Hacking Can internal storage go bad?

[echoman32]

Hello all, great site here. Been reading for years but never needed to make an account since I could always find the answer off google or simple searching. Have a problem with a N3ds XL that was modded a couple months ago.

I modded it using a R4i+ card using the guide off 3ds hacks

I modded it for my nephew and he came over today showing an error on boot saying

An Error has occured Failed to get the CTRNAND FIRM, press any button to shutdown. No idea what happened but they said it was dropped and they have been giving him money online to buy apples for some kirby game they downloaded.

I get it and first thing I try is to Do a Nand backup. I saved the nand bin file and the essential file and tried to restore it through God Mod9 by holding start during boot up. Most times i get an exception:data abort with error lines but a couple times it started only to stop halfway and error out.
It has even said the backup was corrupted but never finished.

I then figured I would try CTR transfer but I get an error code simpy starting up the process.

Could the internal storage or a connector of the 3ds be failing from the drop?

 

[TurdPooCharger]

What happens to your N3DSXL when you remove the SD card, remove & reinsert the battery, and turn on the system without the SD card in place?

BTW, if you make a NAND backup after the 3DS is acting up and try restoring it with that, that does nothing. SysNAND restore works when you made the backup when the 3ds was last working.

 

[echoman32]

Thanks for the reply. I made the nand backup while I was modding it. I kept it just in case anything ever happened to the system.

I removed the battery , put it back in and removed the sd card. It turns on blue light, it flashes and then it turns back off.

I am not really new to 3ds modding but I have never had anything go wrong I could not find a solution for. Any further help is appreciated.

 

[Ryccardo]

It turns on blue light, it flashes and then it turns back off.

If it turns off "violently" (making a popping noise from the speakers), a backlight cable has disconnected
If the LED fades out, that's just A9LH/B9S not finding a suitable boot file (which is expected if you don't have an SD inserted with the right files, and haven't copied a payload to internal storage - or of course if internal storage is broken!)

As for the original question: yes, it's technically possible for impact to have caused the NAND (or any other BGA chip) to disconnect - but it's highly unlikely, considering it was able to read the partition table and kernel partition (containing B9S). Maybe an intermittent connection?

It's also possible the NAND failed electronically (by coincidence), but it would be a little hard to verify with the currently available 3DS homebrews and without a hardmod

And @d0k3 would most likely appreciate if you posted the actual error you got from GM9 (if you still have it)!

 

[echoman32]

Yeah i still have the 3ds. He dropped it off Sunday night and I said I would look at it.

Before I could get to loading up the file and seeing it corrupt, now it crashes immediately.

 

[echoman32]

Anything anyone? I would hate to tell my nephew his 3ds is dead. Maybe he tried to update seeing as there is a new one. I have no idea what he did to trigger this.

 

[tedmg091309131]

I seem to remember that with a ntrboothax card you could setup then run an emunand from the ntrboothax flashcart. I don't know if you could transfer the emunand from another 3ds.

 

[VzUh]

maybe something like this could work? not sure thoug
1- use other 3ds to create an EmuNAND on the sd card
2- on the same card, inject the working NAND backup of this 3ds via EmuNANDtool, multiEmuNAND creator, or something like that (or restore on the 3ds itself with decrypt9/emunand9, but probably will be a lot slower)https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-3ds-multi-emunand-creator.381603/
3- boot luma from ntrboothax and load the EmuNAND

if the 3ds even boots, then looking for a way to make it permanent

 

[Hunter]

I seem to remember that with a ntrboothax card you could setup then run an emunand from the ntrboothax flashcart. I don't know if you could transfer the emunand from another 3ds.

maybe something like this could work? not sure thoug
1- use other 3ds to create an EmuNAND on the sd card
2- on the same card, inject the working NAND backup of this 3ds via EmuNANDtool, multiEmuNAND creator, or something like that (or restore on the 3ds itself with decrypt9/emunand9, but probably will be a lot slower)
3- boot luma from ntrboothax and load the EmuNAND

if the 3ds even boots, then looking for a way to make it permanent

the NAND's and EmuNAND's are locked to the console the were created on, and will not work on any other console

 

[VzUh]

the NAND's and EmuNAND's are locked to the console the were created on, and will not work on any other console

I know, but I don't know any way to inject a NAND backup to a emuNAND on a sd card without a pre-existing emuNAND setup on that card, so i tought making a emuNAND and then injecting on it the backup of this 3ds

 

[Hunter]

I know, but I don't know any way to inject a NAND backup to a emuNAND on a sd card without a pre-existing emuNAND setup on that card, so i tought making a emuNAND and then injecting on it the backup of this 3ds

that can work though

 

[echoman32]

Thanks all for the new options. I have a r4i gold card and it would be nice to boot everything from that if I cant get anything to stay on the internal sd card. I will try that later tonight and then post back results.

 

[echoman32]

Okay you guys lost me a bit, so I have a couple questions.

I am able to boot into luna settings (hold select at boot)
I can also boot in god mode 9 (hold start at boot)

I have been noticing that everytime I power down the 3ds, god mode 9 is asking me to backup my essential files and to set the time. It just started doing this.

I'm not very informed about switching nand files but is it possible to create a emunand at this point? Is it also possible to just boot directly from the r4i gold bypassing the internal storage all together?

Thanks