Hardware Old 3DS XL crashes shortly after turning on

[LlamaTrauma]

I recently bought an old 3DS XL from Ebay which had the black screen of death after being dropped. When I opened it up the WiFi chip was disconnected, which fixed the black screen, but now the console consistently crashes roughly 25 seconds after turning on. It seems to take the same amount of time regardless of what I do, whether it's opening an app or letting it sit on the home menu. It happens with and without an sd card in, and always shows the "An error has occurred. Hold down the power button to turn off the power..." screen. I'm very new to repairing consoles and don't want to take this apart more than I have to, so I was wondering if anybody has an idea of what could be wrong with it. The motherboard looked to be in good condition when I opened the back, and I didn't see any obvious issues. I don't plan to sell the console if I get it working, in case that makes this seem less like me trying to profit from your tech help.

Update: I just checked the bottom of the motherboard and it seems fine. The times before it crashes seem to be all within tenths of a second of each other.

And I actually hadn't tested if it could play games. It needed cleaning but I'm playing a ds cartridge in it and it's working fine. This might end up being a software issue.

 

[IC_]

Try reconnecting the wifi card again and see if it makes any difference

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Update: I just checked the bottom of the motherboard and it seems fine. The times before it crashes seem to be all within tenths of a second of each other.

And I actually hadn't tested if it could play games. It needed cleaning but I'm playing a ds cartridge in it and it's working fine. This might end up being a software issue.

Do you mean an older DS, not 3DS, game? Or did you try both types? I mean: Does the console play all game carts without crashing or only DS(i) games?

To have a look from the software perspective you will need to install custom firmware (I guess there is none at the moment). Since it crashes all the time Seedminer is most likely not an option which leaves ntrboot.

For sake of completeness: If not already done, start the console without anything inserted. No SD, no game. Corrupted data on SD can lead to crashes well.

In addition to possible software troubleshooting with GodMode9, Luma3DS will also enable a verbose (and more meaningful) crash handler which might give a hint about any hard and/or software problems.

Spoiler: personal comment / minirant

I really hate Nintendo's decision to treat customers like idiots. "An error has occurred."
That %§/§)* is not helpful!

Why don't you tell us what error has occurred? Should we get this information from a magic crystal ball or something?

 

[LlamaTrauma]

Do you mean an older DS, not 3DS, game? Or did you try both types? I mean: Does the console play all game carts without crashing or only DS(i) games?

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I don't currently have any 3ds carts to try, so I only know that it's working with an older ds cart. I have the Mario and Luigi Dream Team version, but the software isn't installed. I've also tried booting it with nothing inserted and reconnecting the WiFi card again but had the same result. I don't have a flashcart to use so I can't try ntrboot at the moment, but I'm trying to install boot9strap. Thanks for the response!

And wow I feel like an idiot, but I just found out that it doesn't crash if wifi is turned off. I guess I'll try getting a new chip or clean the connection. Sorry to bother y'all.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

-snip-

And wow I feel like an idiot, but I just found out that it doesn't crash if wifi is turned off. I guess I'll try getting a new chip or clean the connection. Sorry to bother y'all.

• An error occurred (ErrDisp) [post #4]