Hacking How is hardmodding the NN3DS?

Lucifer666

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Sorry if this has been asked before

I'm referring specifically to NAND dumps/restores

I'm thinking that surely Nintendo would have realised how f***ing easy it is on the original 3DS and especially the XL. Have they changed the design of the New Nintendo 3DS (XL) so that it's not possible to dump/restore NAND via a hardware mod anymore?

Can someone with a NN3DS confirm?

Many thanks
 

DragonSky

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You already can't. The nand need to be from your own 3ds.
If it even could I don't think it can cause it gots all new hardware.
 

Pleng

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I don't think he wants to restore other NAND dumps to his N3DS, I think he wants to back up and restore his own NAND
 

Helper

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You already can't. The nand need to be from your own 3ds.
If it even could I don't think it can cause it gots all new hardware.
Ehhh? He didn't say anything about "trading" NAND images... just dumping and restoring your own.

As a person who has never owned a N3DS, nor seen any PCB photos thereof, I can't imagine any practical way Nintendo could block NAND access. If the NAND is held on an external chip and is connected to other components via SPI, the data lines must be accessible one way or another.

Now, the feasibility of manually soldering to traces which are, say, 0.2mm wide... that's another matter entirely.
 

DragonSky

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Ehhh? He didn't say anything about "trading" NAND images... just dumping and restoring your own.

As a person who has never owned a N3DS, nor seen any PCB photos thereof, I can't imagine any practical way Nintendo could block NAND access. If the NAND is held on an external chip and is connected to other components via SPI, the data lines must be accessible one way or another.

Now, the feasibility of manually soldering to traces which are, say, 0.2mm wide... that's another matter entirely.
I see it is a future queston I guess. Well I don't think you can the system has probably been changed it is alot powerfull with more cores.
But you never know Gateway may find a way or just wait for a spoof.
 

cearp

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I see it is a future queston I guess. Well I don't think you can the system has probably been changed it is alot powerfull with more cores.
But you never know Gateway may find a way or just wait for a spoof.

it's not about gateway, it's just about finding what wires to connect to where. i wouldn't think nintendo would actively design the n3ds to deter hardware dumping, but sure, maybe it's a possibility.
 

Helper

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it's not about gateway, it's just about finding what wires to connect to where. i wouldn't think nintendo would actively design the n3ds to deter hardware dumping, but sure, maybe it's a possibility.

Yeah, I can't really think of any scenario where the R&D costs to integrate "un-dumpable" NAND memory would be outweighed by the advantages of preventing hardware NAND access. Apart from making it possible to unbrick your system, hardware NAND access... makes it possible to revert a >4.x firmware 3DS to 4.x, provided you made a NAND dump when it was still on 4.x. Am I missing anything? Does NAND read/write allow anything else (that would be damaging to Nintendo)?

It seems like it'd be stupid for Nintendo to dump so much cash into such a non-issue when they could spend it on other security measures. Like auditing Ubisoft shovelware :P.

Of course, this is all pointless and baseless speculation until somebody who actually owns an N3DS actually tries it. Meh. Oh well.

(I'm still fighting with myself, debating whether to try to import an N3DS or not. Those specs, though...
Dammit! 9.x N3DS's are just going to increase in price over time, aren't they? ;_; )
 

y03usw6e

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You already can't. The nand need to be from your own 3ds.
If it even could I don't think it can cause it gots all new hardware.

I see it is a future queston I guess. Well I don't think you can the system has probably been changed it is alot powerfull with more cores.
But you never know Gateway may find a way or just wait for a spoof.

Please stop talking...

To OP, I'm sure it's still possible, but AFAIK, nobody has done it yet. It'll probably be just as easy.
 

Duo8

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I posted in the other thread about the possible pinouts near the new NAND chip, but a pin seems to be missing.

There's no full teardown of the N3DS yet nor have anyone tried to dump the NAND.
 
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Lucifer666

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Bummer, looks like I'll just take some HQ images of the PCB and pins on the NAND chip when I do get one

but since I'm waiting for the American release I probably won't be the first to do it

Meanwhile if anyone else who already owns one wants to share, do enlighten us

(And yeah, I wasn't asking about trading NAND back-ups with other 3DS systems)
 

Qtis

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Unless they go full retard and epoxy the shit out of their PCB, it should be doable. So far Nintendo hasn't done this, which is also a good thing
 

cearp

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Unless they go full retard and epoxy the shit out of their PCB, it should be doable. So far Nintendo hasn't done this, which is also a good thing

they did start doing it with wii drives, although that was because of modchips :)
 

OuahOuah

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Nntendo does not need to make a dumper or to mod their own console lol.
They already have the content of NAND chip, RAM dump and so...
They even have encryption keys :P

Dumping NAND and RAM is not EASY ! as said in the first message.
MODDING is also NOT EASY.
90% of GBATemp users of hacking linker and so can not do it.

I don't think Nintendo will try to to stop access to internal memory more than actual way.
 

Duo8

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Nntendo does not need to make a dumper or to mod their own console lol.
They already have the content of NAND chip, RAM dump and so...
They even have encryption keys :P

Dumping NAND and RAM is not EASY ! as said in the first message.
MODDING is also NOT EASY.
90% of GBATemp users of hacking linker and so can not do it.

I don't think Nintendo will try to to stop access to internal memory more than actual way.

Dumping NAND is easy with the pinouts. That's probably what Nintendo uses to program them at the factory
 

OuahOuah

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You still have to access the internal memory of the chip, no ?
Then program... a program to dump.
Except if you got it from Nintendo ;)

Don't know the history of the NAND dulp in current 3DS...
And easy... you need skills I don't have :P
 

Duo8

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You still have to access the internal memory of the chip, no ?
Then program... a program to dump.
Except if you got it from Nintendo ;)

Don't know the history of the NAND dulp in current 3DS...
And easy... you need skills I don't have :P

It's just an eMMC chip. Those pins are compatible with the MMC standard and can be hooked up to a shell or card reader.
After that it'll act like a normal SD card. You can read from it like you would a SD card.
 
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