Hacking [PoC] Using a Magnet and a DS flashcart to unbrick a 3DS

[EmuAGR]

This is truly awesome!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Sorry for ignorance, but could this fix a brick where I installed the wrong size of NAND and it was from a different system all together? Probably not, but hopes are up.

And since you were one of the devs of B9S, could I install someone else's NAND with B9S?

Thanks for all of your work

As mentioned, it should be able to unbrick any 3DS regardless. The tools to do that may not exist just yet, though. You'd need something like a ctrtransfer that's ntrboothax compatible, and you'd need the NAND encryption keys (but those should hopefully be dumpable with ntrboothax, not sure about that though)

 

[EmuAGR]

afaik DSTWO and AK2i are supported.

Where did you read DSTWO was supported?

 

[Deleted member 381889]

Where did you read DSTWO was supported?

On Twitter, however nothing has been confirmed yet, don't get your hopes up.

 

[EmuAGR]

On Twitter, however nothing has been confirmed yet, don't get your hopes up.

I think that's hardly a realiable source.

 

[Deleted member 381889]

I think that's hardly a realiable source.

Nope, but afaik you can flash to them.

 

[DSoryu]

Now, that old news about a guy who sent his 3DS to repair and had it back with a weird DS card inserted is more believable. If I remember an employee from Nintendo gave him an sweet reward in exchange for that DS cart.

Maybe that was a sort of key to recover access to the nand Hahaha. Congrats Normatt, you always manage to amaze in such ways.

 

[VashTS]

that is friggin legit. i can't wait

 

[ossay78]

wow, never see this coming since the banwave terror. The 3ds scene will be shining once again with this unbricking technique comes true.
I'm definitely get hyped for this.

 

[WeedZ]

I usually just put my bricked devices in the microwave for a few minutes. Doesn't fix em, but you can still get some enjoyment out of them.

 

[mrSwitch]

Do you think this has the potential to unbrick a device that's not running/only possibly running CFW anymore? My 3ds bricked during a NAND restore to stock firmware and now wont boot anything so I'm not 100% sure where it's at. I'm thinking my restore may have been corrupt or some such but didn't fail on install

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Shit I'm super excited for this. Hopefully it'll support R4i Gold so I can fix my N3DS XL I bricked when downgrades were first possible.

This could also help in current bans. You could unbrick broken systems you pick up for cheap and get the friend seed

 

[Treeko]

I have a original R4 like from waaaaaaay back in the day, will that get support by any chance? considering it is a NTR cart it should be able to boot right?

 

[aos10]

Now, that old news about a guy who sent his 3DS to repair and had it back with a weird DS card inserted is more believable. If I remember an employee from Nintendo gave him an sweet reward in exchange for that DS cart.

Maybe that was a sort of key to recover access to the nand Hahaha. Congrats Normatt, you always manage to amaze in such ways.

Do you have a link for that story?

 

[DjoeN]

Time to hunt down bricked (N)3DS system to buy cheap ;D

 

[Geezerdorf]

This is AMAZING!
Never crossed my mind that they could have some sort of emergency recovery mode using NTR(DS) cartridges, much less, involving having the lid closed/magnetized!
This is an impressive, as well as really important finding. Congratulations @SciresM , @Normmatt !
Will be looking forward to check this out when it's available.

Time to hunt down bricked (N)3DS system to buy cheap ;D

Exactly what i was thinking!

 

[DSoryu]

Do you have a link for that story?

It was long ago, and was posted in this section. I'll try to find it, if my memory is correct, I commented on that thread so it must be anywhere on my content.

 

[Bluespheal]

Could this unbrick having a N3DS lid closed while on 2.0? I've read that brick is one of the most "devastating" bricks out there, could it be possible?

 

[MagicKnight]

You can do more with this method than unbriking 3DSs... you can easily and safely mod ANY 2DS/3DS console regarding its firmware version. Nintendo can not stop this with a firmware update since the "hax" is in the bootrom code and it can not be updated.

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Could this unbrick having a N3DS lid closed while on 2.0? I've read that brick is one of the most "devastating" bricks out there, could it be possible?

It can restore every software brick... if your NAND is completely broken (from a software point of view) you'll probably need to get a public (and unbanned, yet) seed to play online games but you should be able to restore everything since the code is executed at boot time from DSCart+SDCard.

 

[wurstpistole]

What the shit. How can a magnet and an old flashcard even do that? I don't understand anything. Please explain.