Hacking Gateway will fix any bricked 3DS for free, as long as you're not lying!

[morvoran]

What kind of sheep is this new generation of people?

Gateway has every right to try to protect their work. They have no right to brick CONSOLES of people, no matter if they used clones or not. They should get shot for this...

Since nobody has concrete proof that Gateway purposely put this code in to brick the consoles of anybody, people need to chill out on them. You know the saying "Innocent until proven guilty". A lot of people here have a lynch mob mentality and are the type to shoot first and ask questions later.

 

[spinner09]

What kind of sheep is this new generation of people?

Gateway has every right to try to protect their work. They have no right to brick CONSOLES of people, no matter if they used clones or not. They should get shot for this...

If Gateway were located in the US, they'd be sued to hell and back, and they'd lose. Remember the Sony Rootkit fiasco a number of years back? People sued Sony because their malicious software damaged their DVD-rom drives. Even though Sony didn't distribute the Rootkit (it was distributed by third-party recording studios on audio CDs), Sony still lost in the class action suit because they wrote the software.
It's the same case here. It doesn't matter that r4i or whoever distributed it, Gateway were the ones who maliciously wrote it to purposefully damage people's devices, that makes them mostly to blame in my opinion. It baffles me how Gateway fanboys are still defending them. Watch as one of them inevitably calls me an "r4i shill" for this post. Ive been called that at least 5 times during the past couple of days just for stating the obvious.

 

[spinner09]

Since nobody has concrete proof that Gateway purposely put this code in to brick the consoles of anybody, people need to chill out on them. You know the saying "Innocent until proven guilty". A lot of people here have a lynch mob mentality and are the type to shoot first and ask questions later.

Neimod already confirmed it. This is the guy who DISCOVERED the 4.5 exploit in the first place, that gave us all these 3ds flashcarts.

He even posted the exact code, here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/gw-team-warns-against-modified-launchers.360534/page-8#post-4883749

 

[w0dash]

That is Pseudo-Code.

 

[[Truth]]

Neimod already confirmed it. This is the guy who DISCOVERED the 4.5 exploit in the first place, that gave us all these 3ds flashcarts.

He even posted the exact code, here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/gw-team-warns-against-modified-launchers.360534/page-8#post-4883749

I think he means:
"Until there is prove that I can understand."

 

[Gerbilly]

Since nobody has concrete proof that Gateway purposely put this code in to brick the consoles of anybody, people need to chill out on them. You know the saying "Innocent until proven guilty". A lot of people here have a lynch mob mentality and are the type to shoot first and ask questions later.

Even if you discount the efforts done on understanding the actual code in use by Gateway which is claimed to contain this bricking code there are a few indisputable facts.

1. The code to perform the bricking is specific and targeted and does not need to be used in 'normal' hacking of the 3ds.

2. Since the code is specific and targeted it must have been deliberately included for the purpose of damaging consoles.

The conclusion one can draw from this is that someone has inserted this code into the launcher.

There are therefore two possible sources - Gateway or another launcher provider.

Given that Normatt modified the existing Gateway launcher and not the launcher from one of the alternative cart manufacturer's, and given that use of his modified launcher resulted in the bricking problem as well as users of 'clone' launchers, it would seem clear that the code originated with Gateway.

The only 'alternative theory' is that user Normatt and the 'clone' cart makers are colluding for some reason and bricking users of their own carts deliberately. Whilst that is possible it is extremely unlikely.

To summarise (for those who do not want to 'blame' Gateway): The bricking code was deliberately inserted by Gateway for the express purpose of bricking consoles using non-Gateway launchers.

The morality and motivation for this action is debatable but the source and intent of the code is clear to those with an open mind.

 

[Arras]

I think he means:
"Until there is prove that I can understand."

Which will never happen because the loader is obfuscated and not really readable anyway. Pretty much the only way to figure out what it does it to run it on a hardware modded machine and examine the behavior.

 

[morvoran]

Neimod already confirmed it. This is the guy who DISCOVERED the 4.5 exploit in the first place, that gave us all these 3ds flashcarts.

He even posted the exact code, here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/gw-team-warns-against-modified-launchers.360534/page-8#post-4883749

That wasn't the exact code gateway used. Not even close to it. He was trying to explain how the code behaved, not how it was written. All that proves is that they have code in the launcher that can brick consoles. Gateway even mentioned the code when they released their 2.02b.

 

[justinkb]

I suggest people read morvoran's last few posts here carefully, he has been making an awful lot of sense.

 

[Gerbilly]

That wasn't the exact code gateway used. Not even close to it. He was trying to explain how the code behaved, not how it was written. All that proves is that they have code in the launcher that can brick consoles. Gateway even mentioned the code when they released their 2.02b.

Please read my post above where I have tried to clarify this issue.

Perhaps you could explain the apparent disparity between your two expressed views: The first being that Gateway have included code that can brick consoles and the second that they didn't brick consoles deliberately?

Is it your contention that this very specific and targeted piece of code, which does not appear in their other launchers as far as I am aware, and which serves only one purpose - rendering the console irreparably damaged - is actually benign and in fact serves a useful purpose necessitating it's coding and inclusion in the Gateway launcher?

