Hacking 3DS XL NAND HW Mod interfering with boot process

[mvmiranda]

Hello Guys,

Long old story short:
Remember some time ago when I posted I had a bad customer NAND mod done that rendered the motherboard with permanent blue screen? I tried replacing the res array, fixing the trace but yet the console wont turn on.

So I got another cheap 3DS XL 4.5 motherboard (USD 55 give or take). A bargain I must say. It had just a minor issue with the touch connector in the motherboard I fixed with hot glue (I guess hot glue can solve everyone's problem, isn't it?!)

So, I installed it and everything was fine. I then proceeded to do a NAND HW mod and for my surprise everytime I plug the USB -> SD adapter the console wont turn on. It blinks the power led a bit and then shuts down (1 second). I checked carefully the wiring and I'm 200% sure it's not it.

I also have a tiny SD cable (really short) I use to do quick unbricks and I even tried it with the same behavior.

If I switch USB -> SD adapter (I have two different types) it takes a little longer to shut down (almost 4 - 5 seconds).

If I remove the adapter (leaving the wiring on) it works perfectly.

Spoiler

yellow: GND
black: DAT0
red: CMD
white: CLK

The only explanation I can give is that the adapter is "interfering" somehow with the boot process. I have another 3DS XL and it works perfectly with both adapters.

Any clues? Did you see that already? If so, how did you circumvent the issue?

Cheers!

 

[DinohScene]

Maybe a connector in the adapter is short circuiting?
Cable breach?

 

[mvmiranda]

Maybe a connector in the adapter is short circuiting?
Cable breach?

DinohScene, I don't think so... I have just tested the cable with my other 3DS, same wiring and it's OK.
It seems like it's the 3DS somehow...

 

[DinohScene]

Odd.

I haven't encountered anything like it on the 360 so I'm at a loss for ya.
Other then wiring issues, I wouldn't know ;p

 

[mvmiranda]

this is all weird

 

[HBK]

I'm curious to why you connected the SD adapter directly to the 3DS (although it should work like that, it's just impossible to close the case with it soldered), and why you soldered it differently (generally the CMD, CLK and DAT0 all solder to the NAND pinouts near the chip).

I did the NAND hardware mod myself and what I did was use some strands of ethernet cable (there are 8 inside, I took the 4 colors and didn't use the white cables), cut them in half. Did the solder on the SD first, then used the same colors for the 3DS soldering (so it was easier to match up). Then with insulting screw joints, I just connected them together and it worked on first try (although I did have to use my Mac's SD reader as my cheapo All-in-1 wasn't reading and writing data correctly - nothing to do with the solder though).

This way, I keep the cables soldered and was able to close the case. There are more elegant solutions, such as a USB connector, but I just wanted to restore my NAND backup and have a safeguard in case someone else accidentally updates it again.

 

[mvmiranda]

I'm not sure if I made myself clear... it's not a SD adapter it's a SD cable without any circuit it's just a connector...
Leaving it soldered does not alter the boot procedure of the 3DS and it turn on normally.

 

[jaku]

I'm not sure if I made myself clear... it's not a SD adapter it's a SD cable without any circuit it's just a connector...
Leaving it soldered does not alter the boot procedure of the 3DS and it turn on normally.

He is saying why have it setup like that so you can't close it.

But also yeah why didn't you solder to the normal NAND pinouts near the chip?

 

[mvmiranda]

He is saying why have it setup like that so you can't close it.

But also yeah why didn't you solder to the normal NAND pinouts near the chip?

We're really not talking about the same thing here

A) I did solder in the normal pinout near the chip!!
B) I did have the console closed when I was doing my tests
C) The picture I sent was only to show you guys the size of the smallest cables I used (aka the SD cable I used).

Humbly speaking, I've done this many times and I've never seen such behavior...

Thanks for the all of the feedback

 

[mocalacace]

Not that I have a solution for the problem, but I was doing HW NAND mod for devin and it would not boot past blue screen when soldered to the NAND pins I couldn't figure it out so I removed it and it would work fine.

 

[mvmiranda]

Not that I have a solution for the problem, but I was doing HW NAND mod for devin and it would not boot past blue screen when soldered to the NAND pins I couldn't figure it out so I removed it and it would work fine.

Your problem was that the wires were interfering with the boot...
Were you using any metallic connector, such as micro USB?
I had similar issues in the past and everytime I got them, I changed to a plastic connector and the issue went away

 

[mocalacace]

Your problem was that the wires were interfering with the boot...
Were you using any metallic connector, such as micro USB?
I had similar issues in the past and everytime I got them, I changed to a plastic connector and the issue went away

I was just doing nand pinout to sd card reader pin directly

 

[mvmiranda]

I was just doing nand pinout to sd card reader pin directly

got it...

 

[gamesquest1]

Not that I have a solution for the problem, but I was doing HW NAND mod for devin and it would not boot past blue screen when soldered to the NAND pins I couldn't figure it out so I removed it and it would work fine.

yeah i had one like that too, sometimes it would just blue screen other times it would just hang on a black screen....ended up getting it working by making the wires really short and routing them differently.....but i was stumped at first

 

[WateredFire19]

Can you show some more close ups of this image?