Hacking PSA: Stop Worrying About MCU Bricks

[Termer]

When Nintendo actually did make stability updates for the 3DS

Those were the days.

 

[froggestspirit]

Cant you unbrick mcu with a b9s compatable flashcart?

 

[BL4Z3D247]

Cant you unbrick mcu with a b9s compatable flashcart?

Nope, MCU brick is unrecoverable.

 

[froggestspirit]

Nope, MCU brick is unrecoverable.

How so from a technical standpoint?

 

[Sono]

Cant you unbrick mcu with a b9s compatable flashcart?

you don't necessarily need B9S, it works as long as the payload's sole purpose is to unbrick the MCU, and doesn't init any hardware other than eMMC and I2C (screeninit *will* fail)

but this is assuming that MCU_FIRM didn't corrupt so much you can't turn the 3DS on at all... as long as you can boot to the MCU reflasher code and MCU_FIRM's I2C code is intact enough then you can reflash it via software

...otherwise have fun with the testpads

 

[BL4Z3D247]

you don't necessarily need B9S, it works as long as the payload's sole purpose is to unbrick the MCU, and doesn't init any hardware other than eMMC and I2C (screeninit *will* fail)

but this is assuming that MCU_FIRM didn't corrupt so much you can't turn the 3DS on at all... as long as you can boot to the MCU reflasher code and MCU_FIRM's I2C code is intact enough then you can reflash it via software

...otherwise have fun with the testpads

Well that's interesting. The odds still favor the unrecoverable side though, no? Sounds like you'd have to be pretty lucky to have not corrupted the MCU_FIRM enough to pull off the above.

 

[hiimkir]

If someone's interested: It still works!