Hacking Creating a North American, non-XL New 3DS

[AquaX101]

That's a shame. So it sounds like the only thing we'll really need to wait for (aside from Gateway) is 9.x Nand Xorpad generation.

how do you get 4.x ctrnand xorpads?

 

[gamesquest1]

how do you get 4.x ctrnand xorpads?

xorpad generator, it has to be run in place of the launcher.dat that gateway uses, you cannot do it with simple 3DS mode homebrew

 

[Wowfunhappy]

so i guess asian version wont have regular n3ds too

No, it's only North America that's stuck with the XL. God knows why.

 

[boomie0123]

XL to XL (LL)
super easy you can doi it right now solution
1) desolder nand and CPU from US n3DS XL
2) desolder nand & CPU from JPN/EU n3DS
3) swap and resolder

ok i lied that's not so easy, but still i *think* it would work

You know... I never thought of that.

Would that actually work? I mean, I'm not going to try it because I'll more than likely screw it up, but it'd be cool to know.

 

[SpongeFreak52]

I'm excited to see if this becomes possible further down the road, I too have a PAL N3DS I'd like to see swapped to NTSC-U. Guess it's just a waiting game at this point for Gateway to release support for the N3DS.

 

[Nathan Drake]

No, it's only North America that's stuck with the XL. God knows why.

It's easy to figure out, really.

The NA region is a large region. There is a large potential customer base to consider creating systems for, and Nintendo was already trying really hard not to leave too large of a gap between region releases of the N3DS system. On one hand, only making one model makes it so production goes more quickly, and so that it is easier to stock the product in stores which was really important considering the launch date they gave themselves. On the other hand, it makes it so anyone who wants an N3DS is limited to a single option which nets more income for Nintendo, as more people would want the XL than the original size anyways. Basically, the idea is that Nintendo will make more money and will have an easier time supplying distributors.

That isn't to say they won't lose money. There are people like me who hold no interest in buying an XL and would far prefer the original size N3DS. I assume the projection was that more money would be made by launching one model sooner than focusing on both models though.

 

[gamesquest1]

You know... I never thought of that.

Would that actually work? I mean, I'm not going to try it because I'll more than likely screw it up, but it'd be cool to know.

it *should* work, pretty sure the n3ds/n3dsXL use the same cpu/nand setup so switching those shouldnt be an issue, pretty sure the system unique keyslots are stored in the CPU(not certain though...but wherever they are stored switch that part)

but yeah in theory it would work, but you would need a professional bga reworking station etc its not something that could be done by hand

 

[Apache Thunder]

it *should* work, pretty sure the n3ds/n3dsXL use the same cpu/nand setup so switching those shouldnt be an issue, pretty sure the system unique keyslots are stored in the CPU(not certain though...but wherever they are stored switch that part)

but yeah in theory it would work, but you would need a professional bga reworking station etc its not something that could be done by hand

Seeing that the pin out for NAND mods is different between the normal n3DS where the CLK trace hasn't been found yet and the XL n3DS where it has been successfully been NAND modded. I doubt you can simply solder on the XL's CPU and NAND chip to a normal n3DS PCB. The pin locations would have to be identical and I don't think they are.

 

[boomie0123]

Seeing that the pin out for NAND mods is different between the normal n3DS where the CLK trace hasn't been found yet and the XL n3DS where it has been successfully been NAND modded. I doubt you can simply solder on the XL's CPU and NAND chip to a normal n3DS PCB. The pin locations would have to be identical and I don't think they are.

Alright, swapping the physical NAND and CPU chips is out the window!

Let's get back to that Xorpads solution. So that's essentially only possible once Gateway releases N3DS support huh?

I was thinking that since most of Gateway's functions are in the launcher.dat couldn't we just look in it and make it work with N3DS? Ah, but then we'd need an exploit entry point too...

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Let's get back to that Xorpads solution. So that's essentially only possible once Gateway releases N3DS support huh?

Except that even on the old 3DS, you can only generate Nand Xorpads on 4.x firmware. Does anyone know why that is? Why doesn't the 9.x version work on Nands?

 

[gamesquest1]

Seeing that the pin out for NAND mods is different between the normal n3DS where the CLK trace hasn't been found yet and the XL n3DS where it has been successfully been NAND modded. I doubt you can simply solder on the XL's CPU and NAND chip to a normal n3DS PCB. The pin locations would have to be identical and I don't think they are.

nope, thats the PCB thats different, the actual CPU & NAND package should be the same between revisions,

for example, same chip different pcb pinout

you might even be able to avoid needing to switch the nands assuming they use the same sized nand chips by dumping both of them then writing the nand image from one to the other, meaning only the CPU (or whatever stores the system unique keys) would need to be switched

 

[Click This]

Joke is on them, because Club Nintendo is getting discontinued in June.

Either way, when I returned it, I purposely left a few of the ribbons unplugged so it wouldn't boot. That way they can send it back and get the insurance money back for a "faulty" console.

Isn't that insurance fraud?

 

[netovsk]

No, it's only North America that's stuck with the XL. God knows why.

According to nintendo of america, because they make the most sense.

And they do, IMO, thanks to larger screens.

 

[boomie0123]

nope, thats the PCB thats different, the actual CPU & NAND package should be the same between revisions,

for example, same chip different pcb pinout

you might even be able to avoid needing to switch the nands assuming they use the same sized nand chips by dumping both of them then writing the nand image from one to the other, meaning only the CPU (or whatever stores the system unique keys) would need to be switched

And just like that, swapping out the chips and soldering them in again came back onto the table. Sure, it's super complicated to do, but I wouldn't mind sending it off and having a professional do swap and solder everything.

 

[JoelLouviere]

Why not just copy one nand to another, then on the old system format the memory? And I mean just manually writing to it. Unless you have to do something in order to get write permissions on the NAND of the 3DS otherwise I dunno about that stuff.

 

[gamesquest1]

Why not just copy one nand to another, then on the old system format the memory? And I mean just manually writing to it. Unless you have to do something in order to get write permissions on the NAND of the 3DS otherwise I dunno about that stuff.

the nand uses per console encryption, so you need to also get the keys from console A to console B too......which is the hard part

 

[JoelLouviere]

Oh yeah, forgot about the encryption. But isn't the encryption part of the system memory/firmware itself? Because if that's the case you just overwrite it all.

 

[cearp]

simply un-xoring the nands, and re-xoring for with the destination 3ds and writing it back did not work for me, and someone else who tried, i'm not sure why, but sure you can try again, it must be possible somehow.

 

[WulfyStylez]

simply un-xoring the nands, and re-xoring for with the destination 3ds and writing it back did not work for me, and someone else who tried, i'm not sure why, but sure you can try again, it must be possible somehow.

The issue is that you aren't decrypting the entire nand, just the CTRNAND partition. Plus there are a few files you'd need to decrypt and edit in the CTRNAND partition as well.

Your best bet is just swapping SecureInfo_A files. There's not much of a reason to do more than that, unless I missed something.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

The issue is that you aren't decrypting the entire nand, just the CTRNAND partition. Plus there are a few files you'd need to decrypt and edit in the CTRNAND partition as well.

Your best bet is just swapping SecureInfo_A files. There's not much of a reason to do more than that, unless I missed something.

Because the process still seems fairly confusing and I'm nervous. Especially since I intend to do this to Sysnand.

The biggest thing I'm worried about is the eShop. I won't know if it works until after I update. After I update, Gateway won't work, and I won't be able to change anything. I won't even be able to test with EmuNand since it only supports up to FW 4.5.