Hacking N3DS XL brick fixing (ideas required)

[TLNiles]

So the deal is - a friend of mine gave me away his bricked N3DS. My plan is to get it working when I'll be back home via hardmodding it and injecting b9s into NAND, but I'm curious on what exactly caused the brick and if it actually can be fixed without screwdriwer and soldering iron.

How much I know about the brick:
Luma3DS version he used I don't know. His system firm was 11.2 on the moment of the brick. Version of A9LH installed was one of those before CTR NAND payloads was possible. From what he said, he managed to brick the console by putting it in sleep mode while GBA game was running. It also doesn't look like hard brick - when turning on, power LED doesn't stays on, turning off after about a second. Which, as I understand, means that there's no bootrom loop or something. It looks similar to situation when no payload is present on SD-card, but the problem is that it's actually there.

Any ideas on what could have been the actual reason of the brick and if it's fixable without hardmod, before I proceed to it?

 

[dpad_5678]

Put both a Luma boot.firm and arm9loaderhax.bin file on your SD card.

 

[TLNiles]

Put both a Luma boot.firm and arm9loaderhax.bin file on your SD card.

Latter is already there. First probably won't bear any fruits, since he bricked his console somewhere in January-February, far before b9s went public.

 

[Jhynjhiruu]

If you boot A9LH without the SD card inserted properly (equivalent of 'without arm9loaderhax.bin on the SD card') it turns off, exactly as described by OP, so try making sure the SD card is properly inserted, try another SD card, or format it in a different format.

 

[Boured]

So the deal is - a friend of mine gave me away his bricked N3DS. My plan is to get it working when I'll be back home via hardmodding it and injecting b9s into NAND, but I'm curious on what exactly caused the brick and if it actually can be fixed without screwdriwer and soldering iron.

How much I know about the brick:
Luma3DS version he used I don't know. His system firm was 11.2 on the moment of the brick. Version of A9LH installed was one of those before CTR NAND payloads was possible. From what he said, he managed to brick the console by putting it in sleep mode while GBA game was running. It also doesn't look like hard brick - when turning on, power LED doesn't stays on, turning off after about a second. Which, as I understand, means that there's no bootrom loop or something. It looks similar to situation when no payload is present on SD-card, but the problem is that it's actually there.

Any ideas on what could have been the actual reason of the brick and if it's fixable without hardmod, before I proceed to it?

When it does that, it usually means that no arm9loaderhax.bin is found on the SD card, and even if it is, it is unsupported. I recommend using https://3ds.guide/a9lh-to-b9s to update to boot9strap, which is the newest exploit and should run on an A9LH payload version that old.

If your able to boot but the CTRNAND is borked, then you are also able to do a CTRTransfer to basically in a noob term "Reinstall" the 3DS OS by transferring a working image of it.

 

[TLNiles]

Small update - I've found a fitting screwdriver here, and so played a little bit with files on SD. Trying to run SafeA9LHInstaller does nothing. Replacing arm9loaderhax.bin with different A9LH versions of Luma does nothing. Trying to replace arm9loaderhax.bin with B9SInstaller makes console to stay in loading loop(power LED stays on as if console got hard bricked). Without SD, console stays on a little longer, but doesn't load and turns off with short clap from dynamics. Any ideas about the reasons of such behaivour?

 

[Deleted-351540]

Can you launch payloads?

 

[TLNiles]

Can you launch payloads?

Nope

 

[Yepi69]

It could be the Wi-Fi card, he might've dropped it or someone else has.
If the Wi-Fi card is even slightly loose, the console will not boot.

 

[proflayton123]

It could be the Wi-Fi card, he might've dropped it or someone else has.
If the Wi-Fi card is even slightly loose, the console will not boot.

Don't forget ribbon cables

 

[TLNiles]

Okay, so I'm kind of in situation where I don't know how to proceed any futher. All the wires are soldered to their places, yet when I put the wires to their respective SD-reader slots, I don't get bluescreen with bootrom error. Instead, power LED turns on for a bit and then turns off(even if SD card with B9SInstaller is in slot(and as you remember, doing that normally puts the console into loading loop)). Have I actually done wiring wrong, is it my SD-reader to blame or I simply missing something else? On my side, I'm pretty sure that I plugged back all the plumes and what not, so there's no loose wiring or something, as well as all the screws are on their place.

 

[APartOfMe]

Try testing your SD card for errors.

 

[dotqurter_]

If he attempted to install (or if you tried) B9S using 3ds.guide and didn't take the .bin files out of the luma-payloads post-B9S, then its that.

But since it seems to not load payloads at all, it could be a borked A9LH.bin on his NAND. Maybe renaming godmode9.firm (or .bin) to boot.firm (or arm9loaderhax.bin) and try again? (just a suggestion, as I did that and it loaded godmode9.)

 

[TLNiles]

Again - he managed to brick his console far before b9s, so he had no chance to even try to install it.
Also there's no problems caused by SD-card - console doesn't load payloads even from SD taken from my functioning 2DS.
On top of that, when I'm trying to get access to bootrom via hardmod, instead of getting bootrom error when frankenSD is inserted in card reader,it instantly turns off. Which leaves me without ideas on how to proceed.

 

[Ygreck]

Have your friend a nand backup? And don't forget to use payloads from February and not from today for testing.

 

[TLNiles]

Have your friend a nand backup? And don't forget to use payloads from February and not from today for testing.

Yes, there's nand backup on his SD, it's solid and of right size for N3DS XL nand. And I've tried several versions of A9LH Luma payload, none of them worked.

 

[tedmg091309131]

Are you sure it isn't a mcu brick. If it is then not even ntrboothax will work.

 

[Natsuru]

Again - he managed to brick his console far before b9s, so he had no chance to even try to install it.
Also there's no problems caused by SD-card - console doesn't load payloads even from SD taken from my functioning 2DS.
On top of that, when I'm trying to get access to bootrom via hardmod, instead of getting bootrom error when frankenSD is inserted in card reader,it instantly turns off. Which leaves me without ideas on how to proceed.

Are you using a recommended card reader for hardmods?

Plugable USB3-FLASH3 -
SIIG JU-MR0E12-S1-
Startech FCREADMICRO3 -
SanDisk SDDR-121-A11M : GL827
Anker® USB 3.0 4-Slot Card Reader (A7612) : RT5301 (Ava)


Also are you connecting the 3DS to the card reader 1st, turning the console on 2nd and connecting the reader to the PC 3rd?

 

[TLNiles]

Are you sure it isn't a mcu brick. If it is then not even ntrboothax will work.

I'm not quite sure still what exactly MCU brick and how I can check if what I have at hands is one. Any suggestions or information on the topic?

Are you using a recommended card reader for hardmods?

Plugable USB3-FLASH3 -
SIIG JU-MR0E12-S1-
Startech FCREADMICRO3 -
SanDisk SDDR-121-A11M : GL827
Anker® USB 3.0 4-Slot Card Reader (A7612) : RT5301 (Ava)


Also are you connecting the 3DS to the card reader 1st, turning the console on 2nd and connecting the reader to the PC 3rd?

No I'm not using any of those card readers, since none of them are avaliable in place where I live. And yes, I've been doing things in proper order, yet after I insert adapter in card reader, 3DS instantly turns off instead of giving bootrom error on boot.

 

[Natsuru]

Not all card reader will work, have you ever done a hardmod before using that card reader you are using now?
I'll suggest for now is try another card reader, failing that it could be possibility be the soldering. Bad joints or wrong wires soldered to wrong test points.etc
Do you have a multi-meter with continuity?