Hardware HardBricked while sitting

link2877 · Oct 31, 2018

So my 3ds has somehow managed to hardbrick itself sitting on it's charger. I don't use it that often anymore and it's basically been there untouched for probably close to six months. This is basically a virgin original launch 3ds. I never really did any kind of hardcore homebrew with it. Except for when stuff first started coming out and you had to use that one shooter game that I don't even remember the name of to access the homebrew menu(talking like 2015 here). Then I lost interest and never really did anything with it after that. So when I opened my system yesterday to black screens and no activity whatsoever, homebrew being the cause didn't even enter my mind. I've now tried everything; turning it off and on, trying to enter recovery mode, pulling the battery, taking the sd and game cards out, opening the system up and reseating the wifi card. Not a single thing has changed. So I've been looking through thread after thread and the only thing left that looks like it might do anything is a hardmod. But even with that I'm still totally unclear if a hardmod will be able to do anything. From what I can see either the NAND or bootloader somehow got corrupted and the only way to access those without any kind of previous modding is a hardmod. But I'm still not completely clear though if corruption like this can even be recovered from with no previous hacks installed. Is their anything I'm missing or not understanding here? 99% of the bricks I'm seeing on here are caused by homebrew mishaps.

If reputable guys who do unbricking services are still around I'd totally be interested. Or if there are any actually clear and concise guides or tutorials out there about this problem I'm all ears.

Most of the above is no longer relevant to the problem, see my other post in thread. Latest one's on page two.

TurdPooCharger · Oct 31, 2018

Can you clarify this state:

link2877 said:
So my 3ds has somehow managed to hardbrick itself sitting on it's charger. I don't use it that often anymore and it's basically been there untouched for probably close to six months.

You left your o3DS plugged in to an AC charger for nearly six months. During that whole time that o3DS was turned off, it has been left charging to that AC charger connected to a wall outlet.

Am I interpreting this statement correctly?

link2877 · Oct 31, 2018

It was on the old lay down stand charger they use to give you. It was in sleep mode too. If I'm remembering right it can update itself while it's in the state right? There was a game running in the background too so it could never actually restart it self without asking me first right? Been leaving on that thing in sleep mode since I first got it at launch, never had any kind of problem. Sometimes I did turn it off and leave it but I'd say 80 to 90 percent of the time it was in sleep. I was thinking about it last night and the last time I looked at it was acting a little strange, as in I think it froze. But I think it fixed itself by a simple off and on reset.

TurdPooCharger · Oct 31, 2018

Homebrew and custom firmware would not cause a brick like that. Leaving the 3DS plugged in charging for that long can and will.

Try sweeping the YXBA area with a strong magnet if the o3DS has its sleep mode switch stuck.

Maybe your battery died from all that continually charging. Replace this if the magnet sweep doesn't wake the 3DS.

You might have killed your micro-fuses, charging chip, and/or power supply filter by continually trickle charging it. Charging the 3DS in sleep mode still counts as using it and does reduce its lifespan.

Lastly, the 3DS might have hard bricked if there was ever a thunderstorm that made your home power go out. Larger electronics have a 3rd prong in their outlet plug that acts as a ground, and homes' circuit breakers are usually pretty good at tripping whenever there's an unbalanced or spiked load. The problem with the 3DS AC charger is that it's a two prong design, so it has no grounding. Leaving the 3DS plugged in during a thunderstorm can fry its motherboard; this risk increases when there are closeby lightning strikes that can act as a strong enough EMP to your nonshielded, in-use devices.

***

For long term storage, have your battery charged at 50% and remove it from the 3DS. Don't leave the 3DS continually plugged to a charger for that long of a duration because that does wear down your electric regulator components (ie, electric leak). You also gamble FUBAR'ing this way if a thunderstorm scrolls in.

link2877 · Oct 31, 2018

It seems to still charge and discharge fine. One thing I tried when I couldn't find the right size screw driver to open the back was just let it sit open all night to discharge the battery completely (it didn't work obviously). The thing still charged up and worked fine afterwards (I mean as fine as it can be).

Itzumi · Nov 1, 2018

TurdPooCharger said:
Homebrew and custom firmware would not cause a brick like that. Leaving the 3DS plugged in charging for that long can and will.

Try sweeping the YXBA area with a strong magnet if the o3DS has its sleep mode switch stuck.

Maybe your battery died from all that continually charging. Replace this if the magnet sweep doesn't wake the 3DS.

You might have killed your micro-fuses, charging chip, and/or power supply filter by continually trickle charging it. Charging the 3DS in sleep mode still counts as using it and does reduce its lifespan.

