Hacking Question My switch is completely dead (Dead battery AutoRCM)

[KopaM]

Hiya all.

I hope one of you can help me out with getting my Switch back up and running.

I had it with me back home a few months ago, battery drained completely on the way back and then I didn't use it for a while. Couldn't boot it back up, just assumed I broke it and let it sit for a few months. Now I realized, that it's probably because of the dead battery and AutoRCM that it won't turn on. I've tried the "hold power button for x amount of seconds" and all that.

I've tried most of the guides, fixes and tutorials but I can't seem to bring it back to life. If you guys have any ideas, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Dichotomy754]

Charge for an hour or two and then try holding the power.

 

[KopaM]

Charge for an hour or two and then try holding the power.

No success

 

[nmkd]

No success

1) Press the power button for 20s, just to be sure
2) Charge it for 24h or more
3) Attach to a PC/Android and boot RCM. Make sure you have the drivers! I thought my Switch was dead but it turned out I didn't have the drivers to detect RCM.

 

[KopaM]

1) Press the power button for 20s, just to be sure
2) Charge it for 24h or more
3) Attach to a PC/Android and boot RCM. Make sure you have the drivers! I thought my Switch was dead but it turned out I didn't have the drivers to detect RCM.

I'll try it tomorrow, once it has charged for 24h+ - thanks for the tip
Do you think a dongle would work or should I just use the PC?

 

[SENSENuii]

Let it charge over night then hold power and try to push a a payload to it

 

[Deleted User]

Do the following
Use the official ac adapter on your switch, and let it charge for a good, 10-20 minutes. Then remove it from the ac adapter, and then plug it into your computer. Run hekate, and see it's battery level. If it's below 1% remove it from your computer and put it back on the offical ac adapter. Wait for it to be above 1.5% once it is. Boot into horizion/boot cfw. And from there just let it charge.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

A switch can charge in RCM mode. So you don't need to turn it off. But depending on the charger source, it may vary in wait time. Which why you want to use the official AC adapter. If that doesn't solve it, you may be that low chance where the battery entered a weird ic state, and you have to disconnect that battery from the switch and plug it back in.

 

[KopaM]

Do the following
Use the official ac adapter on your switch, and let it charge for a good, 10-20 minutes. Then remove it from the ac adapter, and then plug it into your computer. Run hekate, and see it's battery level. If it's below 1% remove it from your computer and put it back on the offical ac adapter. Wait for it to be above 1.5% once it is. Boot into horizion/boot cfw. And from there just let it charge.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

A switch can charge in RCM mode. So you don't need to turn it off. But depending on the charger source, it may vary in wait time. Which why you want to use the official AC adapter. If that doesn't solve it, you may be that low chance where the battery entered a weird ic state, and you have to disconnect that battery from the switch and plug it back in.

Yeah, I've been told that the battery thing might've happened to me. Ordered a screwdriver set, just in case all this doesn't work.
But how do I run hekate to see battery level, if I can't get anything on the screen?

 

[Deleted User]

Yeah, I've been told that the battery thing might've happened to me. Ordered a screwdriver set, just in case all this doesn't work.
But how do I run hekate to see battery level, if I can't get anything on the screen?

Like I said charge it for about 10-20 minutes on the offical charger, and then unplug it, and then plug in your switch to your computer and run hekate as a payload. Hopefully it will run/load into hekate menu, from there just follow what I said about if it's under 1%. I've had my switch die completely with autorcm quite a few times, and often are not trying to boot horizion at a battery level below 1% causes the system to get stuck on a charge black screen.

 

[Dave_Chad]

Have you installed the LibUSBK driver with Zadig? Also installed the driver from TegraRCM GUI settings?

Charge it not just with any charger but the dock charger for at least 1 hour.

Also you mention a dongle...you know they need charging too right? Very little but they still do.

 

[Budsixz]

The battery does charge in RCM. But it charges a lot slower. Use official charger to charge it. And for payload use smaller USB cables.

 

[KopaM]

Thank you all! What I had to do was the following (so hopefully I can help someone else):
1. Charge the switch overnight (10-20 mins might actually be enough)
2. Unplug it from the dock, attach it to the PC with USB C cable (dongle did NOT work)
3. Hold power off for 20-30 seconds, to ensure it's off
4. Hold power + vol up to enter RCM mode
5. Inject payload

It actually had 100% power when I got it back up and running - so it was just stuck in some kind of weird state.