Hardware Old Style 3DS Not turning on Help!

Deleted-511732 · Nov 25, 2019

I am attempting to repair a couple of these old style 3ds xl systems (without cstick option) I bought from Goodwill the other day. I have a good working system That i have as well that I am willing to disassemble to attempt to find out what part has failed, but looking for some answers before attempting. I fix 2ds systems without any issue and can diagnose those, these however have me a little stumbled. They are both having the same issues and troubleshoot the same as follows:

When pressing the Power button the blue like powers on for a couple seconds, then immediately shuts off.

The sound does not "pop" when powering off
Both Screens do flash on and off during the attempt to power and appear to have no cracks
2 fully charged batteries that tested good were used in attempting this
Battery Contacts were cleaned on the motherboard

Ribbon cables were all cleaned and reseated to the best of my ability (I redid this multiple times to try and remove human error from equation
I am unaware of any firmware modifications being done to either sytem or memory cards

I read a few reddit pages that if a system is bricked from homebrew modifcations, you can test this with using certain files, and all these tests came up to no difference.
Both systems came with original style 4gb memory cards and neither system held more than one System ID and one of two systems had DCIM memory and photos within, leading me to think this is the original card to the system

My questions i'm really looking to answer are:

Which Ribbon cables will cause system to fail booting sequence?
Which items can I ignore that will not cause this issue?
What is The lettering for the fuse(s) on these systems, generalized location, and/or if generous, a photo?
Will The sound/3d ribbon cable cause this issue is faulty?

If not, will this item need to be installed to motherboard during troubleshooting or will that cause boot failure?

Will the camera ribbon cable cause this issue if faulty?

If not, will this item need to be installed to motherboard during troubleshooting or will that cause boot failure?

If the Top LCD Flashes during boot failure, does that mean the LCD is good or is it possible that the TOP LCD could still be a potential for causation?

On a Side note, Does anyone know of a good tool to take out the tabs for the screws on the top screen? Can i buy replacements anywhere?

ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN HELP, I AM MORE THAN WILLING TO HEAR!

lone_wolf323 · Nov 25, 2019

Arsenalof1 said:
I am attempting to repair a couple of these old style 3ds xl systems (without cstick option) I bought from Goodwill the other day. I have a good working system That i have as well that I am willing to disassemble to attempt to find out what part has failed, but looking for some answers before attempting. I fix 2ds systems without any issue and can diagnose those, these however have me a little stumbled. They are both having the same issues and troubleshoot the same as follows:

When pressing the Power button the blue like powers on for a couple seconds, then immediately shuts off.

ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN HELP, I AM MORE THAN WILLING TO HEAR!

That first statement you wrote sounds like they have been cfw'ed and are missing the the boot.firm or possibly the boot.bin depending on what they may have for the cfw. I'd say to start is looking at getting the sd card set up from 3ds.hacks.guide and seeing if they are able to run. if not they may have A9LH on them.

Quantumcat · Nov 25, 2019

What lone wolf said - try boot.firm from the latest Luma, Luma 7.1, and arm9loaderhax.bin from Luma 7.0.5 on the root of the SD card. One of these should get it going.

Deleted-511732 · Nov 25, 2019

Unfortunately, I just attempted each of these files and none of them were able to get the system to boot correctly. Do you have any other suggestions?

TurdPooCharger · Nov 26, 2019

Arsenalof1 said:
Unfortunately, I just attempted each of these files and none of them were able to get the system to boot correctly. Do you have any other suggestions?

CFW: I formatted my 2ds's sd card and now it wont turn on [post #17]

Substitute step 2 with quadruple reformat.

***

If these Old 3DS XL systems do not change their boot-up response (ie, blue light blinks once and then turns off), that means their sd card slot readers are broken and will need to be replaced.

Unfortunately, the Old 3DS XL model has the sd reader soldered on.

[ifixit] Nintendo 3DS XL

If you wish to replace the reader anyway by de-soldering and re-soldering, here's the part.

Deleted-511732 · Nov 26, 2019

I followed the steps and these darn thing still wants to stay dead. I purchased another 3DS XL today that needs a 3d slider replaced that for sure works. I'm going to throw this motherboard into it and see if I get any different results. If I don't get any different results, I guess it will be safe to assume to that the issue is within the motherboard itself.

Quantumcat · Nov 27, 2019

Arsenalof1 said:
I followed the steps and these darn thing still wants to stay dead. I purchased another 3DS XL today that needs a 3d slider replaced that for sure works. I'm going to throw this motherboard into it and see if I get any different results. If I don't get any different results, I guess it will be safe to assume to that the issue is within the motherboard itself.