Lastly, the 3DS might have hard bricked if there was ever a thunderstorm that made your home power go out. Larger electronics have a 3rd prong in their outlet plug that acts as a ground, and homes' circuit breakers are usually pretty good at tripping whenever there's an unbalanced or spiked load. The problem with the 3DS AC charger is that it's a two prong design, so it has no grounding. Leaving the 3DS plugged in during a thunderstorm can fry its motherboard; this risk increases when there are closeby lightning strikes that can act as a strong enough EMP to your nonshielded, in-use devices.

***

For long term storage, have your battery charged at 50% and remove it from the 3DS. Don't leave the 3DS continually plugged to a charger for that long of a duration because that does wear down your electric regulator components (ie, electric leak). You also gamble FUBAR'ing this way if a thunderstorm scrolls in.

Fubar?

TurdPooCharger · Nov 1, 2018

link2877 said:
It seems to still charge and discharge fine. One thing I tried when I couldn't find the right size screw driver to open the back was just let it sit open all night to discharge the battery completely (it didn't work obviously). The thing still charged up and worked fine afterwards (I mean as fine as it can be).

To eliminate the possibility your drained battery doesn't have enough juice to keep your 3DS RAM memory lingering, you'll need to find a proper screwdriver to remove it and let the system self-discharge. This Stanley set for around $5 is commonly available across Walmart and Target stores.

Another possibility is that your camera module died while the 3DS was kept on that entire time. I've read several others reporting their 3DS systems being in a Death-like state of Black Screens after long periods of sleep; the weirdest remedy was to replace the camera assembly or disconnect it if it's a n3DSXL model; disconnecting the camera cable might not work when checking on the other 3DS models.

Itzumi said:
Fubar?

And here's where my age shows, lol.

Have you ever heard of or seen the WWII movie, Saving Private Ryan? FUBAR is an acronym of military origins, which became popularized after that movie's debut 20 years ago. If you want to see the gory and chilly faithful reenactment of the D-Day beach landing, go watch that movie in high-def video/audio. Very FUBAR.

link2877 · Nov 1, 2018

TurdPooCharger said:
To eliminate the possibility your drained battery doesn't have enough juice to keep your 3DS RAM memory lingering, you'll need to find a proper screwdriver to remove it and let the system self-discharge. This Stanley set for around $5 is commonly available across Walmart and Target stores.

[walmart] STANLEY 66-052 6-Piece Precision Screwdriver Set

[Target] Stanley® 6 Piece Precision Screwdriver Set - 62-052

Another possibility is that your camera module died while the 3DS was kept on that entire time. I've read several others reporting their 3DS systems being in a Death-like state of Black Screens after long periods of sleep; the weirdest remedy was to replace the camera assembly or disconnect it if it's a n3DSXL model; disconnecting the camera cable might not work when checking on the other 3DS models.

And here's where my age shows, lol.

Have you ever heard of or seen the WWII movie, Saving Private Ryan? FUBAR is an acronym of military origins, which became popularized after that movie's debut 20 years ago. If you want to see the gory and chilly faithful reenactment of the D-Day beach landing, go watch that movie in high-def video/audio. Very FUBAR.

Yeah I did eventually find the right screw driver and removed the battery. Like I said in the op I also tried the reseating the wifi modual inside trick. I guess I'll maybe try the camera ribbon cable reseating. But if that doesn't work would a hard mod be able to do anything? It's kind of the last resort right?

TurdPooCharger · Nov 1, 2018

link2877 said:
Yeah I did eventually find the right screw driver and removed the battery. Like I said in the op I also tried the reseating the wifi modual inside trick. I guess I'll maybe try the camera ribbon cable reseating. But if that doesn't work would a hard mod be able to do anything? It's kind of the last resort right?

A hardmod, or hardware modification for direct read & write access of the onboard NAND, will only fix a software type brick. It is indeed a last resort method reserved when:

SysNAND Restore (by GodMode9)
- SysNAND Restore (by Decrypt9WIP)
CTRTransfer (11.5.0)
- CTRTransfer (9.2.0)
  - CTRTransfer (by Decrypt9WIP)
Lazarus3DS
NTRboot (2nd to last resort)

do not work; ie, a stubborn bootrom Blue Screens of Death (of the softbrick variety). I don't know if this applies for miscellaneous Black Screens of Death.

So with that said...
A hardmod will not fix a hardbrick just as taking antibiotics when you're sick with viral infections will not cure you.

