Hardware Hacking Black screen of death after modchip install

[Karkama]

Hi there!
I hope it's fine to post a separate thread apart from the noob questions one. But I think the problem is specific enough...

So I start from the beginning. I tried soldering in a modchip in my old nintendo switch.
As I used it the last time when BotW came out, I firstly made sure everything was working, so I tested a Game via Card, a SD Card, both of my Joycons and battery draining/loading over the course of a few hours.

Everything was working fine, so I started disassembling the poor thing. For my convenience, I stopped disassembly once I removed the silver backplate/shield and all Parts I needed were visible.
Only the Battery cable and eMMc chip did come off aswell, everything else did stay where it was.

My goal was firstly to put all required cables on the board, so both Data Pins, 3V and ground. Data pins were easy to solder on, ground was also fine. Power gave me a headache while only looking at it, so I took the alternative 3,3V pin mentioned in this thread (gbatemp.net/threads/internal-modchip-samd21-trinket-m0-gemma-m0-itsybitsy-m0-express-guide-files-support.508068/), showing 3.3V pins under the eMMc board(gbatemp.net/attachments/alternative3v-jpg.149057/).
(Sorry can't post links yet)

Now with everything soldered on, I took a last look under a magnifying glass if there are no unwanted connections, and I deemed it good enough.

I tried to start but the modchip did not turn on, I measured the Power on the chip and did not get 3.3V. Switch OS booted fine tho.
I put everything off the board, and resoldered every connection again.

Well and there I am, trying to start my Switch and getting greeted by a black screen. Modchip did indeed blink once or twice, but after that everything just seems to be turned off.

I tried to start the switch with my RCM Jig inserted and power+vol+ pressed while connected to my pc running tegraGui but it did not show up.

If I put it in the dock, the dock flashes green once, so I guess the port is working ? I tried putting my phone in the dock, but neither my phone, nor the dock did anything, so it seems the dock is still registering a switch tries to boot.

I tried to remove my workings in the switch by desoldering the modchip again.
I see some things that might or might not be damage to the board. On the right USB pad, and the ground pad is some kinda "dirt" (?), which looks like sticky black powder.
Also are these two missing the actual golden pad where I did solder the cable on. I thought the golden pads were part of the underlying layer of the board so maybe it's just some kind of conductive material ?
I don't know, if I recall correctly (I'm 99% sure), these pads looked like that the first time i soldered the chip off again already and the switch did start peacefully.

What I tried so far:
-> Desoldering everything as mentioned above
-> Having the battery off the board for around half an hour
-> Putting the switch on the charger directly without the dock
-> Tried booting into RCM mode
-> Tried booting into emergency mode
-> Measured the voltage on the battery pad against the "maybe" broken ground port and got 3,3/3.6V


I tried to do some photos of the points mentioned, but I don't know if that's that helpful with the camera I have at hand...
Does anyone have an idea what could be tried else for this problem ? I don't really know what else I could do currently to resolve the issue.

Thanks in advance!

 

[DragarX]

Try leaving your switch on charge over night. I thought I had killed mine after installing a modchip, turns out the switch needs a bit more charge than normal to boot with a modchip. If thers is not enough battery the modchip will blink and the switch will attempt to boot but shut-down straight away.

 

[Sambolet]

Thank you for sharing how to deal with this issue

 

[Karkama]

Try leaving your switch on charge over night. I thought I had killed mine after installing a modchip, turns out the switch needs a bit more charge than normal to boot with a modchip. If thers is not enough battery the modchip will blink and the switch will attempt to boot but shut-down straight away.

Thank you! I will let it charge overnight

 

[DragarX]

Thank you! I will let it charge overnight

No worries, hope it works out for you. Don't forget to leave an update

 

[Karkama]

No worries, hope it works out for you. Don't forget to leave an update

So, sorry for the late response, didn't get to check yesterday.

The switch sadly still does not boot, I measured the voltage on the battery pad to ground again and got around 4 volt this time.
Does this mean anything ?
Maybe another Idea what could cause the issue ?
I saw the original 3.3V solder points look kinda blacked out on the board (didn't check initially but found a vid showing these are prone to shortages).
Are these somehow connected to the other 3,3v rail on the eMMc where I did solder the modchip on ? Could there be an issue caused by incorrect soldering on the eMMc chip ?
I will try to get the board under a microscope to check the blacked out capacitors (hope thats the correct name) .

I saw some people also mentioning the video chip to cause this type of issue more or less randomly, could this be the case and the timing is just a huge coincidence ?

