Hardware Windows 11 PC does not recognize Switch as USB device (but charging works fine)

[kraussian]

All of the pins look like they're in place, and what I can see all looks clean, but some of them look dark/not shiny and I can't really tell if those pins are clean or not. Might just be the lighting. Did you use the flash?
It honestly could just be a dirty port or oxidized pins. Dirt/dust can be carefully picked out with a toothpick. For cleaning the pins a toothbrush soaked in Isopropanol or other electronics cleaner can be used, or a toothpick wrapped in paper, just be careful not to push the pins out of alignment (Deoxit can be a very useful thing since it's made for cleaning oxidation and will be more effective than other cleaners), the toothbrush method is safer but a toothpick might be more effective.
But if they are corroded from a liquid spill (which I have had to fix on JoyCon rails before) that is not going to do much. Corrosion would show up as blue or greenish fuzz though and I'm not seeing any blue fuzz in your pictures. Though it's hard to tell anything on the pins that are dark. In my case with the JoyCon rails, I disassembled things enough to get easy access to the pins so I could use a fiberglass brush to scrape away the corrosion, you wouldn't be able to get a fiberglass brush deep enough into the USB-C port though.

Looking at the pics it seems at least 1 pin is dirty and 1 is out of place
Rcmloader may have different payload versions than atmosphere wants on your SD causing blackscreen on injection it really seems like your USB port is working though I'd suggest cleaning like the guy above mentioned. Power it down, hold it so excess liquid can't go up inside the case and use the 90% or higher isopropyl alcohol or deoxit on a GOOD quality toothbrush cheap ones can loose pieces of bristles and that's a nightmare in itself. Just dab the brush in the cleaner and then brush the port out. Let it dry don't blow moisture in your breath can corrode the pins over time. Then I'm gonna suggest you find a way to secure an official Nintendo USB cable if I missed you saying you had tried one already. After that try removing the driver and try this. You can probably just nab the tinfoil driver there and see if that one works for you.

Thank you for the really detailed and insightful comments!

Unfortunately I don't have any 90+% isopropyl alcohol (or deoxit) at home, but I do have some 70% isopropyl alcohol swabs from cleaning my phone so I wrapped that around a toothpick to carefully clean out the port.

I've tried to take some better photos of the port after cleaning with flash on, but it's hard to get the focus and angle right on such small objects haha

The port and the pins look clean enough to me, and I don't think I see any obviously bent ones.

I'm really close to giving up. I've ordered a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol so I can try brushing out the port like you suggested, but if even that doesn't work I think I'll just sell this away and buy another one.

 

[kraussian]

OK, the bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol finally arrived so I've cleaned out the port with a toothbrush, but it didn't help.

I think I can officially confirm that it's a problem with the USB-C port.

I've purchased a 3rd party "docking cable" and while my Switch screen turns off when I connect it, nothing comes out on the TV.
I've also went ahead and purchased a hard-modded OLED Switch, and the 3rd party docking cable works perfectly fine with it.

To check that I haven't inadvertently messed up the port during cleaning, I've put the old Switch back on the official dock and it shows up on the TV fine.

So I guess I'm done trying to troubleshoot the Gen1 Switch, and going to sell it away on eBay.

Thanks for all your tremendous help the past week!

 

[temptemp]

Stupid question, did you try on windows 10? May it be a driver problem? didn't windows 11 introduce some signature enforcement?

 

[kraussian]

Stupid question, did you try on windows 10? May it be a driver problem? didn't windows 11 introduce some signature enforcement?

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have any Windows 10 machines, and I don't really feel like reinstalling my PC just to test this out haha

But seeing how neither the RCM Loader nor the 3rd party dock works with the Gen1 Switch, I'm quite certain that there's something wrong with the USB-C port.

 

[Evildood]

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have any Windows 10 machines, and I don't really feel like reinstalling my PC just to test this out haha

But seeing how neither the RCM Loader nor the 3rd party dock works with the Gen1 Switch, I'm quite certain that there's something wrong with the USB-C port.

