Hacking Question SX OS: Switch won't turn on after crash. Battery and dongle charged, still nothing.

[cloudfe]

I've read several similar threads, but they did not help.

Small premise: I have AutoRCM on.
This is what happened: I was updating something in RetroArch (I installed it a few minutes earlier) when the Switch crashed. I've turned off the Switch (20 second holding the power button down), charged the dongle, tried turning on again (both with and without the volume button), and nothing. The led of the dongle was on, and the static noise made me think it was reacting to the console, but the screen stayed black. I've tried several more times, and I had the SX OS boot screen appear once before the screen went back to black.
Then, surprisingly, I managed to turn on the Switch by doing what I had already did several times. Odd, but I was happy.

Then the console crashed again a few minutes later while trying to go into the gallery (i.e. the SX OS options).
And this time I didn't manage to turn the console on. I've tried many times, but no luck.

I'm starting to get desperate. I even removed completely RetroArch from the SD (just in case).

The Switch should be almost fully charged (it was around 80% at the time of the first crash). The dongle is also charged (the led is on).
I'm not sure what is happening. The fact that the dongle reacts to the console makes me think that the Switch actually turns on, but the screen stays black. Or something similar.

I do hope someone will be able to help me.

 

[neav]

Did you try different sd card? also try fat32 formated sd card. There's a chance that the sd card become corrupted when writing to it.

 

[cloudfe]

The computer reads the SD card fine. Is it possible the SD is corrupted "only" for the Switch?

 

[RHOPKINS13]

It sounds to me like your dongle may have gone bad. The Switch is probably in RCM mode, but the dongle isn't sending it the payload like it should.

Try getting a USB-C cable and sending some other payload using a PC or something.

 

[kumikochan]

Sometimes the dat file itself can get corrupted. Delete that one and replace it with a new one

 

[cloudfe]

Update on the situation by steps (finally found the time to run some tests):

1) I've tried again after leaving the already-charged Switch in charge for the whole night. Still nothing.
2) Then I've replaced the dat file as suggested by kumikochan, and it worked! The Switch turned on again (and booted in SX OS).
3) But something must have happened with my sd, because my games disappeared: they were installed in the sd, and the icons were still on the main menu, but they were gone...
4) I started reinstalling the games, while making peace with the fact that I've lost my saves (didn't backup them for a while - goodbye 45+ hours of Vesperia...), but to my surprise, once I've reinstalled the games the saves were still there! Yay!
5) But the Switch froze again after a couple of hours (I had just installed 'SX Installer'). And again it wouldn't turn on. I'v replaced the dat file 5 times before successfully turning in on again (the first 4 times I would just see the Executer splash screen, and then both Switch and dongle would turn off).

At this time, my Switch is on, and my games are still there (with their saves, which I promptly backed-up...). But who can tell if/when the Switch will freeze again and stop booting.

What is your opinion on this? Could really be a faulty dongle? I've used it several times before the second freeze, and it always worked. And could a dat file get corrupted 4 times in a row just like this? I don't know what to think.

 

[Hayato213]

Update on the situation by steps (finally found the time to run some tests):

1) I've tried again after leaving the already-charged Switch in charge for the whole night. Still nothing.
2) Then I've replaced the dat file as suggested by kumikochan, and it worked! The Switch turned on again (and booted in SX OS).
3) But something must have happened with my sd, because my games disappeared: they were installed in the sd, and the icons were still on the main menu, but they were gone...
4) I started reinstalling the games, while making peace with the fact that I've lost my saves (didn't backup them for a while - goodbye 45+ hours of Vesperia...), but to my surprise, once I've reinstalled the games the saves were still there! Yay!
5) But the Switch froze again after a couple of hours (I had just installed 'SX Installer'). And again it wouldn't turn on. I'v replaced the dat file 5 times before successfully turning in on again (the first 4 times I would just see the Executer splash screen, and then both Switch and dongle would turn off).

At this time, my Switch is on, and my games are still there (with their saves, which I promptly backed-up...). But who can tell if/when the Switch will freeze again and stop booting.

What is your opinion on this? Could really be a faulty dongle? I've used it several times before the second freeze, and it always worked. And could a dat file get corrupted 4 times in a row just like this? I don't know what to think.

I guess you are on exfat?