The motherboard won't be at fault. Turning on then off will always mean that it can't find boot.firm or arm9loaderhax.bin. It might have a motherboard issue as well, but that would only be coincidental. So your experiment will probably be successful - good luck!

Deleted-511732 · Nov 27, 2019

I appreciate the enthusiasm! I should probably be more specific and say within the hardware/software of the motherboard. Lol. I just wish I knew for whether or not this system actually had been modified with custom firmware or not. I was left TONS of electronic testing and repair equipment from my father when he retired. (He's pretty much blind and can't see to fix things, but can be a vocal coach in understanding something if i don't). He was telling me I could use the oscilloscope to test the exact parts to figure out where the problem is if I could come up with an Electrical Diagram for the system? I know how to read diagrams to a certain degree. I'm definitely 100% not an electricians expert, but i'm definitely determined at this point because Momma (Rip) didn't raise no quitter. lmao. I'm not sure which is harder, vehicle or Small circuitry electronic diagnostic. If there is a professional diagnostic tool from the 80s until early 2000s, I've probably got it and have no idea how to use it, per say.

I appreciate everyone's feedback so far! There is no bad criticism when it comes to understanding electronics and i'm a sponge when it comes to information for diagnostic.

pikatsu · Nov 27, 2019

Arsenalof1 said:
I am attempting to repair a couple of these old style 3ds xl systems (without cstick option) I bought from Goodwill the other day. I have a good working system That i have as well that I am willing to disassemble to attempt to find out what part has failed, but looking for some answers before attempting. I fix 2ds systems without any issue and can diagnose those, these however have me a little stumbled. They are both having the same issues and troubleshoot the same as follows:

When pressing the Power button the blue like powers on for a couple seconds, then immediately shuts off.

The sound does not "pop" when powering off

Both Screens do flash on and off during the attempt to power and appear to have no cracks

2 fully charged batteries that tested good were used in attempting this

Battery Contacts were cleaned on the motherboard

Ribbon cables were all cleaned and reseated to the best of my ability (I redid this multiple times to try and remove human error from equation

I am unaware of any firmware modifications being done to either sytem or memory cards

I read a few reddit pages that if a system is bricked from homebrew modifcations, you can test this with using certain files, and all these tests came up to no difference.

Both systems came with original style 4gb memory cards and neither system held more than one System ID and one of two systems had DCIM memory and photos within, leading me to think this is the original card to the system

My questions i'm really looking to answer are:

Which Ribbon cables will cause system to fail booting sequence?

Which items can I ignore that will not cause this issue?

What is The lettering for the fuse(s) on these systems, generalized location, and/or if generous, a photo?

Will The sound/3d ribbon cable cause this issue is faulty?

If not, will this item need to be installed to motherboard during troubleshooting or will that cause boot failure?

Will the camera ribbon cable cause this issue if faulty?

If not, will this item need to be installed to motherboard during troubleshooting or will that cause boot failure?

If the Top LCD Flashes during boot failure, does that mean the LCD is good or is it possible that the TOP LCD could still be a potential for causation?

On a Side note, Does anyone know of a good tool to take out the tabs for the screws on the top screen? Can i buy replacements anywhere?

ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN HELP, I AM MORE THAN WILLING TO HEAR!

I had the same problem. Both screens were flashing for less than a second and the 3ds was shut down. The fix was a new sound ribbon cable

Deleted-511732 · Nov 29, 2019

So I received my 2nd 3ds xl today to use for troubleshooting. I swapped the motherboards and surprisingly, the system still does the same thing even with replacing the motherboard with one I for sure know that works. If anyone has any ideas on what hardware could possibly do this, please let me know. I personally am leaning towards the 3d/Sound Ribbon cable being the culprit, unfortunately, thats the one darn part I don't have just laying around(slide button on the module is broken on the new system). if all my tests come up inconclusive with the other hardware, I'm going to order the the replacement 3d module to see if I can't get any different results.

Deleted-511732 · Nov 29, 2019

Update! I put the old motherboard into the new system and It worked! Its looking like the Sound/3D cable was the culprit. I was able to replicate the system's malfunction by disconnecting the ribbon cable to verify that a nonfunctioning/Unplugged sound cable will not allow the system to power on. I personally think its kind of dumb that this system can't function without this functioning perfectly.

Hardware Old Style 3DS Not turning on Help!

Deleted-511732

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Dead and alive

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Meh.

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Dead and alive

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