Hardware Can access touchscreen calibration but nothing else

[Harsky]

I bought a faulty 3DS console and the fault is, "turns on to a black screen". Arrived today and sure enough, turning it on comes up with a black screen (screen lights up but still black). Then I decided to press the button combination to try and get to the recovery screen so that maybe I can at least update the firmware. Still nothing.

Then an interesting thing happened. I saw a button combination that allows you to access the touchscreen combination and holy crap, it worked... but if I press the cancel or the home button, it just freezes and hangs. If I can at least reach the touchscreen calibration, is there any hope or salvaging this motherboard?

 

[Amapola62]

Have you tried booting without a SD card inserted?

 

[I pwned U!]

If it does not boot without an SD card, then it sounds like you bought a bricked 3DS. If the previous owner does not have a NAND backup that can be sent to you, then enjoy your paperweight.

Read through this thread that I made several years ago when I had what is likely the exact same problem that you are encountering.

 

[Clector]

It seems it"s bricked, because a problem in the NAND or a hardware problem. For me it souns like it most likely be a Hardware problem.

 

[Harsky]

Tried the recovery thing again and this time, I managed to boot up to the screen to perform a system update. With nothing to lose, I went ahead with the update and it download and then I restarted.

Nope, still ended up with black screens.

 

[Clector]

Then it seems it should be a Hardware problem, what you say seems to be the one that very often are called the Black Screen of Death, I think you can send it to Nintendo to repair it but they will charge you. You can try changing the Wi-fi card as sometimes a faulty one can cause this problem.
You should search that in Google also to see if something that some people do work with this 3DS.

 

[I pwned U!]

Tried the recovery thing again and this time, I managed to boot up to the screen to perform a system update. With nothing to lose, I went ahead with the update and it download and then I restarted.

Nope, still ended up with black screens.

This was the same result that I had 2 years ago when I did a system update from safe mode. Did you contact the previous owner to find out whether or not there is a working NAND backup that can be sent to you?

 

[Harsky]

This was the same result that I had 2 years ago when I did a system update from safe mode. Did you contact the previous owner to find out whether or not there is a working NAND backup that can be sent to you?

Didn't try but for £15, I've managed to salvage the circle pad, bottom screen, and the bottom half of the case was able to smarten up my other 3DS so I guess it's a break even situation.