Hacking [IMPORTANT] PSA: AutoRCM battery warning

[neobahamut1989]

yesterday stupidly forget that i have let my switch in rcm mode for whole day. when get back from work, after sending payload. sxos cant load due to empty battery. it just stay at battery charging icon. after leave in that state while connected with cable for several minute (10~20m), sxos suddently load. .
Quite frightening experience, but if i just be more careful than everything ok. Usually i just leave switch in sleep mode. Anyways, quite glad using autorcm, make everything easier. Everything has risk, just be careful.

 

[Mr. Wizard]

yesterday stupidly forget that i have let my switch in rcm mode for whole day. when get back from work, after sending payload. sxos cant load due to empty battery. it just stay at battery charging icon. after leave in that state while connected with cable for several minute (10~20m), sxos suddently load. .
Quite frightening experience, but if i just be more careful than everything ok. Usually i just leave switch in sleep mode. Anyways, quite glad using autorcm, make everything easier. Everything has risk, just be careful.

If you see that icon you are golden, that is the sign the PD controller has been initialized. Nothing more to do than let it charge normally as you witnessed.

 

[Mr. Wizard]

Well rcm is charging as much as horizon tho.

Uh no I believe it charges ~50 - 250mA @ 5v or like 1 watt max, a far cry short of the 12 watts through the PD system.
So if the switch takes 4 hours to fully charge at 12 watts it will take around 48 hours to charge in RCM and that's being generous me thinks.

UPDATE: If autorcm is installed. In my case.

Here's some useful stuffs: https://switchchargers.com/how-it-works/

 

[mariogamer]

Uh no I believe it charges ~50 - 250mA @ 5v or like 1 watt max, a far cry short of the 12 watts through the PD system.
So if the switch takes 4 hours to fully charge at 12 watts it will take around 48 hours to charge in RCM and that's being generous me thinks.

Here's some useful stuffs: https://switchchargers.com/how-it-works/

Ctcaer tested it. Can't remember the message tho.

 

[Draxzelex]

Ctcaer tested it. Can't remember the message tho.

So, Switch charges and does not charges in RCM. xD

The results (battery was 89%):


The switch can charge normally the battery, if the BCT is intact!
In RCM AND in hekate menu.
*BCT is the boot configuration table that autoRCM corrupts.

Tests showed that it was charging with the same current, as in Horison OS.
The current it was drawing with 89% battery, was 800mA - 1000mA, using Switch wall adapter. On PC, it was the max the hub could give.


------------------------------------


The switch cannot charge normally with a corrupt BCT (AutoRCM).
In hekate, it shows similar behavior (read below).
Extra emphasis on the "normally".

With autoRCM, basically a corrupt BCT, the switch behaves differently.
There are 2 behaviors that I saw when connecting to the switch wall charger:

• Common - It was draining 140-250mA.
• Common (in hekate) - 200mA - 400mA
  
• Rare (normally if you connect charger after powering off from HOS) - Drain of alternating 250mA and 1000mA, with surges of 2.5A.

------------------------------------

Summary - facts:

1. Switch can charge completely normally in RCM or Hekate with a BCT intact
   • The percent % in Horizon OS, after a RCM charge, is not fake.
2. Switch does not charge normally with AutoRCM, a.k.a corrupt BCT.
   1. Either it charges very slowly or sometimes with a broken slow/fast/slow/fast charge pattern:
   2. Or this behavior is current taken from the USB controller or the BPMP (Nvidia's Boot and Power management processor)
   • In AutoRCM, the Charge IC probably can't update the battery calibration file and could make the percent fake.

I don't know for behavior .3 what really happens and what Switch does. This can be easily examined, by connecting a current multimeter between battery and switch and check the readings.

You know, now that I have an AutoRCM thread, I should probably add this information so CTCaer can get less notifications everytime this information is dug up.

 

[Mr. Wizard]

You know, now that I have an AutoRCM thread, I should probably add this information so CTCaer can get less notifications everytime this information is dug up.

Well there ya go, I'm using aRCM so thats why it fluctuates. I wonder how much it charges while completely off.

 

[Thistletea]

I got mine working again with the following steps. Hope this helps some of ya'll with SX dongle and jig.

1. Let the switch charge with the Nintendo brick/cable for a couple of hours
2. Put the jig on
3. Unplug charger from the Switch
4. Hold down power for 15 seconds
5. Plug charger back in
6. Quickly remove the charger and put the SX dongle on
7. You should see RCM boot up if not repeat steps 3-6

Good luck!

PS When I booted up my Switch it was already at 100%. So the theory about dead AutoCRM'ed Switch coming back from just being charged did not work for me.

 

[Robert McCoy]

I have no idea what's going on with my switch. It did die while in cfw and I had autorcm installed. I managed to get it back into sx os and uninstalled autorcm. then booted it back up into normal OS and now it drains in seconds. I will watch it go from 100 and just keep going down to 1% and it will actually turn itself off all the way. I don't know how to fix it. Then I left it turned off for awhile. Then put it on the charger for awhile until it was 100% and it started doing something weird. 21%, 14%, 5%, 1%, 25%, 15%, 1% and just keep fluctuating like that all in mere seconds. up down up down up down. Now it's doing the 100% down to 1% and staying doing that again. NO idea what to do.

