Hardware Hardbricked / softbricked old 3DS XL - Steady blue light & 2 black screens

yaum · Nov 1, 2020

I tried to reflash it, and in short, it did not work. You were right saying these varieties do not support the same flashcarts. Here are the detailed results of my attemps for reflashing the cart, and compatibility list as displayed in the UI.

ds_ntrboot_flasher --> not compatible with Ace3DSPlus, here is the list of compatible carts:
- Acekard 2i
  - Acekard 2i HW-44
  - Acekard 2i HW-81
  - R4i Ultra
- DSTT
  - official DSTT
  - lots of clones
- R4iSDHC family, tested with
  - R4i-SDHC RTS lite
  - R4iSDHC 3DS RTS
  - R4iSDHC B9S
- R4i Gold 3DS
  - works with:
    - R4i Gold 3DS (RTS, rev A5/A6/A7)
    - R4i Gold 3DS (rev 4/5)
    - R4i Gold 3DS Starter
    - R4i 3D Revolution
    - Infinity 3 R4i
  - Does not work with:
    - R4i Gold 3DS rev 6/7
jason0597's ntr_boot_flasher_nds, was the one I used initially, I tried again --> the same issue. Below, the compatibility list:
- Acekard 2i
  - Acekard 2i HW-44
  - Acekard 2i HW-81
  - R4i Ultra
- DSTT
  - official DSTT
  - lots of clones
- Ace3DS+
  - Ace3DS+
  - r4isdhc.com.cn
  - Some Gateway Blue cards
- R4iSDHC family, tested with
  - R4i-SDHC RTS lite
  - R4iSDHC 3DS RTS
  - R4iSDHC B9S
- R4i Gold 3DS
  - R4i Gold 3DS (RTS, rev A5/A6/A7)
  - R4i Gold 3DS (rev 4/5/6/7/8?)
  - R4i Gold 3DS Starter
  - R4i 3D Revolution
  - Infinity 3 R4i
ntrboot_flasher (ntrboot) -> Does not work, displays this message : "Your flashcart is not supported (<A> to continue)" . Compatibility list below:
- Acekard 2i
  - Acekard 2i HW-44
  - Acekard 2i HW-81
  - R4i Ultra
- DSTT
  - official DSTT
  - lots of clones
- Ace3DS+
  - Ace3DS+
  - r4isdhc.com.cn
  - Some Gateway Blue cards
- R4iSDHC family, tested with
  - R4i-SDHC RTS lite
  - R4iSDHC 3DS RTS
  - R4iSDHC B9S
- R4i Gold 3DS
  - R4i Gold 3DS (RTS, rev A5/A6/A7)
  - R4i Gold 3DS (rev 4/5/6/7/8?)
  - R4i Gold 3DS Starter
  - R4i 3D Revolution
  - Infinity 3 R4i
- R4 SDHC Dual-Core
  - R4 SDHC Dual-Core
  - R4i Gold
  - R4iTT 3DS

What I did not try: selecting a different cart than the one I suppose I have (based on the menu displayed when loading the square pants bob 'game')

Some pictures of the cart:

I tried to get in touch with the developers for the flashcart_core, without success (they link to a freenode irc channel #cakey, there are people there, but none answering).

TurdPooCharger · Nov 1, 2020

Hmm, maybe try this one?

Ace3DS Plus can now be used for NTRBoot

That 520-in-1 flashcart's board model, 004H4, hasn't been mentioned before in these threads.

Analysis on the Gateway 3DS blue cart (updateable??)
[GitHub, ntrteam/flashcart_core] Ace3ds Plus (ace3ds.com) / Gateway Blue (gateway-3ds.com) / R4isdhc.com.cn [issue #33]

I think you might have the latest revision of the Ace3DS Plus judging by the board's simplified design (less traces, trimmed panel for the microSD slot, reduced resistors count, 1 less chip versus rev 004, added paper sticker wedge for better contact pressure).

Does yours has the Spongebob's Atlantis Squarepantis icon? If so, you might be able to downgrade its flashrom with the ace3ds_fix_all.zip (ace3ds_fix_all.nds) and see if the ntrboot_flasher(s) then recognize this as if it was an older revision, BUT since this is untested idea, there's a chance this can permanently softbrick the flashcart.

Although the ntrteam devs could add support for that 004H4 model, I doubt any who are still active in the 3DS homebrew scene would want to spend US $20 as (s)he'll probably need that cart in hand to verify ntrboot reflashing works. There's also opening the can of worms where everybody with flashcarts 'X, Y, Z' comes out of the woodwork and starts mad requesting R&D to do theirs too.

@yaum, does France have something like our Craigslist? If you live in a urban city, I would recommend posting an ad or Facebook request asking a fellow local 3DS user with an ntrboot flashcart to meet up and unbrick the o3DSXL for you. Don't know what would be an appropriate agreed upon small token payment in general French or European culture. Coffee and bagel?

yaum · Nov 1, 2020

TurdPooCharger said:
Hmm, maybe try this one?

Ace3DS Plus can now be used for NTRBoot

--> nope, same behavior.

TurdPooCharger said:
That 520-in-1 flashcart's board model, 004H4, hasn't been mentioned before in these threads.

