Cannot read any game cart when in Atmosphere, fatal error when using nogc=0

[Stormflora]

Yeah you would have to update the system firmware and the lotus firmware, the cartridge slot also have it own anti downgrade purpose like the OS firmware have it fuses, for anti downgrade, if you burnt the system firmware fuses and you downgrade to a much lower firmware the system won't boot.

Got it, thanks for the clarification. Since my last post, I've already successfully updated my OFW to 9.0.0 to be in-line with the game card's requirement. However, I haven't disabled Auto NoGC yet.

One last question before I do so: If I disable Auto NoGC to burn some fuses on the game card slot in order to boot up these game cards, it will be fine running on my OFW since it is already 9.0.0, but what will happen if I try to run it on my CFW that's 18.0.1?

Would more GC slot fuses be burnt since the OS CFW installed is 18.0.1 and the latest GC FW is 14.0.0 as you stated above? Or do the fuses only get burnt when you try to boot up a game card that requires a newer GC FW like 14.0.0?

In other words, if I boot up this game card (that requires GC FW 9.0.0) on my emuNAND with CFW 18.0.1, do the GC slot fuses only get burnt to 9.0.0, or will they get burnt all the way up to 14.0.0?

 

[CMDreamer]

It's true, this question has been answered several times on the noob paradire, the problem is the answers are buried on 3300 posts. ;(

Precisely.
In the recent GBATemp Community Check In I stated that finding content is very confusing and convoluted, so I hope something can be done to solve the issue.

 

[Hayato213]

Got it, thanks for the clarification. Since my last post, I've already successfully updated my OFW to 9.0.0 to be in-line with the game card's requirement. However, I haven't disabled Auto NoGC yet.

One last question before I do so: If I disable Auto NoGC to burn some fuses on the game card slot in order to boot up these game cards, it will be fine running on my OFW since it is already 9.0.0, but what will happen if I try to run it on my CFW that's 18.0.1?

Would more GC slot fuses be burnt since the OS CFW installed is 18.0.1 and the latest GC FW is 14.0.0 as you stated above? Or do the fuses only get burnt when you try to boot up a game card that requires a newer GC FW like 14.0.0?

In other words, if I boot up this game card (that requires GC FW 9.0.0) on my emuNAND with CFW 18.0.1, do the GC slot fuses only get burnt to 9.0.0, or will they get burnt all the way up to 14.0.0?

If you turn nogc off on emunand and run the cartridge then the cartridge slot firmware is 14.0.0+, sysnand cfw share the nand with ofw. It is okay if your cartridge slot firmware is lower than your emunand firmware.

 

[Stormflora]

If you turn nogc off on emunand and run the cartridge then the cartridge slot firmware is 14.0.0+, sysnand cfw share the nand with ofw. It is okay if your cartridge slot firmware is lower than your emunand firmware.

Apologies, but you've lost me, perhaps due to wording.

So if I do boot up the game card on the emuNAND with the newer OS FW, the game card FW will be updated with burnt fuses to 14.0.0 no matter what, which means no going back?

I.E. I must always use these game cards on the sysNAND no matter what, if I want to keep the game card FW at 9.0.0? And I must re-enable Auto NoGC each time before I boot up the emuNAND?

 

[Hayato213]

Apologies, but you've lost me, perhaps due to wording.

So if I do boot up the game card on the emuNAND with the newer OS FW, the game card FW will be updated with burnt fuses to 14.0.0 no matter what, which means no going back?

I.E. I must always use these game cards on the sysNAND no matter what, if I want to keep the game card FW at 9.0.0? And I must re-enable Auto NoGC each time before I boot up the emuNAND?

If you boot up emunand and disable nogc and use the cartridge slot then the cartridge slot firmware would be 14.0.0+, the cartridge slot won't work on firmware 9.0.0

 

[Stormflora]

If you boot up emunand and disable nogc and use the cartridge slot then the cartridge slot firmware would be 14.0.0+, the cartridge slot won't work on firmware 9.0.0

Ahh, okay. It's as I suspected, then.

So I would need to strictly boot up these game cards on the sysNAND and make sure to re-enable Auto NoGC for the emuNAND whenever I swap to that OS.

 

[Hayato213]

Ahh, okay. It's as I suspected, then.

So I would need to strictly boot up these game cards on the sysNAND and make sure to re-enable Auto NoGC for the emuNAND whenever I swap to that OS.

You can use stock sysnand that is ofw, as it has no cfw.

