Corrupted Cartridge Fixer Release

[KWG-08C]

Dump your savefile and see if you can read it with pkhex or PKSM.

Also, if you have some sort of cheats or mods enabled, then that could easily be the source of the problem.

I can read it just fine with PkHex but didn't think of using PKSM. Should I try to read it with that or is PkHex more than enough?

I don't remember using any cheats or mods on my cartridge the last time I booted it (can't remember how long ago that was beyond still being able to purchase Pokebank from the eShop, in case that matters).

 

[skawo]

You should also check if any of the game updates for the game downloaded to the system aren't corrupted.

 

[KWG-08C]

You should also check if any of the game updates for the game downloaded to the system aren't corrupted.

How do I check that?

 

[skawo]

Just delete the update data and then try to redownload it from the eshop, I guess.

 

[KWG-08C]

Just delete the update data and then try to redownload it from the eshop, I guess.

That fixed it, thank you so much!

Out of curiosity, do you happen to know what can cause update data to get corrupted?

 

[skawo]

Many things. Taking the SD out with the POWER on, bad connection... and, data on SD cards can also just deteriorate on its own if left unused long enough. Could also be an SD card with faked capacity.

 

[Kwyjor]

Out of curiosity, do you happen to know what can cause update data to get corrupted?

Standard procedure in cases like this is to copy everything off your SD card, format the card, test the empty card with h2testw, and then copy everything back again. It's the only way to be sure the card isn't physically decaying.

 

[Powtat]

Hello there,

I'm using your script on an Omega Ruby cartridge,
Currently at 22 700 000 refreshes, it's been a whole 24 hours and I'm at 16%

The cart has been opened already and a repair has been attempted (TSOP reflow), so maybe that is the reason it has to fix so many hashes.

Some chunks are okay, but a lot of them take more than 500 refreshes.
I'll keep you updated.

 

[KWG-08C]

Standard procedure in cases like this is to copy everything off your SD card, format the card, test the empty card with h2testw, and then copy everything back again. It's the only way to be sure the card isn't physically decaying.

Thanks! I'll try that ASAP.

 

[DeEliteOne]

This worked for my Shadows of Valentia cartridge. Only a few hundred refreshes needed. Thanks so much!

 

[Powtat]

After about 140-150 000 000 refreshes, I can proudly say that the repair has failed.
The cartridge is still detected and I can even back up the save with checkpoint, but I get a Luma crash as soon as I boot the game.
Looks like some parts are beyond repair. I noticed your script has other fixing methods, maybe I should try holding select and starting another refresh sequence.

 

[skawo]

Try running it while pressing Y to see how many blocks are bad.
Shouldn't take as long the second time around.

 

[Powtat]

Thanks for your reply.
I have already started the "Select version". Should I cancel it and restart with Y ?

 

[skawo]

If it's taking very long then probably, although that likely means there's no point unfortunately.
I was hoping it did fix most of the blocks on the first go

 

[Powtat]

I have the logs.
There are two different files, the first (older) one has 8363 lines, and 8360 of them mention an "unfixable" hash
The second one only has 600 lines and 498 of them mention "Unfixable"

The game still won't launch, but maybe repeating the process over and over can fix it ?
Well, I've made my peace with this cartridge and got myself another one long ago, so it's not a problem if it's impossible to fix.

Post automatically merged: Jan 24, 2025

Here are the logs by the way

 

[skawo]

That first one is probably the EXEFS, and that's why the game doesn't want to boot.
You _could_ try running it with logging again to see if the number of issues goes down, but yeah, that's probably not gonna work. Sorry :c

 

[Powtat]

The file does appear to be getting smaller, only ~350 "unfixables" this time.

I can't run the "verify" though, it keeps failing.

 

[skawo]

Since there's issues in the exefs, verify's not gonna do much - that's what it starts checking first, and immediately errors out.
But, if the amount is getting smaller, then you might as well keep trying.

 

[Powtat]

The game is booting up now. Crashes when I try to load my save, but this is definitely an improvement. I will keep using the script for a while, it's also significantly faster now. Thanks for your support !

Edit: It's crashing again when booting lol

 

[Hybridify]

You, my friend, are an absolute legend.

I searched for hours looking for a way to fix my Super Smash Bros 3DS cartridge. I've found tons of forum posts with people experiencing the same issues where the game boots to a black screen, infinitely loads at level select, or just freezes/crashes during normal gameplay, with exiting to the home screen often not an option or causing the 3DS to get stuck trying to close the software. None have any decent solutions. Nintendo has just been just telling people to just get a new game cart, but I doubt that would solve anything given that the issue seems to be with the growing age of the 3DS cartridges. For some reason, it also appears to be really common with Smash 3DS specifically.

I own a bunch of other physical carts that have been sitting for quite a few years without use and seem to have no issues loading up and playing after a long period of nonuse.

So I ran the verification using this fixer, and it failed, almost instantly. I went through the process of running the fixer, then attempting to verify, and then running the fixer again until it finally verified. It took something like 5 separate run-throughs of the fixer and it seemed like a majority of the blocks on the cart had a HASH MISMATCH error, and even some that took so long to refresh that it was exceeding 500 tries!

I just let it run its course and kept refreshing it until the number of refreshes on the top left were only going up by a small amount during the entire refresh. Overall the refresh count was over 300,000 for this cart, which explains why the game was entirely unplayable. (Side note: none of my other physical carts that have been stored in the same condition for the same amount of time have had this issue so far. Most of them only have needed less than 50 refreshes...)

Regardless, thank you so much for taking the time to create this tool and share it with the world! You've helped me save what otherwise would have been a lost cause.