Hacking Black screen after sleep mode? Flickering screen?

[YamiJustin]

I have never had this issue before. Came home, installed a new theme using Anemone or w.e., then I shut it into sleep mode. Open up to black screen. Restart, it shows my custom splash screen (albeit flickering), then black screen. I can get into Luma config and GM9. I was able to load into EmuNand 1 briefly, and switched themes to see if that helped. The flickering persisted on EmuNAND. Idk what the issue is!!

UPDATE: Also can't seem to do EmuNAND anymore. Idk. I'm trying to restore to an older NAND backup for now

UPDATE 2: The flickering is gone, but it won't boot up past the splash screen. I did a successful NAND backup. What could've happened? The other day I did drop it in its case, maybe my slapping the 3ds shut into sleep mode did something? sigh

UPDATE 3: Well I can boot up into the menu again, but the screen flickering on the top is present. Are there hardware issues that cause this?

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Try turning on the 3DS without an SD card in place. What happens?

 

[YamiJustin]

So now the flickering is gone.. weird. I did lose every one of the games I had backed up, but I'll survive. Just worried about what caused this issue in the first place. Oh and it was originally booting up with the screen flickering with or without the SD card, but the flickering is gone now.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

So now the flickering is gone.. weird. I did lose every one of the games I had backed up, but I'll survive. Just worried about what caused this issue in the first place. Oh and it was originally booting up with the screen flickering with or without the SD card, but the flickering is gone now.

I've been keeping track of BSoD bricks that has been occurring these past few months. None of the owners whose 3DSes fell victim to this brick were able to recovery from it. Common symptoms of this very particular brick includes working GodMode9, Luma Configuration, and Recovery Mode but HOME Menu boots up with blank/black screens and working sound; known unbricking methods such as NAND restore (Safe & Full), CTRtransfer, Lazarus3DS, firmware downgrade > Recovery Mode, and NTRboothax do not work.

The conditions of the 3DSes prior to the bricks were varied. To name a few, they manifest after playing during the middle of a game, shortly after updating from A9LH to B9S, and prolong use of sleep mode (this one being the most frequent). Here is the post listing the 7 known BSoD bricks so far: https://gbatemp.net/threads/luma3ds-noob-question-bricked.503038/#post-7957695

Your case is interesting as it may be related to those bricks; was your 3DS on EmuNAND before the screens went black and flickering? Those previous BSoD bricks happened while the 3DSes were on SysNAND. In one of those threads listed in that post, a proposed countermeasure to mitigate the risk of BSoD is to never put your 3DS into sleep mode AND to use EmuNAND (when possible). Although the idea is unproven, it is hoped that BSoD on EmuNAND would stay contained to the SD card and not affect the 3DS physical NAND.

I'm not certain whatever happened to your 3DS was BSoD in motion (but incompleted) and whether your EmuNAND had any role in preventing it, but in the off chance this was going to be that, you may have gotten extremely lucky.

Stick to EmuNAND and don't ever put your 3DS into sleep mode.

 

[lone_wolf323]

I've been keeping track of BSoD bricks that has been occurring these past few months. None of the owners whose 3DSes fell victim to this brick were able to recovery from it. Common symptoms of this very particular brick includes working GodMode9, Luma Configuration, and Recovery Mode but HOME Menu boots up with blank/black screens and working sound; known unbricking methods such as NAND restore (Safe & Full), CTRtransfer, Lazarus3DS, firmware downgrade > Recovery Mode, and NTRboothax do not work.

The conditions of the 3DSes prior to the bricks were varied. To name a few, they manifest after playing during the middle of a game, shortly after updating from A9LH to B9S, and prolong use of sleep mode (this one being the most frequent). Here is the post listing the 7 known BSoD bricks so far: https://gbatemp.net/threads/luma3ds-noob-question-bricked.503038/#post-7957695

Your case is interesting as it may be related to those bricks; was your 3DS on EmuNAND before the screens went black and flickering? Those previous BSoD bricks happened while the 3DSes were on SysNAND. In one of those threads listed in that post, a proposed countermeasure to mitigate the risk of BSoD is to never put your 3DS into sleep mode AND to use EmuNAND (when possible). Although the idea is unproven, it is hoped that BSoD on EmuNAND would stay contained to the SD card and not affect the 3DS physical NAND.

I'm not certain whatever happened to your 3DS was BSoD in motion (but incompleted) and whether your EmuNAND had any role in preventing it, but in the off chance this was going to be that, you may have gotten extremely lucky.

Stick to EmuNAND and don't ever put your 3DS into sleep mode.

Dunno if this is anything Charger, but https://gbatemp.net/threads/new-3ds-brick-after-installing-a-bad-cia-file.505167/ sounds like it may be another console to add to the list you have.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Dunno if this is anything turbo, but https://gbatemp.net/threads/new-3ds-brick-after-installing-a-bad-cia-file.505167/ sounds like it may be another console to add to the list you have.

