Gaming Game cartridges no longer work

[E30Nova]

Hi guys, not sure if this is the right forum for this.

If not, mods feel free to move it.

Anywho, about a week ago, my son went to play a game on my Switch. I think I was on 10.1, and I've told him numerous times don't update, just say "start software".

Well, he accidentally hit update, and now I'm on 11.0.1.

I installed the latest atmosphere, and downloaded games play just fine, but now every time I try to play a cartridge, it does the whole "checking if this game can be played" thing and then says I can't play the game.

I've googled and everyone says it's because of a Nintendo account and a primary Switch, but I only have the one Switch, so I don't think that's it. And the games worked perfectly fine before it got updated.

Even if I boot it normally without atmosphere, it still doesn't let me play the games.

Ideas?

 

[Sneethan]

I think nintendo updated the cartridge firmware which broke something. Try dumping a cart i guess.

 

[E30Nova]

Yeah that's basically my only option at this point is just dumping the cartridges I have and playing them that way.

Nothing else seems to work.

My SD card isn't big enough, though, so I'll have to get a bigger one.

But speaking about that, how do you install game updates? I have the Pokemon Let's Go: Eeevee cartridge and I downloaded the latest update .nsp for it, but I don't know where to put it. Is it as easy as just dropping it in the NSP folder or do I have to do something else?

 

[pcwizard7]

In hekate>options and turn off “nogc” and should fix the gc

 

[Sneethan]

Yeah that's basically my only option at this point is just dumping the cartridges I have and playing them that way.

Nothing else seems to work.

My SD card isn't big enough, though, so I'll have to get a bigger one.

But speaking about that, how do you install game updates? I have the Pokemon Let's Go: Eeevee cartridge and I downloaded the latest update .nsp for it, but I don't know where to put it. Is it as easy as just dropping it in the NSP folder or do I have to do something else?

Try the person above me's suggestion but you have to use an NSP Installer like Goldleaf or Tinfoil.

 

[E30Nova]

I'm not sure if atmosphere 16.2 supports hekate, but I'll check and try if it does.

And thanks for the tip, I'll try using one of those to install the update.

EDIT: Yeah, booted into hekate 5.5.1 and turned autonogc to off, rebooted into atmosphere, and cartridges still don't work. And now neither do any of my installed games.

Not sure what happened since I just copied the contents of the hekate bootloader folder to my switch bootloader folder, but I think I'm going to back up my SD card and just reformat the switch and the SD card and start over.

EDIT 2: Nevermind, just Tinfoil and Goldleaf don't work now, and Tinfoil at least worked a couple days ago before I tried booting into hekate. Super weird....

 

[pcwizard7]

I'm not sure if atmosphere 16.2 supports hekate, but I'll check and try if it does.

And thanks for the tip, I'll try using one of those to install the update.

EDIT: Yeah, booted into hekate 5.5.1 and turned autonogc to off, rebooted into atmosphere, and cartridges still don't work. And now neither do any of my installed games.

Not sure what happened since I just copied the contents of the hekate bootloader folder to my switch bootloader folder, but I think I'm going to back up my SD card and just reformat the switch and the SD card and start over.

EDIT 2: Nevermind, just Tinfoil and Goldleaf don't work now, and Tinfoil at least worked a couple days ago before I tried booting into hekate. Super weird....

1. does the gc slot work in stock mode?

2. you will need to also update the sig patch files too - Fuse version and config hekate to boot with primary payload
https://github.com/ITotalJustice/patches/releases

but a fresh start helps
https://www.sdsetup.com/console?switch

Format the large parition as Fat32
https://fat32format-gui.en.lo4d.com/windows

also, have u check the pins in the slot?

 

[E30Nova]

1. does the gc slot work in stock mode?

2. you will need to also update the sig patch files too - Fuse version and config hekate to boot with primary payload
https://github.com/ITotalJustice/patches/releases

but a fresh start helps
https://www.sdsetup.com/console?switch

Format the large parition as Fat32
https://fat32format-gui.en.lo4d.com/windows

also, have u check the pins in the slot?

1: Not anymore. The slot worked fine on 10.1, but now that it's been updated, even in stock mode, I can't play games. It detects that a game is inserted or not inserted, but won't boot.

2: I downloaded some "updated" sig patches, but I'll look into the ones you posted.

Haven't checked the pins in the slot, but since it actually detects a cartridge, and the only thing that's changed is the fact that the system was updated, I'm not too worried about the physical cartridge slot. I haven't had time to back everything up and reformat, so no status update yet.

Hopefully after Christmas I'll have time to reformat and start fresh.

Thanks for the help so far, everybody.

And if I'm not back before the 25th, Merry Christmas!

 

[pcwizard7]

1: Not anymore. The slot worked fine on 10.1, but now that it's been updated, even in stock mode, I can't play games. It detects that a game is inserted or not inserted, but won't boot.
!

This sounds like the gc fuse count doesn't match the required count. what firmware are you on? if 11.0.x fine u need to make sure NoGC is disabled so the fuse count in GC gets pushed to the 11

also Note: some of the newer games i ve had to patch them for 9.0-9.0.1 to mount in sxos so maybe soft patch them when installing them and see what happens

 

[E30Nova]

This sounds like the gc fuse count doesn't match the required count. what firmware are you on? if 11.0.x fine u need to make sure NoGC is disabled so the fuse count in GC gets pushed to the 11

also Note: some of the newer games i ve had to patch them for 9.0-9.0.1 to mount in sxos so maybe soft patch them when installing them and see what happens

STILL haven't had a chance to back everything up and start fresh.

But it's on 11.0.1.

I've added "nogc = 0" to the BCT file, but it still didn't change anything.