 

[morvoran]

Please read my post above where I have tried to clarify this issue.

Perhaps you could explain the apparent disparity between your two expressed views: The first being that Gateway have included code that can brick consoles and the second that they didn't brick consoles deliberately?

Is it your contention that this very specific and targeted piece of code, which does not appear in their other launchers as far as I am aware, and which serves only one purpose - rendering the console irreparably damaged - is actually benign and in fact serves a useful purpose necessitating it's coding and inclusion in the Gateway launcher?

The below statement is from Gateway's site regarding the 2.02b update. They obviously stated that they created code that bricked their test console and that it was not safe enough for public release. They obviously left it in but disabled. When people messed around with the coding and removed the sanity checks, it may have activated this code and removed the safeguards that Gateway put in place. Thus meaning consoles started getting bricked.

"We mentioned previously that we would have a solution against accidental updates, but we decided not to release this just yet.
While we did succeed in preventing accidental updates for our test 3DS unit, it took trial and error to get it in that state, and we bricked the unit many times before succeeding.
Ultimately we decided that it was too dangerous for public use right now."

Should they have removed the code before releasing if this is the case? Yes, they should have, and I bet they wished they did as people complaining about delays of releasing updates wouldn't have been a fraction as bad as the fiasco going on now.

 

[xBleedingSoulx]

I'm with Gateway on this one, the bricking code worked as it should have, if it accidentally bricked a few legit users, no biggie, they're getting their console fixed for free.

And tbh I'm not even completely convinced that a bricking code even exists, the clones and Neimod both managed to edit the launcher.dat code, yet it's too obfuscated to post proof of the bricking code? If the launcher is so obfuscated, how were they able to edit it in the first place? And who's to say that blindly editing the obfuscated code couldn't have caused the brickings?

Not to mention that surely if there was a brick code, every clone user on the latest firmware would have been bricked, not just some of them.

Everyone is so quick to jump on the "I hate Gateway" bandwagon, just like everyone with "Gateway is fake!!!11" before and look what happened there.

 

[damysteryman]

I disagree with the whole Kill-user's-3DS-systems code, regardless of how it was activated on the system. Hopefully people manage to figure out how to reprogram and fix the eMMC NAND microcontrollers on bricked 3DS systems, and hopefully also remove the kill-code from the launcher.dat if GW refuses to do so.

Also I think xBleedingSoulx's "Grammar-Nazi" avatar would go well as a new logo for Gateway 3DS

 

[Arras]

Not to mention that surely if there was a brick code, every clone user on the latest firmware would have been bricked, not just some of them.

There's a chance that it triggers, that's why.

 

[DragonBoy]

Since nobody has concrete proof that Gateway purposely put this code in to brick the consoles of anybody, people need to chill out on them. You know the saying "Innocent until proven guilty". A lot of people here have a lynch mob mentality and are the type to shoot first and ask questions later.

I agree! However, where there's smoke, there's (usually) fire! I think that they wouldn't offer to unbrick consoles if they haven't had anything to do with this! It's hard enough to deal with Nintendo's updates and they (GATEWAY team) make it even harder! They care only for the money and not for the scene, which I perfectly understand, however, we all should keep in mind that as soon as they stop selling GATEWAY carts due to the fact that there aren't any compatible consoles out there, they (naturally) also are going to stop support for it! I also own an original GATEWAY cart and as soon as all this came out, I stoped using the thing because I don't want to risk bricking be console! I also cannot sell it because if the other persons consople is bricked, they are going to come after me! I leave in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country and replacing the console would be a pain anyway, so I'm not going to risk in the first place.

 

[plasma]

I'm sort of glad I didn't get that R4i shit, I love my 3DS too much xD

Gateway sure as hell aren't going to give people free replacements either, despite what they promised. Why would a small shady Chinese piracy company (that isn't even a year old) suddenly replace hundreds of broken consoles for free? Not even Nintendo replaces bricked consoles if they're out of warranty.

It's so obvious gateway only made this announcement to stem the tide of criticism on the forums.

They don't exactly replace them, they (from what I gathered) re-write the NAND again, so they just unbrick it aha

 

[temp1312]

I don't think GW will benefit from this war but they started it anyway, that's what I can't understand.
Guys do you think we can get a clean 2.0 final release without any brick code in there?
After all these messes, that's only what I want.

 

[obcd]

If every console with a fake card would brick, it would be obvious that there was something in the code doing it.
Even the old Romans had a saying "divide et conquere".
It's exactly what is happening at the moment. Some believe the bricks happen by accident.
Others think that some code was added to make the brick happen when non gateway cards are used.
Then we have the people who will say "It's your own fault. You should have bought the original.."

Until someone is capable of analysing the brick, we won't know the truth.
If no exploits are found for newer firmwares, gateway sales will slowly go down.

How would they rewrite the nand? Don't you need the console specific keys for that?
How to extract those if the console isn't booting, unless those keys were previously stored on the sd card?

So, there must be an unbrick method that works without restoring the nand?

 

[justinkb]

divide et impera ;-)

 

[Muhammad Syafiq]

If I'm in Gateway's situation, I would put code to brick legitimate Gateway users & repair their consoles for free as long as they pay me $100 for the so-called "shipping & handling fees"