Hacking Games Randomly Corrupting and ARM9 Errors

[DANOMINATOR]

I'm going to do my best to explain the situation in full. It's a big one, and I need the whole community's help.

A few months ago, I attempted an Old 3DS to New 3DS official transfer, the plan being to add CFW to the new one later which I did.. Many things went both right and wrong, but I had to install tikshop on the new one to get my CFW games back. Something went wrong along the way I suppose, resulting in a sort of SD corruption where attempting to read the title of a corrupted game (loading title lists anywhere but freeshop, checking data management) would crash the 3DS with the error "An exception has occured." In haste and stupidity, I tried to delete the title and found the only way to do so was freeshop. I did, but my space didn't clear up. After that warning of an issue, I noticed that more games are slowly falling into the same issue. At this rate, my whole 3DS could be corrupting. How do I find titles that I can't see and delete them before the corruption spreads again? Help!

EDIT: So it seems that the root of the problem is the SD card itself. I got a new one and will test it. Until then, I'll leave this thread open.

EDIT 2: The 3DS is question for all intensive purposes, appears to longer be corrupted. I'll leave this open for a while longer.

 

[Mark McDonut]

when you install a game it only installs the ticket and tmd to NAND, the actual game title data is on your SD card. This could very well be a SD card problem.
check out this post here https://gbatemp.net/threads/i-always-get-this-error-when-i-boot-up-my-3ds.515811/#post-8234823 and back up your SD card, format it using guiformat as stated and run the tester to check your SD card integrity. if it passes without errors, it could then be something internal.

Do you know what firmware version + CFW you're using?

 

[DANOMINATOR]

when you install a game it only installs the ticket and tmd to NAND, the actual game title data is on your SD card. This could very well be a SD card problem.
check out this post here https://gbatemp.net/threads/i-always-get-this-error-when-i-boot-up-my-3ds.515811/#post-8234823 and back up your SD card, format it using guiformat as stated and run the tester to check your SD card integrity. if it passes without errors, it could then be something internal.

Do you know what firmware version + CFW you're using?

Ugh, it's 11.8 because I'm not smart and I have Rosalina and luma set up. Also it's a PNY micro sd card. Are PNY's really that bad as I hear?

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Ugh, it's 11.8 because I'm not smart and I have Rosalina and luma set up. Also it's a PNY micro sd card. Are PNY's really that bad as I hear?

That flash memory brand is fine. However, it's possible you may have a counterfeit card masquerading as a PNY.

You should copy everything off your SD card, reformat it as FAT32 + 32 KB, and run a Full Write + Verify Test in H2testw to confirm whether or not your card is real or fake.

 

[DANOMINATOR]

But what do I do about these games corrupting? A few more just corrupted today and I have no idea why.

 

[SCOTT0852]

A few more just corrupted today and I have no idea why.

Sounds like a dying SD card, you need to do what turdpoocharger said above and see if your card has gone bad.

 

[Freqman]

Ugh, it's 11.8 because I'm not smart and I have Rosalina and luma set up. Also it's a PNY micro sd card. Are PNY's really that bad as I hear?

someone explain to me, what is the upside to staying on 11.7? why would anyone not update.

 

[DANOMINATOR]

Sounds like a dying SD card, you need to do what turdpoocharger said above and see if your card has gone bad.

So, new card, no corruptions? But I have to find the corrupted games using a PC...and I thought they were deleted. So we may have a problem.

 

[NFates]

someone explain to me, what is the upside to staying on 11.7? why would anyone not update.

You're right, there aren't any benefits to 11.7 compared to 11.8 unless you want to CFW your console (Smea exploits).

 

[Freqman]

You're right, there aren't any benefits to 11.7 compared to 11.8 unless you want to CFW your console (Smea exploits).

i have CFW, and i am on 11.8, i can do everything people on 11.7 can do (plus i can play online). i don't see the point of staying on 11.7.

 

[DANOMINATOR]

So, new card, no corruptions? But I have to find the corrupted games using a PC...and I thought they were deleted. So we may have a problem.

Really need some relevant help here guys. 11.8 can't be helped for me at this point. I will get a new SD card, but what about the corrupting? I don't think a new card will just fix it, but I'll try.

On a side note, can dying SD cards still occasionally read and write? Because it still seems to function to some extent.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Really need some relevant help here guys. 11.8 can't be helped for me at this point. I will get a new SD card, but what about the corrupting? I don't think a new card will just fix it, but I'll try.

On a side note, can dying SD cards still occasionally read and write? Because it still seems to function to some extent.

Did you ever check the card with H2testw like what was stated earlier?

When the new one comes in, protect yourself from fraud by verifying it's real with that program.

 

[SCOTT0852]

On a side note, can dying SD cards still occasionally read and write? Because it still seems to function to some extent.

It's not a totally dead card then, just a dying one. Still, the card is dying and should be replaced soon.
However, to really tell if it's dying you have to run h2testw, as turdpoocharger mentioned above:

You should copy everything off your SD card, reformat it as FAT32 + 32 KB, and run a Full Write + Verify Test in H2testw to confirm whether or not your card is real or fake.

edit: ninja'd

 

[DANOMINATOR]

But the card was new...maybe I had a counterfeit after all. But I got it from clearance at a GIANT, so it sounds like my local business has been scammed?? Will run test soon. I suppose keeping the DS from doing anything would be in the best interest for now.

 

[DANOMINATOR]

Okay, got a new SanDisk with all the smartness and protection and everything. Now, what I want to know is, is it safe to copy my contents to the new card? Is there some sort of cleanup program for 3DSs? Because I don't want to waste a good card.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Okay, got a new SanDisk with all the smartness and protection and everything. Now, what I want to know is, is it safe to copy my contents to the new card? Is there some sort of cleanup program for 3DSs? Because I don't want to waste a good card.

You did the works of formatting as FAT32 + 32 KB cluster and checking it with H2testw?

If it everything's fine from checking it, copy your stuff back onto the card and use as-is.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Really need some relevant help here guys. 11.8 can't be helped for me at this point. I will get a new SD card, but what about the corrupting? I don't think a new card will just fix it, but I'll try.

On a side note, can dying SD cards still occasionally read and write? Because it still seems to function to some extent.

It depends. If the write cycles have been exhausted, some of the memory will turn read only before the rest (the parts that have been written to the most), this is not by file though so as it happens you could end up with partially written data causing corruption, or at least that is my understanding.
But flash memory also employs wear levelling to avoid wearing out part of the memory long before other parts, this becomes less effective the more full the card (or SSD) is though. Still it means that if part of the card is no longer writable the rest is likely soon to follow.

 

[DANOMINATOR]

You did the works of formatting as FAT32 + 32 KB cluster and checking it with H2testw?

If it everything's fine from checking it, copy your stuff back onto the card and use as-is.

But...won't everything still be corrupted? Unless you mean...the card is the only problem and nothing was corrupted after all?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Running the tester on both cards today.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

But...won't everything still be corrupted? Unless you mean...the card is the only problem and nothing was corrupted after all?

Running the tester on both cards today.

Try to salvage and backup whatever game saves you can with Checkpoint or JKSM.

Start over with a new, fresh setup by reinstalling all your games.

Restore those saves that were recovered from the old corrupted data.

 

[DANOMINATOR]

Try to salvage and backup whatever game saves you can with Checkpoint or JKSM.

Start over with a new, fresh setup by reinstalling all your games.

Restore those saves that were recovered from the old corrupted data.

Arg, freeShop would've made that so easy. Gonna have to get a crapton of CIAs from a PC I guess. The way things are going though, I guess that's the best thing to do at this point.