Hello! New member but a long time lurker. I am a hardware technician with 15+ years of professional electronics repair experience. Normally, I do extensive research and the solution to my problem presents itself, and I attempt every reasonably solution I can find.
I am currently working on a modded Old 3DS XL handheld that is running the latest version of Luma, and while playing Miitopia the SD card stopped functioning. Upon returning to the home screen, a message popped up: "Could not detect an SD card. The software on the SD card could not be displayed." This is the fourth Old 3DS XL unit I have modded, and the other three have functioned for months with no issues, so I do not believe it to be the result of a faulty install.
Technical details of the system:
My troubleshooting steps, in order, are below:
My best guess is that this is a software issue, based on the hardware repair restoring SD functionality before the failure repeated. Am I missing anything? Are there any other possible solutions to this issue? Any assistance is greatly appreciated. I have been unable to find documentation on signal paths from each of these pins, and am unable to trace them to other components that may be causing the issue. I don't want to randomly start swapping ICs either, since I really hate reballing chips without a stencil and the risk of that process resulting in a failure is very, very high.
I am currently working on a modded Old 3DS XL handheld that is running the latest version of Luma, and while playing Miitopia the SD card stopped functioning. Upon returning to the home screen, a message popped up: "Could not detect an SD card. The software on the SD card could not be displayed." This is the fourth Old 3DS XL unit I have modded, and the other three have functioned for months with no issues, so I do not believe it to be the result of a faulty install.
Technical details of the system:
- System software: Sys 11.17.0-50U
- SD card details - 64GB SanDisk ImageMate, 140MB/s, Formatted FAT32 with 32kb allocation unit size
- Running current version of Luma and Godmode9
My troubleshooting steps, in order, are below:
- Cleaned SD card pins and contacts inside SD socket on motherboard using 93% isopropyl alcohol, no change
- Backed up contents of SD card, reformatted/wiped card, verified using h2testw. Test was good and SD was verified
- Loaded a fresh copy of Luma and Godmode9 with all applicable folders onto SD and booted into chainloader. Godmode9 will not load past "...booting" message in bottom right corner.
- Got a second SD card, Toshiba 2GB. Formatted as FAT32, verified with h2testw, but left it blank. Booted to home screen of 3DS and inserted card, got the same "Could not detect an SD card" issue.
- Removed the motherboard and desoldered SD card reader. Replaced with a known good reader from a second unit. Cleaned after installation using 93% isopropyl.
- Inserted original SanDisk SD card into unit and powered on. Boots to Luma settings menu, but after saving settings it loads to the homescreen correctly. Since the software had been removed, there was nothing to load, but it did boot correctly once and it read the SD card, and it created a new Nintendo 3DS folder in the file structure.
- I attempted to restore a previous image using Godmode9. When booting, Godmode9 loads correctly. However, when attempting to open the SD inside Godmode9, an error message pops up saying the SD is corrupted. After returning to the main menu of Godmode9, the SD is no longer present. Attempted to load SD using menu prompt, but it failed.
- Booted to the luma home screen, and the "Could not detect an SD card" message appears again.
- Using a known good board and a signal injector/oscilloscope, verified correct readings on all SD card reader pins. They were practically identical to the known good unit.
- Cleaned SD socket pins again, no change.
My best guess is that this is a software issue, based on the hardware repair restoring SD functionality before the failure repeated. Am I missing anything? Are there any other possible solutions to this issue? Any assistance is greatly appreciated. I have been unable to find documentation on signal paths from each of these pins, and am unable to trace them to other components that may be causing the issue. I don't want to randomly start swapping ICs either, since I really hate reballing chips without a stencil and the risk of that process resulting in a failure is very, very high.