Analysis on the Gateway 3DS blue cart (updateable??)

[GitHub, ntrteam/flashcart_core] Ace3ds Plus (ace3ds.com) / Gateway Blue (gateway-3ds.com) / R4isdhc.com.cn [issue #33]

I think you might have the latest revision of the Ace3DS Plus judging by the board's simplified design (less traces, trimmed panel for the microSD slot, reduced resistors count, 1 less chip versus rev 004, added paper sticker wedge for better contact pressure).

Yes, and in the GitHub thread, there is someone having the same ID as me for his cart ([INFO]: Ace3DSPlus version: 22330080), and it's working for him. But definitely, not for me.

TurdPooCharger said:
Does yours has the Spongebob's Atlantis Squarepantis icon? If so, you might be able to downgrade its flashrom with the ace3ds_fix_all.zip (ace3ds_fix_all.nds) and see if the ntrboot_flasher(s) then recognize this as if it was an older revision, BUT since this is untested idea, there's a chance this can permanently softbrick the flashcart.

Yes, I have this Songebob icon.Tested that, no brick, as the ace3ds_fix_all.nds did not recognize the cart

TurdPooCharger said:
Although the ntrteam devs could add support for that 004H4 model, I doubt any who are still active in the 3DS homebrew scene would want to spend US $20 as (s)he'll probably need that cart in hand to verify ntrboot reflashing works. There's also opening the can of worms where everybody with flashcarts 'X, Y, Z' comes out of the woodwork and starts mad requesting R&D to do theirs too.

I'm trying to get in touch with one of the devs without any success. It seems that this part of the scene is kind of not moving anymore since 2018.

TurdPooCharger said:
@yaum, does France have something like our Craigslist? If you live in a urban city, I would recommend posting an ad or Facebook request asking a fellow local 3DS user with an ntrboot flashcart to meet up and unbrick the o3DSXL for you. Don't know what would be an appropriate agreed upon small token payment in general French or European culture. Coffee and bagel?

Yes, we do have something quite similar for selling old stuff : leboncoin.fr (literally 'thegoodspot'). It's not as good as craigslist for services. But we just entered again in a containment period till 1st of December, I'd need to pay more than a coffee as the fine tops 135€ when leaving your house for no good reason...

I think we reached rock bottom (haha, spongebob) on this, just to try to save a motherboard...

@TurdPooCharger by the way, if you could have a look at this thread, that would help as well (JPN MB & eShop access)
https://gbatemp.net/threads/o3ds-xl-region-change-jpn-eur-eshop-updates-problems.576134/

yaum · Nov 2, 2020

yaum said:
Yes, we do have something quite similar for selling old stuff : leboncoin.fr (literally 'thegoodspot'). It's not as good as craigslist for services. But we just entered again in a containment period till 1st of December, I'd need to pay more than a coffee as the fine tops 135€ when leaving your house for no good reason...

I'm going to have the final word with this motherboard: I managed to find an R4i RTS 3DS on "leboncoin", which shall reach me by mail in a few days. I'll see before the end of this week if I can save it or not.

shadowharold · Nov 3, 2020

yaum said:
Again, having a faulty old 3DS XL, with a bit of water damage. Nothing seems really off on the motherboard except bits of rust on the top. I have no history about what happened to it.
When powering it on, I get a steady blue light, not sound. I removed the SD card, tried to boot it with and without game card. I transplanted the motherboard into a working 3DSXL, with the exact same behavior.
There was a 16Gb SD card in it, with garbled folders and files (random ascii characters).
I was wondering if the 3DSXL owner could have installed CFW, and that due to water damage when it was in the process of writing to the SD card, contents might have been damaged to the point where console is unable to boot.

I tried to resed home menu with L + R + Down + B held while powering on without success
I tried to go in recovery mode without success

I changed the SD card for one 4Gb working one, put Luma boot.firm and Luma 7.0.5 arm9loaderhax.bin to the root of the SD card, inserted it in, and powered it on. Steady blue light, 2 black screens again...

@TurdPooCharger : Would you consider the board dead, or do you think I could recover something working from this?

I had a problem like this and want to know what fixed it?---------- Replacing the wifi board crazy I know but It is what happened to a old 3ds I had with the same problems.

yaum · Nov 4, 2020

shadowharold said:
I had a problem like this and want to know what fixed it?---------- Replacing the wifi board crazy I know but It is what happened to a old 3ds I had with the same problems.

I tried that some time ago, but I got my screwdriver this morning, swapped the wifi board with a working one. Being at it, I swapped as well the IR board. Sadly, it did not help.

yaum · Nov 4, 2020

My last call failed. I received the R4i RTS 3DS, upgraded FW to NTRBoot, prepared the SD card and tried the process on a working o3DS XL --> The console boots to the SafeB9SInstaller.
Same process with the non-working o3DS XL --> nothing at all, still blue light with 2 black screens.

Unless someone has a crazy idea to salvage it, given the fact that I swapped everything around the MB, and that I did the maximum from a software/firmware point of view, I'll stop there.

RIP, poor old motherboard

Hardware Hardbricked / softbricked old 3DS XL - Steady blue light & 2 black screens

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