Hardbricked / softbricked old 3DS XL - Steady blue light & 2 black screens

Welcome back @TurdPooCharger
I tried to reflash it, and in short, it did not work. You were right saying these varieties do not support the same flashcarts. Here are the detailed results of my attemps for reflashing the cart, and compatibility list as displayed in the UI.

• ds_ntrboot_flasher --> not compatible with Ace3DSPlus, here is the list of compatible carts:
  • Acekard 2i
    • Acekard 2i HW-44
      
    • Acekard 2i HW-81
      
    • R4i Ultra
  • DSTT
    • official DSTT
    • lots of clones
  • R4iSDHC family, tested with
    • R4i-SDHC RTS lite
      
    • R4iSDHC 3DS RTS
      
    • R4iSDHC B9S
  • R4i Gold 3DS
    
    • works with:
      • R4i Gold 3DS (RTS, rev A5/A6/A7)
        
      • R4i Gold 3DS (rev 4/5)
        
      • R4i Gold 3DS Starter
        
      • R4i 3D Revolution
        
      • Infinity 3 R4i
    • Does not work with:
      • R4i Gold 3DS rev 6/7
• jason0597's ntr_boot_flasher_nds, was the one I used initially, I tried again --> the same issue. Below, the compatibility list:
  • Acekard 2i
    • Acekard 2i HW-44
    • Acekard 2i HW-81
    • R4i Ultra
  • DSTT
    • official DSTT
    • lots of clones
  • Ace3DS+
    • Ace3DS+
    • r4isdhc.com.cn
    • Some Gateway Blue cards
  • R4iSDHC family, tested with
    • R4i-SDHC RTS lite
    • R4iSDHC 3DS RTS
    • R4iSDHC B9S
  • R4i Gold 3DS
    • R4i Gold 3DS (RTS, rev A5/A6/A7)
    • R4i Gold 3DS (rev 4/5/6/7/8?)
    • R4i Gold 3DS Starter
    • R4i 3D Revolution
    • Infinity 3 R4i
• ntrboot_flasher (ntrboot) -> Does not work, displays this message : "Your flashcart is not supported (<A> to continue)" . Compatibility list below:
  
  • Acekard 2i
    • Acekard 2i HW-44
    • Acekard 2i HW-81
    • R4i Ultra
  • DSTT
    • official DSTT
    • lots of clones
  • Ace3DS+
    • Ace3DS+
    • r4isdhc.com.cn
    • Some Gateway Blue cards
  • R4iSDHC family, tested with
    • R4i-SDHC RTS lite
    • R4iSDHC 3DS RTS
    • R4iSDHC B9S
  • R4i Gold 3DS
    • R4i Gold 3DS (RTS, rev A5/A6/A7)
    • R4i Gold 3DS (rev 4/5/6/7/8?)
    • R4i Gold 3DS Starter
    • R4i 3D Revolution
    • Infinity 3 R4i
  • R4 SDHC Dual-Core
    • R4 SDHC Dual-Core
      
    • R4i Gold
    • R4iTT 3DS

What I did not try: selecting a different cart than the one I suppose I have (based on the menu displayed when loading the square pants bob 'game')

Some pictures of the cart:


I tried to get in touch with the developers for the flashcart_core, without success (they link to a freenode irc channel #cakey, there are people there, but none answering).

 

--> nope, same behavior.

Yes, and in the GitHub thread, there is someone having the same ID as me for his cart ([INFO]: Ace3DSPlus version: 22330080), and it's working for him. But definitely, not for me.

Yes, I have this Songebob icon.Tested that, no brick, as the ace3ds_fix_all.nds did not recognize the cart

I'm trying to get in touch with one of the devs without any success. It seems that this part of the scene is kind of not moving anymore since 2018.

Yes, we do have something quite similar for selling old stuff : leboncoin.fr (literally 'thegoodspot'). It's not as good as craigslist for services. But we just entered again in a containment period till 1st of December, I'd need to pay more than a coffee as the fine tops 135€ when leaving your house for no good reason...


I think we reached rock bottom (haha, spongebob) on this, just to try to save a motherboard...



@TurdPooCharger by the way, if you could have a look at this thread, that would help as well (JPN MB & eShop access)
https://gbatemp.net/threads/o3ds-xl-region-change-jpn-eur-eshop-updates-problems.576134/

 

I'm going to have the final word with this motherboard: I managed to find an R4i RTS 3DS on "leboncoin", which shall reach me by mail in a few days. I'll see before the end of this week if I can save it or not.

 

I tried that some time ago, but I got my screwdriver this morning, swapped the wifi board with a working one. Being at it, I swapped as well the IR board. Sadly, it did not help.

 

My last call failed. I received the R4i RTS 3DS, upgraded FW to NTRBoot, prepared the SD card and tried the process on a working o3DS XL --> The console boots to the SafeB9SInstaller.
Same process with the non-working o3DS XL --> nothing at all, still blue light with 2 black screens.

Unless someone has a crazy idea to salvage it, given the fact that I swapped everything around the MB, and that I did the maximum from a software/firmware point of view, I'll stop there.




RIP, poor old motherboard