 

[Draxzelex]

I have no idea what's going on with my switch. It did die while in cfw and I had autorcm installed. I managed to get it back into sx os and uninstalled autorcm. then booted it back up into normal OS and now it drains in seconds. I will watch it go from 100 and just keep going down to 1% and it will actually turn itself off all the way. I don't know how to fix it. Then I left it turned off for awhile. Then put it on the charger for awhile until it was 100% and it started doing something weird. 21%, 14%, 5%, 1%, 25%, 15%, 1% and just keep fluctuating like that all in mere seconds. up down up down up down. Now it's doing the 100% down to 1% and staying doing that again. NO idea what to do.

Try using the battery fix in Hekate.

 

[Robert McCoy]

Try using the battery fix in Hekate.

question are you supposed to leave the joycons out when doing that?

 

[Draxzelex]

question are you supposed to leave the joycons out when doing that?

Joycons have their own batteries so I doubt it'll have any bearing but I don't see any harm in detaching them just to be safe.

 

[Powerful]

Okay I have had AutoRCM the whole time, and never realized the problems. I have never had my switch die, so I would like to have an understanding on this. If my switch runs out of battery and I have AutoRCM installed, I can still charge it, but it will take a long time? Or is it not able to turn on and it’s bricked instead of semi bricked like usual.

 

[Draxzelex]

Okay I have had AutoRCM the whole time, and never realized the problems. I have never had my switch die, so I would like to have an understanding on this. If my switch runs out of battery and I have AutoRCM installed, I can still charge it, but it will take a long time? Or is it not able to turn on and it’s bricked instead of semi bricked like usual.

The former; the console will take a longer time to recover battery since its charge rate is reduced in RCM and if the battery is dead, it'll only charge in RCM.

 

[Skylinedeadline]

Just to be clear as I'm a bit confused if I enable autorcm and use my switch exclusively in docked mode I'll never have any problem right? It won't ruin the battery if it never dies or loses charge right?

 

[HiD]

Just to be clear as I'm a bit confused if I enable autorcm and use my switch exclusively in docked mode I'll never have any problem right? It won't ruin the battery if it never dies or loses charge right?

I’ve been running with autoRCM (to avoid burning fuses after updating with choidujourNX) for a while now, and there is a lot of misinformation about it on the web.

- It doesn’t suck your battery or anything like that. The main thing is people cannot tell if the console is off or in RCM mode, because of the black screen. AFAIK the only way to make sure you turn off your switch is doing so through your payload (hekate)

- no problem in sleep mode

- if you run out of battery with autorcm on, it can be tricky to recharge. It never happened to me but I think it charges very very slowly while in RCM.

 

[Skylinedeadline]

I’ve been running with autoRCM (to avoid burning fuses after updating with choidujourNX) for a while now, and there is a lot of misinformation about it on the web.

- It doesn’t suck your battery or anything like that. The main thing is people cannot tell if the console is off or in RCM mode, because of the black screen. AFAIK the only way to make sure you turn off your switch is doing so through your payload (hekate)

- no problem in sleep mode

- if you run out of battery with autorcm on, it can be tricky to recharge. It never happened to me but I think it charges very very slowly while in RCM.

I take it you can't turn it off the regular way if it's difficult to tell? You can't just hold down power and select turn off?

 

[mdmachine]

I take it you can't turn it off the regular way if it's difficult to tell? You can't just hold down power and select turn off?

Been using autoRCM for a while now, never had a problem. I just have it in sleep mode 99.99% of the time. I am going to assume what you said is what people are doing. Turning it "off" while docked or connected to a charger will simply make the unit start back up, and be blank.

The few times I have wanted the unit truly off, I connect the unit to my payload injector (a PI in my case), hold down power and pick restart (I believe OFF would have the same result). The unit then boots into RCM. Here is the important part that I can see people screwing up... I disconnect the USB, THEN I go to the power off option in the RCM menu. This AFAIK truly turns the unit off.

At any point if the USB gets (or is) plugged in, the unit will automatically turn on. If autoRCM is enabled, you wouldn't notice! That's why I take the USB out before turning it off in the RCM menu.

In the end I find it easier to just keep the unit booted, and sleep than take my chances with it "off".

 

[HiD]

This. The only way to make sure the unit is turned off is by turning it off using the option in hekate payload.
But tbh I never turn off my switch.

 

[risq]

i use autorcm for a month now, my switch never ran out of battery so far.

But when i now try to boot (reinx), i can inject the payload, it will show the splash screen and after that only the upper left charge symbol with low battery sign. should i just wait (how long)? in which state is it now (autorcm still?) do i need to power off and reinject?

i have a second switch though, would it be an option to change batteries (never have done it)?

 

[reyyesrey]

All you need to do is plug it into the dock for an hour if the battery drains. Then payload it back on.