3DS shuts off when SD card is inserted

[Nikaia-Repair]

Hello guys,

I have a (i think) rare issue on an Old 3DS XL. The motherboard seems absolutely fine and is booting perfectly. I was going to try and put luma on it, but a big issue happened ; when I tried to put an SD card inside, the device shuts down. If I try to boot it with SD card inserted, it shuts off with a pop after a few seconds, as if the 3D/sound ribbon or something else was broken. It happens only when the sd card is inserted. I've managed to boot it, go into parameters and then insert the SD without shiutting down, but the everytime the device tries to acces the SD storage it shuts down again.
Luma is not installed at all. The SD card is in fat32 format, and I tried with several ones that are all perfectly working on other devices.
I already changed the SD reader on the board, but the issue is still there.
I did the boot with L + R + Down + B, but won't go up to the Home Menu reboot if the SD is inserted. I did it without SD, but it's still not working.
The device is up to date and I already formatted it to factory settings, but nothing seems to make it work.

Can anyone help me on this issue? It's very strange to me, i've had a lot of these in my hands but it's the 1st time it shows this issue

 

[supershadow64ds]

Sounds like some kind of hardware fault!

Maybe something is shorting out bad in the SD card slot?

edit: my ass cannot read
If you've already replaced the SD reader, maybe the motherboard is faulting out somewhere. Do you have a multimeter? Maybe you could try to trace out where the pins are going to from the motherboard side and see if there are any shorts. Broken traces, spilled liquid, stray metal bits, anything.

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[Hayato213]

h2testw test the card with the card empty, so backup your data first.

 

[Nikaia-Repair]

Sounds like some kind of hardware fault!

Maybe something is shorting out bad in the SD card slot?

edit: my ass cannot read
If you've already replaced the SD reader, maybe the motherboard is faulting out somewhere. Do you have a multimeter? Maybe you could try to trace out where the pins are going to from the motherboard side and see if there are any shorts. Broken traces, spilled liquid, stray metal bits, anything.

I've already tried, but it seems everything is fine... I don't get how it is possible. It seems that it's only when the device is trying to access the SD memory, so maybe a faulty CPU or something... but I think it's going to be hard to repair
Thanks for your answer

Post automatically merged: Apr 5, 2024

h2testw test the card with the card empty, so backup your data first.

I don't get what you said, sorry...

 

[Hayato213]

I've already tried, but it seems everything is fine... I don't get how it is possible. It seems that it's only when the device is trying to access the SD memory, so maybe a faulty CPU or something... but I think it's going to be hard to repair
Thanks for your answer

Post automatically merged: Apr 5, 2024

I don't get what you said, sorry...

Test the SD card, if it is faulty it can explain your problems.

 

[Nikaia-Repair]

Test the SD card, if it is faulty it can explain your problems.

I've already tried with several SD cards that are all absolutely fine in other devices, it can't come from it. I've even tried with an empty micro SD adapter which creates the same issue...

 

[Hayato213]

I've already tried with several SD cards that are all absolutely fine in other devices, it can't come from it. I've even tried with an empty micro SD adapter which creates the same issue...

Then it sounds like problem is your 3DS SD slot.

 

[Nikaia-Repair]

Then it sounds like problem is your 3DS SD slot.

I've already changed it for a working one, still not working...

 

[Nikaia-Repair]

Nobody ever had this issue?
I don't get what could be wrong

 

[TheStonedModder]

Nobody ever had this issue?
I don't get what could be wrong

Well my best guess is that you actually didn’t replace it with a working part

Some parts arrive DOA or sometimes something happens during installation

You could also very well have a short somewhere else on the board in the area

 

[Kwyjor]

Indeed, once you start tinkering with the internals there are tons of things that can go wrong and it's easy to imagine that you might have done something no one's done before.

 

[AdenTheThird]

If it won't boot under any circumstances when an SD card is inserted (especially if it isn't modded) then the SD card reader is most likely fried in some way.
Physically installing the reader would be your best bet. If that doesn't work, then the issue is probably how your 3DS interacts with the SD card (although based on your comments here that doesn't sound likely and would be very unusual if so).

 

[Nikaia-Repair]

Well my best guess is that you actually didn’t replace it with a working part

Some parts arrive DOA or sometimes something happens during installation

You could also very well have a short somewhere else on the board in the area

The thing is I took it from another board, which was 100% functional on this side...

Indeed, once you start tinkering with the internals there are tons of things that can go wrong and it's easy to imagine that you might have done something no one's done before.

Yeah, I think I might stop to try to repair it and sell it while telling everything to the buyer

If it won't boot under any circumstances when an SD card is inserted (especially if it isn't modded) then the SD card reader is most likely fried in some way.
Physically installing the reader would be your best bet. If that doesn't work, then the issue is probably how your 3DS interacts with the SD card (although based on your comments here that doesn't sound likely and would be very unusual if so).

Yeah it seems like it's only when accessing the storage, because i've already inserted it when in parameters, and it shut down only when i was trying to access 3DS softwares or when going back to the main menu...

Thanks to you all for your answers, i'm going to stop trying to repair it, i've already used too much time on this !

Have a nice day everyone

 

[AdenTheThird]

The thing is I took it from another board, which was 100% functional on this side...

Yeah, I think I might stop to try to repair it and sell it while telling everything to the buyer

Yeah it seems like it's only when accessing the storage, because i've already inserted it when in parameters, and it shut down only when i was trying to access 3DS softwares or when going back to the main menu...

Thanks to you all for your answers, i'm going to stop trying to repair it, i've already used too much time on this !

Have a nice day everyone

Sorry to hear that. 3DS modding is like that sometimes.... I know I've dealt with similar frustrating issues myself in the past. Hopefully you get it figured out. Cheers.