Hardware Old 3DS XL only works when plugged in. Is there anyway to fix it?

[UzealSmile]

I recently gotten tired of trying to play this and accidentally unplugging during a game and not being able to take to with me and the go. I’ve seen people talk about soldering on the motherboard but I only see people talking about it for the New 3DS XL. If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know

 

[CoolMe]

Is the battery in good condition, not bulged ? Are the pins on the 3DS that connect to the battery straight, and not missing, cut off or something?

 

[UzealSmile]

Is the battery in good condition, not bulged ? Are the pins on the 3DS that connect to the battery straight, and not missing, cut off or something?

The battery is fine. I even bought a new one and that didn’t work. And the pins are just fine

 

[TyroneYoYo]

I'm not sure why. I also had a similar problem with an old 3DS of mine. It would never work unless plugged in. I fixed it whenever I swapped out the battery with another one from my other 3DS, and it started working. My other 3DS still worked fine. Maybe try that if you have another 3DS? I highly doubt it'll work, but you never know.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

I'm 90% sure that a 3DS won't boot unless the battery is detected. Not sure what's wrong here if everything else is fine.

 

[UzealSmile]

I'm 90% sure that a 3DS won't boot unless the battery is detected. Not sure what's wrong here if everything else is fine.

Some people were saying that it could be a kiosk 3DS like the ones they put in display. And they say that you have to take it off of that mode by soldering a resistor on the circuit board but if that is the case I don’t know where I’m supposed to solder.

 

[CoolMe]

Some people were saying that it could be a kiosk 3DS like the ones they put in display. And they say that you have to take it off of that mode by soldering a resistor on the circuit board but if that is the case I don’t know where I’m supposed to solder.

So it's been this way since you first got it?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm 90% sure that a 3DS won't boot unless the battery is detected. Not sure what's wrong here if everything else is fine.

I'm pretty sure it will.

Some people were saying that it could be a kiosk 3DS like the ones they put in display. And they say that you have to take it off of that mode by soldering a resistor on the circuit board but if that is the case I don’t know where I’m supposed to solder.

Yeah, I was about to suggest that. The kiosk 3DSes have some hardware differences that makes them only work on a charger (despite there being a battery), possible to mod it to work on battery though.

 

[UzealSmile]

So it's been this way since you first got it?

I don’t remember because it used to be my brothers and he got it years ago and I forgot about it until I found it a year ago. But when I found it it only worked when plugged in so I bought a new battery for it and it still didn’t work. My guesses are either it was always is the kiosk mode and my brother just didn’t care enough to tell anybody it was broken, or the motherboard is failing.

 

[UzealSmile]

I'm pretty sure it will.

Yeah, I was about to suggest that. The kiosk 3DSes have some hardware differences that makes them only work on a charger (despite there being a battery), possible to mod it to work on battery though.

I'm pretty sure it will.

Yeah, I was about to suggest that. The kiosk 3DSes have some hardware differences that makes them only work on a charger (despite there being a battery), possible to mod it to work on battery though.

Do you know how to do it? Maybe a picture or a guide?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Do you know how to do it? Maybe a picture or a guide?

This is for 2DS so you'd have to find out where the correct resistor is on your model. https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintend...ion-spoiler-alert-you-move-a-resistor.496654/
Not sure if anyone's done it to the 3DS XL yet and posted pictures.

 

[UzealSmile]

This is for 2DS so you'd have to find out where the correct resistor is on your model. https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintend...ion-spoiler-alert-you-move-a-resistor.496654/
Not sure if anyone's done it to the 3DS XL yet and posted pictures.

Thank you so much! I found somebody on the thread having the same problem as me.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

I'm pretty sure it will.

Yeah, I was about to suggest that. The kiosk 3DSes have some hardware differences that makes them only work on a charger (despite there being a battery), possible to mod it to work on battery though.

