Hacking Black screen after A9LH update

natkoden

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I followed Plailect's guide to update A9LH and everything went without errors until I turned off the console and removed the SD card to delete unnecesary files. After I reinserted it and turned on the console, boom, black screens. No sound, no nothing.

I tried everything, no sd card, formatted sd card, select at boot, hourglass9/decrypt9/godmode9/ nothing boots... just two black screens.

The console is a N3DS XL updated to the latest firmware.

Is this a brick or what?
 
Last edited by natkoden,

mockanter

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I followed Plailect's guide to update A9LH and everything went without errors until I turned off the console and removed the SD card to delete unnecesary files. After I reinserted it and turned on the console, boom, black screens. No sound, no nothing.

I tried everything, no sd card, formatted sd card, select at boot, hourglass9/decrypt9/godmode9/ nothing boots... just two black screens.

Is this a brick or what?
Well it's probably a soft brick if it's even a brick.. did you try recovery mode yet?
 

natkoden

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You think it has something to do with a display then? A lot of people have this problem but atleast the display lights up.

I was using the console up until the very moment I updated A9LH.

I doubt both screens died at the same time lol. Plus I heard no sound coming out from the speakers, so the system is not booting at all.
 

Kromlech

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The LED is turning on with the power button and going off on its own about 3 seconds later?

You still have arm9loaderhax.bin on the SD card, right?
 

natkoden

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The LED is turning on with the power button and going off on its own about 3 seconds later?

You still have arm9loaderhax.bin on the SD card, right?

No, it stays on indefinitely. I do have that file on the root of my SD card. Besides, I installed Luma3DS to the NAND so it should boot without the SD Card.
 

Majickhat55

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Did you remove the SD while the console was on? And how long ago did you install A9LH? I assume you never had SDless if you were updating which would store the .bin in your CTRNAND. Did you completely delete your A9LH folder from your SD card prior, and are 100% sure you had no files left over from the previous installation somewhere? Are you sure you used the correct Stage 1/0 payloads for the version of SafeA9LHInstaller you used? Was your OTP.bin still lurking anywhere?
 

Distrance

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I guess the real question here is whether you can boot into Hourglass9 or anything else by holding the appropriate button. If you could boot into Hourglass9 for example you could restore a backup. Other than that the fact that it has a blue light on, and that it stays on sounds like a brick.
 

Majickhat55

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I guess the real question here is whether you can boot into Hourglass9 or anything else by holding the appropriate button. If you could boot into Hourglass9 for example you could restore a backup. Other than that the fact that it has a blue light on, and that it stays on sounds like a brick.
He said in the OP that he couldn't.. :(
 

Cuphat

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It's almost certainly bricked, which is a bit odd because updating A9LH should be a relatively safe process. It looks like you'll need a hardmod to restore your NAND.
 

Distrance

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He said in the OP that he couldn't.. :(

Well I should go to sleep then given that I clearly can't read ... :D. Sounds like a brick then :(

The questions you raise are valid points and one of them almost definitely is the cause of the brick as updating on it's own should not cause a brick. Doesn't really matter why he bricked though ... Just that he needs to get a hardmod now.
 
Last edited by Distrance,

natkoden

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Did you remove the SD while the console was on? And how long ago did you install A9LH? I assume you never had SDless if you were updating which would store the .bin in your CTRNAND. Did you completely delete your A9LH folder from your SD card prior, and are 100% sure you had no files left over from the previous installation somewhere? Are you sure you used the correct Stage 1/0 payloads for the version of SafeA9LHInstaller you used? Was your OTP.bin still lurking anywhere?

Did not remove the battery or the SD card while the console was on/updating. A9LH updated without errors and I turned off the console when the installer prompted to turn it off. Then I removed the sd card.

I installed A9LH when it came out for the N3DS with 9.2, so a long ago...

I did have SDless and used it with no problems for quite a while.

I did delete the A9LH folder and left no traces of previous installations.

I think I used the correct files. I did the same as always, download the SafeA9LHInstaller zip from Plailect's guide. This one: https://github.com/Plailect/SafeA9LHInstaller/releases/tag/v2.0.6

OTP.bin is nowhere to be found.



I can confirm now that it is a brick and hardmod is my only solution.

But that installer did brick my console.
 

JCR1

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then not only installing a9lh is risk? also updating is, I updated mine without issues, but maybe in the future I think twice before update a9lh, isn't really brick proof?
 

Sketchy1

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Damn. Now I'm a bit wary since I have A9LH v1 myself (installed March 2016) and I was about to update mine. I guess I'll just leave well enough alone.
This is the very first we've ever heard of this. I wouldnt be too panicky just yet. Seems a bit too random imo
 

Majickhat55

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This is the very first we've ever heard of this. I wouldnt be too panicky just yet. Seems a bit too random imo
This isn't the first time I've seen it between July and the present. Granted it's not often but it's not unique either. I don't see what would have caused a brick besides a payload mismatch.
 

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