Hacking Has anyone successfuly upgraded a previously downgraded 3DSxl?

[paulttt]

I have just picked up an XL with FW8.4 (I believe). The first thing I did was make a NAND backup with gateway, and downgraded to 4.5. Now it might be my imagination, but prior to downgrading, the 3DS seemed to power on almost instantly, after downgrade it can take almost 20 seconds.

What I'm planning on doing (If possible) is either upgrading with Smash bros, or restoring the NAND backup, and launching the Gateway exploit with the browser instead of the profile glitch.

Does this sound reasonable? Any precautions I should take?

 

[LinkFan16]

Have a golden Zelda 3DS XL which was on 9.2 previously, then downgraded to 4.5 using Gateway. Shortly after, I upgraded to 9.2 again using the backup I made with Gateway so I could fix the eshop on emunand and everything went fine. Just make sure you connect the 3DS to a power source when upgrading.

 

[RikuCrafter]

I restored my 9.2 NAND backup with not a single issue. I've got a Gateway now, and just use the web browser exploit. I recommend this method ouo

 

[DrunkenMonk]

I don't think he's referring to a restoration of 9.2 nand, but for instance; installing an 8.1 game cart update on a 4.x system after downgraded to 4.x

I've heard lots of people being unsuccessful after performing such things and it has NOT gone down well.

 

[paulttt]

I don't think he's referring to a restoration of 9.2 nand, but for instance; installing an 8.1 game cart update on a 4.x system after downgraded to 4.x

I've heard lots of people being unsuccessful after performing such things and it has NOT gone down well.

Don't tell me what I'm referring to, you dirty Brit!!

Yeah that's what I'm thinking of doing, the FaQ currently states "unsure" so wanted to know if anyone has first hand experience. I think my best bet might be restoring the NAND full stop and just using the browser exploit. Does this sound right?

Guess it should be as straight forward as booting gateway menu and hitting NAND restore?

 

[Deleted User]

Not that it's a sure thing but did the following

Downgraded my smash 3ds (firmware 7.0.1) to 4.2 and used a luigi cart and then updated to 4.5.0-9U. Haven't seen any weird issues yet.

 

[DrunkenMonk]

Don't tell me what I'm referring to, you dirty Brit!!

Yeah that's what I'm thinking of doing, the FaQ currently states "unsure" so wanted to know if anyone has first hand experience. I think my best bet might be restoring the NAND full stop and just using the browser exploit. Does this sound right?

Guess it should be as straight forward as booting gateway menu and hitting NAND restore?

Honestly, it doesn't matter now if you have your 3ds on 4.5 or 9.2 if you have a gateway - since either way you exploit, it's pretty simple.
You either get the ds profile exploit, or you get the website exploit (which has a few android app variations for offline usage).

So if you don't need to downgrade or upgrade for whatever reason, just don't? There's no real reason other than retail carts using the 6.x save encryption right now.

But if you really want to, and you're sure your nand dumps are perfectly fine... (you should do at least 2 dumps and verify them by either viewing in a hex editor, or creating a md5 hash to ensure they're 100% perfect dumps)
Then go ahead and restore whatever nand dump you like, nothing should go wrong unless you lose power or whatnot. Worst case scenario you have to nand mod, which as long as you have a soldering iron and have soldered small/medium components on PCBs before then you should be fine doing that.

But as per my previous post, I wouldn't recommend updating via a game cart or system settings as it has been known to sometimes go south after a downgrade

 

[paulttt]

Honestly, it doesn't matter now if you have your 3ds on 4.5 or 9.2 if you have a gateway - since either way you exploit, it's pretty simple.
You either get the ds profile exploit, or you get the website exploit (which has a few android app variations for offline usage).

So if you don't need to downgrade or upgrade for whatever reason, just don't? There's no real reason other than retail carts using the 6.x save encryption right now.

But if you really want to, and you're sure your nand dumps are perfectly fine... (you should do at least 2 dumps and verify them by either viewing in a hex editor, or creating a md5 hash to ensure they're 100% perfect dumps)
Then go ahead and restore whatever nand dump you like, nothing should go wrong unless you lose power or whatnot. Worst case scenario you have to nand mod, which as long as you have a soldering iron and have soldered small/medium components on PCBs before then you should be fine doing that.

But as per my previous post, I wouldn't recommend updating via a game cart or system settings as it has been known to sometimes go south after a downgrade

I'm quite handy with a soldering iron, so might give it a try if things go pear shaped .

Main reason I wanted to restore was how slow and clunky it seems to have got since the downgrade, but might be worth the "slowness" for the ease of use.

Where in the UK you from BTW?

 

[DrunkenMonk]

I'm quite handy with a soldering iron, so might give it a try if things go pear shaped .

Main reason I wanted to restore was how slow and clunky it seems to have got since the downgrade, but might be worth the "slowness" for the ease of use.

Where in the UK you from BTW?

You've experienced slowdowns since the downgrade? That's pretty peculiar :S.

I'm from the North East, originally Sunderland but recently moved to South Shields, but I don't have a very thick mackem accent. It's a pretty butchered northern accent, since I always used to practice correct word phonetics, so now I just sound weird.

How about yourself?

 

[paulttt]

You've experienced slowdowns since the downgrade? That's pretty peculiar :S.

I'm from the North East, originally Sunderland but recently moved to South Shields, but I don't have a very thick mackem accent. It's a pretty butchered northern accent, since I always used to practice correct word phonetics, so now I just sound weird.

How about yourself?

Yeah, quite severe actually, and the DS profile exploit seems to fail quite randomly, 1 in about 5 tries. When I first bought it last week, it booted in around 5 seconds if not less from cold boot. Now it takes around 20 seconds.

