Hacking Black Screen "An Error Has Occurred", not fixed via hard-mod

[Wowfunhappy]

Edit: Rewritten to (hopefully) be more clear.

have a NAND-modded, small New 3DS. The mod was installed by hundshammer, who has a lot of experience. I am relatively confident that he did a good job, especially since I did not begin having problems until a couple days after the mod was installed.

I had successfully performed an EU -> US region change, and was flashing back and forth between different NAND images. For a while, this worked fine.

At one point, however, I went from a 9.6 US NAND to a 9.6 EU NAND. I had successfully done this at least once before, but this time, something went wrong. Upon trying to open certain applications, the system would crash to a black screen with the standard "an error has occurred" message.

No problem, I figured—I had tons of NAND backups. I first tried flashing my 9.6 US NAND image, which had been working fine less than an hour ago. Same issue. I have since tried flashing other images, including a "vanilla" one that has never been touched by homebrew. All of these images used to work perfectly, but the problem refuses to go away.

Firmwares 9.0–9.2 run perfectly, but the problem returns as soon as I run a system update. I have not tested 9.3, but firmwares 9.4, 9.5, and 9.6 all experience the issue.

Does anyone know what could be happening here? What could cause an issue to persist across different NAND images? And lastly, is there any place other than the NAND and SD Card where rewritable data is stored? Thank you so much!

Things I have tried:
-Removing/replacing the SD card.
-Verifying that images are being written properly.
-Disabling Wifi.
-Updating via a Xenoblade game cart.
-Performing a system format before updating.
-Updating within emuNAND (this causes the problems to occur inside emuNAND)

Broken Software:
-NNID Settings
-Camera Applet
-Face Raiders
-Notifications
-Xenoblade
-eShop
-Amiibo settings
-MiiVerse, but only when an NNID is linked

Working Software
-AR Games
-Web Browser
-Cubic Ninja
-Friends List
-Activity Log
-Camera Application
-Mii Maker
-MiiVerse when no NNID is linked

 

[Wowfunhappy]

...bump?

I don't want to be one of those annoying users who keeps bumping his threads, but it's been a day and I really do need help here. My 3DS is essentially semi-bricked right now (despite having a mod which is supposed to make that impossible), and I'm at a complete loss as to what to do about it.

 

[Scarftail]

A piece of advice while you wait for an informed answer is to identify procedural errors and reverse them if you can.

If formatting the NAND and then re-flashing pure backups doesn't change anything (try it if you haven't and if it's safe), then it seems very likely that the error is outside the NAND and other hardware is the culprit. CPU?

The problem obviously has something to do with the fact that you switched to the European NAND. That apparently did something permanent. Look for what about that action could cause errors.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

A piece of advice while you wait for an informed answer is to identify procedural errors and reverse them if you can.

If formatting the NAND and then re-flashing pure backups doesn't change anything (try it if you haven't and if it's safe), then it seems very likely that the error is outside the NAND and other hardware is the culprit. CPU?

The problem obviously has something to do with the fact that you switched to the European NAND. That apparently did something permanent. Look for what about that action could cause errors.

First, thanks a lot for replying, I appreciate it!

I agree that going from US-With-NNID --> EU-Without-NNID must have done something permanent. I'm specifying the NNID part because I'd gone from US-without-NNID --> EU-Without-NNID before, and it never caused problems, so I think that's relevant.

However... I'm not sure what to make of that. What does the 3DS have that isn't read-only (since whatever-it-is was clearly changed) and isn't stored the NAND? I've ruled out the SD card. You mention the CPU... if that is indeed the case, I'm worried that this will be very hard to fix. Especially since the problem only occurs on non-exploitable firmwares (above 9.2).

 

[CIAwesome526]

First, thanks a lot for replying, I appreciate it!

I agree that going from US-With-NNID --> EU-Without-NNID must have done something permanent. I'm specifying the NNID part because I'd gone from US-without-NNID --> EU-Without-NNID before, and it never caused problems, so I think that's relevant.

However... I'm not sure what to make of that. What does the 3DS have that isn't read-only (since whatever-it-is was clearly changed) and isn't stored the NAND? I've ruled out the SD card. You mention the CPU... if that is indeed the case, I'm worried that this will be very hard to fix. Especially since the problem only occurs on non-exploitable firmwares (above 9.2).

i have no clue, how to fix it, but maybe reflash the 9.0 backup and then try formatting it. then try updating, maybe something will have changed...

 

[Wowfunhappy]

i have no clue, how to fix it, but maybe reflash the 9.0 backup and then try formatting it. then try updating, maybe something will have changed...

I've tried this multiple times

 

[CIAwesome526]

I've tried this multiple times

same result? have you tried using the exploitable firmware, exploit it using the gateway, which requires nothing extra if you are using an old 3ds. then create an emunand, boot classic mode, format it in settings and update it. see if anything has changed, if it still doesnt work, then you definitely know that some other hardware is having issues. and classic mode doesnt require the gateway card.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm using a New 3DS, but I have a Gateway + compatible games, so I can use EmuNAND.

I've already tried this, and it gives the same result. I flashed vanilla 9.0-E to sysNAND, formated emuNAND, and—since emuNAND doesn't support 9.6—updated emuNAND to 9.5 via a pre-downloaded update (the "update nag") that was downloaded before the release of 9.6.

Same result.

 

[CIAwesome526]

I'm using a New 3DS, but I have a Gateway + compatible games, so I can use EmuNAND.

