pretty loose apart from this stupid little screw post here:

The red one between the power connector and game card slot, specifically. Also yes, I do see the brown smudge of gunk. It's some weird combination of having to move it directly up to clear this post, but being unable to because the top part of the board doesn't wanna go straight up, presumably because of either the post above the game card or some connector I can't see on the other side, which requires I move it towards myself instead. There is no angle or combination of those that gets this board out.

I really hope there's no screws under the game card slot, because that ain't going anywhere.

Post automatically merged: Sep 19, 2023

Not sure what you mean by this? Old firmware looks just like new firmware; I can't imagine what would be "rather nostalgic" about it. Many games require you to upgrade to some minimum firmware version before they'll even run. The only reason to keep old firmware is to install CFW, and even then it's not essential.

 

[eggcorp]

Grah... I'm this close to pulling out the Dremel and removing the screwpost above the game card slot. This thing has more than enough screws to go without... I know I shouldn't but MAN there are zero screws left and it's still doing this

 

[Rasa39]

With all the screws out, and all the little tiny cables and daughter boards removed it should just pop out.

You might have to carefully lift the whole board a little bit to wiggle it to the top of the posts before being able to pop it out from the bottom edge.

If it's really hard to separate for you then that suggests to me that there might be something gunking the whole thing up, so that liquid damage might be playing hell on the other side of the board, or at least messing up the tolerances between the posts and the pcb.

See in this video here how lifting from the bottom it just kinda pops out. With everything removed it should be just as easy for you, unless someone has been into it before and really fucked something up without mentioning it.

 

[eggcorp]

I was praying I wouldn't have to mess with that cable, cause I broke a joycon with a similar cable. But it is what it is. Nothing left to it but to do it. Unfortunately thought life has absolutely roundhouse kicked me into the stratosphere this week so I'm gonna have to wait a few days before I can crack into it again. HOPEFULLY tomorrow. No promises.

Post automatically merged: Sep 23, 2023

So I borrowed some tweezers and got to work. One of the screwposts was still a bit too tall to allow it to hinge outward as shown in that retrofuture video, so I had to do some "persuasion". It's a kind of ludicrous way to do it, but it works, and this thing has enough screws to live without it.

Anyway, looks to be a pretty good condition board:

The only thing that's giving me pause is this scary black spot:

(Near the bottom of the image, copper square shown to help locate it in the bigger photo)

There's also this gunk which will probably come off quite easy:

As long as that black spot isn't some kind of perforation and is just surface-level, we're good!