Thanks again for the help so far!

 

[darkxex]

The good thing is that now you have a paperweight.

 

[switchhunter666]

Probably the best 300$+ ever spent lol

 

[Donnie-Burger]

So, sorry for the late response, didn't get to check yesterday.

The switch sadly still does not boot, I measured the voltage on the battery pad to ground again and got around 4 volt this time.
Does this mean anything ?
Maybe another Idea what could cause the issue ?
I saw the original 3.3V solder points look kinda blacked out on the board (didn't check initially but found a vid showing these are prone to shortages).
Are these somehow connected to the other 3,3v rail on the eMMc where I did solder the modchip on ? Could there be an issue caused by incorrect soldering on the eMMc chip ?
I will try to get the board under a microscope to check the blacked out capacitors (hope thats the correct name) .

I saw some people also mentioning the video chip to cause this type of issue more or less randomly, could this be the case and the timing is just a huge coincidence ?

Thanks again for the help so far!

Have you checked for shorts? Found a video for you if you havent

 

[kylum]

Hi there!
I hope it's fine to post a separate thread apart from the noob questions one. But I think the problem is specific enough...

So I start from the beginning. I tried soldering in a modchip in my old nintendo switch.
As I used it the last time when BotW came out, I firstly made sure everything was working, so I tested a Game via Card, a SD Card, both of my Joycons and battery draining/loading over the course of a few hours.

Everything was working fine, so I started disassembling the poor thing. For my convenience, I stopped disassembly once I removed the silver backplate/shield and all Parts I needed were visible.
Only the Battery cable and eMMc chip did come off aswell, everything else did stay where it was.

My goal was firstly to put all required cables on the board, so both Data Pins, 3V and ground. Data pins were easy to solder on, ground was also fine. Power gave me a headache while only looking at it, so I took the alternative 3,3V pin mentioned in this thread (gbatemp.net/threads/internal-modchip-samd21-trinket-m0-gemma-m0-itsybitsy-m0-express-guide-files-support.508068/), showing 3.3V pins under the eMMc board(gbatemp.net/attachments/alternative3v-jpg.149057/).
(Sorry can't post links yet)

Now with everything soldered on, I took a last look under a magnifying glass if there are no unwanted connections, and I deemed it good enough.

I tried to start but the modchip did not turn on, I measured the Power on the chip and did not get 3.3V. Switch OS booted fine tho.
I put everything off the board, and resoldered every connection again.

Well and there I am, trying to start my Switch and getting greeted by a black screen. Modchip did indeed blink once or twice, but after that everything just seems to be turned off.

I tried to start the switch with my RCM Jig inserted and power+vol+ pressed while connected to my pc running tegraGui but it did not show up.

If I put it in the dock, the dock flashes green once, so I guess the port is working ? I tried putting my phone in the dock, but neither my phone, nor the dock did anything, so it seems the dock is still registering a switch tries to boot.

I tried to remove my workings in the switch by desoldering the modchip again.
I see some things that might or might not be damage to the board. On the right USB pad, and the ground pad is some kinda "dirt" (?), which looks like sticky black powder.
Also are these two missing the actual golden pad where I did solder the cable on. I thought the golden pads were part of the underlying layer of the board so maybe it's just some kind of conductive material ?
I don't know, if I recall correctly (I'm 99% sure), these pads looked like that the first time i soldered the chip off again already and the switch did start peacefully.

What I tried so far:
-> Desoldering everything as mentioned above
-> Having the battery off the board for around half an hour
-> Putting the switch on the charger directly without the dock
-> Tried booting into RCM mode
-> Tried booting into emergency mode
-> Measured the voltage on the battery pad against the "maybe" broken ground port and got 3,3/3.6V


I tried to do some photos of the points mentioned, but I don't know if that's that helpful with the camera I have at hand...
Does anyone have an idea what could be tried else for this problem ? I don't really know what else I could do currently to resolve the issue.

Thanks in advance!

All the pads you soldered to in these pics look like they are burnt and or missing. Did you you use flux? Clean those areas with ipa and verify the pads are indeed intact. If the one on the Emmc pcb is missing is or cut the Emmc will not be getting 3.3v and will result in black screen! After you clean the boards good try and post better high res pics of all the points you soldered to

 

[humanfigure]

Try taking some capacitor readings around the board to check for shorts. I am currently dealing with a similar situation. It’s not fun but best of luck! Currently waiting for a MAX77620 IC ordered from AliExpress…