I'm from sunny sunny Sheffield... (Where it is never sunny)

 

[DrunkenMonk]

Yeah, quite severe actually, and the DS profile exploit seems to fail quite randomly, 1 in about 5 tries. When I first bought it last week, it booted in around 5 seconds if not less from cold boot. Now it takes around 20 seconds.

I'm from sunny sunny Sheffield... (Where it is never sunny)

It sounds like your SD card may be becoming fragmented, you could try copy everything onto your pc, format the SD card again and put everything back on and see if that fixes it.

Though it sounds a little fast deterioration to be fragmentation...

What kind of SD card do you use? Like, what make and class is it?

Ahh Sheffield, I have a friend who goes down Sheffield to visit his family, never been myself but only heard good things

 

[tony_2018]

Nothing is ever "straight forward" or "easy peezy". Precautions have been posted on the guide.

 

[Sheimi]

I have downgraded from 9.2U to 4.2 and restored my NAND about 4 times. This is my 5th time downgrading back to 4.2U. I have not tried upgrading a downgraded sysnand from 4.2U to 8.1U. But take precaution since you can brick.

Now it might be my imagination, but prior to downgrading, the 3DS seemed to power on almost instantly, after downgrade it can take almost 20 seconds.

It seems to be that way for the first time. After that, it takes a few seconds.

 

[paulttt]

It sounds like your SD card may be becoming fragmented, you could try copy everything onto your pc, format the SD card again and put everything back on and see if that fixes it.

Though it sounds a little fast deterioration to be fragmentation...

What kind of SD card do you use? Like, what make and class is it?

Ahh Sheffield, I have a friend who goes down Sheffield to visit his family, never been myself but only heard good things

Only good things? You've been lied too

If I'm being totally honest about the SD card, it's the one that actually came with the 3DS, only picked it up from GAME brand new earlier in the week. Just upgraded from a regular launch 3DS and for the sake of testing I tried booting that again just now. Seems much quicker than the XL at the moment. However that is with a different SD card. Might treat myself to a SAMSUNG card tomorrow, if the "boss" lets me spend some more.

 

[escherbach]

Paulttt

you should restore your 9.2 nand.bin from the gateway menu and let us know if that fixes the boot speed. (It's easy to downgrade again to 4.x afterwards if you want)

 

[DrunkenMonk]

Only good things? You've been lied too

If I'm being totally honest about the SD card, it's the one that actually came with the 3DS, only picked it up from GAME brand new earlier in the week. Just upgraded from a regular launch 3DS and for the sake of testing I tried booting that again just now. Seems much quicker than the XL at the moment. However that is with a different SD card. Might treat myself to a SAMSUNG card tomorrow, if the "boss" lets me spend some more.

Haha, everybody has something bad to say about where they're living, I can't trust somebody who lives there ^^

Ahh, well the one which comes with the 3DS is class 4 I believe, which is more than enough to be loading just the exploit. Though I can imagine it's only the 2GB SD card, so I can imagine, if you've swapped files around frequent enough that it could be the cause of the problem, but if you're looking for a cheapish regular SD, mobymemory have their kingston 32GB on sale at the moment for around a tenner. I picked one up and so far not disappointed . It's class 10 too, so you can rely on it being capable of decent speed throughputs.

But realistically, if you're fine with what you've got, there's no reason to 'upgrade' or anything like that .

 

[paulttt]

Paulttt

you should restore your 9.2 nand.bin from the gateway menu and let us know if that fixes the boot speed. (It's easy to downgrade again to 4.x afterwards if you want)

I'm going to give this a try tomorrow. However the backup I have is 8.4? Must admit, I didn't take full note. Had one too many tins tonight and working in the morning so will post results.

My plan is as follows and going slightly off topic...

Update original 3DS to whatever smash comes with.
Attempt to downgrade.
Then upgrade using the cart again.

 

[paulttt]

Haha, everybody has something bad to say about where they're living, I can't trust somebody who lives there ^^

Ahh, well the one which comes with the 3DS is class 4 I believe, which is more than enough to be loading just the exploit. Though I can imagine it's only the 2GB SD card, so I can imagine, if you've swapped files around frequent enough that it could be the cause of the problem, but if you're looking for a cheapish regular SD, mobymemory have their kingston 32GB on sale at the moment for around a tenner. I picked one up and so far not disappointed . It's class 10 too, so you can rely on it being capable of decent speed throughputs.

But realistically, if you're fine with what you've got, there's no reason to 'upgrade' or anything like that .

True I suppose in regards to the living arrangements

The SD card in the 3DS XL is a 4GB, but yes it is a class 4. I wouldn't have thought that would have come into play however when booting 4.5 realNAND from a cold boot, but I stand to be corrected.


Going to have a play with the original 3DS tomorrow and see what happens in regards a cart update. Will post results.

 

[escherbach]

I'm going to give this a try tomorrow. However the backup I have is 8.4? Must admit, I didn't take full note. Had one too many tins tonight and working in the morning so will post results.

My plan is as follows and going slightly off topic...

Update original 3DS to whatever smash comes with.
Attempt to downgrade.
Then upgrade using the cart again.

Yeah sorry, you said 8.4 in post #1.

I think the update back to 8.4 via your nand.bin backup might be safer than using smash brothers cart update.

It would just be interesting to see if the boot speed problem is real or if you just imagined it was much faster with the original 8.4 firmware.

 

[Simon Riley]

Yeah I downgraded my 9.2 to 4.2 and then to 4.5 with luigi's mansion.