There seems to be rather large number of threads popping up with the misconception that A9LH is the cause of their problems and that removing it will somehow fix their issues. In this thread I will attempt to tackle these issues and give examples of proper troubleshooting. This is not a technical support nor help thread, this is just a guide to proper troubleshooting.
Problem: "My system boots to a black screen/boots for a second then turns after installing A9LH! How do I remove A9LH!?!"
Troubleshooting: Make sure you have "arm9loaderhax.bin" in the root of your SD card.
Problem: "I am still having black screen issue! I wanna remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: Chances are if you've just setup A9LH, you need to preform a 9.2.0 ctrtransfer
Problem: "But I am still having problems with *stuff*!"
Troubleshooting: 90% of every problem is in the Troubleshooting guide. If you are still unable to solve your problem and done everything to troubleshoot it, then you should create a thread. When making a thread make sure you include every detail. Simply making a thread like, "I need help!?!?! my 3ds boots to black screen after installing A9Lh!!" isn't enough information to do a proper troubleshooting. Your thread should include a minimal of the following:
Model of 3DS
Current OFW, such as is it still on 2.1.0
At what point did this error occor? And if there is an error message, what does the message say?
Last method of troubleshooting used
Can you still boot into A9LH payloads, such as Hourglass9?
Did you have any previous patches to your NAND, such as region-free, TWL, or AGB patches?
Did you follow a youtube guide or 3ds.guide?
Did you google search or search the forums before creating this thread?
These are all basic troubleshooting questions that help the community greatly when they are properly used. Using this basic guideline and any additional information will allow the community to get a better understanding of your issue and get you on the right road to properly setting up A9LH.
Now for other other issue that continue to popup.
Problem: "My 3DS has started freezing! I think removing A9LH will fix this!"
Troubleshooting: A9LH does not cause random freezes. Removing A9LH to test this will only add unneeded risk of bricking. Random freezes can be caused by a number issues such as, but not limited to: Corrupt data on the SD card, theme, or NAND, installing a corrupt CIA, or hardware issues. Properly troubleshooting these issues do come with their own hassles, but can actually be made easier with A9LH.
If for say, you have a corrupt NAND, simply restoring a previous NAND before the corruption will fix the issue. If you have a corrupt SD card, backing it up and formatting with emuNAND9, will fix this issue. Hardware troubleshooting often requires a deep understanding of 3DS hardware and may require the system to be sent out to a specialist. This is not the thread to get that information from. Nor is this the thread to troubleshooting hardware issues because it's hard to pinpoint what is directly causing the issue without knowing all the details or opening the system.
Problem: "My battery isn't holding a charge! Should I remove A9LH?"
Troubleshooting: A9LH has nothing to do with your battery life. If your battery is having trouble holding a charge, test out a new battery. If the new battery is working, your old battery was broken. If your new battery is still having issues, then chances are you have a short somewhere.
Problem: "My 3DS suddenly booted to a black screen! Or Boots to just background music, but not to the homemenu! I need to remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: I had something like this happen to me before. It wasn't related to A9LH nor my NAND. I did the proper troubleshooting methods until I found the issue. My issue was hardware related (you can read more about it in my blog.) Once I found the cause of my issue, I was able to repair it myself. Once again, most of the time when issues like this popup, it's related to something hardware side failing. Most of the time something was knocked loose inside of your system. If you have the tools and the knowledge, you can repair your own system. If you don't, it's not hard to find someone in the threads who can help.
Problem: "I want to access the eShop! Please help me remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: A9LH nor CFW will effect your eShop experience. If you are having issues accessing or downloading from the eShop, search the error code. The error codes are often easy to find through a simple google search. Most can be linked to server issues on Nintendo's end, bank issues on your bank's end, credit card issues, ect. These codes can be found very easily. If you encounter a code that can't be found, make sure you include that error code in your thread. But in most cases, the error codes are just going to be links to either human error or network error.
Problem: "Some of my CIAs won't install, I should remove A9LH to see if that fixes it!"
Troubleshooting: A9LH has not effect your CIA installations, in fact A9LH really has very little effect on your homemenu. A9LH boots long before the homemenu and is basically done effecting your system long before the homemenu starts. You most likely are experiencing one of two errors
1: Your SD card isn't ready to setup games. Simple fix, access the eShop and let it prepare your SD card. CIAs should install from there.
2: You got some bad CIAs. Simply delete them and try another CIA.
Problem: "I can't install cia files even though i have enough space."
Troubleshooting: Refer to above troubleshooting.
Problem: My SD/MicroSD card isn't be detected! I want to remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: Your SD/MicroSD card is either corrupt and not properly formatted.
To test if your SD/Micro card is corrupt, refer to these part of the guide
For Windows: H2testw
For Linux: F3
For Mac: F3X
If your SD card isn't properly format it. You need to format your SD/MicroSD card to fat3DS. There are several guides to doing that with the PC. I also suggest if you are using anything above 32GB+ to then also format using emunand9 (using the option to SD format without emuNAND)
Problem: "My 3DS is acting weird! I want to remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: What exactly are the problems are you having? Chances are they are an easy fix and simply talking about the issue can help. We are a community of extremely knowledgeable members. Chances are if you are having an issue, we've seen it before. Removing A9LH simply doesn't make sense when there's an easy fix.
