Hacking 2ds soft brick

[Pogfreak]

Hello everyone,

First off thank you for all the great information on this site. It is incredibly helpful and informative.

I have a bit of a unique issue. I picked up a 2ds at a flea market for a couple bucks that was as-is due to software issues. When I power it on it loads the 3ds start up screen and asks me to adjust the 3d slider. Since this is a 2ds there is no slider so I’m stuck at this screen in a somewhat bricked state. My best guess is the flea market guy tried to mod it and used the wrong files.

my question is what is the best way to fix this system? I took it apart and hard modded it and was able to dump the NAND, but then I started second guessing whether that was the best approach since this NAND is likely corrupted with 3ds files. Any help is much appreciated!

 

[KleinesSinchen]

This error is the result of "Format System Memory" on a 2DS when on a firmware below 6.0.0-12 (initial firmware for the O2DS). Probably a failed attempt to install A9LH by downgrading to 2.1. If you don't have the NAND backup from that console which should have been created before the downgrade, future updates might not work.

Install custom firmware for bypassing the initial setup. There is https://github.com/zoogie/2DSaver/ for that task.

Hardmodding is risky and you would not have needed to. But if you are sure everything is working all right… I guess installing B9S with the hardmod is an option. Problem is to know the actual version number of the current firmware. Again: My guess is 2.1
I would still prefer installing B9S with ntrboot which does not involve any guesswork.

This impressing script can also do the bypass once GodMode9 is loaded:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-godmode9-scripts-megathread.482150/page-9#post-8550543
Depending on what happens after unlocking that 2DS (Updates possible? Backup from before downgrade exists?) the console might need further troubleshooting. So I think the best is to already call the great @TurdPooCharger

 

[Pogfreak]

Thank you! I’m going to try to do 2ds saver you linked to. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m pretty sure I have an r4igold+ laying around.

Yeah if I was the original modder I obviously would’ve backed everything up. I figured for a couple bucks it was a fun project to try to save this console. I’m a pretty advanced solderer so the hard mod was no big deal, but when I realized I didn’t know the version I realized that approach was not the best. Still it was good experience to do it. I’d never opened up a 2ds before. Thanks again for your help and the excellent guides here!