Hacking Question Battery Drain w/AutoRCM Poll & Question

Do you have battery drain issues with AutoRCM? Method of installing RCM?


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Draxzelex

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Just wanted to report some interesting findings after playing around with AutoRCM and Hekate. If the Switch has AutoRCM and is plugged in via USB, powering off from Horizon reboots it into RCM. However, the Switch will not turn back on if you power off from Horizon when AutoRCM is not installed. What's really interesting is that powering off from Hekate while its plugged in and has AutoRCM will not reboot it into RCM. And I've AutoRCM installed for a day with no battery drain as long as I power off from Hekate. I might start testing if there is battery drain when powering off from Horizon.

Also there was some testing around with powering off the Switch with AutoRCM and SX OS and its been confirmed that powering off from SX OS with AutoRCM doesn't turn it off unless something is plugged in. I forgot where this thread was but if you're interested, I can go dig it up. Lastly, none of these issues are present with Hekate.
 

mattytrog

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I think its time to put this to bed once and for all...

In Hekate...

Selecting power-off from Hekate menu turns switch completely off. Just like the PMIC is switched off. (I think it actually is from its I2C lines.)

  • Power off from Horizon will take you to RCM after 12 seconds. To get round this, you need your payload injector ready to send.
  • Once selecting power-off and you are in RCM after 12 seconds, the next Hekate payload push will look like it is booting (if you have autoboot enabled), but the screen will flash white and console will be off.
  • If you don`t have autoboot enabled, it will kick you to the Hekate menu if you have your payload injector plugged in. If you have nothing plugged in and no internal SAMD chip, you will stay in RCM until your battery dies.
  • Same applies to SXOS. You need SX pro plugged in until shutdown is complete (after this 12 second delay)

This has been done to death now.

The only way to get round this, is to
  • Disable autoRCM or
  • Hold power for at least 8 seconds in Horizon or RCM to force power-off
  • Fit internal SAMD - (I know of a thread that deals with such issues ;) )
 

MattKimura

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I think its time to put this to bed once and for all...

In Hekate...

Selecting power-off from Hekate menu turns switch completely off. Just like the PMIC is switched off. (I think it actually is from its I2C lines.)

  • Power off from Horizon will take you to RCM after 12 seconds. To get round this, you need your payload injector ready to send.
  • Once selecting power-off and you are in RCM after 12 seconds, the next Hekate payload push will look like it is booting (if you have autoboot enabled), but the screen will flash white and console will be off.
  • If you don`t have autoboot enabled, it will kick you to the Hekate menu if you have your payload injector plugged in. If you have nothing plugged in and no internal SAMD chip, you will stay in RCM until your battery dies.
  • Same applies to SXOS. You need SX pro plugged in until shutdown is complete (after this 12 second delay)
This has been done to death now.

The only way to get round this, is to
  • Disable autoRCM or
  • Hold power for at least 8 seconds in Horizon or RCM to force power-off
  • Fit internal SAMD - (I know of a thread that deals with such issues ;) )
So it's confirmed that holding power button for 8 seconds in horizon will actually power it off via "force shutdown"? Someone with a sx pro dongle can test this? This would simply be the easiest solution if anything.
 

Lumince

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I don't think so, it works well now.

I don't know if there is different sort of AutoRCM, but it was the one from ChoiDuJourNX and it requires to press VOL+ to enter SX dongle bootloader.
Did you repair your cust_data with briccmii v2 to make it work??..
 

SrTommy

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ChoiDuJour firmware upgrade : I used to completely power off my Switch, and this morning it is no responsive, I had about 80% left.

I have the same problem with 2 Switch. After I upgrade both consoles with ChoiDujourNX (and active AutoRCM) both drains the battery faster than ever. I don't know what to do and I don't want to remove AutoRCM (because I don't want to risk to burn the efuses)
 

Xyphoseos

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I installed briccmii the moment I heard about it and then never touched my Switch after that (battery was at 100%). Sometime later, I wanted to test something quickly so I booted up Hekate and went into Horizon, both CFW and OFW. Battery was still at or near full once I turned it off from the menu, not from Hekate or by manual shutdown. I think either the next day or sometime later when I wanted to check something else, I turned on my Switch with Hekate only to find battery around 30%. Needless to say, I removed AutoRCM and have never touched it since. It should also be worth nothing that the creator of briccmii, @rajkosto experiences this issue from time to time so he might be able to shed some light on this issue.
power off from horizonOS turn your switch in rcm, to power off correctly with autorcm you'll need to boot a payload like hekate and select power off
 

cloudfe

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So it's confirmed that holding power button for 8 seconds in horizon will actually power it off via "force shutdown"? Someone with a sx pro dongle can test this? This would simply be the easiest solution if anything.

I would also be interested in knowing this. It would be the easiest solution also for SX Pro.
 

MattKimura

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I would also be interested in knowing this. It would be the easiest solution also for SX Pro.
I wrote that a while ago and I got a chance to test holding power button for 15 seconds to force shutdown. The next morning my battery went from 99 to 45. So nope, any way you turn off the system from Horizon will result in RCM. It powers off, then powers on to rcm in 10-15 seconds.