Alright, well I'll just take the batter out of one of my O3DSes, plug it into a charger, and see if it boots. Pretty sure it won't but I'll be suprised if it does

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

yep that mofo aint poweing on, I'm using the stock charger nintendo included with it

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Alright, well I'll just take the batter out of one of my O3DSes, plug it into a charger, and see if it boots. Pretty sure it won't but I'll be suprised if it does

Never tried with the 3DS but my PSP works fine without a battery- Can't update the firmware though as it asks me to charge the battery so it's stuck on 5.00-M33 as genuine batteries are impossible to find anywhere and I don't want to buy cheap Chinese crap batteries.
Electronics not powering on without the battery is a more recent thing as devices got more intelligent and they now check the battery voltage before powering on. In the past that task was usually left to the protection circuitry in the battery, which simply cuts off power when the voltage gets low. The way the 3DS just dies when the battery gets low rather than shuts down cleanly (which takes a few seconds) makes me think it's not intelligently checking the battery voltage but just relying on the protection circuitry either in the battery or on the mainboard, or both, so that's why I'm pretty sure it will work without a battery.
On a side note Android devices are rather dumb when it comes to checking the battery voltage. It will let me power it on at 1% battery but it immediately powers back off once it's booted, despite being on charge, so the battery voltage would have gone up slightly as it booted, you'd think that if it thinks it's enough charge to let you power it on, the Android OS itself would also see it as enough charge. One area where smartphones are not so smart.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

Never tried with the 3DS but my PSP works fine without a battery- Can't update the firmware though as it asks me to charge the battery so it's stuck on 5.00-M33 as genuine batteries are impossible to find anywhere and I don't want to buy cheap Chinese crap batteries.
Electronics not powering on without the battery is a more recent thing as devices got more intelligent and they now check the battery voltage before powering on. In the past that task was usually left to the protection circuitry in the battery, which simply cuts off power when the voltage gets low. The way the 3DS just dies when the battery gets low rather than shuts down cleanly (which takes a few seconds) makes me think it's not intelligently checking the battery voltage but just relying on the protection circuitry either in the battery or on the mainboard, or both, so that's why I'm pretty sure it will work without a battery.
On a side note Android devices are rather dumb when it comes to checking the battery voltage. It will let me power it on at 1% battery but it immediately powers back off once it's booted, despite being on charge, so the battery voltage would have gone up slightly as it booted, you'd think that if it thinks it's enough charge to let you power it on, the Android OS itself would also see it as enough charge. One area where smartphones are not so smart.

Wait, do you even have a 3DS on hand? I have 2 O3DSes, a 2DS, and a N3DSXL (my main handheld) on hand. None of them have ever powered on unless there's a battery installed, even if it's dead. Though it's funny that you mention Android devices, bc my old tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0) kinda gave up the ghost a few days ago, by my own hand kinda.. It wasn't powering on, and it wasn't showing the little charging icon like it does when charging while powered off, (it was fully charged the day before, usually it'd show a "battery empty, plug me in you twat" message like you'd see on other devices) so I opened it up and unplugged the (non-removable) battery, which went well, but while I was plugging it back in to complete the re-seat.. the socket(?) snapped off of the motherboard. And I have no sodering equipment/skills. Though if I plug it into a USB charger, it DOES show that "charging while off" icon (thunder symbol in a circle, usually it'd then show a battery % and the circle would fill green to match) but then it just powers off, then loops. I CAN get it into the odin/download mode to flash a new firmware to it, but I haven't found any that'd let me get past the battery check. I mean, if I can get into the odin mode, and it DOES get power over USB, I think it's dumb that I can't get into twrp/recovery or even boot android.
Quick last second edit: sorry for rambling and being off topic, my bad

 

[Hayato213]

Never tried with the 3DS but my PSP works fine without a battery- Can't update the firmware though as it asks me to charge the battery so it's stuck on 5.00-M33 as genuine batteries are impossible to find anywhere and I don't want to buy cheap Chinese crap batteries.
Electronics not powering on without the battery is a more recent thing as devices got more intelligent and they now check the battery voltage before powering on. In the past that task was usually left to the protection circuitry in the battery, which simply cuts off power when the voltage gets low. The way the 3DS just dies when the battery gets low rather than shuts down cleanly (which takes a few seconds) makes me think it's not intelligently checking the battery voltage but just relying on the protection circuitry either in the battery or on the mainboard, or both, so that's why I'm pretty sure it will work without a battery.
On a side note Android devices are rather dumb when it comes to checking the battery voltage. It will let me power it on at 1% battery but it immediately powers back off once it's booted, despite being on charge, so the battery voltage would have gone up slightly as it booted, you'd think that if it thinks it's enough charge to let you power it on, the Android OS itself would also see it as enough charge. One area where smartphones are not so smart.