Mine works fine on windows 11 though I use the tinfoil version of the driver. If you tried the other driver and that didn't work and with everything else it does seem like it's been damaged. It could have been dropped etc and then sold since the previous owner couldn't connect it anymore but was seemingly fine otherwise. You can always see if there's a microelectronics repair near you and have the USB port checked. It's not unheard of for people to attempt repairs and knock other components loose causing issues like this either.
Also feel dumb for not asking earlier but are you running these programs as administrator?

 

[Dothackjhe]

By any chance, have you taken the step of installing the driver for the Switch first?

Without the driver installed, the Switch is basically alien to the PC.

If you have not, use this app and install "libusbK": https://zadig.akeo.ie/

 

[Srg07]

Hello all,

Just to add more info on this topic, I guess I have the same case with my old V1.

As a background, I have that CFW'd, with emunand and without AutoRCM, working flawlessly since 2019.

A bit after upgrading to 16.0.3 (but I guess that does not have anything to do with the issue) I discovered my switch is no longer detected when in RCM mode, by my laptop, phone nor RCMLoader.

I have two theories:
- I have used a bad quality cable to charge it while playing. At some point I noticed the console end of the cable was quite hot as well as the cable. Then I disconnected it, and the switch started to put itself in sleep mode, then started, then sleep mode... Like a bootloop. Before that, I noticed that cable made the switch to go "idle-charging-idle-charging..." as well... (IDK why I did not throw it at that point...)
I connected that cable to my phone and it kept charging-not, as well as the Switch.
I was in sysnand playing with no problem, and some days after this, I tried and go to emunand and my switch is never detected again.
I know there is no issue with the cable, the laptop, the drivers, etc, as I used the same setup since years ago and always worked.

- A weaker theory is using RCMLoader with low battery, and it turned off while injecting payload. I do not support this theory because it's just a guess. IDK if the device battery just depleted at that point.

I have tried everything, and can't post links but there is a post somewhere, in a forum called tronicsfixforum (I hope this is not considered as spam) they speak about damaged lines, or components in these lines, that lead to switch not being able to exchange data via USB. I have checked and confirmed my issue also prevents my console to exchange data: By booting into OFW and activating USB data transfer (that one intended to move screenshots or videos), my switch is not detected also...
[Edit: I find the same case exposed in that forum, just here in GBAtemp: As I can't post links, I'll say to search for the thread named Switch USB Data line D- reading as OL.]

I guess we've somehow provoked a short circuit and something fried. Then, after scraping the internet as much as I could, I did not find any solution to this. Some people replaced some Integrated Circuits, bridged the lines that could be damaged, etc, with no success. Unluckily I have nor the tools or the experience to do that kind of tests.

I hope we all find a solution together!
For me, I've bought an OLED and I'm planning on installing PicoFly to have sysnand and emunand at the same time, but for now I have several games bought, to be able to keep myself in the OFW side for a while.

Edit 2: There is another thread here where a member managed to repair his issue. It's exactly what happens to me, so I would give it a try when I have time to. The title of that thread is: Switch V1 no USB data activity issue (everything else works - dock, charge, etc) for you to look for it, as I can't post link as previously said.

 

[EmotionWind]

OK, the bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol finally arrived so I've cleaned out the port with a toothbrush, but it didn't help.

I think I can officially confirm that it's a problem with the USB-C port.

I've purchased a 3rd party "docking cable" and while my Switch screen turns off when I connect it, nothing comes out on the TV.
I've also went ahead and purchased a hard-modded OLED Switch, and the 3rd party docking cable works perfectly fine with it.

View attachment 379954

To check that I haven't inadvertently messed up the port during cleaning, I've put the old Switch back on the official dock and it shows up on the TV fine.

So I guess I'm done trying to troubleshoot the Gen1 Switch, and going to sell it away on eBay.

Thanks for all your tremendous help the past week!

Quite a few people have had the same error when not being able to inject the payload though can charge and transmit video signal normally