Gaming Hacking Homebrew 3DS MH4U and other games crash. Expanded Memory?

[Badjustice]

Hey all,

I am fairly newb to this scene. A friend helped modded CFW on my New 3DS XL 5 years ago and I recently picked up my 3DS again to play some MH4U (purchased legitimately back then).

However, MH4U along with some other games (Mario 3D Land, Rune Factory 4 - all legit copies from the eshop) seem to crash on boot. I have already followed steps on a subreddit and updated my Luma to V.11 along with bootloader, Godmode9 etc.

Console FW is now 11.15.0-47U

My MH4U used to run even with older CFW but now crashes with the error as seen in the picture

Through my research online, I find threads saying something about Expanded memory games have this issue. What are the steps I can take to fix this?

I have also tested the free space on my SD (4GB/32GB) with h2testw/f3 and it came back normal.

If a formatting of my SD is required, what steps do I take to preserve my save data?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[CoolMe]

Since you are having Arm11 errors with both MH4U and Mario 3D Land, the latter is not an extended memory game, so there's a chance it's the sd card causing the error..
There's also a chance that the installed game files are corrupted or incomplete because of the sdcard..

I have also tested the free space on my SD (4GB/32GB) with h2testw/f3 and it came back normal.

Nope, you have to do test while the sd card is completely empty. To do that copy all the contents of your sd card to a safe place on your pc, then format the sd card as Fat32 32kb cluster size. Then do the test with the "write and read" setting. After it completes and passes the test, format it again as Fat32 32kb cluster size, then copy your files back to it.. Otherwise, if it fails the test, then you need to get a new replacement sd card..

If a formatting of my SD is required, what steps do I take to preserve my save data?

The "Nintendo 3ds" on your sd card contains the installed game data along with your game saves, if you want to backup your installed games you can do so with GodMode9 (though it's not necessary unless you really want to preserve your games), as you'll be copying the entirety of the "Nintendo 3DS" folder once you are with the test..
On the other hand, i'd highly recommend a creating a backup for your game saves with Checkpoint, once you do that, you can restore them whenever/wherever you want..

 

[Sypherone]

Did you backuped your drive before? F3 may support the only test free space option. But h2testw writes testdata in every sector. If the sector is full, it overwrites your data and corrupt them.

 

[Badjustice]

Nope, you have to do test while the sd card is completely empty. To do that copy all the contents of your sd card to a safe place on your pc, then format the sd card as Fat32 32kb cluster size. Then do the test with the "write and read" setting. After it completes and passes the test, format it again as Fat32 32kb cluster size, then copy your files back to it.. Otherwise, if it fails the test, then you need to get a new replacement sd card..

Thank you for the response, it seems that formatting is my last resort. I will likely try that next if nothing else.

I have already made a backup of my nand and also backed up save files through Checkpoint onto my computer.
Does copying the contents of the 3DS and pasting it back after the SD is formatted affect the compatibility of the contents?

Or will my 3DS run just as it was before the format/testing? This is the only part I am hesitant on as I don't want to lose my data or reinstalling CFW in the process of testing the SD.

Also when you mean formatting the SD, that is done through my PC and not through the 3DS system settings right?

 

[Sypherone]

Does copying the contents of the 3DS and pasting it back after the SD is formatted affect the compatibility of the contents

In no way, just copy and paste. There is no problem with compatibility, aslong its from the 3DS its belong too. And isn`t corrupted (best 7zip it for backup reasons, is uses CRC SHA). It will have the state of the moment you dumped it. You can reflash the Nand everytime, thats the reason for making Nand backups.

 

[CoolMe]

Does copying the contents of the 3DS and pasting it back after the SD is formatted affect the compatibility of the contents?

Nope, it should behave the same as it did.

Or will my 3DS run just as it was before the format/testing?

The sd card testing with h2testw is to determine for sure if the sd card is dying or defective, if so it explains why you're experiencing these errors/issues with those games.. If not, then it could be something else..

This is the only part I am hesitant on as I don't want to lose my data or reinstalling CFW in the process of testing the SD.

The system will still have cfw after you format the sd card. And you won't lose any data as long as you copy everything to a safe place, checking the size of both in properties to make sure it copied all the files..

Also when you mean formatting the SD, that is done through my PC and not through the 3DS system settings right?

Yes, do it on pc, and do not format it on the 3ds or you will lose all your installed games and saves..
Use Guiformat if Windows formatting is giving you any trouble..

 

[Badjustice]

Update:

So I had the chance to follow the instructions as per CoolMe above.
I realized that Mario 3D Land and RF4 issues were Error Disp and not the same as MH4U. This was fixed simply by redownloading the games from the eShop.

I have also reformatted my SD FAT32k -> Ran h2testw test on the EMPTY SD card (no errors) -> reformatted again FAT32k

However the arm11 issue still persists for MH4U and even Badge Arcade.

