Hardware How many hardware revisions does the Switch have?

[Salduchi]

Aside from the new revision that just began rolling out that prevents hacking, does the Switch have any other minor revisions to the hardware? HAC-CPU-01 is the intital code on the motherboard from launch. Is there a HAC-CPU-02, 03, etc?

I have always been interested in this kind of thing. The NES and Genesis/Mega Drive had many revisions throughout their life spans. Took me forever to track down a NES-CPU-01 as well as a va2 Genesis.

 

[g00s3y]

I'm not sure about the hardware, but joycon shells have had 4 revisions. HAC-A-JCR-C00/01/02/03 & HAC-A-JCL-C00/01/02/03. But I think that has more to do with logo's/stamping on the backside of the shell, rather than actual physical revisions.

 

[FAST6191]

There are all sorts of ways to categorise device revisions, however I tend not to find anything beyond functionality, massive rework or things which trouble mods being noted by the fan/modding/unofficial communities until long after the device has ceased to be, and even then it tends more to be things that which trouble audio-video mods or longevity that get noted and that still leaves room for fairly major revisions to slip by unnoticed.

 

[guily6669]

I wish to know to and what changes... In PS4 at least I know the changes, I had the 3rd revision which was the best before slim and PS4 Pro, it had big improvements over the 1st one in regards to cooling and power efficiency.

Now I have the Pro 1st revision, don't know if they improved it further yet, but I have problems with it since the 1st week I bought it brand new .

 

[CrAzYLiFe]

Well i baught my switch in may 2018 in australia and mine is hac-cpu-20 (see pic) never seen any other like it but payloads still work ive seen people with f-g patxhed switchs and there revision was Hac-cpu-10

 

[FAST6191]

I wish to know to and what changes... In PS4 at least I know the changes, I had the 3rd revision which was the best before slim and PS4 Pro, it had big improvements over the 1st one in regards to cooling and power efficiency.

Now I have the Pro 1st revision, don't know if they improved it further yet, but I have problems with it since the 1st week I bought it brand new .

I dare say the OP was heading more towards the sorts of understanding we see in the Apple world ( https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/videos for an idea of the levels they are playing at). These sorts of people will notice if a resistor is replaced with a higher value one and then puzzle out why that might have been done, and also possibly if it is worth retrofitting to an older revision, as well as things like signals paths and all that. Most of the time it is Apple's sub par design and simultaneous expense (do I care if my 3 year old graphics card toasts itself? No it is probably out of date and a new one will improve games for less money than a few hours of diagnostic time. As Apple don't deign to use easy drop in hardware or sell replacements then yeah I sometimes have to consider binning/parting out a 3 year old Apple machine because a graphics card which now costs £30 for the same chipset on the PC has toasted itself) but it is what it is.
As far as game consoles go then you see it with some of the older "home computer" type things -- full specs and whatnot are available for the Amiga (not the best one but a start http://amiga.resource.cx/models.html ), things like the BBC micro (choice video) and more besides.
As far as what many in the US think of when you say console (was it made by Sony, Sega, Nintendo, Atari...) then I see some of the stuff in the audio-video world. However if you are concerned with that, especially if you are attempting to get the best possible quality now what was incredibly high end at the time is "you really want this? Thanks for freeing up the space in my shop/garage/attic/warehouse", then it is necessarily going to be analogue signals you are playing with, and thus for the AV paths at least you will be concerned with all the components of impedance and relative things, as well as small changes in voltage.

 

[g00s3y]

The battery for the joycons also has a revision. HAC-A-BPJPA-C0 & HAC-A-BPJPA-C1

But I think this is the same case as the shells. Seems like it's just a revision where more icons/symbols/words have been added.

 

[Salduchi]

Well i baught my switch in may 2018 in australia and mine is hac-cpu-20 (see pic) never seen any other like it but payloads still work ive seen people with f-g patxhed switchs and there revision was Hac-cpu-10

Very interesting. So I wonder if your Switch is the 20th little tweak, hardware revision, they have made to the Switch. All pictures I find online are HAC-CPU-01 but all of those are teardowns from around launch. I however have seen just one picture of a HAC-CPU-10 board.

Most revision of older consoles are so minor that the board looks identical and the chips are usually labeled the same and most revisions numbers go in consecutive order. Interesting that the only Switch revisions I have seen are 01, 10, and now 20. Nothing in between.

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Here is a picture of the HAC-CPU-10 that I found. Only one I was able to find on the net

 

[ZachyCatGames]

I think theres been 4 Switch revisions so far theres HAC-S-(region)-C0, HAC-S-(region)-C1, HAC-S-(region)-C2, and HAC-S-(region)-C3 also some HAC-S-(region)-C3 systems have the bootrom patches while others dont so you could count that as a revision as well if you want

 

[CrAzYLiFe]

Heres the hac-cpu-10 from a thread where op has a f-g patched switch pretty sure ops was hac cpu 10.

Would be intresting to know what differences there are or maybe if its a regional thing.

The real answer is probably boring and has no significance to anything haha

gbatemp.net/threads/black-screen-when-trying-to-boot-new-hardware-released.510858/page-4

 

[b_dasher]

The differences on the boards seem mostly around the power input leaving me to believe that Nintendo is slowly designing the Switch to be more compatible with non-Nintendo branded charging setups or to just be more efficient with handling power. I know a lot of early systems had a bug where when in portable mode if you started a game soon after the system turned on the fan would speed up to max slowly, stay there for about 30 seconds and then return to normal (which you can cancel if you press the home button when you hear the fan ramping up) but this would not happen when docked. There could have been small hardware flaws like this that are slowly being patched as the revisions go on. Now that patched systems are out which closed a hacking loophole, there may even be a newer revision number.

 

[Salduchi]

The differences on the boards seem mostly around the power input leaving me to believe that Nintendo is slowly designing the Switch to be more compatible with non-Nintendo branded charging setups or to just be more efficient with handling power. I know a lot of early systems had a bug where when in portable mode if you started a game soon after the system turned on the fan would speed up to max slowly, stay there for about 30 seconds and then return to normal (which you can cancel if you press the home button when you hear the fan ramping up) but this would not happen when docked. There could have been small hardware flaws like this that are slowly being patched as the revisions go on. Now that patched systems are out which closed a hacking loophole, there may even be a newer revision number.

Mine does exactly what you just mentioned and it's a launch day Switch. If it's in sleep mode with a game running the fan sometimes revs up to max when I wake it up. It does not do this every time and never when docked. Actually the fan never gets anywhere close to this fast docked unless I am playing either Doom or Wolfenstein.

I wonder why the revisions go by 10's? I have yet to see a 02 or 03 revision.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

The differences on the boards seem mostly around the power input leaving me to believe that Nintendo is slowly designing the Switch to be more compatible with non-Nintendo branded charging setups or to just be more efficient with handling power. I know a lot of early systems had a bug where when in portable mode if you started a game soon after the system turned on the fan would speed up to max slowly, stay there for about 30 seconds and then return to normal (which you can cancel if you press the home button when you hear the fan ramping up) but this would not happen when docked. There could have been small hardware flaws like this that are slowly being patched as the revisions go on. Now that patched systems are out which closed a hacking loophole, there may even be a newer revision number.

Mine does that sometimes (it actually happened about an hour ago XD), didnt know it only happens on early systems though.

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Mine does exactly what you just mentioned and it's a launch day Switch. If it's in sleep mode with a game running the fan sometimes revs up to max when I wake it up. It does not do this every time and never when docked. Actually the fan never gets anywhere close to this fast docked unless I am playing either Doom or Wolfenstein.

I wonder why the revisions go by 10's? I have yet to see a 02 or 03 revision.

Why they number it by 10's? Because its Nintendo

 

[b_dasher]

The Wii had a similar scheme (going by 10s). I guess it's just their style.

 

[b_dasher]

This is a bit of an old thread but I've seen an HAC-CPU-21 motherboard. It looks like most HAC-CPU-20 motherboards but some 20s have a chip soldered near the usb port and others (later) don't and may even have some missing at the back but I didn't see that. The 21 I've seen was in an xaj70057.... xaj7005 and up is said to be patched so it could very well be that the hac-cpu-21 boards are all considered patched. I've also seen a dock motherboard revision but couldn't see any big changes and then there's the new left joycon boards and thumbsticks.

 

[g00s3y]

Yeah, the left joycon main board has a revision, and instead of "02" it's "11".

 

[Ottoclav]

This is a bit of an old thread but I've seen an HAC-CPU-21 motherboard. It looks like most HAC-CPU-20 motherboards but some 20s have a chip soldered near the usb port and others (later) don't and may even have some missing at the back but I didn't see that. The 21 I've seen was in an xaj70057.... xaj7005 and up is said to be patched so it could very well be that the hac-cpu-21 boards are all considered patched. I've also seen a dock motherboard revision but couldn't see any big changes and then there's the new left joycon boards and thumbsticks.

I believe the HAC-cpu-21 is the new v2 patched switch. No longer hackable.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

I believe the HAC-cpu-21 is the new v2 patched switch. No longer hackable.

Normal sized Mariko boards are labeled HAD-CPU-xx (also that post was made over a year ago, long before Mariko was public).
The large majority of those boards are patched though, yeah.

 

[exwilliam]

Despite this thread being old, it's still relevant.
I saw 01 all unpatched.
10,20,21.
I don't know if all 20s and 10s are patched.
Can someone confirm that?

 

[jkyoho]

Despite this thread being old, it's still relevant.
I saw 01 all unpatched.
10,20,21.
I don't know if all 20s and 10s are patched.
Can someone confirm that?

all 10 but some 20s unpatched