it means your r4i sdhc 3ds card havent updated first, but you have updated your DSi or 3DS before it. Then you need to upgrade your r4i sdhc 3ds card to compatible with 3ds.
This is the steps of how to update your r4i sdhc 3ds card to work on 3DS V4.3.0-10 and DSi V1.44 with the new firmware...