Hacking Did I break it?

[dudemo]

I have an o3DS on firmware 11.1. It is a North American (USA) console that I got on launch day. It does have A9LH and Luma3DS. I've used and abused this thing for far too long and recently purchased a n3DS to upgrade.

Some of you know my situation. I won't outline it again because it isn't relevant, however it has improved slightly. I have access to the hospital wifi! Utilizing it, I've updated my o3DS to 11.1 (today) and made a NAND backup. While waiting for my new console, I decided to work on the new BootNTR support so I had cheats again.

I powered down my console with the power button and selecting "Turn off" on the touch screen. It turned off and I removed my SD card and placed it into my laptop. I threw on a few NTR plug-ins and reinserted my SD card back into my 3DS. Then, I pushed the power button to turn on the 3DS, but realized I did not get all the plug-ins I wanted on, a split second before I pushed the power button. Quite literally, milliseconds after I pushed the power button, I removed the SD card.

Knowing what I did, I expected the console to fail to boot like normally would happen with A9LH, but that is not what happened. The console sat at a black screen for 10 whole minutes (backlight lit) before I held the power button down for 12 seconds and forced a power down. Thinking I'd be good, I turned it back on. Black screen, power light lit, screens lit, no home menu. Damn. No biggie, I literally just did a NAND backup.

So I removed the SD card and put my NAND backup back on the SD card. The card read and wrote flawlessly on my Win10 machine. While waiting on my transfer, I turned the console on for shits and giggles. Typical A9LH no SD boot: immediate shut down.

Hmm. Transfers done. Put it back into my 3DS and held the Hourglass9 button on boot but got nothing. Seriously, black backlit screen, power light on, no Hourglass9. Power down and hold select while booting, but get no Luma config or home menu. Ditto for the recovery boot. I'm now stumped. I have no way to restore the system.

Things I've tried:
- New smaller SD card
- Replacing arm9 payload with a fresh one
- Replacing with the one from the troubleshoot page on Plailect's guide. Results are as same as normal A9LH payload
- Deleting home menu extdata
- Resetting Luma's config
- Replacing Hourglass9 payload
- Removing Nintendo 3DS folder
- Putting a firmware.bin from the troubleshooting page where specified

None of it has gotten me anything but a black backlit set of screens and a power light lit that will sit that way for hours.

I cannot perform a CTRansfer because I can't get into Hourglass9. Am I screwed? I was hoping to use this console to DSiWare downgrade my n3DS when it gets here next week. But obviously I can't if I can t get it to boot.

I hope I have given you enough info to help me. You guys have been great and patient with me so far! Thanks in advance,

Wadude

 

[Raylight]

sounds like you fried it dude or corrupted nand files when carelessly removing sd. im no expert but it sounds currupted. have you tried Decrypt9 to restore a backup?

 

[dudemo]

I haven't tried any other payload other than Hourglass9. I am willing to try it though.

Sadly, it sounds to me like I fried it too. I'm just not sure how.

 

[Quantumcat]

sounds like you fried it dude or corrupted nand files when carelessly removing sd. im no expert but it sounds currupted. have you tried Decrypt9 to restore a backup?

He said he tried Hourglass9 and it wouldn't start

 

[Raylight]

I haven't tried any other payload other than Hourglass9. I am willing to try it though.

Sadly, it sounds to me like I fried it too. I'm just not sure how.

possibly shut it off during an important process. if you can access payloads then restore your backup with decrypt9

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

He said he tried Hourglass9 and it wouldn't start

maybe he fried the sd reader?

 

[Quantumcat]

maybe he fried the sd reader?

I was thinking that too - if the console shuts down with no SD card in then it shouldn't be bricked. But then, if the reader was broken how would it know whether there's a card in there?

 

[dudemo]

possibly shut it off during an important process. if you can access payloads then restore your backup with decrypt9

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


maybe he fried the sd reader?

Definitely can't access payloads at all.

And I don't think I fried the SD reader because the console seems to recognize there being an SD card with an arm9loaderhax.bin file. Which is what makes me think it's not a complete brick yet.

Edit: putting an SD card with no arm9loaderhax file results in the console shutting off exactly like it would without an SD card in.

 

[Raylight]

I was thinking that too - if the console shuts down with no SD card in then it shouldn't be bricked. But then, if the reader was broken how would it know whether there's a card in there?

if not that its definitely a corruption problem

 

[dudemo]

I'm currently rebuilding my smaller SD card (16Gb compared to the 64Gb I normally use) with my last backup from Luma 6 and firmware 11. It was before I switched from Decrypt9 to Hourglass9 and you fine folks helped me CTRansfer to fix it the last time.