***

To quickly determine if your 3DS has a hardbrick, you would have to acquire another (functional) o3DS unit for A/B testing. Swapping places for the two motherboards would quickly check if your original 3DS mobo is in a working state and whether your original 3DS has a failed accessory part (YXBA daughterboard, WiFi module, camera module, speaker module, LCDs) that's not obvious of physical damage from observation alone [magnifying glass].

I would suggest you try NTRboot next with the R4i Gold 3DS Plus [1] [2], or if you don't care for a quality DS flashcart that has a Time Bomb, R4iSDHC Dual-Core 2018 [3].

If you got case to spare, buy a used donor o3DS for temporary testing then selling (just make sure you state what condition you're selling it in once you're done with it).

link2877 · Apr 28, 2019

Well hello again everyone. Been almost six months now and I haven't really tried anything to fix my system beyond what I did when I originally made this thread. But something amazing happened a hour or so ago. I was reading a thread about the 3ds on a different site and just for the hell of it I opened up and turned on my old 3ds. And what do you know, my previously hard brick 3ds has magically turned into a soft bricked blue screen 3ds.

BOOTROM 8046
ERRCODE: 00F800EF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000200 00000000

So now that I actually have some kind of idea what's wrong with the thing. What are some of the steps I should take next? I'm seeing lots of info about ntrboot which means I definitely need a flashcard now. Are there any specific threads I should read to prepare? I am kind of afraid to turn it off now in case it reverts back to it's old state. But if it is this flaky and switches back a forth between hard and soft brick then that definitely means it's some kind of component on the main pcb right?

Hayato213 · Apr 28, 2019

link2877 said:
Well hello again everyone. Been almost six months now and I haven't really tried anything to fix my system beyond what I did when I originally made this thread. But something amazing happened a hour or so ago. I was reading a thread about the 3ds on a different site and just for the hell of it I opened up and turned on my old 3ds. And what do you know, my previously hard brick 3ds has magically turned into a soft bricked blue screen 3ds.

View attachment 165205
BOOTROM 8046
ERRCODE: 00F800EF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000200 00000000

So now that I actually have some kind of idea what's wrong with the thing. What are some of the steps I should take next? I'm seeing lots of info about ntrboot which means I definitely need a flashcard now. Are there any specific threads I should read to prepare? I am kind of afraid to turn it off now in case it reverts back to it's old state. But if it is this flaky and switches back a forth between hard and soft brick then that definitely means it's some kind of component on the main pcb right?

Try the NTRbootHax , you might be able to fix it.

TurdPooCharger · Apr 28, 2019

link2877 said:
Well hello again everyone. Been almost six months now and I haven't really tried anything to fix my system beyond what I did when I originally made this thread. But something amazing happened a hour or so ago. I was reading a thread about the 3ds on a different site and just for the hell of it I opened up and turned on my old 3ds. And what do you know, my previously hard brick 3ds has magically turned into a soft bricked blue screen 3ds.

BOOTROM 8046
ERRCODE: 00F800EF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000200 00000000

So now that I actually have some kind of idea what's wrong with the thing. What are some of the steps I should take next? I'm seeing lots of info about ntrboot which means I definitely need a flashcard now. Are there any specific threads I should read to prepare? I am kind of afraid to turn it off now in case it reverts back to it's old state. But if it is this flaky and switches back a forth between hard and soft brick then that definitely means it's some kind of component on the main pcb right?

If the o3DS was left alone sitting attached to the charger all those months ago and turning it on now reveals a bootrom 8046 error, this is 99% certainty a hardware based brick as stated before caused by overcharging or fried components.

You can try the various previously mentioned software debugging ideas, but I have doubts any of them will fix it.

Nintendo currently has refurbished 3DS/2DS models on sale.

Nintendo Store - Systems

Or, fixing it yourself by replacement the o3DS motherboard.

link2877 · Apr 28, 2019

TurdPooCharger said:
If the o3DS was left alone sitting attached to the charger all those months ago and turning it on now reveals a bootrom 8046 error, this is 99% certainty a hardware based brick as stated before caused by overcharging or fried components.

You can try the various previously mentioned software debugging ideas, but I have doubts any of them will fix it.

Nintendo currently has refurbished 3DS/2DS models on sale.

Nintendo Store - Systems

Or, fixing it yourself by replacement the o3DS motherboard.

[iFixit] Nintendo 3DS Motherboard Replacement

[aliexpress] 100% Original USA Version PCB Board Motherboard for 3DS for Nintend for 3DS Game Console Replacement Parts

[eBay] search term "3ds motherboard"

Yeah about that. So one other thing I remembered these past six months is that before the original hard brick happened. I opened the system up one day and after pushing the home button to return to the game that was running in the background, the entire system froze and I had to resort to a hard powercycle (holding the power down for ten seconds) to attempt to fix it. Well when I went to turn it back on this is when the original blank screen hard brick happened. I completely forgot about this because immediately after this happened I shrugged my shoulders and went to sleep thinking it was nothing and an easy fix later. The thing is I didn't actually open it back up to play again until like four or five months later and immediately was like wait wtf, the original incident having completely slipped my mind.