This post explains it as well: https://gbatemp.net/threads/psa-man...es-not-turn-off-a-switch-with-autorcm.515402/
 
Last edited by MattKimura,
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Pluupy

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How do you know you have battery drain issue? Like how fast should I be expecting the battery to drain for it to be the issue?
 

smasha

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I think its time to put this to bed once and for all...

In Hekate...

Selecting power-off from Hekate menu turns switch completely off. Just like the PMIC is switched off. (I think it actually is from its I2C lines.)

  • Power off from Horizon will take you to RCM after 12 seconds. To get round this, you need your payload injector ready to send.
  • Once selecting power-off and you are in RCM after 12 seconds, the next Hekate payload push will look like it is booting (if you have autoboot enabled), but the screen will flash white and console will be off.
  • If you don`t have autoboot enabled, it will kick you to the Hekate menu if you have your payload injector plugged in. If you have nothing plugged in and no internal SAMD chip, you will stay in RCM until your battery dies.
  • Same applies to SXOS. You need SX pro plugged in until shutdown is complete (after this 12 second delay)
This has been done to death now.

The only way to get round this, is to
  • Disable autoRCM or
  • Hold power for at least 8 seconds in Horizon or RCM to force power-off
  • Fit internal SAMD - (I know of a thread that deals with such issues ;) )

Hey mattytrog,

I've installed an internal trinket with your guide (method 1), I've noticed the following on my Switch which correlates with what you're saying:

  • Powering off from Horizon will cause the switch to reboot into RCM, the trinket kicks in and loads Hekate again, few seconds later the screen flashes white and switch turns off and stays off (with autoboot enabled in Hekate)
  • Powering off from Hekate menu works straight away
  • Plugging in the charger whilst the switch is off will turn the switch back on in RCM mode (confirmed by trinket LED's lighting up) but the payload doesn't get injected in this case, even if i press the reset button on the trinket (this is also normal right?)
  • I haven't tried anything with dock mode yet
Also kinda unrelated but since we are talking about battery life in this thread as well:
I didn't remove the "ON LED" on my trinket, I've left my switch on overnight in sleep mode and the battery went down from 100% to 99% (with autorcm enabled). I think this is also normal and that the LED barely uses any noticeable power, but do you still recommend removing it?
 
Last edited by smasha,

mattytrog

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Hey mattytrog,

I've installed an internal trinket with your guide (method 1), I've noticed the following on my Switch which correlates with what you're saying:

  • Powering off from Horizon will cause the switch to reboot into RCM, the trinket kicks in and loads Hekate again, few seconds later the screen flashes white and switch turns off and stays off (with autoboot enabled in Hekate)
  • Powering off from Hekate menu works straight away
  • Plugging in the charger whilst the switch is off will turn the switch back on in RCM mode (confirmed by trinket LED's lighting up) but the payload doesn't get injected in this case, even if i press the reset button on the trinket (this is also normal right?)
  • I haven't tried anything with dock mode yet
Also kinda unrelated but since we are talking about battery life in this thread as well:
I didn't remove the "ON LED" on my trinket, I've left my switch on overnight in sleep mode and the battery went down from 100% to 99% (with autorcm enabled). I think this is also normal and that the LED barely uses any noticeable power, but do you still recommend removing it?

Yes sir!

If anything is plugged in when off, it will override the trinket, therefore going to RCM. I remove the LED for the simple reason it cannot be controlled by software. I like to be in control :)
 
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Draxzelex

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In sleep mode, right? Not during active play?
Well, this is RCM battery drain so its neither in sleep mode nor active play. This is what most users refer to as the battery drain with AutoRCM. There are some users who believe AutoRCM drains the battery faster (most likely both in sleep and during active play) but this has not been fully proven nor does it make sense since AutoRCM corrupts the way the console powers on meaning it has no bearing on active usage.
 

Mr. Wizard

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Well, this is RCM battery drain so its neither in sleep mode nor active play. This is what most users refer to as the battery drain with AutoRCM. There are some users who believe AutoRCM drains the battery faster (most likely both in sleep and during active play) but this has not been fully proven nor does it make sense since AutoRCM corrupts the way the console powers on meaning it has no bearing on active usage.
Hekate boot loader has charging/discharging current information right on the screen, all these flat earthers witch hunters autorcm haters have to do is compare it with and without autorcm, but they won't because this will disprove their theory and they can't handle that. They can't handle what they don't understand, like the fact autorcm has no bearing on anything other than the bootloader.
 
Last edited by Mr. Wizard,
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bundat

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This thread was one of the first threads I read when I was first learning how to hack my Switch, and it gave me the misconception that having AutoRCM causes battery drain during normal usage i.e. while playing games or during sleep mode. Although now that I am rereading it, I realize that wasn't really ever implied directly. It was just people not realizing their Switches weren't turned off, but left in RCM (which seemingly uses up battery in the same capacity as being turned on and not in Sleep mode).

But it seems that myth has been established into a solid superstition that a lot of people believe in and will defend ferociously. I'd even say the badly written title of this thread (along with the results of the poll above) is helping induct new users into this belief. And it doesn't help that this thread keeps getting bumped to the top.

I think it would greatly help if the 1st post was edited to have the same contents as the PSA regarding how to properly power off a Switch that has AutoRCM.

flat earthers witch hunters
:rofl:
 
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