It's so weird, the only thing I can think of is wiping everything and starting fresh, all the usual fixes don't seem to work.

The only cartridges I own are Super Mario Odyssey, Pokemon Let's Go Eevee, and BotW, and even though they're all fairly old, none of them work.

So I agree, it seems like a gc fuse issue.

Is there a program that checks fuses and allows you to "burn" them so that they match OFW?

 

[pcwizard7]

STILL haven't had a chance to back everything up and start fresh.

But it's on 11.0.1.

I've added "nogc = 0" to the BCT file, but it still didn't change anything.

you mean in the Hekate.ini file

 

[E30Nova]

you mean in the Hekate.ini file

No, I use atmosphere and fusee primary, so I edited the BCT.ini file.

I've got time now, so I'll try editing the Hekate.ini file and if that doesn't work, I'm going to just start fresh.

EDIT: I don't even have a Hekate.ini file, lol. I downloaded the latest Hekate and it doesn't have that file. Tried googling, but can't seem to find any info on it.

EDIT 2: Nevermind, I went straight to the github and found the info.

 

[pcwizard7]

it creates one when hekate and u can change these things in gui

 

[E30Nova]

it creates one when hekate and u can change these things in gui

I've tried adding "nogc=0" to the BCT.ini file for Atmosphere and that didn't work.

I tried setting autonogc to 0 in the hekate_ipl.ini and booted into hekate, and then booted into Atmosphere and that didn't work.

I've tried just manually turning off autongc in hekate, saving options, and then booting into Atmosphere and that didn't work.

Not sure what else to do.

I got a 2TB sd card for Christmas, so I'm in the process of setting that up nice and fresh.

If THAT doesn't do it, then I don't know, I'm just going to install the cartridges to the sd card. I don't know what's going on.

 

[bbert]

have you try reinstalling 11.0.1 using daybreak again?

 

[Agiel81]

Yeah that's basically my only option at this point is just dumping the cartridges I have and playing them that way.

Nothing else seems to work.

My SD card isn't big enough, though, so I'll have to get a bigger one.

But speaking about that, how do you install game updates? I have the Pokemon Let's Go: Eeevee cartridge and I downloaded the latest update .nsp for it, but I don't know where to put it. Is it as easy as just dropping it in the NSP folder or do I have to do something else?

I’ve been downloading game updates either from a site or torrent on my Android phone. I move it to the SD card, put the card in my Switch, launch Awoo and install from SD card. Works for me, because I don’t have a laptop at the moment.

 

[EclipseUmbreon]

I too recently had a lot of issues with my gamecard reader after accidentally updating from 10.x to 11.x.
The update seemingly did something to the reader itself, as even completely wiping the switch and hard-resetting it via Choidjour PC to FW 5.0 didn't fix it.
I had to update my switch without cfw officially to 11.x and it fixed it. Even with a 5.x stock firmware and a Daybreak FW 11.x install on emunand it wasn't working from stock, sysnand or emunand until updating it.

 

[pcwizard7]

Look in atmosphere/config folder_template/ and copy BCT.ini into atmosphere/config folder

add nogc = 0 in the right place.

 

[E30Nova]

have you try reinstalling 11.0.1 using daybreak again?

Nope, never used daybreak. Didn't know what it was for, lol.

I too recently had a lot of issues with my gamecard reader after accidentally updating from 10.x to 11.x.
The update seemingly did something to the reader itself, as even completely wiping the switch and hard-resetting it via Choidjour PC to FW 5.0 didn't fix it.
I had to update my switch without cfw officially to 11.x and it fixed it. Even with a 5.x stock firmware and a Daybreak FW 11.x install on emunand it wasn't working from stock, sysnand or emunand until updating it.

My son updated it to 11.0. It wouldn't read cards, but still said there was an update, so I updated it to 11.0.1.

Still doesn't read cards.

Look in atmosphere/config folder_template/ and copy BCT.ini into atmosphere/config folder

add nogc = 0 in the right place.

I added the nogc bit to the BCT.ini, but I'll try doing what you said.

EDIT: So I downloaded the 11.0.1 firmware update and installed it with Daybreak. Rebooted. Still can't play cartridge games.

Deleted the BCT file from /config, copied it from /config folder templates/ and added "nogc = 0" right after the line:

; To force-disable nogc, add nogc = 0

Still can't play cartridges.

I really don't think wiping the Switch for a fresh start is going to do anything.

And the SD card that my sister-in-law got me was a phony 1tb card. Anything past 5gb of files vanishes when I remove it from the computer, so I can't test installing the games to the card.

Not sure what else to do.

 

[EclipseUmbreon]

Nope, never used daybreak. Didn't know what it was for, lol.

aa

My son updated it to 11.0. It wouldn't read cards, but still said there was an update, so I updated it to 11.0.1.

Still doesn't read cards.



I added the nogc bit to the BCT.ini, but I'll try doing what you said.

EDIT: So I downloaded the 11.0.1 firmware update and installed it with Daybreak. Rebooted. Still can't play cartridge games.

Deleted the BCT file from /config, copied it from /config folder templates/ and added "nogc = 0" right after the line:

; To force-disable nogc, add nogc = 0

Still can't play cartridges.

I really don't think wiping the Switch for a fresh start is going to do anything.

And the SD card that my sister-in-law got me was a phony 1tb card. Anything past 5gb of files vanishes when I remove it from the computer, so I can't test installing the games to the card.

Not sure what else to do.

If the switch is otherwise useless to you without the reader, a full Choidjour reset to 5.0, official update back to 11.x, and if you use emunand, dumping a fresh one.
If you have save-data on there it'll be deleted, so Checkpoint will be useful beforehand.

Hope something works for you!