Hacking Question Any way to test if my switch is still able to charge?

[LysergCooltyp]

My switch's RCM is enabled and since I wasn't using it for over a month I didn't see a point in keeping it charged, since on accident it had drained entirely before and everything still worked fine after charging it for a couple hours.

Now I tried to charge it over night and either the dongle is drained or the charging wasn't succesful so it's not turning on (no flashing light on the dongle either). However when I placed the switch in the dock the green light did turn on for a second like it normally does when it's properly connected to the dock and charging, but no change even after several hours.

Is there any way to check if the switch battery is still able to charge or can I charge the SX dongle without connecting it to the switch?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Deleted-442439]

My switch's RCM is enabled and since I wasn't using it for over a month I didn't see a point in keeping it charged, since on accident it had drained entirely before and everything still worked fine after charging it for a couple hours.

Now I tried to charge it over night and either the dongle is drained or the charging wasn't succesful so it's not turning on (no flashing light on the dongle either). However when I placed the switch in the dock the green light did turn on for a second like it normally does when it's properly connected to the dock and charging, but no change even after several hours.

Is there any way to check if the switch battery is still able to charge or can I charge the SX dongle without connecting it to the switch?

Thanks in advance.

When in RCM the Switch does not charge at its normal rate, so in order to charge correctly you want to boot into Hekate, then swap the USB cable to a official charger, then boot into either OFW or CFW.

If done correctly you will see the red low battery charging icon on the screen until the battery is charged enough after booting from Hekate.

Do NOT use SX for low battery recovery as they have failed to implement aspects of this, causing the system to shut down once it enters Horizon.

 

[LysergCooltyp]

When in RCM the Switch does not charge at its normal rate, so in order to charge correctly you want to boot into Hekate, then swap the USB cable to a official charger, then boot into either OFW or CFW.

If done correctly you will see the red low battery charging icon on the screen until the battery is charged enough after booting from Hekate.

Do NOT use SX for low battery recovery as they have failed to implement aspects of this, causing the system to shut down once it enters Horizon.

I charged the dongle with the USB cable that came with the SX for two minutes to be sure it has a charge. No flashing whatsoever unfortunately so I'm gonna try your method since the green light isn't turning on anymore when I place the switch in the dock.

The dongle was recognized by the PC when I plugged it in. The switch did not. Is that normal?

Will it even show the red flashing light when the switch is what I presume still entirely drained? Do I need anything else besides the hekate payload?

 

[LysergCooltyp]

@jjbredesen injected the hekate payload and now I'm in the hekate v4.8 menu and it says battery: 100% charge: -0 MA but also warning: sleepmode library is missing.

How do I proceed from here if I want to boot CFW (preferably through SX) again?

 

[Deleted-442439]

@jjbredesen injected the hekate payload and now I'm in the hekate v4.8 menu and it says battery: 100% charge: -0 MA but also warning: sleepmode library is missing.

How do I proceed from here if I want to boot CFW (preferably through SX) again?

I will make this as detailed as possible:

1. Make sure you have updated Hekate SD files and payload. (Current one is 4.8 found here:https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/releases)

2. Boot Switch via Hekate using TegraRCMSmash on PC.

3. When in the Hekate menu, swap your USB cable with the official charger.

4. In hekate, go to Launch, and then boot into the stock configuration.

5. Observe the Nintendo logo showing, then a screen with a red battery icon, backlight will be on, but nothing more.

6. If you see this, simply leave your Switch for a few min. After a while it will boot directly into Horizon (at 3% charge). Once it has done this, just leave it to get a bit more charge (perhaps 10%)
NB: If you use SX to get to this step, the console will simply turn off after about 5 seconds, due to improper handling of this mode.

7. Now boot through SX dongle as you usually would.

 

[LysergCooltyp]

I will make this as detailed as possible:

1. Make sure you have updated Hekate SD files and payload. (Current one is 4.8 found here:https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/releases)

2. Boot Switch via Hekate using TegraRCMSmash on PC.

3. When in the Hekate menu, swap your USB cable with the official charger.

4. In hekate, go to Launch, and then boot into the stock configuration.

5. Observe the Nintendo logo showing, then a screen with a red battery icon, backlight will be on, but nothing more.

6. If you see this, simply leave your Switch for a few min. After a while it will boot directly into Horizon (at 3% charge). Once it has done this, just leave it to get a bit more charge (perhaps 10%)
NB: If you use SX to get to this step, the console will simply turn off after about 5 seconds, due to improper handling of this mode.

7. Now boot through SX dongle as you usually would.

The console is already charged to 100% according to Hekate, however I removed the SD prior to injecting the payload and it still injected itself properly using TegraRCMSmash. Felt like trying to find the tools and giving it a shot myself before you had the time to comment.

So do I just put the SD back in and skip to step 4 then plug in the donger into the switch while it's in stock firmware to make sure the dongle is also charged before turning it off for step 7?

 

[Deleted-442439]

You need the SD card in yes.

It contains the required files to actually boot into Horizon. Without it you just have a bootloader.

So yes, reinsert the sd card, and then go to step 4.

If when booted you see 100% battery, then we can assume there is nothing wrong with your Switches battery, rather something a issue with the dongle.

 

[LysergCooltyp]

You need the SD card in yes.

It contains the required files to actually boot into Horizon. Without it you just have a bootloader.

So yes, reinsert the sd card, and then go to step 4.

If when booted you see 100% battery, then we can assume there is nothing wrong with your Switches battery, rather something a issue with the dongle.

On launch it says "No Main configurations found".

 

[Deleted-442439]

On launch it says "No Main configurations found".

Then you dont have proper SD files setup.

Download Kosmos: https://github.com/AtlasNX/Kosmos/releases

 

[LysergCooltyp]

Then you dont have proper SD files setup.

Download Kosmos: https://github.com/AtlasNX/Kosmos/releases

I feared so, since there might be only SX stuff on it. Cat dragged off the card reader, so I will let you know when I find where she placed it or bought a new one. Can I put it into the dock while Hekate is running or should I power it off first?

 

[LysergCooltyp]

Gonna bump this, since after my pc catching fire due to a faulty power supply and an extended vacation post pc repair delayed the whole process of trying again a lot.

Update:
Dongle still won't charge so for sure broken.

Roomie didn't charge the switch once while I was gone, so currently it's sitting at 21% battery.

Got the latest kosmos bundle and whatever SX version at the time I last tried was the lastest on the SD card and pushed the fusee primary payload.

It turned on, greeted me with welcome to atmosphere, then the atmosphere logo and eventually the switch logo before it displayed some games. So I presume it's working.

Now I'm still not certain if I want to convert all my games to NSPs or keep using SX. Either way, with the dongle dead I imagine step 7 would be the same just through tegrasmash after the Switch is fully charged and I turn it off for both options?

Edit: Solved!