This is a WIP thread, I will be adding more common complaints and troubleshooting solutions as they show up. If you've seen any issues you feel should be included, post them here!
Problem: "My system boots to a black screen/boots for a second then turns after installing A9LH! How do I remove A9LH!?!"
Troubleshooting: Make sure you have "arm9loaderhax.bin" in the root of your SD card.
Problem: "I am still having black screen issue! I wanna remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: Chances are if you've just setup A9LH, you need to preform a 9.2.0 ctrtransfer
Problem: "But I am still having problems with *stuff*!"
Troubleshooting: 90% of every problem is in the Troubleshooting guide. If you are still unable to solve your problem and done everything to troubleshoot it, then you should create a thread. When making a thread make sure you include every detail. Simply making a thread like, "I need help!?!?! my 3ds boots to black screen after installing A9Lh!!" isn't enough information to do a proper troubleshooting. Your thread should include a minimal of the following:
Model of 3DS
Current OFW, such as is it still on 2.1.0
At what point did this error occor? And if there is an error message, what does the message say?
Last method of troubleshooting used
Can you still boot into A9LH payloads, such as Hourglass9?
Did you have any previous patches to your NAND, such as region-free, TWL, or AGB patches?
Did you follow a youtube guide or 3ds.guide?
Did you google search or search the forums before creating this thread?
These are all basic troubleshooting questions that help the community greatly when they are properly used. Using this basic guideline and any additional information will allow the community to get a better understanding of your issue and get you on the right road to properly setting up A9LH.
Now for other other issue that continue to popup.
Problem: "My 3DS has started freezing! I think removing A9LH will fix this!"
Troubleshooting: A9LH does not cause random freezes. Removing A9LH to test this will only add unneeded risk of bricking. Random freezes can be caused by a number issues such as, but not limited to: Corrupt data on the SD card, theme, or NAND, installing a corrupt CIA, or hardware issues. Properly troubleshooting these issues do come with their own hassles, but can actually be made easier with A9LH.
If for say, you have a corrupt NAND, simply restoring a previous NAND before the corruption will fix the issue. If you have a corrupt SD card, backing it up and formatting with emuNAND9, will fix this issue. Hardware troubleshooting often requires a deep understanding of 3DS hardware and may require the system to be sent out to a specialist. This is not the thread to get that information from. Nor is this the thread to troubleshooting hardware issues because it's hard to pinpoint what is directly causing the issue without knowing all the details or opening the system.
Problem: "My battery isn't holding a charge! Should I remove A9LH?"
Troubleshooting: A9LH has nothing to do with your battery life. If your battery is having trouble holding a charge, test out a new battery. If the new battery is working, your old battery was broken. If your new battery is still having issues, then chances are you have a short somewhere.
Problem: "My 3DS suddenly booted to a black screen! Or Boots to just background music, but not to the homemenu! I need to remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: I had something like this happen to me before. It wasn't related to A9LH nor my NAND. I did the proper troubleshooting methods until I found the issue. My issue was hardware related (you can read more about it in my blog.) Once I found the cause of my issue, I was able to repair it myself. Once again, most of the time when issues like this popup, it's related to something hardware side failing. Most of the time something was knocked loose inside of your system. If you have the tools and the knowledge, you can repair your own system. If you don't, it's not hard to find someone in the threads who can help.
Problem: "I want to access the eShop! Please help me remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: A9LH nor CFW will effect your eShop experience. If you are having issues accessing or downloading from the eShop, search the error code. The error codes are often easy to find through a simple google search. Most can be linked to server issues on Nintendo's end, bank issues on your bank's end, credit card issues, ect. These codes can be found very easily. If you encounter a code that can't be found, make sure you include that error code in your thread. But in most cases, the error codes are just going to be links to either human error or network error.
Problem: "Some of my CIAs won't install, I should remove A9LH to see if that fixes it!"
Troubleshooting: A9LH has not effect your CIA installations, in fact A9LH really has very little effect on your homemenu. A9LH boots long before the homemenu and is basically done effecting your system long before the homemenu starts. You most likely are experiencing one of two errors
1: Your SD card isn't ready to setup games. Simple fix, access the eShop and let it prepare your SD card. CIAs should install from there.
2: You got some bad CIAs. Simply delete them and try another CIA.
Problem: "I can't install cia files even though i have enough space."
Troubleshooting: Refer to above troubleshooting.
Problem: My SD/MicroSD card isn't be detected! I want to remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: Your SD/MicroSD card is either corrupt and not properly formatted.
To test if your SD/Micro card is corrupt, refer to these part of the guide
For Windows: H2testw
For Linux: F3
For Mac: F3X
If your SD card isn't properly format it. You need to format your SD/MicroSD card to fat3DS. There are several guides to doing that with the PC. I also suggest if you are using anything above 32GB+ to then also format using emunand9 (using the option to SD format without emuNAND)
Problem: "My 3DS is acting weird! I want to remove A9LH!"
Troubleshooting: What exactly are the problems are you having? Chances are they are an easy fix and simply talking about the issue can help. We are a community of extremely knowledgeable members. Chances are if you are having an issue, we've seen it before. Removing A9LH simply doesn't make sense when there's an easy fix.
This is a WIP thread, I will be adding more common complaints and troubleshooting solutions as they show up. If you've seen any issues you feel should be included, post them here!
Last edited by The Catboy,
