Bricked? Hardware or CFW issue? White noise on boot..

[Distrance]

So an acquaintance asked help with their console. I thought it'd be easy if it was just some mishap with CFW, as we still have the backups. But I'm honestly stumped. On boot without pressing anything, the screen always appears in like the first image. Sound is also super staticky and crackly and lags behind. If I press the power button again, the screens change to image 2, but I can't do anything in the image; The touchscreen doesn't appear to be functioning. I do not know if it normally works. At this point nothing does anything and I have to forcibly shut down the console.

However, Luma3DS and Godmode9 are both functioning and can be booted into. I've restored the NAND backup but it doesn't do anything. So I'm leaning towards a hardware problem but.. then why does gm9 work? While in gm9, the D-pad doesn't seem to work either though, this + potentially touch screen being broken.. well yeah.

Anyway, anyone have any ideas for what we could try to solve this? I could probably take the console apart (with a guide?) but my skills would end there so I don't know about actually physically fixing it.

 

[Mayo1990]

I'll take a guess and think that the Home menu got corrupted, so I'd try to replace that. You're in Godmode9 so you can hardly screw up. I tried looking up your problem and didn't find anything either.

 

[Distrance]

I'll take a guess and think that the Home menu got corrupted, so I'd try to replace that. You're in Godmode9 so you can hardly screw up. I tried looking up your problem and didn't find anything either.

But wouldn't a NAND backup restore fix this? Or what do you mean by replacing the home menu?

Also since the D-pad is broken I can't access the recovery mode lol.

 

[ack]

have you tried booting into an emunand? If that works fine, I would guess that you have either a software problem or your flash is faulty but in a way that doesn't affect the firm partitions. If that doesn't work, that points to you having some other kind of hardware problem (no clue what kind of hardware problem would lead to the symptoms you describe though, sorry)

 

[Kwyjor]

I don't believe I've seen that particular problem before. My first guess would be some kind of corrupted theme.

Does anything different happen with the SD card removed?

 

[Distrance]

I don't believe I've seen that particular problem before. My first guess would be some kind of corrupted theme.

Does anything different happen with the SD card removed?

No. Without SD it boots to the Luma screen and then after proceeding, get the static noise. The backup we have for the NAND is from 2018; It doesn't work either. Luma and GM9 work fine, but other than that... can't do anything. Not sure about the recovery mode since the D-pad up button does not work :/

I should add that this problem reportedly started, with the owner playing a game and the game suddenly freezing, then upon reboot was met with the static screen. It SOUNDS like a hardware problem right? But then you'd think gm9/luma would also display nothing. Unless the GPU somehow can render text on screen but not actual graphics?

@ack Why would emuNAND help if even restoring the backup doesn't do anything? Not opposed to trying I suppose.

 

[ack]

No. Without SD it boots to the Luma screen and then after proceeding, get the static noise. The backup we have for the NAND is from 2018; It doesn't work either. Luma and GM9 work fine, but other than that... can't do anything. Not sure about the recovery mode since the D-pad up button does not work :/

I should add that this problem reportedly started, with the owner playing a game and the game suddenly freezing, then upon reboot was met with the static screen. It SOUNDS like a hardware problem right? But then you'd think gm9/luma would also display nothing. Unless the GPU somehow can render text on screen but not actual graphics?

@ack Why would emuNAND help if even restoring the backup doesn't do anything? Not opposed to trying I suppose.

because it would let you see if there's something wrong with your flash chip or not- if the nand backup works fine as an emunand and in an emulator but not as the actual nand, it would point towards your flash being bad.

 

[Kwyjor]

No. Without SD it boots to the Luma screen and then after proceeding, get the static noise.

So you're saying something different happens with the SD card inserted?

Were you at one point using custom theme?

The backup we have for the NAND is from 2018; It doesn't work either.

That is a meaningless phrase. Are you saying you booted Godmode9 and restored the NAND backup, or what?

 

[Distrance]

So you're saying something different happens with the SD card inserted?

Were you at one point using custom theme?

That is a meaningless phrase. Are you saying you booted Godmode9 and restored the NAND backup, or what?

No, there's no difference with or without SD card. I don't know if there has been a custom theme. But as stated it was working, user was playing a game, game froze, rebooted and now we have this issue.

Yes I've restored the backup via gm9. It doesn't change anything. I guess I'll try the emunand option when I get around to it.