Any idea what the issue is?

 

[CoolMe]

However the arm11 issue still persists for MH4U and even Badge Arcade.

"Import seed" in fbi, open fbi then titles and click on MH4U. You should be connected to WiFi for it to download the seed. And try again.
I don't think it will work for the Badge Arcade, have you tried uninstalling and downloading/installing again? You could try importing seed if you want..

 

[Badjustice]

I just tried and it gave me the following error:

Failed to Import seed.
Result code: 0xD963F99C
Level: Permanent (27)
Summary: Internal (11)
Module: Application (254)

 

[Sypherone]

Seems to be a connection problem. For example something like: no internet connection, wrong adress or file doesnt exist.

Do you use latest version of fbi?

 

[Badjustice]

Seems to be a connection problem. For example something like: no internet connection, wrong adress or file doesnt exist.

Do you use latest version of fbi?

My version is 2.61. Is that the latest?

 

[Sypherone]

Its latest. Maybe check your connection and try a qr-code to install something to verify the connection is working. Maybe from the 3ds Universal db.

 

[CoolMe]

I just tried and it gave me the following error:

Failed to Import seed.
Result code: 0xD963F99C
Level: Permanent (27)
Summary: Internal (11)
Module: Application (254)

Are you connected to WiFi or not?

 

[Badjustice]

Are you connected to WiFi or not?

I am connected on wifi, it shows on the top corner of my screen as well.

I also went ahead and tried to install a cia of MH4U and deleted my eshop copy.
Still the same error shows up.

Note: My 3DS has been connected to wifi throughout this whole process, downloading and accessing the eshop, freeshop etc.

As a test I was also successfully able to import seed for my other games (Terrarria, Yoshi Woolly World), but still not for MH4U.

 

[CoolMe]

As a test I was also successfully able to import seed for my other games (Terrarria, Yoshi Woolly World), but still not for MH4U.

Ok. Is the installed version of MH4U the same region as your system? Use fbi check. If it's not, you might need to use Luma Locale Switcher and change it to its region..

 

[Badjustice]

Ok. Is the installed version of MH4U the same region as your system? Use fbi check. If it's not, you might need to use Luma Locale Switcher and change it to its region..

It says in FBI that it is North America (same as me). Is it possible that my 3DS is set to region free? How can I check that?

 

[CoolMe]

It says in FBI that it is North America (same as me). Is it possible that my 3DS is set to region free? How can I check that?

It's fine then. Was MH4U purchased legitimately through the eShop? If so, it's not a seed a problem (that's only for pirated copies)..
Not sure what could be the cause really, since you don't have a region changed system, that eliminates the possibility of a broken extended memory mode for games like MH4U..

 

[Badjustice]

Thank you @CoolMe and @Sypherone for the help so far.
I guess I will have to keep digging to see what the issue is.

I remember back when I was < Luma 7.0, I did have a region free set to play some Japanese Cartridges and didn't really mess around with any other core functions of CFW. But even then, my legitimate copy of MH4U would still work.

Over time after CFW it started to crash more and more consistently, and now it crashes on boot. I thought updating Luma V11 and other stuff would fix it, but it seems I must keep searching for answers.

I appreciate you both for your prompt responses/follow ups!

 

[CoolMe]

I remember back when I was < Luma 7.0, I did have a region free set to play some Japanese Cartridges and didn't really mess around with any other core functions of CFW.

Not sure what that is, but i doubt it's the one causing the problem for you here..

Over time after CFW it started to crash more and more consistently, and now it crashes on boot. I thought updating Luma V11 and other stuff would fix it,

Ok, that's a totally separate and different problem to the MH4U issue you are having..
Is it an ARM11 error most of the time, or something else?
Does it happen randomly, like in the home menu, within homebrew apps, in-game etc.?
It could be a system related issue, either on the software or hardware side. You could try doing ctrtransfer, though i'm not sure what issues you are having so i can't recommend it yet..
The sd card was tested earlier, so it's unlikely to be the culprit..

 

[Badjustice]

Not sure what that is, but i doubt it's the one causing the problem for you here..

Ok, that's a totally separate and different problem to the MH4U issue you are having..
Is it an ARM11 error most of the time, or something else?
Does it happen randomly, like in the home menu, within homebrew apps, in-game etc.?
It could be a system related issue, either on the software or hardware side. You could try doing ctrtransfer, though i'm not sure what issues you are having so i can't recommend it yet..
The sd card was tested earlier, so it's unlikely to be the culprit..

To clarify, it is always a ARM11 problem for MH4U every single time.
My 3DS does not crash in any other way, asides from booting MH4U or certain other games (Badge Arcade).

The only other area I run into an ARM11 issue is when I try to download MH4U or even MH3U from the Freeshop, but I only did that as a test. The ARM11 issue is also different in the freeshop, whereby the exception type says "Abort" instead of "undefined instruction".

Hope that sheds some more light.