I also thought about it more and it's not so much that I left the thing on the charger being charged 24/7. It's more that I left it sitting on the charger completely turned off and sitting slightly ajar. So it wasn't actually connected to the charger 90% of the time, it was just sitting on top of it. This really dose just seem like one of those rare catastrophic software errors.

TurdPooCharger · Apr 29, 2019

link2877 said:
Yeah about that. So one other thing I remembered these past six months is that before the original hard brick happened. I opened the system up one day and after pushing the home button to return to the game that was running in the background, the entire system froze and I had to resort to a hard powercycle (holding the power down for ten seconds) to attempt to fix it. Well when I went to turn it back on this is when the original blank screen hard brick happened. I completely forgot about this because immediately after this happened I shrugged my shoulders and went to sleep thinking it was nothing and an easy fix later. The thing is I didn't actually open it back up to play again until like four or five months later and immediately was like wait wtf, the original incident having completely slipped my mind.

I also thought about it more and it's not so much that I left the thing on the charger being charged 24/7. It's more that I left it sitting on the charger completely turned off and sitting slightly ajar. So it wasn't actually connected to the charger 90% of the time, it was just sitting on top of it. This really dose just seem like one of those rare catastrophic software errors.

Did your o3DS used a 3DS flashcart like Gateway or one of its clones when you last played that game? Those carts have a malicious brick code that can be triggered in purposely softbricking the FIRM0/1 partitions on your NAND. If it's that, this type of bootrom 8046 can be fixed with ntrboot.

link2877 · May 14, 2019

Well I finally got around to getting an R4 gold (the newer one with the ntrboot switch inside). Is there anything I should know before I attempt to fix this thing? I kinda want to to keep the thing as stock as possible. Is there anyway to just fix it so it boots up normally again without having to install a bunch of custom firmware and the like? A backup of my nand would be nice I guess (in case this happens again). But I don't really feel the need to do much beyond that.

Quantumcat · May 14, 2019

link2877 said:
Well I finally got around to getting an R4 gold (the newer one with the ntrboot switch inside). Is there anything I should know before I attempt to fix this thing? I kinda want to to keep the thing as stock as possible. Is there anyway to just fix it so it boots up normally again without having to install a bunch of custom firmware and the like? A backup of my nand would be nice I guess (in case this happens again). But I don't really feel the need to do much beyond that.

You could follow https://3ds.guide/ntrboot but instead of using SafeB9SInstaller you could use GodMode9 and do a CTR transfer. However I would recommend just installing B9S and then trying to fix it, as otherwise you have to try to work out what to do yourself rather than following the very well-trodden path, which could increase chances of problems (if you need any troubleshooting in future it is going to be very hard to explain what you've done, and it will be hard for anyone to help you since they won't know which if any of the random weird things you will have done could have contributed to your theoretical future problem).

There's no good reason to avoid installing B9S unless you have a moral objection to CFW - you might think having CFW will make things harder but actually they're easier

PabloMK7 · May 14, 2019

I just looked at the bootrom error codes (https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/Bootloader) and your error code doesn't match any of the listed. The most similar one suggest an issue with the NAND connection. (Would make sense as the NAND has a limited number of R/W and you had it powered on for so much time.)

link2877 · May 22, 2019

Well finally tried it tonight. I tested the card in my old ds to check and see if it worked and everything seemed fine. Opened the card up, flipped the switch, threw all the files on it, placed the magnet aaannnd, nothing. All it dose with the magent in place and the buttons held down is turn on for a second or two with a black screen and then shuts itself off. I mean it's something different at least but it's obviously still bricked. Turn it on normally and it still dose the old blue screen. Is it turning on then back off again by itself a sign of me screwing up with the files or something?

Undwiz · May 22, 2019

Dude mail it to me and I'll fix it for free. I have tons of 03ds and n3ds parts

NoNAND · May 22, 2019

Seems to me this "black screen" thing is something more farfetched and complicated than a mere brick

you could have fried the 3ds's innards and particularly those parts accountable for a proper boot up. hence you might need to swap the motherboard entirely. or go for an used 3ds if you can afford it.

Don't leave your devices on charge for such a damn long time lol
it's pretty obvious what will happen to them.

Hardware HardBricked while sitting

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