Went downstair to get some ice cream to brace for the bad news. Reading that OP post and got to the part where he mentions home menu sound. Sigh.

 

[YamiJustin]

Basically the events leading up to this issue: a week ago I felt unsure if I HAD upgraded to B9S, but a few steps into the procedure of copying data onto my SD I realized I had already upgraded. Later in the week I dropped my 3DS twice, although it was in protective casing. The second drop it was in sleep mode though. Later on this week I installed cia forwarders for my DS games running from a flashcart. Today, I was playing around with themes from Anomene, and shut it right afterwards. When it rebooted the top screen was flickering at the corners. Also I was in SysNAND. After turning it off again I saw just a black screen.
Where I stand right now is having to re-install my stuff, which I don't mind, I had all of it backed up. Thanks for the replies, but I don't actually know what I lose out on if I chose to use EmuNAND? Why are people against it?

EDIT: Btw, during the points in time where I could only boot into black screens, I didn't hear music or hear that audible click the 3DS makes before turning onto the home page. The blue LED did remain on though. I also took the battery out multiple times. As to why mine is working now? No idea lol

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Basically the events leading up to this issue: a week ago I felt unsure if I HAD upgraded to B9S, but a few steps into the procedure of copying data onto my SD I realized I had already upgraded. Later in the week I dropped my 3DS twice, although it was in protective casing. The second drop it was in sleep mode though. Later on this week I installed cia forwarders for my DS games running from a flashcart. Today, I was playing around with themes from Anomene, and shut it right afterwards. That's when I opened it up again to see just a black screen.
Where I stand right now is having to re-install my stuff, which I don't mind, I had all of it backed up. Thanks for the replies, but I don't actually know what I lose out on if I chose to use EmuNAND? Why are people against it?

So at the time you left your 3DS on sleep mode after using Anenome, it wasn't on EmuNAND but was running on SysNAND, correct? Do you recall hearing the HOME Menu playing sound with the blank screens? One of the talltale signs of this type of BSoD brick from others is the sound still plays in HOME Menu and screens appear fine when you go into Recovery Mode.



[Guide] A noobNAND's Guide to sysNAND and emuNAND

EmuNAND (or emulated NAND) and the similar redNAND (redirected NAND) are considered obsolete by today's standards of custom firmware. EmuNAND in the early days was used to prevent accidentally updating to newer (unhacked) 3DS firmware on SysNAND and to allow the use of Gateway 3DS flashcart. Both of these largely fell out of favor or became irrelevant with the introduction of A9LH and the later B9S.

EmuNAND has the disadvantages of being extremely wear heavy on the SD card and eating up 1.2 GB per created EmuNAND profile; one present advantage is that you can bypass the 300 title limit with the additional profiles.

This theory isn't tested, but EmuNAND might prevent BSoD (with working sound) brick from permanently affecting the 3DS if (and super big if) BSoD is (1) software based and (2) corrupts whichever NAND the 3DS is under (SysNAND or EmuNAND).

 

[YamiJustin]

I didn't hear any music when I opened it up after sleep mode. Only heard music from the menu when I could see both screens. The flickering happened during this until a few hours ago when I could see the screens, including the flickering of the splash screen.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

I didn't hear any music when I opened it up after sleep mode. Only heard music from the menu when I could see both screens. The flickering happened during this until a few hours ago when I could see the screens, including the flickering of the splash screen.

Ah. At this point, I don't consider your issue directly related to BSoD. So fairly good news! *knocks on wood table*
I still advise not to ever use sleep mode; EmuNAND is a toss up (whatever your preference is and how comfortable you are with SysNAND in regards to that brick).

Back to the flickering screen assessment. Especially on laptops, flickering LCDs can be a number of reasons such as loose cable connection, poor EM shielding from WiFi/Bluetooth (happens on cheaply produced screens), and faulty GPU. Your drops may have induced hardware damage producing one of those mentioned conditions, but since the blank/flickering screen occurred some times after sleep mode, not immediately after the drops, and are not present at this moment, I'd say be cautious and keep a look out if the flicker reappears in normal usage.

You might be looking at either top LCD or motherboard replacement later down the line. Be slow and deliberate when opening and closing the screen. The flex cable in the hinges subjected to cyclical bending stress and are fragile as they're made of copper.

 

[Kubas_inko]

I am to lazy to read if this was suggested.
1. Do you have any NAND backups? If so, try to restore them.
2. Try CTRTransfer via Godmode9.
3. Try CTRTransfer via Decrypt9.
4. Try Lazarus3ds.

 

[YamiJustin]

Hey, I did have an old NAND backup in 2 locations, which was from November. The NAND backup allowed me to turn it on and get to the home menu again, although the flickering screen was lingering for a few moments. It's been a day now and no issues. Unsure what caused the issue in the first place, but I am mostly ruling out my installing of a theme. Perhaps my putting it into sleep mode triggered something.