 

[cloudfe]

I guess you are on exfat?

I am.

 

[spotanjo3]

I guess you are on exfat?

Dont you dare say because its corrupt. Retroarch can run exfat just fine. Maybe he exit Retroarch the wrong way that are not supposed to which caused to crash.

To quit properly without crash:

Click plus and minus at same time
Click B
Click quit retroarch

 

[Hayato213]

I am.

exfat has higher rate of corruption

 

[spotanjo3]

exfat has higher rate of corruption

True but not necessarily corruption if you dont know what you are doing.

 

[Illuminaticy]

Dont you dare say because its corrupt. Retroarch can run exfat just fine. Maybe he exit Retroarch the wrong way that are not supposed to which caused to crash.

To quit properly without crash:

Click plus and minus at same time
Click B
Click quit retroarch

Runs exfat "just fine"?
Cores not showing up? Normal.
Games showing corrupt text? Normal.
m4xw saying they DO NOT support Exfat? Normal.
You should not run RetroArch on Exfat, you're just asking for corruption, and issues that don't need to be there.

 

[spotanjo3]

Runs exfat "just fine"?
Cores not showing up? Normal.
Games showing corrupt text? Normal.
m4xw saying they DO NOT support Exfat? Normal.
You should not run RetroArch on Exfat, you're just asking for corruption, and issues that don't need to be there.

Sorry to say but no, RetroArch did run exfat just fine. You must know how to exit it properly without crashes. So no problem at all. For Lakka, you must use fat32.

I talked with some people at Discord who was in charge and they have RetroArch on exfat without a problem. As I said before. You must know how to exit it properly without crashes. Thats would corrupt your SD CARD if you dont know how to exit the right way for RetroArch.

 

[Illuminaticy]

Sorry to say but no, RetroArch did run exfat just fine. You must know how to exit it properly without crashes. So no problem at all. For Lakka, you must use fat32.

I use fat32. I've seen 100's of people complain that ___ doesn't work with ExFat. They switch to fat32, it magically starts working.

 

[Tomobobo]

All the hype about exfat corruption but I've run homebrew and home buttons since horizon 3.0.0 on exfat and have had no problems.

Did no one suggest to the OP to use TegraRcmGUI to try to send the payload instead of using the dongle? If the PC executable boots the switch, it's obvious there's something wrong with the dongle.

 

[spotanjo3]

I use fat32. I've seen 100's of people complain that ___ doesn't work with ExFat.

Well. Doesn't mean exfat is corrupt. They did corrupted it because they dont know what they are doing. I don have a problem. Since November. No corrupted on my exfat. None. I know what I am doing and thats why there is no problem.

All the hype about exfat corruption but I've run homebrew and home buttons since horizon 3.0.0 on exfat and have had no problems.

Thank you.

 

[Tomobobo]

I'm not in the loop enough to state this as fact but, I suspect a lot of people think that because Windows or whatever OS they're using prompts them to check the disk for corruption when connecting sd cards to computers gives them the idea that something is going wrong, even that the card is actually corrupted.

What happens tho, is if the switch is powered on and you eject the SD card, the switch will write to the "dirty bit" on the SD card which triggers operating systems to prompt for corruption checks. This process happens on so so so many devices, it's a very normal operation.

So again what I assume is happening with the anti-exfat sentiment is kiddies see this check disk prompt, assume they've angered some god by sinning, and spread misinformation.

 

[mattytrog]

AutoRCM... Ok.

Op... Boot into hekate a few times... From a cold boot. Note your battery readings.

I bet they are jumping all over the place. Try resetting battery stats each boot.

 

[neav]

Update on the situation by steps (finally found the time to run some tests):

3) But something must have happened with my sd, because my games disappeared: they were installed in the sd, and the icons were still on the main menu, but they were gone...

Have you test the integrity of your SD card before using it? You should always test it especially when using high capacity SD card. You can test it using 'h2testw'

I'm using exfat and has retroarch installed in my 200gb sd card and no problem so far.

 

[Captain_N]

he can see if his exfat filesystem is messed.
Run a check disk in windows command prompt.
chkdsk x: /F
for read only check just use chkdsk x:
Where x: is the sd card letter

WHy is there no sd card file system checker/fixer homebrew? Should com standard with SX os