Hardware 2 Broken 3DSes, need help

[MikeyLORR]

Hi everyone, I was at a 3DS event in the city yesterday, I volunteered to take any broken DSes and fix them. I have 2 that I'm having trouble with, they both won't turn on. The first one is a New 2DS XL. The owner said it was working fine until one day the battery ran out, and after they fully charged it, it wouldn't turn on. It doesn't "pop" and the screens don't flash, the blue light just comes on for a second then turns off (video attached). I tried taking the motherboard out and putting everything back in, I also tried replacing the battery, but no luck. I'm not sure exactly what to look for at this point but it's so weird that it just stopped working like that and I really want to fix it.

The second one is a New 3DS XL, when you press the power button on this one, the blue light comes on and stays on, but nothing else turns on. Again I tried taking the entire board out, but the same thing happens. One thing I noticed is that a couple of the ribbon cables look off, pictures attached. Not sure if they're supposed to look like this or not. If not then let me know if they should be replaced. I may make more posts if I need more help, since I have a few other DSes but I'm waiting for parts and I think I got it. Thank you everyone <3

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hi everyone, I was at a 3DS event in the city yesterday, I volunteered to take any broken DSes and fix them. I have 2 that I'm having trouble with, they both won't turn on. The first one is a New 2DS XL. The owner said it was working fine until one day the battery ran out, and after they fully charged it, it wouldn't turn on. It doesn't "pop" and the screens don't flash, the blue light just comes on for a second then turns off (video attached). I tried taking the motherboard out and putting everything back in, I also tried replacing the battery, but no luck. I'm not sure exactly what to look for at this point but it's so weird that it just stopped working like that and I really want to fix it.

The second one is a New 3DS XL, when you press the power button on this one, the blue light comes on and stays on, but nothing else turns on. Again I tried taking the entire board out, but the same thing happens. One thing I noticed is that a couple of the ribbon cables look off, pictures attached. Not sure if they're supposed to look like this or not. If not then let me know if they should be replaced. I may make more posts if I need more help, since I have a few other DSes but I'm waiting for parts and I think I got it. Thank you everyone <3

The blue light turning off could be a sign of a B9S modded console missing a payload or not seeing the SD, you can try putting the latest Luma3DS on there and trying with a different SD as well.

 

[IC]

The blue light turning off could be a sign of a B9S modded console missing a payload or not seeing the SD, you can try putting the latest Luma3DS on there and trying with a different SD as well.

That's what I also thought at first, but if I remember correctly, B9S shutting off always does so with the blue power light fading out smoothly, rather than abruptly turning off, which might suggest that it is in fact a hardware-fault related shut-off.

@MikeyLORR, I'm going to assume that the behaviour is exactly the same when you press the power button with the lid open, right? It is normal for new2DS/new3DS to only glow the blue light for a moment and immediately turn off, when you try pressing the power button with the lid closed. At least on my systems with boot9strap installed, it is the normal behaviour. I'm not sure how it was on unmodded systems.

 

[SpaceGameJunkie]

Side question, tell me more about this 3DS event. How did you find it?

 

[MikeyLORR]

The blue light turning off could be a sign of a B9S modded console missing a payload or not seeing the SD, you can try putting the latest Luma3DS on there and trying with a different SD as well.

I'm gonna ask if their DS is modded, I'm pretty sure it is, and I'll try this (probably tomorrow or later in the week)

That's what I also thought at first, but if I remember correctly, B9S shutting off always does so with the blue power light fading out smoothly, rather than abruptly turning off, which might suggest that it is in fact a hardware-fault related shut-off.

@MikeyLORR, I'm going to assume that the behaviour is exactly the same when you press the power button with the lid open, right? It is normal for new2DS/new3DS to only glow the blue light for a moment and immediately turn off, when you try pressing the power button with the lid closed. At least on my systems with boot9strap installed, it is the normal behaviour. I'm not sure how it was on unmodded systems.

Yes, same thing when it's open. And again I'm pretty sure it's modded but I will confirm. If it is a hardware issue, do you have any ideas what it could be or how I can test it? Again I tried taking the whole motherboard out and putting it back in, but no luck.

Side question, tell me more about this 3DS event. How did you find it?

It was in New York City, it's called Mii N Greet. It was a big Streetpass event with some tournaments and other fun stuff, there were WAY more people than I thought there would be. Their Instagram is @3dyasss

 

[SpaceGameJunkie]

Amazing. I'll have to see if there's a similar event out here in LA.

 

[IC]

Yes, same thing when it's open. And again I'm pretty sure it's modded but I will confirm. If it is a hardware issue, do you have any ideas what it could be or how I can test it? Again I tried taking the whole motherboard out and putting it back in, but no luck.

It's hard for me to say, in this case. Indeed, normally when there's a hardware fault with one of the non-motherboard components, you would expect a pop from the speakers and/or a quick white flash from one of the displays (or even both of them). But if the motherboard is failing to connect with both of the displays and also the speakers, it of course wouldn't be able to do any of those things.
It could some kind of short circuit or integrated-circuit fault, either on the motherboard itself, or on a ribbon cable connection with the display or another component. There might be something that's causing the motherboard to shut off, before it even gets to the stage of attempting to initialize the displays and other critical system components.

I'd say that you could try connecting the motherboard to only one component at a time, and see if you can get a screen flash or speaker pop that way, with for example only the bottom screen and nothing else connected. I would also suggest that you check all of the microfuses on the motherboard, just in case.

If you have another 2DS XL, you can try swapping the two motherboards between the units. See if the motherboard from the faulty system will power on when connected to the components of a known-good system. Likewise, see if the motherboard from the known-good system will power on in any way with the components of the known-bad system. However! In this case, since it's very much an unknown case, if there is in fact some short circuit like I mentioned, there is a very small possibility that a faulty component could blow a microfuse or cause other damage to a known good motherboard. This is pretty unlikely, but you have been warned.

============

Regarding the new3DS XL, I don't have much ideas aside from also attempting to swap motherboards with a known-good unit of the same model.
When a 3DS powers on with the blue light, but then doesn't power off, doesn't flash any other lights, and doesn't do anything at all - this usually suggested a fault with the motherboard itself, if I remember correctly. It might also be a hardbrick? If you have an ntrboot supported flashcard, it's always worth trying.

Good luck, and please be careful (particularly with the ribbon cables).