Hacking Can I flash a ctrtransfer onto my bricked 3DS without A9LH and NAND backup?

[ItsKaitlyn03]

Hi there, a while ago I installed Ubuntu and removed my Windows install and forgot to backup my NAND image onto a upload website *facepalm* so now I'm stuck with no A9LH and no NAND backup only a (almost done) hardmodded 3DS, could I use a ctrtransfer to flash my 3DS?

 

[nccom]

Does your 3ds work/boots atm? If not then no, you need your own NAND backup, you can't just flash random image from net via hardmod.

 

[ItsKaitlyn03]

Actually it does boot but just stays on a black screen no recovery, but it does initialize wifi

 

[nccom]

If its bricked, and black screen on boot looks like it is, and you have no nand backup or a9l installed then no, you won't be able to fix it with hardmod. The only choice atm is to replace motherboard.

 

[ItsKaitlyn03]

Couldnt i hex edit a ctrtransfer and add in my NCCH header?

 

[nccom]

If you have keys from your console then maybe you can use them with nand image...not sure as I've never done that so maybe someone else can answer this.

 

[ItsKaitlyn03]

I think I still have my otp.bin lemme check

 

[Alex658]

@gamesquest1 or @vb_encryption_vb may have an answer as to what sensible files you may need from a console to wake it from a brick, other than a NAND backup.

But a CTR transfer (without a9lh) by itself won't help you at all.

 

[gamesquest1]

Yeah if you have your otp you could probably manually build the console specific a9lh FIRM section and inject it via hardmod, but what exactly caused the brick in the first place?

And I'm kinda wondering how you get your otp, but end up not having a9lh installed already, I think we will need more info for a definitive answer

 

[vb_encryption_vb]

No, NAND is needed.

 

[ItsKaitlyn03]

Welp, I have no OTP... only a semi-broken NAND which does boot and can init WiFi but nothing else.

 

[gamesquest1]

Right well out of curiosity how was the system bricked?

And if/when Sighax is released then as long as you know what FIRM the system was on when it bricked you should be able to unbrick regardless via hardmod

 

[The Catboy]

I am also really interested in knowing what led up to the brick.

 

[Alex658]

Yeah if you have your otp you could probably manually build the console specific a9lh FIRM section and inject it via hardmod, but what exactly caused the brick in the first place?

And I'm kinda wondering how you get your otp, but end up not having a9lh installed already, I think we will need more info for a definitive answer

This may not be the case for OP but...
If you had a9lh set up and used gateway to update to 11.3 (on o3ds) you would end up without a9lh and your OTP dumped.

N3ds would just brick.

There's a certain rumour that just "booting" gateway on 11.3 (besides blackscreening because it's not supported yet) would end up removing a9lh somehow after you reboot leaving you on stock 11.3 with your OTP dumped.
But there have been mixed opinions about this.

 

[ItsKaitlyn03]

Ok so here it goes...
It started one morning when my WiFi wouldn't work I mean it could connect to WiFi but it wouldn't load a single thing, DLP and Local still worked...
So I tried to reflash my original NAND thinking this would work, So I booted into Decrypt9 entered reflash NAND now and I must have forgotten to hit B when it wanted to back up my A9LH NAND so I hit A it backed it up and then flashed the new A9LH NAND backup however it partially failed... So being stupid me I restarted my 3DS and instead of reflashing my original NAND I got a nice brick instead.

 

[gamesquest1]

This may not be the case for OP but...
If you had a9lh set up and used gateway to update to 11.3 (on o3ds) you would end up without a9lh and your OTP dumped.

N3ds would just brick.

There's a certain rumour that just "booting" gateway on 11.3 (besides blackscreening because it's not supported yet) would end up removing a9lh somehow after you reboot leaving you on stock 11.3 with your OTP dumped.
But there have been mixed opinions about this.

In that scenario I assume you could just plaintext attack the 11.3 firm and inject the a9lh FIRMS as the reason it bricks is that the keystore is not fixed when ninty updates to the 11.3 firm,

Now I'm not 100% sure if it would work, but that's what I'm assuming is happening with the gateway stuff

 

[ItsKaitlyn03]

Its also still on 11.2

 

[gamesquest1]

Ok so here it goes...
It started one morning when my WiFi wouldn't work I mean it could connect to WiFi but it wouldn't load a single thing, DLP and Local still worked...
So I tried to reflash my original NAND thinking this would work, So I booted into Decrypt9 entered reflash NAND now and I must have forgotten to hit B when it wanted to back up my A9LH NAND so I hit A it backed it up and then flashed the new A9LH NAND backup however it partially failed... So being stupid me I restarted my 3DS and instead of reflashing my original NAND I got a nice brick instead.

So what about restoring the original nand backup via hardmod? Or did you delete the original backup you were trying to flash after bricking?

And also have you tried any data recovery tools on whatever media you were using to store the nand backups

 

[ItsKaitlyn03]

So what about restoring the original nand backup via hardmod? Or did you delete the original backup you were trying to flash after bricking?

I installed Ubuntu and forgot to backup my original nand which was on that partition

 

[BARNWEY]

Have you tried booting safe mode and updating?