Hacking I Bricked my R4iGold Flashcart with YSMenu

[Alvy]

Hello y'all. I'm kinda sad today, I bricked my good R4iGold.cc (2014) by trying to run YSMenu from RetrofanGame.
I had an old R4 before with YSMenu and it was great till my card got lost now I had this r4igold (2014) and tried to install YSmenu, I followed every step, formatted my SD card, everything, but after pressing "A" on the YSMenu.nds software all it did was show up a white screen on the bottom and nothing else, I waited like 10 minutes, but nothing. Then I pressed home button on my 3DS to "reboot the R4" but my surprise was... THERE WAS NO R4 icon (Spongebob Atlantis Squarepantis) anymore .

I tried EVERYTHING I know, even tried to recover the dump I made with ntrboot but the card seems nowhere to be found on the 3DS even when it's there inserted, ugh... If anybody knows what can I do, please let me know.

Please don't tell me to buy a new one because where I live it's really expensive to get one. This is making me so sad and mad at the same time.

 

[Technicmaster0]

no icon often means contact issue and not a brick.

 

[Alvy]

no icon often means contact issue and not a brick.

It never happened before to me with this card. I mean, the card was still inside the 3DS and there was no icon after I went back to Home and the saddest part is that not even ntrboot can detect it.

 

[The Catboy]

It never happened before to me with this card. I mean, the card was still inside the 3DS and there was no icon after I went back to Home and the saddest part is that not even ntrboot can detect it.

That cart was not officially supported by NTRBoot and the only method to install NTRBoot on it isn't reversible.
Have you tried removing the cart and cleaning the contacts on the cart with a little rubbing alcohol on q-tip?
YSMenu shouldn't result in a brick, it shouldn't be writing to the firmware.

 

[Alvy]

That cart was not officially supported by NTRBoot and the only method to install NTRBoot on it isn't reversible.
Have you tried removing the cart and cleaning the contacts on the cart with a little rubbing alcohol on q-tip?
YSMenu shouldn't result in a brick, it shouldn't be writing to the firmware.

Already rubbed it with alcohol and q-tip but no luck.
I was asking myself that too, why would it mess with the firmware?. It's so frustrating.
And well, my card was recognized by ntrboot_flasher and the only thing I did days ago was a flash dump, nothing else. It created a 2mb .bin file btw.

 

[The Catboy]

Already rubbed it with alcohol and q-tip but no luck.
I was asking myself that too, why would it mess with the firmware?. It's so frustrating.
And well, my card was recognized by ntrboot_flasher and the only thing I did days ago was a flash dump, nothing else. It created a 2mb .bin file btw.

I am rather confused because the flasher doesn't officially support that cart and shouldn't work with it. Where did you get all of these files?

 

[Alvy]

I am rather confused because the flasher doesn't officially support that cart and shouldn't work with it. Where did you get all of these files?

From the last post in here https://github.com/ntrteam/flashcart_core/issues/3

 

[The Catboy]

From the last post in here https://github.com/ntrteam/flashcart_core/issues/3

I can't stress enough that if you don't know what you are doing nor know how to fix something, you shouldn't be messing with testing software. That aside, where did you get your YSmenu files?

 

[Alvy]

I can't stress enough that if you don't know what you are doing nor know how to fix something, you shouldn't be messing with testing software. That aside, where did you get your YSmenu files?

Well, I did this because I thought this would backup my R4 firmware just in case it got damaged by updating it, I could restore it. I did updated it to the latest version successfully and nothing wrong happened till I stupidly tried the YSMenu.nds file from here https://gbatemp.net/threads/retrogamefan-updates-releases.267243/

 

[The Catboy]

Well, I did this because I thought this would backup my R4 firmware just in case it got damaged by updating it, I could restore it. I did updated it to the latest version successfully and nothing wrong happened till I stupidly tried the YSMenu.nds file from here https://gbatemp.net/threads/retrogamefan-updates-releases.267243/

You updated to the latest, what?

 

[Alvy]

You updated to the latest, what?

The latest firmware of the R4.

 

[The Catboy]

The latest firmware of the R4.

I honestly can't think of anything else that could have gone wrong. R4 clones are a rather fickle bunch when it comes down to troubleshooting.

 

[Alvy]

I honestly can't think of anything else that could have gone wrong. R4 clones are a rather fickle bunch when it comes down to troubleshooting.

I was thinking the only way to get it back is flashing the winbond eeprom. But I don't have a CH341a programmer.

EDIT: Thank you @Lilith Valentine for being here when I'm almost having a nervous breakdown lol

 

[tranfeer]

Just have a look here:http://www.nds-card.net/ProShow.asp?ProID=575

 

[Alvy]

Just have a look here:http://www.nds-card.net/ProShow.asp?ProID=575

Sorry but what do you mean with it? :/ I didn't get it. I'm not buying a new card because:
- Where I live they are expensive.
- I don't have access to dollars, so I can't get a new one from those international stores.

 

[leg0]

I've just bricked mine doing the same, after trying to run YSMenu.nds from RetroGameFan Multi Cart Update v7.06.7z the spongebob icon is not showing anymore. Already tried to reformat using Panasonic formatter, but still getting the message "There is nothing inserted in the Game Card slot".
Be careful!

My card is R4i3D 2016


Googling "ysmenu brick r4" brought some other results with the same issue

 

[boots_n_cats]

I've just bricked mine doing the same, after trying to run YSMenu.nds from RetroGameFan Multi Cart Update v7.06.7z the spongebob icon is not showing anymore. Already tried to reformat using Panasonic formatter, but still getting the message "There is nothing inserted in the Game Card slot".
Be careful!

My card is R4i3D 2016


Googling "ysmenu brick r4" brought some other results with the same issue

This is what drives me crazy about the people who are like "LOL just put ysmenu on it" when someone is asking what kernel they need. Half the time YSMenu isn't going to work for their cart and sometimes it can permabrick the cart in the process.

 

[Nikokaro]

I've just bricked mine doing the same, after trying to run YSMenu.nds from RetroGameFan Multi Cart Update v7.06.7z the spongebob icon is not showing anymore

Why did you use YSMenu if your r4 is not listed among the supported flashcarts? The danger is clearly expressed at the beginning of the RetroFanGame thread! If your r4's icon no longer appears on the DS menu (which you should see even without microSD inserted), then there's nothing left to do, sadly.

 

[leg0]

Why did you use YSMenu if your r4 is not listed among the supported flashcarts? The danger is clearly expressed at the beginning of the RetroFanGame thread! If your r4's icon no longer appears on the DS menu (which you should see even without microSD inserted), then there's nothing left to do, sadly.

View attachment 279549

There is one, under "spoiler: dat folder", with the same website
w w w r4i3d com LABELLED R4i3D NEW

 

[Nikokaro]

There is one, under "spoiler: dat folder", with the same website
w w w r4i3d com LABELLED R4i3D NEW

Unfortunately, you overlooked that short final word ("NEW") that wasn't there for show.