Homebrew ARM9Loader -- Technical Details and Discussion

  • Thread starter Thread starter Selver
  • Start date Start date
  • Views Views 568,227
  • Replies Replies 4,025
  • Likes Likes 42
There's still at least one valid use-case for having an emuNAND instead of booting into a CFW sysNAND all the time, wear and tear on the NAND memory.

Really, this shouldn't be a primary concern. eMMC includes automatic remapping of bad blocks. So, even if a given sector goes bad, it will get remapped. There's some exceptions to this rule, but tending to be manufacturer implementation specific, and even then rare. (e.g., CMD30/CMD31).

Samsung's (SLC) MultiMediaCards have an endurance specification for each sector of 100,000 writes (reading a logical sector is unlimited). It would take over 100 years to wear out an area on the MultiMediaCard on which a files of any size (from 512bytes to capacity) was rewritten 3 times per hour, 8 hours a day, 365 days per year.

Data Retention
The data in memory may change after a certain amount of storage time, due to charge loss or charge gain.

Read Disturb
A read operation may disturb the data in memory. The data may change due to charge gain. Usually, bit errors occur on other pages in the block, not the page being read. After a large number of read cycles (between block erases), a tiny charge may build up and can cause a cell to be soft programmed to another state. After block erasure and reprogramming, the block may become usable again.
 
I remember people would express worry about NAND wear and tear back in the Wii modding days too. Years later, I wonder if there exists a single person who had their internal filesystem fail on them because of that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: funnystory
Really, this shouldn't be a primary concern. eMMC includes automatic remapping of bad blocks. So, even if a given sector goes bad, it will get remapped. There's some exceptions to this rule, but tending to be manufacturer implementation specific, and even then rare. (e.g., CMD30/CMD31).

Samsung's (SLC) MultiMediaCards have an endurance specification for each sector of 100,000 writes (reading a logical sector is unlimited). It would take over 100 years to wear out an area on the MultiMediaCard on which a files of any size (from 512bytes to capacity) was rewritten 3 times per hour, 8 hours a day, 365 days per year.

Data Retention
The data in memory may change after a certain amount of storage time, due to charge loss or charge gain.

Read Disturb
A read operation may disturb the data in memory. The data may change due to charge gain. Usually, bit errors occur on other pages in the block, not the page being read. After a large number of read cycles (between block erases), a tiny charge may build up and can cause a cell to be soft programmed to another state. After block erasure and reprogramming, the block may become usable again.

I'm still a little wary of any flash memory, to be honest, especially since I had a solid state drive die on me like 4 months back (and it was maybe a year or two old, hardly past the expected life-time of the thing). Lost all the data (my own fault for not keeping backups, I know), and had literally zero chance to recover it. Plugging it in to other PCs, enclosures, etc., it never showed up. :s
 
Note. Only reflash ctrnand when reflashing NAND back...

P.S. Rip O3DS CFW and A9LH
Xuu1ALT.jpg
 
is it weird that native firm installed and all CIA files installed but still bricked, I used the same pack on my other 3ds and worked fine.
 
Hey I have a new 3ds xl eur, does anyone please have a picture or guide on how to hard mod the new 3ds xl as I can only find how to do the old 3ds and xl. Thanks

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I want to do a hard mod anyways so I can always flash my nand back if im testing stuff etc. Oh and I used to jtag 360,s way back when it first came about so I can solder ok, Just looking for a nice guide or diagram to work from.
 
Hey I have a new 3ds xl eur, does anyone please have a picture or guide on how to hard mod the new 3ds xl as I can only find how to do the old 3ds and xl. Thanks
go to 3dbrew.org, scroll down to the bottom, click on hardware, find the picture that corresponds with your model
 
Cheers mate.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I see that people solder onto the board and then the other end Is a microsd adapter.. Can I not just use another type of connector like a microsd usb socket or something?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I got the diagram of the board now so thanks for that.
 
Good news! My o3DS XL survived the trip to 2.1 land. Got a scare at first since it seemed to black screen brick. But I just booted without SD card inserted and then it booted up. (I had to delete Home Menu extdata)

I got my OTP and will now get it restored back to 9.2. :D
 
Just want to add my success story in here as well. N3DSXL, went down to 2.1 okay, a9f.bin dumped at 256 bytes. 3DS would not boot with my 128GB card, nor would it recognize it after a clean format (FAT32). Had to use Nintendos provided 4GB one.

un4sjdZ.jpg


No hard mod, *phew*.
 
Just want to add my success story in here as well. N3DSXL, went down to 2.1 okay, a9f.bin dumped at 256 bytes. 3DS would not boot with my 128GB card, nor would it recognize it after a clean format (FAT32). Had to use Nintendos provided 4GB one.

un4sjdZ.jpg


No hard mod, *phew*.

Good to hear:D
More people can now ascend to the A9LH master race:lol:

Or at least the OTP master race for now...
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum