Hardware nand flash dump (3ds xl)

[MrTaco]

Man what an ordeal. I think I resoldered those three pins around five times each, but I'm pretty confident I've got them all aligned properly now. Tested with shorting out CMD+DAT0 which gave the same F/F/7/0 result as before, CMD+CLK which gave 400, and DAT0+GND which gave 0/0/200/400000 or something. Though that first error still weirds me out.

Now back to trying to get an SD reader that works properly... wait no it's nearly 6am, sleep is a better idea.

Edit: Ooh hello, just tried plugging it into the multi card reader and it triggered a new error:
CFDFFFFF FFFFFFFF
00000022 00000000

Damn, still doesn't seem to get detected by the computer though.

Double edit: WAIT I LIED I tried plugging it in with the OTHER SD reader and it's detected it!

Not sure if I should dump it while it's working or chance that it will do it again.

 

[Avalynn]

Man what an ordeal. I think I resoldered those three pins around five times each, but I'm pretty confident I've got them all aligned properly now. Tested with shorting out CMD+DAT0 which gave the same F/F/7/0 result as before, CMD+CLK which gave 400, and DAT0+GND which gave 0/0/200/400000 or something. Though that first error still weirds me out.

Now back to trying to get an SD reader that works properly... wait no it's nearly 6am, sleep is a better idea.

Edit: Ooh hello, just tried plugging it into the multi card reader and it triggered a new error:
CFDFFFFF FFFFFFFF
00000022 00000000

Damn, still doesn't seem to get detected by the computer though.

Double edit: WAIT I LIED I tried plugging it in with the OTHER SD reader and it's detected it!

Not sure if I should dump it while it's working or chance that it will do it again.

Eh I'd dump it, turn it off, try to make it do it again and then dump it again. It sounds kinda like a flaky connection and I would be worried about the quality of the dumps, so just make multiple dumps and compare. If they match up then you hopefully have a winner as long as you don't turn your 3DS on normal mode I think the dumps should be exactly the same, just don't quote me on that lol. I know the dumps are different each time if you turn it on and it boots up.

 

[MrTaco]

Alrighty! So I've ended up with a disk image of size 954 MB (1,000,341,504 bytes), and I just played around with things again and definitely don't get any kind of error screen from the Belkin SD Reader unless it's plugged in (which just gives a 400 error I can't do anything with, but attaching the multi card reader got me that same error again. So I guess I need to use the two readers in conjunction with each other

Now I guess I just need to make another dump or two and check for consistency, then I guess I can attempt an upgrade and downgrade. I can't remember exactly but I think I saw it mentioned that Luigi's Mansion had a mandatory 4.5 update on the cart? Feels like a good version to go for in case things go awry or something. Although I guess if the read and/or write fail for whatever reason it won't really matter what version anything is... definitely time for some sleep now.

as long as you don't turn your 3DS on normal mode I think the dumps should be exactly the same, just don't quote me on that lol. I know the dumps are different each time if you turn it on and it boots up.

I did see mention of that, makes sense if it ends up writing things and it's all encrypted. Also makes sense that things shouldn't change if it's not booted up normally, there wouldn't be any reason for it to write.

Seriously hope this works, I haven't played 3DS since finishing Luigi's Mansion back a little after it came out, and I'm itching to get into Link Between Worlds. My vanilla 3DS got bricked via a failed update, I've been without ever since until I read about the exploit discovery, figured it was better to jump in on things while old units were still floating around in the shops

 

[Dread_Knought]

For those of you who find soldering wires onto the microSD-to-SD adapter too difficult (e.g., me) https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9419 or https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11468 seems like an excellent solution.

 

[MrTaco]

Damimt. I upgraded to 4.5 with Luigi's Mansion, then did a bunch of stuff to test things out with the SD card, finally psyched myself up to restore the 4.4 backup...

"This media is write-protected"

Umm... what do I do about this?

 

[gamesquest1]

Damimt. I upgraded to 4.5 with Luigi's Mansion, then did a bunch of stuff to test things out with the SD card, finally psyched myself up to restore the 4.4 backup...

"This media is write-protected"

Umm... what do I do about this?

check your SD adapter hasn't lost its "lock" tab (annoying little things ) , also try unplugging and replugging it in

 

[MrTaco]

check your SD adapter hasn't lost its "lock" tab (annoying little things ) , also try unplugging and replugging it in

Well, I have the little tab from when it fell out while making the thing. But the reason I left it out was that it was never connected to anything in the first place, it just sat in its slot on the side of the card doing nothing, purely cosmetic.

 

[gamesquest1]

....it does do something

it is indeed a piece of plastic but it tells the card reader if the card is locked or not.....the mechanics of it happen inside the card readet....it hits the switch to say....."hi im not locked"

 

[Avalynn]

Well, I have the little tab from when it fell out while making the thing. But the reason I left it out was that it was never connected to anything in the first place, it just sat in its slot on the side of the card doing nothing, purely cosmetic.

So inside the card reader the tab pushes a metal bar that is either pulled to ground or high (can't remember) to signal the MCU that data can be written to the card. When the tab is pushed down the bar doesn't get pushed and the card reader is told not to be able to write to the card, only read.

Spoiler: SD Card layout

Here might be a permanent fix.

Spoiler: SD Reader Fix

 

[MrTaco]

Well how about that For whatever reason I figured they were supposed to do stuff inside the card itself.

I have no idea if it's because the write lock switch is there now, but I'm getting a new error when plugging in the multi reader. FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000008 00000000.