 

[Stormflora]

You can use stock sysnand that is ofw, as it has no cfw.

Well, I tried to boot up my game card with Auto NoGC disabled in the Hekate GUI, but it failed on the sysNAND (both CFW and OFW). Not sure why. Perhaps incorrect reported FW version required?

 

[Hayato213]

Well, I tried to boot up my game card with Auto NoGC disabled in the Hekate GUI, but it failed on the sysNAND (both CFW and OFW). Not sure why. Perhaps incorrect reported FW version required?

Not sure then.

 

[Stormflora]

Not sure then.

I took out the game card and booted up the emuNAND without re-enabling Auto NoGC, and then went back to Hekate to see whether any fuses got burnt, and it stated"10 | 0 HOW: 8.1.0" or something like that.

Well, I didn't really want to waste any more time, so I just fetched another copy of the game and re-enabled Auto NoGC again.

 

[Hayato213]

I took out the game card and booted up the emuNAND without re-enabling Auto NoGC, and then went back to Hekate to see whether any fuses got burnt, and it stated"10 | 0 HOW: 8.1.0" or something like that.

Well, I didn't really want to waste any more time, so I just fetched another copy of the game and re-enabled Auto NoGC again.

Hekate fuse count is for the OS firmware not cartridge slot.

 

[Stormflora]

Hekate fuse count is for the OS firmware not cartridge slot.

Oh. I wasn't aware.

How do you find out whether or not the card slot's fuses have been burnt, and to what firmware version?

 

[Hayato213]

Oh. I wasn't aware.

How do you find out whether or not the card slot's fuses have been burnt, and to what firmware version?

Usually when you turn off NOGC or boot into stock OS and use the cartridge then the cartridge slot fuse is burnt, not every firmware update actually have a cartridge slot lotus firmware update. If your OFW is on 9.0.0 and you tried the run a cart on it, your cartridge slot firmware is probably the one come with firmware 9.0.0, firmware 4.0.0 had a cartridge slot update. But depends if you did turn off NOGC on emunand and ran the cartridge first attempting on OFW.

 

[Stormflora]

Usually when you turn off NOGC or boot into stock OS and use the cartridge then the cartridge slot fuse is burnt, not every firmware update actually have a cartridge slot lotus firmware update. If your OFW is on 9.0.0 and you tried the run a cart on it, your cartridge slot firmware is probably the one come with firmware 9.0.0, firmware 4.0.0 had a cartridge slot update. But depends if you did turn off NOGC on emunand and ran the cartridge first attempting on OFW.

This is what I did:

0) Install FW 9.0.0 on the sysMMC via Daybreak on Atmosphere.
1) Reboot to Hekate, disable Auto NoGC.
2) Boot up sysMMC via Atmosphere.
3) Insert game card, Atmosphere crashes the Switch with an error.
4) Boot up sysMMC default. Retry game card.
5) Switch error, can't read card.
6) Power down, and take out game card. Reinject Hekate.
7) Boot up emuMMC (with FW 18.0.1), forgetting to re-enable Auto NoGC.
8) After emuMMC boots up, I reboot to Hekate to re-enable Auto NoGC.

At around step 7-8, did I potentially burn the game card slot's fuses to 14.0.0, even though I took the game card out already?

 

[Hayato213]

This is what I did:

0) Install FW 9.0.0 on the sysMMC via Daybreak on Atmosphere.
1) Reboot to Hekate, disable Auto NoGC.
2) Boot up sysMMC via Atmosphere.
3) Insert game card, Atmosphere crashes the Switch with an error.
4) Boot up sysMMC default. Retry game card.
5) Switch error, can't read card.
6) Power down, and take out game card. Reinject Hekate.
7) Boot up emuMMC (with FW 18.0.1), forgetting to re-enable Auto NoGC.
8) After emuMMC boots up, I reboot to Hekate to re-enable Auto NoGC.

At around step 7-8, did I potentially burn the game card slot's fuses to 14.0.0, even though I took the game card out already?

Probably did burnt it to 14.0.0

 

[Stormflora]

Probably did burnt it to 14.0.0

I see. In that case (since there's no going back anymore), if I were to boot up the game card in the sysMMC, it should work now? Or will I still need to disable Auto NoGC before doing so?

 

[Hayato213]

I see. In that case (since there's no going back anymore), if I were to boot up the game card in the sysMMC, it should work now? Or will I still need to disable Auto NoGC before doing so?

Won't work if sysnand firmware is 9.0.0