Good to hear! Check back tomorrow afternoon-ish eastern time (12-3pm). What's in store is not quite ready yet. Still some back-to-back bricking and unbricking to do on both my n3DSXL and niece's on long term loaned n3DS. I think I've found the perfect clean slate nvram image that should fix this DS mode brick once and for all. The last hurdle involves some gm9 scripting to create that image for a given 3DS system.
Thank you.
Be careful! Pressing only the (X) button will bring up the delete option.
I'm starting to believe your broken DS mode is due to a NVRAM brick but one that's hardware based where that drop you mentioned might have damaged the WiFi chip. NVRAM is basically the original DS firmware.
There's the possibility the 'clean slate' reflash values I wrote in that gm9 script's nvram.bin dump works for the n3DSXL and n3DS but not for the n2DSXL. Like what @ghjfdtg stated, performing a Format System Memory does wipe (most of) the tail end portion of the NVRAM. However, I observed a section found within block 0x1F300-1F3FF does not get erased in a system reformat where if this is left as-is, can cause the DS mode to boot with the white screens and where only the (HOME) button is responsive.
Because you noted your n2DSXL showed some improvement after the nvram.bin reflash, here's another idea to try. The instructions below is a simulated (or temporary) Format System Memory that should reset the latter section of the NVRAM to what your n2DSXL would typically create it as blank/empty state. This is again going off the assumption my n3DSXL and n3DS NVRAM empty state is different and incompatible for the n2DSXL.
- In GodMode9, go in the [1:] SYSNAND CTRNAND. Hold (R)-shoulder and press (X) on the data folder. Rename this folder to data2.
- Press (START) to exit GodMode9. The n2DSXL should bring up the new user setup.
- The NVRAM should have been reset by now in the background. Ignore creating a new profile.
- Turn off the n2DSXL, turn it back on, and go back to GodMode9. Press (X) on the dummy data folder to delete it. Rename data2 back to data.
- Boot to HOME Menu... *cross fingers*
If the last attempt doesn't pan out, we may need to continue our conversation in PM.
Oh, that wireless card removal and reinsertion trick only works on the o3DS, o3DSXL, and o2DS (pre-2015 batch??). The n3DS, n3DSXL, newer production o2DS, and n2DSXL have their WiFi chips soldered directly to the motherboards.
Below 0x1f300 on wifi flash is read only by design. I suspect this user has a hardware problem if the read only data is corrupted.
Thank you for your help setting in the last missing piece to this mystery puzzle, @zoogie.
Thank you for your help setting in the last missing piece to this mystery puzzle, @zoogie.
That would be an unfortunate yes.
From one of the instructions @001skeith followed in post #24, the nvram.bin image he restored was actually dumped in GodMode9 from [M:] MEMORY VIRTUAL/nvram.mem. That's a 1-to-1 copy of what 3DS_NVRAMtool extracts it as. Other than erasing everything after 0x1F300 with FF's and filling in empty DS profiles, the script I had him use left intact everything before 0x1F300.
@001skeith, you made the correct call getting another 3DS system. It still sucks your seller didn't mention he bricked the n2DSXL's DS mode. While this NVRAM hardbrick may have won this debug round, we at least now know how to spot this bug and have another good reason to try to avoid dropping our systems.
I learned A LOT from this.
This is for those who might come across a fully corrupt or hardbricked NVRAM, wishing to either replace the NVRAM chip and/or reflash the entirety of the 128 KB nvram.bin image. As time passes and the 3DS systems out there become much older (10+ years), some of us may need to resort to these repair measures due to the nature of flash storage eventually erasing itself.
