did I brick my Switch?

NightDweller · Monday at 11:13 PM

I have encountered something very strange. I was recently transferring some stuff to my Switch using the USB tool in Hekate. Accidentally at some point, I clicked to partition the SD card. The partitioning did not begin but was asking me to confirm my choice. I didn't see a way out of the screen so I figured I would just power down the console to avoid any issues. Boy was I wrong. After powering down, my switch became completely unresponsive. I cannot boot into OFW or CFW no matter what I do.
Things I have tried:
- multiple button combinations involving the power and volume buttons.
- putting it into recovery mode (doesn't work as it isn't recognized by TegraRCMgui.
- removing the SD card (and re-inserting)
- putting the device multiple different chargers (dock, directly to Nintendo PSU, slow charger, PC, etc)
- disassembling the switch and unplugging the battery, hoping that I could get a fresh reset with no power in the system ( I also held the power button while the battery was disconnected to drain power)

I am at a loss of what to do. I am 99% sure that I didn't have autoRCM enabled, but am willing to try whatever advice you guys can provide and can even discord chat if that makes things easier. Thanks for any input!

thesjaakspoiler · 2026-07-21T01:39:30+0100

NightDweller said:
I have encountered something very strange. I was recently transferring some stuff to my Switch using the USB tool in Hekate. Accidentally at some point, I clicked to partition the SD card. The partitioning did not begin but was asking me to confirm my choice. I didn't see a way out of the screen so I figured I would just power down the console to avoid any issues. Boy was I wrong. After powering down, my switch became completely unresponsive.
Things I have tried:
- multiple button combinations involving the power and volume buttons.
- putting it into recovery mode (doesn't work as it isn't recognized by TegraRCMgui.
- removing the SD card (and re-inserting)
- putting the device multiple different chargers (dock, directly to Nintendo PSU, slow charger, PC, etc)
- disassembling the switch and unplugging the battery, hoping that I could get a fresh reset with no power in the system ( I also held the power button while the battery was disconnected to drain power)

I am at a loss of what to do. I am 99% sure that I didn't have autoRCM enabled, but am willing to try whatever advice you guys can provide and can even discord chat if that makes things easier. Thanks for any input!

Whatever you do in Hekate, it will only affect your CFW and your switch should boot into OFW without an SD card if you don't have autorcm enabled.
If autorcm is enabled, you will only get a faint black screen (only visible in a dark room/ bathroom without windows).
So maybe your autorcm is on after all.
Take a space SD card and put a HATS package on it to see if it shows up.

Does the SD card show any files/folders if you put it in a PC?

NightDweller · 2026-07-22T01:22:14+0100

thesjaakspoiler said:
Whatever you do in Hekate, it will only affect your CFW and your switch should boot into OFW without an SD card if you don't have autorcm enabled.
If autorcm is enabled, you will only get a faint black screen (only visible in a dark room/ bathroom without windows).
So maybe your autorcm is on after all.
Take a space SD card and put a HATS package on it to see if it shows up.

Does the SD card show any files/folders if you put it in a PC?

Yes it does show all the files and folders as it normally would.

I don't think I was clear but I did try to boot into OFW as well.

If it was AutoRCM, wouldn't TegraRCMgui recognize it for sending a payload?

is HATS Hekate + Atmosphere?

thesjaakspoiler · 2026-07-22T06:26:42+0100

If AutoRCM is on, your USB port is fine and the drivers on your PC are working, then TegraRCMgui should recognize it.
For an unpatched Switch those three things need to be working but sometimes issues with the USB port or drivers also become apparent at such times.
If you just happened to transfer files over USB, then probably the USB is fine,
Have you tried using another USB cable?
Did you ever get warnings about your emmc running in 1-bit mode?

The Real Jdbye · 2026-07-22T08:51:30+0100

NightDweller said:
I have encountered something very strange. I was recently transferring some stuff to my Switch using the USB tool in Hekate. Accidentally at some point, I clicked to partition the SD card. The partitioning did not begin but was asking me to confirm my choice. I didn't see a way out of the screen so I figured I would just power down the console to avoid any issues. Boy was I wrong. After powering down, my switch became completely unresponsive. I cannot boot into OFW or CFW no matter what I do.
Things I have tried:
- multiple button combinations involving the power and volume buttons.
- putting it into recovery mode (doesn't work as it isn't recognized by TegraRCMgui.
- removing the SD card (and re-inserting)
- putting the device multiple different chargers (dock, directly to Nintendo PSU, slow charger, PC, etc)
- disassembling the switch and unplugging the battery, hoping that I could get a fresh reset with no power in the system ( I also held the power button while the battery was disconnected to drain power)

I am at a loss of what to do. I am 99% sure that I didn't have autoRCM enabled, but am willing to try whatever advice you guys can provide and can even discord chat if that makes things easier. Thanks for any input!

Just to make sure, you tried booting OFW without the SD card inserted?
If it doesn't boot without the SD and you're sure you didn't have AutoRCM enabled, then it's almost certainly a coincidence that this happened at the exact time you messed with things in Hekate, and there's something more serious going on. Since partitioning the SD card couldn't possibly mess up your OFW.
Since you did click stuff by accident are you sure you didn't click something else that could've caused this issue? Like restoring NAND backup, enabling AutoRCM, or similar. There aren't many options in Hekate that can mess with sysNAND directly, those two are the only ones that come to mind.

did I brick my Switch?

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