Hacking Question Bricked Switch with Blue Screen, possibly trashed eMMC

[Profecy]

Hi everyone!

I have recently acquired a Switch console.

When you power on the console normally, it shows the bluest of the blue screens...
Booting into RCM works, However Hekate only boots when there is NO SD-Card inserted. If I take the SD card out, Hekate boots just fine.

When I insert the SD after booting into Hekate and try to do a Backup, it just hangs at "Checking for available free space" and nothing happens.
Also ReiNX hangs at "Parsing GPT".
Memloader gives an lzma error, and someting like "got 0 bytes but expected <insert high number here>".

So from what I have gathered so far, this may point to a busted eMMC.

So now, I am faced with the problem of having to restore a switch without a backup, if that is even at all possible.

I was hoping somebody with more experience can help?

Thank you and kindest regards.

 

[Boydy86]

Can you get eMMC and SD info using Hekate then post here?

 

[Profecy]

Sure, here you go.
Hekate froze after displaying the eMMC info by the way.
SD Info displayed fine.

Images are attached.

 

[Idontknowwhattoputhere]

Why would you not make a backup?

 

[Profecy]

Why would you not make a backup?

I never had the chance, I got the switch as it is now.

 

[Basketto]

If your running hekate without an sd, I imagine someone has messed around with the hardware. Sounds like a trinket is installed. Is the sd card you are inserting blank? I would try that or otherwise try inserting the sd card with the hekate payload already on the root(try as payload.bin). If that doesn’t work, I imagine your sd card reader just doesnt work, and if your in autorcm, as far as i know that means your console is screwed.

 

[Hayato213]

So what is the story the seller provided you? Did they attempted downgrade? hardmod ?

 

[Profecy]

If your running hekate without an sd, I imagine someone has messed around with the hardware. Sounds like a trinket is installed. Is the sd card you are inserting blank? I would try that or otherwise try inserting the sd card with the hekate payload already on the root(try as payload.bin). If that doesn’t work, I imagine your sd card reader just doesnt work, and if your in autorcm, as far as i know that means your console is screwed.

Well, formatetd SD Card with payload.bin in toor dir does nothing, device just sits in RCM Mode... However, biskeydump CAN write to the SD and does boot with the SD installed.
Lockpick_RCM tho just says it copied itself to the sept folder and reboots to a black, illuminated screen.

So what is the story the seller provided you? Did they attempted downgrade? hardmod ?

Well, the seller was basically like "It has a a bluescreen. Got it like this, can't use it."

I might be able to get my hands on a backup from a working switch console tho, if that helps.

 

[Masamune3210]

There are ways to rebuild a nand image of I'm not mistaken, but first you need to figure out the SD card issue. Have you tried completely formatting the SD card in fat32 to see if it's a issue with the formatting?

 

[Boydy86]

Sounds strange, and a bit beyond me. Sorry I would not expect Hekate to crash at all reading eMMC, even if it was fried.

If biskeydump is dumping valid keys, Is maybe rebuilding a firmware that matches your current fuse count the best bet? (Expert clarification needed here!)

 

[Profecy]

Well, thanks everyone for the answers.

I have come to accept that the flash is toast, so I will send the console to nintendo and get a quote on repairs.
I guess its just time to cut my losses.

Kindest regards

 

[Basketto]

Well, thanks everyone for the answers.

I have come to accept that the flash is toast, so I will send the console to nintendo and get a quote on repairs.
I guess its just time to cut my losses.

Kindest regards

Nintendo will send you a patched switch, however on the plus side if you don’t mind waiting, a silent revision is coming to increase switch battery life from 2.5-6.5 hours portable to 4.5-9.0 hours. Pretty huge difference if your play on the go alot.

 

[lpoolm]

I had pretty much the same issue, console would not do anything while sd card reader was attached?
Plug it in and blue screen? Now not even turning on, might be flat battery? But either way it's dead, was considering seeing how much it would be to send to Nintendo.

 

[Kafluke]

If your running hekate without an sd, I imagine someone has messed around with the hardware. Sounds like a trinket is installed. Is the sd card you are inserting blank? I would try that or otherwise try inserting the sd card with the hekate payload already on the root(try as payload.bin). If that doesn’t work, I imagine your sd card reader just doesnt work, and if your in autorcm, as far as i know that means your console is screwed.

Hekate is a bootloader not a payload. It doesnt require an SD card to run.

 

[Boydy86]

Have you tried using a different SD card? All problems reported seem to be linked to when the switch is writing to the micro sd?

 

[ELY_M]

I hope you have not sent in your console. it is good time to try android on it.
I do have a bricked switch like that. emmc is messed up. but I am using it as a linux tablet now.
I am planning to run android on it.