Hardware 3DS not working (at all)

[nasune]

Yesterday my mom went to visit my aunt, and brought back my niece's 3DS for me to look at. It's basically not working at all. The power LED will turn on, but that is all that happens. This is unlike the Black Screen of Death where the screens would at least light up.
Unfortunately I have no information as to how this came to be. Knowing what I do about their household, it could both be due to physical damage (falling etc.) or problems with the OS (interrupting an update or something of the likes).
Can anyone point me in an direction to figure this out? Or is she out of luck?

 

[JUSTARANDOMPERSON]

I remember that happened to me and I WAS SO MAD! I got a rock and smashed it on my 3ds. I recommend you doing that takes out stress. Or you could avoid the stupidity I did to my 3ds and send it to Nintendo to fix it.

 

[nasune]

I wish I could, but the 3DS is not mine. (and the scratches and general abuse heaped upon it make me cringe)

 

[AmandaRose]

What color is the led when you power on and does it stay lit or does it switch off after flashing a few times. Could be something as simple as a blown fuse.

 

[nasune]

What color is the led when you power on and does it stay lit or does it switch off after flashing a few times. Could be something as simple as a blown fuse.

The led is blue, and it stays on (solid, even when the lid is closed). I let the battery run out of power (red led, and eventually blinking) and recharged it, and that seems to behave normally.

 

[Justin20020]

When the 3ds goes shutdown for a while, are your hear an "poc"? When yes, go in a dark room and start the 3ds. When something flashed on the screens then its the problem on the displays. Maybe some cables are out or something else

 

[nasune]

Nope, there's no sound or flashing screen. I took the thing apart and put it back together just to be sure that there are no loose connectors too.

 

[SmileCitrus]

I know it doesn't help, but I do have a motherboard that does the same thing. Just like yours it doesn't have the the so-called black screen of death where only the power off screen appears. The blue LED comes on but neither backlight lights up. If I open the P7 latch while the system is powered on it doesn't even make the typical popping sound. All ribbon cables and LCDs are known to be good and tested with other working boards, so that's not the problem. It's not liquid-damaged either. Someone had replaced the cartridge slot on mine though before I received it, so it's possible it may have been damaged or heated excessively when that was done.

The very strange thing though about mine is that once in a blue moon the thing does boot normally and will work fine until I turn it off. Then it won't boot properly again unless I leave it alone for a while.

 

[DaftMink]

Spilled liquid on my console and got a similar result.
Put it in rice for 2 days and it works good as new except for the volume slider being abit harder to move.
It's probably a bit late as this thread is a week old, but couldn't hurt to give it a shot right ?.

 

[nasune]

Honestly, it doesn't look like there was any liquid on it whatsoever (and it apparently stopped working around Christmas last year so if that was the case it's far too late now). I wanted to try to get the nand from the system and use it as emunand to see if that works, but I'm not sure if that's possible, and even if it doesn't work it still won't tell me if there is a problem with the nand or not (it could also mean that there's something else wrong and the nand doesn't get any power doesn't it?).