Hardware strange problem with game cartridge reader

[teethmarks]

hello. i have two hacked switches and am having problems with the game card readers.

the one switch, we'll call it the red switch, has had problems with the cartridge reader and was even sent to nintendo before being hacked for a replacement.

the other one, the yellow switch, is newer and has never had a problem.

so the red one, maybe a year after having the cartridge reader replaced, was having problems again. could not read any cart. i ordered a replacement piece from ebay and set to repairing it myself. no matter what i tried, i still got the same message and im 90% certain i am installing it correctly. so i considered the possibility that maybe chinese seller on ebay shipped me a faulty piece. at this point i took the known working cartridge reader out of the yellow switch and put it in the red switch. still the error, but now when replaced in the yellow switch, the yellow switch can no longer read game carts. i am beyond frustrated with this.

is it possible, the red switch is doing something to short or damage the hardware on the cartridge reader pieces? is it possible, something with the firmware, atmosphere or anything software related is disabling the cartridge reader? i even ordered another cartridge reader to attempt replacement only in the yellow switch and yet i still get the message. it is almost as if after one has been removed no replacement will ever work. is it possible i am doing something incorrectly during the install? i have watched the youtube videos and i dont see what could possibly be wrong.

is there a resonable place that could diagnose my switches and do so being ok with the fact they are hacked?

i was so certain this had to be a typical problem but cannot find anything related when searching. maybe i am installing them wrong but it is literally two connections. i have tried countless times assuming that was the issue. i am at wits end. please help. thanks in advance.

 

[SomeGamer]

What's the firmware version of the Switches? Do they have nogc patches applied?

 

[pcwizard7]

well the game card reader has its own firmware and was updated in 4.1 and again 9.0 now if u have inserted a cartridge on 9.0 without running hekate which bypass the gc reader fw check it will update the fw and won't work below 9.0

 

[proffk]

I agree with the above. Gamecart FW was updated in 4.1.0 & 9.0. Hekate disabled this on boot to stop you Gcfuse being burnt which means gamecart slot will not work. on 9.0.

Secondly, the game card ASIC has also been updated in 9.0.0, which will cause the GC slot to stop working if you downgrade or run an earlier firmware in EmuMMC until you update. To prevent this, Atmosphère will now apply the nogc patch automatically if you boot into 9.0.0 on consoles with a lower fuse count. You can force disable this if you wish by setting nogc = 0 in BCT.ini.

 

[teethmarks]

both switches are on 0.9.4 ams with 9.0 ofw. why would the yellow switch reader work until i removed and then replaced it?

how do i get these readers working again, if possible?

 

[linuxares]

both switches are on 0.9.4 ams with 9.0 ofw. why would the yellow switch reader work until i removed and then replaced it?

how do i get these readers working again, if possible?

Disable the nogc patch. You will never be able to go under 9.0.0 again if you do so.

 

[teethmarks]

that did it. 25 bucks on cartridge readers later. dang.

thanks everyone who helped.

 

[pcwizard7]

Disable the nogc patch. You will never be able to go under 9.0.0 again if you do so.

so was his cartridge reader running the 9.0 fw or not? how did this work?

 

[teethmarks]

so was his cartridge reader running the 9.0 fw or not? how did this work?

have been updating with chou so maybe physical fuses were on 4.1.0 or some variant and the gc reader was not liking that or the other way around.

i had no idea that piece of hardware had separate fuses. have a decent library of physical media so it is more important for the red switch to have access to that than for the preservation of fuses. this particular switch doesnt use emummc and it is banned which i forgot to mention.

hope this info helps.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

have been updating with chou so maybe physical fuses were on 4.1.0 or some variant and the gc reader was not liking that or the other way around.

i had no idea that piece of hardware had separate fuses. have a decent library of physical media so it is more important for the red switch to have access to that than for the preservation of fuses. this particular switch doesnt use emummc and it is banned which i forgot to mention.

hope this info helps.

It is not only to preserve fuses because actually having a cartridge inserted on a <9.0 firmware on a console that has had game cart firmware updated to 9.0+ will cause a crash so the default behavior now is to not only enable NoGC when fuses burnt are lower than the firmware being launched, but also when they're *higher*. Of course the latter scenario is only likely to happen if you use a legit sysNAND for OFW and an emuNAND for CFW (which is the recommended setup to allow online play)

 

[teethmarks]

It is not only to preserve fuses because actually having a cartridge inserted on a <9.0 firmware on a console that has had game cart firmware updated to 9.0+ will cause a crash so the default behavior now is to not only enable NoGC when fuses burnt are lower than the firmware being launched, but also when they're *higher*. Of course the latter scenario is only likely to happen if you use a legit sysNAND for OFW and an emuNAND for CFW (which is the recommended setup to allow online play)

so in scenario on red switch, where system fuses are less than game cart fuses but ofw is at 9.0 and game cart also, then there will not be issues with crashes?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

so in scenario on red switch, where system fuses are less than game cart fuses but ofw is at 9.0 and game cart also, then there will not be issues with crashes?

If you are only launching 9.0+ there won't be no.

 

[pcwizard7]

so in scenario on red switch, where system fuses are less than game cart fuses but ofw is at 9.0 and game cart also, then there will not be issues with crashes?

i think if the sys firmware is looking for certain gc fuses and if its higher than what it's looking for it won't work? right?

 

[teethmarks]

so if i ever did need to roll back the switch, i could use one of the two cartridge readers i purchased and re enable nogc = 1 in atmosphere?

 

[SomeGamer]

so if i ever did need to roll back the switch, i could use one of the two cartridge readers i purchased and re enable nogc = 1 in atmosphere?

I didn't really read back but once a Switch has been booted on 9.0 without the nogc patch, its cart reader can't be used on firmwares below 9.0, even in another Switch.

 

[teethmarks]

I didn't really read back but once a Switch has been booted on 9.0 without the nogc patch, its cart reader can't be used on firmwares below 9.0, even in another Switch.

yeah, understood. i had purchased two spare readers because i thought the hardware was compromised. when it turned out it was not, i replaced the og card readers and booted with nogc = 0. so those readers i had purchased have never been booted on a 9.0 firmware. i was wondering if they were able to be put in the switch and rolled back successfully. or is it a physical change that happens independent of card reader?

 

[SomeGamer]

i was wondering if they were able to be put in the switch and rolled back successfully. or is it a physical change that happens independent of card reader?

What nogc does is disabling the cart reader if its firmware wouldn't be supported by the Switch's firmware (read: it's either updated too far so it's disabled to prevent a crash, or it's too old compared to the Switch's firmware so it's disabled to prevent it being updated). Only the cart reader's firmware gets updated, the Switch doesn't care if it has updated a cart reader before. As long as you use a cart reader which has a firmware that can be used with the firmware currently installed on the Switch you put it in (in your case I assume it's the 4.0 - 8.1.0 range) it's going to work regardless of nogc setting. With that said, it's advisable to enable it, to prevent crashes or unintended updates to the gamecart controller's firmware.
Sorry for the wall of text, English isn't my first language and I'm not sure I understood your question, so I wanted to give as much info as possible in hopes of the answer to it being among them.