It's a known working config with my console. Somehow I doubt it is going to help though.

Minus a hard mod (which I'm willing to do if necessary so I don't have to hard mod my n3DS), is there any way I can fix it?

 

[Raylight]

I'm currently rebuilding my smaller SD card (16Gb compared to the 64Gb I normally use) with my last backup from Luma 6 and firmware 11. It was before I switched from Decrypt9 to Hourglass9 and you fine folks helped me CTRansfer to fix it the last time.

It's a known working config with my console. Somehow I doubt it is going to help though.

Minus a hard mod (which I'm willing to do if necessary so I don't have to hard mod my n3DS), is there any way I can fix it?

if its a corruption then hardmod may be the only way since your access is gone

 

[Quantumcat]

I'm currently rebuilding my smaller SD card (16Gb compared to the 64Gb I normally use) with my last backup from Luma 6 and firmware 11. It was before I switched from Decrypt9 to Hourglass9 and you fine folks helped me CTRansfer to fix it the last time.

It's a known working config with my console. Somehow I doubt it is going to help though.

Minus a hard mod (which I'm willing to do if necessary so I don't have to hard mod my n3DS), is there any way I can fix it?

Before you can find out how to fix it you need to get a response from someone knowledgeable who knows what the problem can be :-/

 

[dudemo]

Before you can find out how to fix it you need to get a response from someone knowledgeable who knows what the problem can be :-/

I agree. Even if it's broke and I need to hard mod it, I'd like to know what exactly happened so we can perhaps prevent it from happening again to others. I mean, I know pulling the SD card out with the console booted is bad, but I didnt imagine it being so catastrophic.

 

[Majickhat55]

This might sound dumb but have you tried removing the battery? Or running it dry, then recharging it..... I mean if you hear hoofbeats think horses, not zebras.

 

[dpad_5678]

Wow. So the warning that pops up when you remove the SD card while on the home menu is true. I had no idea it would make everything go all nuckin futs. Best of luck.

 

[SomeGamer]

Wow. So the warning that pops up when you remove the SD card while on the home menu is true. I had no idea it would make everything go all nuckin futs. Best of luck.

Why else would they put it in a popup? In the manual they even advise against removing the game card while the console is turned on, but the 3DS itself never says a word if you do this.

 

[dpad_5678]

Why else would they put it in a popup? In the manual they even advise against removing the game card while the console is turned on, but the 3DS itself never says a word if you do this.

Removing The SD Card while your system is powered on can cause data corruption or loss

NOT

Removing the SD card while your system is powered on while rename NATIVE_FIRM to NOW_YOUR_BRICKED_LOL.

 

[gamesquest1]

sounds more like a payload issue, replace your arm9loaderhax.bin file with decrypt9/hourglass9 renamed to arm9loaderhax.bin

if that fails try another SD card, the fact the 3ds is doing the normal a9lh behavior means its running the a9lh code to look for the arm9loaderhax.bin file and shutting down if its not found, its almost certainly a corrupt file or SD card, just try the usual fixes before crying brick XD

Hmmm ok, so i just re-read the OP and seen you already tried this stuff, in whcih case its kinda weird :S its running the a9lh stage fine, but seems to be failing somewhere there, i guess a hardmod might be your only choice, sorry for jumping the gun, there is just a lot of these "ahhhhh im bricked!!!!" threads and usually it just turns out the OP hadnt pressed the power button or charged the system XD

 

[dudemo]

Update:

I left it running all damn night with a black screen. The battery died and I plugged it in. Turned it back on and now I get a quick screen flash followed by the original symptoms. Holding the power button to turn it off and powering it back on gets me another quick screen flash (bright backlight that quickly dims) followed by the original symptoms. I cannot get a payload to run. At all.

I get back from my morning physical therapy torture session today and saw my brother playing my friggin 3DS. I flipped my shit. Asked him what he did to fix it and his response was "turn it on". I asked him to run through the boot process and he said "I opened it, pushed the power button, and 10 seconds later it was at the menu".

So here's where I am and what I've got. I have a 3DS that's turned on and sitting at the 11.1 home menu. That's about it. I'm afraid to turn the fucker off and will now be using it very little until I can get the DSiWare downgrade done on my n3DS next week. I still have no idea what caused it other than removing the SD card, nor do I know what fixed it.

 

[astronautlevel]

You wouldn't happen to have had a DS cart in would you?

 

[dudemo]

I'm not sure, actually. I assume that it is, because it's an r4i card that I use to play DS games. That card has been in that slot since I softmodded the console. Since the day I received it, actually. I threw all my NDS dumps on there and haven't modified it since. (Well over a year!)

The card was in there when my brother "fixed" it, even.