I've already tried this, and it gives the same result. I flashed vanilla 9.0-E to sysNAND, formated emuNAND, and—since emuNAND doesn't support 9.6—updated emuNAND to 9.5 via a pre-downloaded update (the "update nag") that was downloaded before the release of 9.6.

Same result.

hmmm. i really do want to help, ill look more into it.... its really weird, it doesnt seem like a hardware problem. try flashing 9.1, is it just updating thats problem or updating past 9.2.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

hmmm. i really do want to help, ill look more into it.... its really weird, it doesnt seem like a hardware problem. try flashing 9.1, is it just updating thats problem or updating past 9.2.

Thanks for trying to help. I don't have any backups of 9.1, but the problem doesn't occur on EUR 9.0 or NA 9.2.

It does occur on NA 9.6, EU 9.6, and EU 9.5, regardless of whether I flash those firmwares directly or update to them via the normal system update button in settings. I don't have a way to test 9.1, 9.3, or 9.4, although I'm not sure what that would tell us anyway.

 

[Oishikatta]

Thanks for trying to help. I don't have any backups of 9.1, but the problem doesn't occur on EUR 9.0 or NA 9.2.

It does occur on NA 9.6, EU 9.6, and EU 9.5, regardless of whether I flash those firmwares directly or update to them via the normal system update button in settings. I don't have a way to test 9.1, 9.3, or 9.4, although I'm not sure what that would tell us anyway.

It would be trivial for me to setup a url for updating to any of them with nim if you'd like, but I don't know what the benefit would be either.

 

[CIAwesome526]

Thanks for trying to help. I don't have any backups of 9.1, but the problem doesn't occur on EUR 9.0 or NA 9.2.

It does occur on NA 9.6, EU 9.6, and EU 9.5, regardless of whether I flash those firmwares directly or update to them via the normal system update button in settings. I don't have a way to test 9.1, 9.3, or 9.4, although I'm not sure what that would tell us anyway.

no, using 3DNUS update to 9.1, you said you didnt have a way to do that, does 3DNUS not have 9.1? and i have been thinking... maybe there was a problem with the system RAM, it slightly degraded or something, and updating 9.2+ adds some background feature that uses up more ram than 9.1 and below, so when opening an application there isnt enough Ram and it gives an error. Its the only explanation i can give at the moment, it may not even make sense. ill keep looking.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

no, using 3DNUS update to 9.1, and i have been thinking... maybe there was a problem with the system RAM, it slightly degraded or something, and updating 9.2+ adds some background feature that uses up more ram than 9.1 and below, so when opening an application there isnt enough Ram and it gives an error. Its the only explanation i can give at the moment, it may not even make sense. ill keep looking.

Doesn't RAM get cleared when you power off the console...?

 

[bobtheglob101]

This issue is incredibly odd, as I've been switching between 2 different MicroSD cards with one having an NNID linked JAP EmuNAND and a Non-NNID linked USA EmuNAND with no problems. Then again it is EmuNAND and not SysNAND so that can make a difference.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

This issue is incredibly odd, as I've been switching between 2 different MicroSD cards with one having an NNID linked JAP EmuNAND and a Non-NNID linked USA EmuNAND with no problems. Then again it is EmuNAND and not SysNAND so that can make a difference.

New 3DS or Old 3DS?

I don't actually see why emuNAND vs sysNAND would make a difference—emuNAND is just a NAND being read from your SD card—but then again, none of this really makes sense at the moment.

 

[CIAwesome526]

Doesn't RAM get cleared when you power off the console...?

yes, it does, it always does. but some parts of computers get worse over time. i once had a computer that had 1GB of ram and windows XP. it was slow, but it worked. over time it got slower as the ram died. I know, maybe it was caused by something else, but it wasnt. I was running service pack 3, ad i installed a fresh copy of windows on a second hard drive of the same speed and size running service pack 1. this sped it up a little, but it still wasnt as fast as it had been. I only installed two programs, chrome, and a speed test app. Over time it got worse and worse. eventually i got errors about creating virtual Ram, and one day, applications stopped working, and my computer would crash. Soon it gave me errors on startup, that the RAM was failing, and when the computer sent out something like 0x001bABa, the ram would return 0000000Ba (just an example). and at that point i got some new ram, and that had fixed the problem and the computer ran faster than ever, even though it was still pretty slow. i think this could be happening to the DS, but im still looking for a better explanation.

 

[bobtheglob101]

New 3DS or Old 3DS?

New 3DS hence the MicroSD cards.

 

[Scarftail]

First, thanks a lot for replying, I appreciate it!

I agree that going from US-With-NNID --> EU-Without-NNID must have done something permanent. I'm specifying the NNID part because I'd gone from US-without-NNID --> EU-Without-NNID before, and it never caused problems, so I think that's relevant.

However... I'm not sure what to make of that. What does the 3DS have that isn't read-only (since whatever-it-is was clearly changed) and isn't stored the NAND? I've ruled out the SD card. You mention the CPU... if that is indeed the case, I'm worried that this will be very hard to fix. Especially since the problem only occurs on non-exploitable firmwares (above 9.2).

I feel like that guarantees that the NNID is somehow the problem.

 

[CIAwesome526]

I feel like that guarantees that the NNID is somehow the problem.

i think he had already figured that out.

 

[Scarftail]

i think he had already figured that out.

Except that we previously also considered other things like the CPU.