 

[pelago]

My protect switch also fell out. I used a piece of tape instead, see for example:

 

[MrTaco]

Ok, took the plunge... GREAT SUCCESS! 4.4 returned to power!

Seems kinda strange that it restores the time too, taking it back to yesterday. I did a little experimenting too, to see what would get done. I'd already accidentally fired up the camera via the shoulder buttons yesterday, so that stuff was already on the SD card. So when I went to upgrade I fired up Luigi for a bit, went and did some AR Games and did a recording in 3DS Sound. Sound was the only one to write stuff to the SD card in the Private folder, and after booting up the machine again since restoring it seems to still be on there. And still there after having opened Sound again. Interesting.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

 

[japoks]

I would just like to share, this might help. I did my mod just like described on this site: http://www.infinitydream.com/newsdesk_info.php?newsPath=102&newsdesk_id=150

After plugging my xl to the cable with sd card adapter which is connected to card reader and powered it on i got the error code:

CMD is connected to CLK. (Other DAT lines may be connected to this aswell, no way to tell)

Code:
00F800FE
00000000 00000000
00000400 00000000

At this point i felt hopeless as I do not like to again open my xl and repeat the process of desoldering / soldering. I continued digging into this forum's post and I came across a post that stated that he successfully managed to dump and restore his nand with the same error. I began to start using different card readers. I tested 4 card readers to no avail. I bought a cheap MMC SD card reader from a Japanese shop near at my place tested it and boom the drive was recognized in Windows. After the successful dump of firmware 4.4 i then updated my xl to 7.1.0-16U, dumped the 7.1 firmware again and then revert back to 4.4 successfully. I just want to point out that the error code listed above can be used to succesfully dump and restore nand to the 3ds.

Many thanks to the contributors from this forum.

 

[Msparky83]

I would just like to share, this might help. I did my mod just like described on this site: http://www.infinitydream.com/newsdesk_info.php?newsPath=102&newsdesk_id=150

After plugging my xl to the cable with sd card adapter which is connected to card reader and powered it on i got the error code:

CMD is connected to CLK. (Other DAT lines may be connected to this aswell, no way to tell)

Code:
00F800FE
00000000 00000000
00000400 00000000

At this point i felt hopeless as I do not like to again open my xl and repeat the process of desoldering / soldering. I continued digging into this forum's post and I came across a post that stated that he successfully managed to dump and restore his nand with the same error. I began to start using different card readers. I tested 4 card readers to no avail. I bought a cheap MMC SD card reader from a Japanese shop near at my place tested it and boom the drive was recognized in Windows. After the successful dump of firmware 4.4 i then updated my xl to 7.1.0-16U, dumped the 7.1 firmware again and then revert back to 4.4 successfully. I just want to point out that the error code listed above can be used to succesfully dump and restore nand to the 3ds.

Many thanks to the contributors from this forum.

That's great. Im glad to see that you were able to get this to work afterall. Please tell me though, which brand/company made the card reader that worked for you? I have been through 6 now as of writing this and still no joy. This is the last barrier I have to overcome.

 

[Avalynn]

Wow I didn't know card readers could be so flaky, well then again I throw away those $1 that come with many things. Makes me wish I didn't as I'd have cheap components to make a card sniffer.

The ones I've used include:
Transcend P5 9-in-1 (TS-RDP5K)
Tek Republic TUC-300
IOGEAR 12-in-1 (GFR209)
Transcend Card Reader (TS-RDF5K)

Make sure you connections are solid and wires short as possible

 

[Msparky83]

I have the 12 -in-1 IOGEAR card reader. (it was the sixth one I used) Were you able to get it to work?

 

[SpaceJump]

I got someone to do the soldering part for me and just got my 3DS XL back. When I booted the XL I get this:

BOOTROM 8046
ERRCODE: 00F800FE
00000000 00000000
00000200 00000000

Which is a good sign, isn't it? So I plugged the SD-Adapter directly into my PC, but it didn't regognize anything. Used an external SD Reader, but again nothing.

So I opened the XL to find this:



I don't know much about soldering but aren't the wires NOT supposed to touch each other? I don't know why but he used these naked wires. Can this be the problem? Or is it the SD reader?
And what does the Error Code above actually tell?

 

[Avalynn]

I got someone to do the soldering part for me and just got my 3DS XL back. When I booted the XL I get this:
BOOTROM 8046
So I opened the XL to find this:

I don't know much about soldering but aren't the wires NOT supposed to touch each other? I don't know why but he used these naked wires. Can this be the problem? Or is it the SD reader?
And what does the Error Code above actually tell?

That actually is enamel coated wire which is fine, it is not bare copper. Typically also called magnet wire, they are used to make electromagnets and sometimes hand wound transformer coils.

Edit:
Though have the wires cross cross like that can be bad but I don't think the signals are fast enough to need a twisted pair for each signal line. Reasoning is each wire acts as an antenna and generates a emf that can cause induced noise on the other lines. But the traces are short enough that I don't think this plays into it much.

 

[SpaceJump]

That actually is enamel coated wire which is fine, it is not bare copper.

Ok, so the inside is fine. Is the error code ok? What else can I do?

 

[Avalynn]

Ok, so the inside is fine. Is the error code ok? What else can I do?

That is what I normally get before making a dump, so it should be fine. I have taken and restored dumps this way.

Your computer should be recoginizing it just fine. This is going to sound silly but you can try rebooting both your PC and 3DS, get the 3DS back into the boot error screen. What I usually do is connect the 3DS and card reader, then hook it up to a computer via USB.