Hardware Bricked Switch (Not a Noob Thread I Promise!)

[The_Chaotician]

Hi All,

Before I begin, I just want to say this isn't another "I-uPdAtEd-mY-SwItCh-aNd-NoW-iT-DoEsNt-WeRk...WhAt-Do?" thread. I own 3 V1 Switches all running Atmosphere, and until today none have had any issues whatsoever. I know what sigpatches are, and the difference between EmuNAND and SysNAND etc. Hopefully this makes me sound like less of a noob!

One of my V1 switches is used by my son, who DID accidentally update it to FW17 and stopped working how he wanted it to (to be expected). This was before Atmosphere was updated 1.6.2, and sigpatches weren't available at the time. I managed to successfully downgrade the Firmware to 16.1.0 with Daybreak, and everything started to work again. Problem solved, or so I thought...

I updated everything again, properly, when I knew it was safe to do so. This includes Atmosphere 1.6.2 and Hekate 6.0.7. According to my son, he was "playing a game and all of a sudden the screen went black". Weird, I thought, I'll just boot back into Atmosphere and that should solve the problem. Except it didnt. The console is now completely unresponsive, and wont even boot into OFW from cold boot. Auto RCM is disabled, and even my PC cant detect it.

My only thought is that some time ago, Hekate informed me that the eMMC module was running slowly and was unable to boot. This warning went away and hasn't appeared in months. I have a spare eMMC module for the Switch as well as backups of my sons eMMC BOOT0 & BOOT1 and eMMC RAW GPP in case this caused a problem again after the warning went away.

I'm now out of ideas short of opening it up. This is where my expertise sadly ends. Anything in particular to look for inside? Are we now screwed? or is only option is to get a new console?

 

[zamastyle]

I would replace the emmc board and see if that gets you back to booting into hekate. If so then restore the nand backup you made. While you are in there, take a look at the battery and see if it looks like it is on its way out.

 

[Chaoticus]

Do you get a response when you plug it into a power cord??

 

[The_Chaotician]

I would replace the emmc board and see if that gets you back to booting into hekate. If so then restore the nand backup you made. While you are in there, take a look at the battery and see if it looks like it is on its way out.

Thanks, that was my first port of call anyway so I’ll take a look!

Post automatically merged: Nov 6, 2023

Do you get a response when you plug it into a power cord??

Nope. No icon in the top left corner or anything. Fully charged and left to run out to 0% too.

 

[tomberyx]

I have no clue what is going on but i have to say i got at black screen and nothing worked so i tried to hold the Power Button and Voume+ for 30.sec and my switch turn on again. Try this out..

 

[The_Chaotician]

I have no clue what is going on but i have to say i got at black screen and nothing worked so i tried to hold the Power Button and Voume+ for 30.sec and my switch turn on again. Try this out..

Thanks for the suggestion, no dice sadly

 

[linuxares]

Do you have the possibility to open it?
If so, please do it and remove the battery, then try to boot it.

If still black screen, remove the power cable again and hold down vol + and vol -, and power. See if it enters Recovery mode.

 

[Chaoticus]

Another last resort I would try is downloading Rekado for either tablet or phone and see if you can enter RCM mode (I know friggin impossible to tell at this point) and try hooking it up and getting it to wake up that way. Every so often mine has this weird thing it does where I have to boot it this way. I can try to turn it on all day and it won't budge untill I plug in. Also try wiping out your atmosphere folder and start fresh. Just make sure to back up your folder for certain configs you use.

 

[redmagejosh]

Hi All,

Before I begin, I just want to say this isn't another "I-uPdAtEd-mY-SwItCh-aNd-NoW-iT-DoEsNt-WeRk...WhAt-Do?" thread. I own 3 V1 Switches all running Atmosphere, and until today none have had any issues whatsoever. I know what sigpatches are, and the difference between EmuNAND and SysNAND etc. Hopefully this makes me sound like less of a noob!

One of my V1 switches is used by my son, who DID accidentally update it to FW17 and stopped working how he wanted it to (to be expected). This was before Atmosphere was updated 1.6.2, and sigpatches weren't available at the time. I managed to successfully downgrade the Firmware to 16.1.0 with Daybreak, and everything started to work again. Problem solved, or so I thought...

I updated everything again, properly, when I knew it was safe to do so. This includes Atmosphere 1.6.2 and Hekate 6.0.7. According to my son, he was "playing a game and all of a sudden the screen went black". Weird, I thought, I'll just boot back into Atmosphere and that should solve the problem. Except it didnt. The console is now completely unresponsive, and wont even boot into OFW from cold boot. Auto RCM is disabled, and even my PC cant detect it.

My only thought is that some time ago, Hekate informed me that the eMMC module was running slowly and was unable to boot. This warning went away and hasn't appeared in months. I have a spare eMMC module for the Switch as well as backups of my sons eMMC BOOT0 & BOOT1 and eMMC RAW GPP in case this caused a problem again after the warning went away.

I'm now out of ideas short of opening it up. This is where my expertise sadly ends. Anything in particular to look for inside? Are we now screwed? or is only option is to get a new console?

In my experience dealing with this console and having repaired and hacked my fair share, I firmly believe your eMMC went kaput. If you have a spare module, switch it, restore backups and move on. Everytime I've gotten that eMMC module was running in slow mode message it has resulted in this.

 

[The_Chaotician]

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll give them a try and see what I find!

 

[naddel81]

what did you achieve?

 

[The_Chaotician]

what did you achieve?

Finally managed to get it apart this evening, and tried @linuxares suggestion of detaching the battery and attempting to enter recovery mode. No joy.

Just replaced the eMMC module, still nothing but black screen. Just charging the battery a little in case it’s completely dead.

I’m not hopeful

 

[redmagejosh]

Finally managed to get it apart this evening, and tried @linuxares suggestion of detaching the battery and attempting to enter recovery mode. No joy.

Just replaced the eMMC module, still nothing but black screen. Just charging the battery a little in case it’s completely dead.

I’m not hopeful

are you unable to boot Hekate? if you can boot Hekate did you try restoring backups to the new emmc?

 

[The_Chaotician]

are you unable to boot Hekate? if you can boot Hekate did you try restoring backups to the new emmc?

No, unfortunately not. Still have a black screen after replacing the emmc module. Checked my external backups and I have everything I need though.

 

[Chaoticus]

Do you get any response of the screens backlight turning on or just straightout black screen??

 

[The_Chaotician]

Do you get any response of the screens backlight turning on or just straightout black screen??

Literally nothing. Completely unresponsive.

 

[Chaoticus]

This is probably nothing but did you ever try to dock it and see if you got a response that way??

 

[The_Chaotician]

This is probably nothing but did you ever try to dock it and see if you got a response that way??

Great shout, just tried it. Still nothing.

 

[Chaoticus]

Some desperation moves here: Have you tried swapping the battery?? You said you have more then one unit right? Probably nothing again but maybe swap the battery. Just another thing to put a check mark next to the: I tried that. While your under the hood find the points to measure with a voltage meter and see if your getting regular charge and the rapid charge measurements... Theres a bunch of YouTube videos out there of various repairs those may point you in a direction too with anything similar to what your experiencing. Try going over to TheCod3r 's discord and get some help there..

 

[The_Chaotician]

Some desperation moves here: Have you tried swapping the battery?? You said you have more then one unit right? Probably nothing again but maybe swap the battery. Just another thing to put a check mark next to the: I tried that. While your under the hood find the points to measure with a voltage meter and see if your getting regular charge and the rapid charge measurements... Theres a bunch of YouTube videos out there of various repairs those may point you in a direction too with anything similar to what your experiencing. Try going over to TheCod3r 's discord and get some help there..

Thanks for this. I'm very much a novice when it comes to hardware (I have a good grasp of the software side of things as mentioned). Just need the right kit and guidance on what to point it at