I can confirm it @jeffyTheHomebrewer is correct, won't turn on with no battery even with charger plugged in

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Wait, do you even have a 3DS on hand? I have 2 O3DSes, a 2DS, and a N3DSXL (my main handheld) on hand. None of them have ever powered on unless there's a battery installed, even if it's dead. Though it's funny that you mention Android devices, bc my old tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0) kinda gave up the ghost a few days ago, by my own hand kinda.. It wasn't powering on, and it wasn't showing the little charging icon like it does when charging while powered off, (it was fully charged the day before, usually it'd show a "battery empty, plug me in you twat" message like you'd see on other devices) so I opened it up and unplugged the (non-removable) battery, which went well, but while I was plugging it back in to complete the re-seat.. the socket(?) snapped off of the motherboard. And I have no sodering equipment/skills. Though if I plug it into a USB charger, it DOES show that "charging while off" icon (thunder symbol in a circle, usually it'd then show a battery % and the circle would fill green to match) but then it just powers off, then loops. I CAN get it into the odin/download mode to flash a new firmware to it, but I haven't found any that'd let me get past the battery check. I mean, if I can get into the odin mode, and it DOES get power over USB, I think it's dumb that I can't get into twrp/recovery or even boot android.
Quick last second edit: sorry for rambling and being off topic, my bad

They're probably both out of battery, haven't used em in ages. Should charge them up actually so the battery doesn't die...
Well, color me surprised, I was so sure it would power on without the battery. It was not much more than an educated guess, but still. I guess it's probably still just using battery protection circuitry on the mainboard but that circuitry actually cuts off power to the rest of the board even when the device is plugged in. Which is more complicated than cutting off power when it's not plugged in because it can't just disconnect the battery, or you wouldn't be able to charge, so I guessed that that wasn't the case.

The battery check is probably in the kernel. Since recovery mode also uses a Linux kernel but that is about the only similarity it shares with the main Android OS. The kernel is open source, so you could patch out the check yourself, though you do need an unlocked bootloader to install a custom kernel (usually). It should be as simple as commenting out a few lines, the issue is finding the right lines... The Linux kernel is huge and takes ages to compile, but at least the code should be well structured which makes it easier. Not sure how much point there is, a tablet that can't be ran on battery doesn't seem very useful to me and Android tablets are pretty cheap, but hey.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

They're probably both out of battery, haven't used em in ages. Should charge them up actually so the battery doesn't die...
Well, color me surprised, I was so sure it would power on without the battery. It was not much more than an educated guess, but still. I guess it's probably still just using battery protection circuitry on the mainboard but that circuitry actually cuts off power to the rest of the board even when the device is plugged in. Which is more complicated than cutting off power when it's not plugged in because it can't just disconnect the battery, or you wouldn't be able to charge, so I guessed that that wasn't the case.

The battery check is probably in the kernel. Since recovery mode also uses a Linux kernel but that is about the only similarity it shares with the main Android OS. The kernel is open source, so you could patch out the check yourself, though you do need an unlocked bootloader to install a custom kernel (usually). It should be as simple as commenting out a few lines, the issue is finding the right lines... The Linux kernel is huge and takes ages to compile, but at least the code should be well structured which makes it easier. Not sure how much point there is, a tablet that can't be ran on battery doesn't seem very useful to me and Android tablets are pretty cheap, but hey.

Oh, the bootloader on that is already unlocked. Though the battery isn't dead, the connector for it on the motherboard snapped off. The battery isn't going to connect at all. Though since it can run off AC power, I'll props turn it into a smart display or something. If I can even remove the battery check from both Android's Kernel and Recovery's kernel and then compile it for the tablet.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Oh, the bootloader on that is already unlocked. Though the battery isn't dead, the connector for it on the motherboard snapped off. The battery isn't going to connect at all. Though since it can run off AC power, I'll props turn it into a smart display or something. If I can even remove the battery check from both Android's Kernel and Recovery's kernel and then compile it for the tablet.

That's not a bad idea. Seen people use tablets as a wall mounted control center for all their smart home stuff, or use them as digital picture frames. If you don't have any smart home stuff invest in some smart bulbs lol. The thing with them is they often don't have a (wall mountable) power switch available, so you are stuck with using the app, since turning the regular power switch off means you can't turn it back on with the app. So a wall mounted control center is pretty handy.
I upgraded all my bulbs a few months ago and it allows me to be even lazier, it's great.