Hacking List of possible ways to brick your 3DS/2DS/N3DS.

[Bedel]

Well, now i get why. Without the Stages properly installed the payloads won't work.

Yes, that happend a while ago. I think people don't even try now to change the stage 2 as it was done back then to start a lit fastter...

 

[CrimsonMaple]

You need to add, breaking the sd reader while arm9 is installed. Yes i did this to my o3ds. Best brick evar.

 

[Autz]

You need to add, breaking the sd reader while arm9 is installed. Yes i did this to my o3ds. Best brick evar.

1 question: How?

 

[CrimsonMaple]

1 question: How?

Stupidity. You can break the pins easilly on old 3ds if you arnt careful enough. I was not. I bent a data pin which lead to a brick. (it is replaceable however its hard to find a replacement online though.) Answer, I forced an SD card inside and that bent a pin.

 

[Halvorsen]

Stupidity. You can break the pins easilly on old 3ds if you arnt careful enough. I was not. I bent a data pin which lead to a brick. (it is replaceable however its hard to find a replacement online though.) Answer, I forced an SD card inside and that bent a pin.

I'm looking, eBay has tons of replacements.

 

[Ryccardo]

You need to add, breaking the sd reader while arm9 is installed. Yes i did this to my o3ds. Best brick evar.

Not if you installed the newest a9lh nightlies with mini-cfw (sure, it would still be unfit for playing cias and many physical carts, but still... bootable)

Anyway, there's also the MCU brick, also popularly called the LED brick because it most notably happened to yellows8 (iirc) while experimenting with the notification light, where certain incorrect MCU or I2C (the bus also connecting to the MCU) commands can erase its firmware, resulting in an unbootable system.
While to the best of my knowledge no software capable of causing this (nor intentionally doing it) has been released, this is arguably the worst possible brick (contending with hardware damage):
-It can be caused even by an "unprivileged" 3dsx running as system settings
-It requires an i2c hardmod to fix (less wires but smaller pins compared to the usual nand hardmod) if it will be possible at all

 

[CrimsonMaple]

Not if you installed the newest a9lh nightlies with mini-cfw (sure, it would still be unfit for playing cias and many physical carts, but still... bootable)

Anyway, there's also the MCU brick, also popularly called the LED brick because it most notably happened to yellows8 (iirc) while experimenting with the notification light, where certain incorrect MCU or I2C (the bus also connecting to the MCU) commands can erase its firmware, resulting in an unbootable system.
While to the best of my knowledge no software capable of causing this (nor intentionally doing it) has been released, this is arguably the worst possible brick (contending with hardware damage):
-It can be caused even by an "unprivileged" 3dsx running as system settings
-It requires an i2c hardmod to fix (less wires but smaller pins compared to the usual nand hardmod) if it will be possible at all

Yeah, i installed the nightly a9lh from aurora on my n3ds to not have this happen. And led brick is nasty.

 

[Ev1lbl0w]

so if you're doing something like a sysNAND backup or sysNAND downgrade and your console shuts down or interrupts the process somehow, your system will brick.

Is this real? Why would it brick while doing a backup of SysNAND? Isn't it just reading the NAND?

 

[CrimsonMaple]

Is this real? Why would it brick while doing a backup of SysNAND? Isn't it just reading the NAND?

I believe since its reading the nand, if the console turned off that should fry the nand. Or at least corrupt a bit of it. Causing a brick. Same happens for files on a thumb drive. If you unplug a thumbdrive while transfering a file. the file should be corrupted on both ends.

Edit: well at least on stricter partition types. Fat32 has precautions to prevent the corruption on the thumbdrive. But file systems like ntfs dont. (Or at least arnt as good.)

 

[gnmmarechal]

Please correct the OP. Afaik, shutting down a NAND read won't brick.

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I believe since its reading the nand, if the console turned off that should fry the nand. Or at least corrupt a bit of it. Causing a brick. Same happens for files on a thumb drive. If you unplug a thumbdrive while transfering a file. the file should be corrupted on both ends.

Edit: well at least on stricter partition types. Fat32 has precautions to prevent the corruption on the thumbdrive. But file systems like ntfs dont. (Or at least arnt as good.)

That's not how it works. While the NAND is being read, it isn't being modified. It won't brick or corrupt.

No, it doesn't happen like that at all. When copying the file, the source file will be intact, only the output file will be damaged.
When moving a file, it moves *first*, and THEN removes the second file.


And, how does CUTTING THE POWER (aka shutting down the 3DS) fry the NAND? what

 

[CrimsonMaple]

Please correct the OP. Afaik, shutting down a NAND read won't brick.

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


That's not how it works. While the NAND is being read, it isn't being modified. It won't brick or corrupt.

No, it doesn't happen like that at all. When copying the file, the source file will be intact, only the output file will be damaged.
When moving a file, it moves *first*, and THEN removes the second file.


And, how does CUTTING THE POWER (aka shutting down the 3DS) fry the NAND? what

My bad. Thanks for clearing that up. And yeah. That does make sense.

 

[MadMageKefka]

@Autz what about deleting system titles with godmode9 or similar program? I don't know which specific titles, but I've heard its even possible to brick a9lh this way.

 

[SimplyFedorable]

My bad. Thanks for clearing that up. And yeah. That does make sense.

don't be a dumb dumb now (´◉◞౪◟◉)

 

[CrimsonMaple]

don't be a dumb dumb now (´◉◞౪◟◉)

Shhh. Just let me have my moment of stupidity. Thanks. Gonna go finish pouring milk into my eyeballs..

 

[Autz]

Please correct the OP. Afaik, shutting down a NAND read won't brick.

Fixed.

 

[DeoNaught]

I did not know you could brick,
from sending the wrongs ir signals,
How?

 

[Autz]

I did not know you could brick,
from sending the wrongs ir signals,
How?

Sending wrong signal can wipe out the I2C firmware. Quoting Ryccardo:

Anyway, there's also the MCU brick, also popularly called the LED brick because it most notably happened to yellows8 (iirc) while experimenting with the notification light, where certain incorrect MCU or I2C (the bus also connecting to the MCU) commands can erase its firmware, resulting in an unbootable system.
While to the best of my knowledge no software capable of causing this (nor intentionally doing it) has been released, this is arguably the worst possible brick (contending with hardware damage):
-It can be caused even by an "unprivileged" 3dsx running as system settings
-It requires an i2c hardmod to fix (less wires but smaller pins compared to the usual nand hardmod) if it will be possible at all

 

[yacepi15]

You need to add, breaking the sd reader while arm9 is installed. Yes i did this to my o3ds. Best brick evar.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/a9lh-can-now-boot-without-sd-card.432593/

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Dropping water in the console.

 

[Ryccardo]

I did not know you could brick,
from sending the wrongs ir signals,
How?

Nowhere did I mention IR, only system calls (a world of difference!)

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

And, how does CUTTING THE POWER (aka shutting down the 3DS) fry the NAND? what

Samsung sudden death syndrome: the NAND, being an eMMC and not raw flash like on the Wii, has a controller with some internal state (bad block list, used block list, ...) and turning it off at the wrong moment may corrupt this (not the actual data)!
You can also read of many Kindles that won't hold any changes to their filesystems for a similiar reason...

Of course, a 3DS isn't one of those devices and the factory may well never have used those buggy nands, most likely the 3DS doesn't trim empty block (the immediate cause of the issue in the Samsung case), and it doesn't happen on a simple read

 

[DeoNaught]

Nowhere did I mention IR, only system calls (a world of difference!)

ok, what's a system call? is it like the notifications?