Hardware Help with Previously Bricked O3DS

[NoNoNeko]

I'm fixing a friend's 3DS that suddenly shut off while we were playing smash using the 3DS as a controller on my Wii U. I thought no big deal, his 3DS probably just freaked out or something so I just forced power off with the Rosalina menu and then when I tried to boot again, it stayed on the black screen. At this point he was kinda done for the night so he just left me with it to fix if I could and if I couldn't it wasn't really a big deal. I let it charge overnight and tried to start it again and it still didn't work so I made a backup in GM9 and went looking for a nand backup I made before we modded it with Luma and this is where the issue lies. I have a backup of the sysnand and successfully restored it, but it's all the way back from February 2016 and on firmware 9.2 and I don't know where my latest backup is at. This is back when the closest to coldboot we had was menuhax and emunand with RXtools if I remember correctly. I have cubic ninja if it helps but I'm just wondering if there will be any issues in the future if I upgrade the Sysnand/what else I have to do from here. Am I correct in assuming that all I have to do from here is reinstall my cias for FBI and whatnot and it'll just work? I don't really want to update to the latest firmware because I remember reading there are issues with Freeshop on 11.8 but I have Smash on cartridge so I can update it to I think 10.x if I need to. Thank you!

Edit: It also blinks the blue light without a SD card inserted with boot.firm on the root of the SD card so I need help with making that boot as well.

 

[Hayato213]

I'm fixing a friend's 3DS that suddenly shut off while we were playing smash using the 3DS as a controller on my Wii U. I thought no big deal, his 3DS probably just freaked out or something so I just forced power off with the Rosalina menu and then when I tried to boot again, it stayed on the black screen. At this point he was kinda done for the night so he just left me with it to fix if I could and if I couldn't it wasn't really a big deal. I let it charge overnight and tried to start it again and it still didn't work so I made a backup in GM9 and went looking for a nand backup I made before we modded it with Luma and this is where the issue lies. I have a backup of the sysnand and successfully restored it, but it's all the way back from February 2016 and on firmware 9.2 and I don't know where my latest backup is at. This is back when the closest to coldboot we had was menuhax and emunand with RXtools if I remember correctly. I have cubic ninja if it helps but I'm just wondering if there will be any issues in the future if I upgrade the Sysnand/what else I have to do from here. Am I correct in assuming that all I have to do from here is reinstall my cias for FBI and whatnot and it'll just work? I don't really want to update to the latest firmware because I remember reading there are issues with Freeshop on 11.8 but I have Smash on cartridge so I can update it to I think 10.x if I need to. Thank you!

Edit: It also blinks the blue light without a SD card inserted with boot.firm on the root of the SD card so I need help with making that boot as well.

Updating with cart just mean it will be a Frankenstein firmware, if nand backup restore doesn't work, you can try the 9.2.0-20 CTR nand transfer and then update to 11.8.0-41, just don't do any network installation since nintendo check for the tickets

 

[NFates]

If I understand correctly, you said it doesn't boot with a boot.firm on the root of the SD card.

If that's the case, try putting the arm9loaderhax.bin from here and see if it boots.

 

[Hayato213]

If I understand correctly, you said it doesn't boot with a boot.firm on the root of the SD card.

If that's the case, try putting the arm9loaderhax.bin from here and see if it boots.

Might be the Luma3ds bin/firm file, but not 100% sure if replacing the arm9loaderhax.bin / boot.firm will fix the problem since he has to force it to shut down, problem seems to be the nand got corrupted some how, when he powered on he get a black screen.

 

[NFates]

Might be the Luma3ds firm file, but not 100% sure if replacing the boot.firm will fix the problem since he has to force it to shut down, problem seems to be the nand got corrupted some how, when he powered on he get a black screen.

He said "blinks the blue light" which I assume means it can't find a valid boot.firm / arm9loaderhax.bin .

 

[NoNoNeko]

Updating with cart just mean it will be a Frankenstein firmware, if nand backup restore doesn't work, you can try the 9.2.0-20 CTR nand transfer and then update to 11.8.0-41, just don't do any network installation since nintendo check for the tickets

Alright, thank you! I'll try that if nothing else works.

If I understand correctly, you said it doesn't boot with a boot.firm on the root of the SD card.

If that's the case, try putting the arm9loaderhax.bin from here and see if it boots.

Oh, I'm sorry! It does boot with a boot.firm, sorry I was unclear. That's why I am thinking all is fine but I know with my N3DS it can boot without one so I think something might have been undone.

 

[Hayato213]

Alright, thank you! I'll try that if nothing else works.

Oh, I'm sorry! It does boot with a boot.firm, sorry I was unclear. That's why I am thinking all is fine but I know with my N3DS it can boot without one so I think something might have been undone.

If replacing the Luma3ds file you still get a black screen then problem is the nand if you can still access Luma Config menu and Luma Chainloader menu.

 

[NFates]

Oh, I'm sorry! It does boot with a boot.firm, sorry I was unclear. That's why I am thinking all is fine but I know with my N3DS it can boot without one so I think something might have been undone.

Then you should try a CTRTransfer. Your console can boot without a boot.firm because it has the file on (perhaps) its CTRNAND.

 

[NoNoNeko]

If replacing the Luma3ds file you still get a black screen then problem is the nand if you can still access Luma Config menu and Luma Chainloader menu.

Yes, that's why I restored the nand but my nand dump I have is from 2016 so I am wondering if that matters or if all of the patches are done to the system and everything just kinda works even if it's an older nand dump. I think it's a vanilla nand dump in the sense that nothing was done to it and this is the actual firmware I had before I put on Emunand on it but I really don't remember.

Then you should try a CTRTransfer. Your console can boot without a boot.firm because it has the file on (perhaps) its CTRNAND.

Alright, I can just start from here and finish the guide then? https://3ds.hacks.guide/ctrtransfer.html

Edit: Oops Hayato posted a link xD

 

[Hayato213]

Yes, that's why I restored the nand but my nand dump I have is from 2016 so I am wondering if that matters or if all of the patches are done to the system and everything just kinda works even if it's an older nand dump. I think it's a vanilla nand dump in the sense that nothing was done to it and this is the actual firmware I had before I put on Emunand on it but I really don't remember

Try this

https://quantumcat1.github.io/9.2.0-ctrtransfer.html

If you cant get the GM9 to run the nand transfer try it with Decrypt9Wip, GM9 require you to have script files.

https://github.com/d0k3/GodMode9/releases

https://github.com/d0k3/Decrypt9WIP/releases

 

[NoNoNeko]

Try this

https://quantumcat1.github.io/9.2.0-ctrtransfer.html

If you cant get the GM9 to run the nand transfer try it with Decrypt9Wip, GM9 require you to have script files.

https://github.com/d0k3/GodMode9/releases

https://github.com/d0k3/Decrypt9WIP/releases

Thank you! I'll try and post my results

Update: It more or less worked, I can install CIA's and now everything seems to work well enough for now. I'll backup my nand and reinstall it should anything else happen again, thank you all!