Hacking Stuck on Nintendo Switch Logo Screen

[Hoang Tran]

Hi everyone.

Last night I was playing Zelda, Breath of the Wild nsp on my switch 6.2(atmosphere) and like always I put it to sleep mode. However the screen was light grey instead of being black. So I pressed the power button to try and wake it up but nothing happened. So I held down the power button for 12 seconds or so and it turned off. When I try to turn it back on(auto RCM), it shows the "Nintendo" logo then "Nintendo Switch" logo. That is where it stops and displays forever. I turned off Auto RCM and it does the same thing when I try to boot into Normal Stock Firmware.

If I take out the SD Card, and inject the payload hekate_ctcaer_4.5.bin, I can still boot up the option menu where I can use the + & - volume buttons to move up and down and power to select. Thats about it.

I tried to hold down the volume up and down buttons at the same time while pressing power to load up that recovery menu but nothing happens. Still remains that the "Nintendo Switch" logo screen.

I'm not sure what else to do here. I tried googling the problem but nothing seems to be working.


Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[StriK3FoRC3]

I think your switch is bricked, I bet you Used a a dock/power bank from a 3party seller (not from nintendo itself)

far as I know there is nothing you can do.

 

[Hoang Tran]

The dock is original, however what I was using and have been using would be a samsung ac adapater with samsung cable from my phone to charge my switch when it happened.

 

[Masamune3210]

Yeah, you provably fried it. The switch is very picky about power due to bad design and Nintendo purposely breaking the USB c pd spec

 

[Hoang Tran]

Thank you very much to the both of you for replying. If this is the case, how would one go about fixing this problem?

I am aware of the 3rd party dock bricking the switch or so, but I am not familiar with why/understand it. I didn't think that a (in this case)phone charger or a random wall brick could also do this.

Just curious, everyone here or majority of everyone here charge their switch through the dock, official ac adapter that came with the system, or bought a secondary official ac adapter to solely charge their switch? When I tried to look up the problem, its all about 3rd party dock such as nyko etc but I haven't come across anything about wall chargers. Also, if I did fry the switch, how does it still accept a charge and turn on?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

The dock is original, however what I was using and have been using would be a samsung ac adapater with samsung cable from my phone to charge my switch when it happened.

The Samsung AC adapter is not USB-PD AFAIK, they use their own fast charging method (although their newer phones do support USB-PD)

Thank you very much to the both of you for replying. If this is the case, how would one go about fixing this problem?

I am aware of the 3rd party dock bricking the switch or so, but I am not familiar with why/understand it. I didn't think that a (in this case)phone charger or a random wall brick could also do this.

Just curious, everyone here or majority of everyone here charge their switch through the dock, official ac adapter that came with the system, or bought a secondary official ac adapter to solely charge their switch? When I tried to look up the problem, its all about 3rd party dock such as nyko etc but I haven't come across anything about wall chargers. Also, if I did fry the switch, how does it still accept a charge and turn on?

it's speculated that it's unstable or unexpected (not conforming to what the Switch is expecting) that causes this type of brick, where the USB matrix controller chip on the board gets fried. It can be replaced, but it's tricky and best left to professionals.
That's most commonly caused by 3rd party docks, but only because the dock acts as a proxy between the charger and Switch, which would usually protect the Switch itself from damage from a non compliant charger, plus the fact that most people will probably be using the 1st party one since it comes with the console and does the job as well as anything could, and 3rd party USB-PD AC adapters not actually being much cheaper.
So there is nothing preventing a 3rd party AC adapter causing similar damage. And often times, you see 3rd party docks that are bundled with chargers, and at that point it becomes a bit unclear if it was really the dock that caused it, but most people just assume it is.

 

[Hoang Tran]

Thank you very much for replying.

As for leaving it to the professionals to fix it, is it safe to say that asking Nintendo is out of the question as this is a hacked system? Even if I am within the 12 months of warranty its safe to assume that they will find out its hacked voiding the warranty and pretty much send it back with no repair?

 

[Lumince]

Ive used my samsung phone charger many many times with both of my switches and I have had 0 issues with them... Thats very odd...

Do you have a nand backup? You could try restoring that???

 

[Hoang Tran]

I believe I do have a nand back up. I do not remember what firmware the switch was on when I did it though.

I apologize as I am not tech savvy or anything like that, but the nand back up that I have are boot0 and boot1 .bin and 10 files that says nand.bin.bin.00 all the way to nand.bin.bin.09

 

[mdmachine]

Thats a real bummer, makes me nervous as I use a portable power block and sometimes the USB chargers on my wall outlet (Leviton). I am assuming since these dont apply "fast charging" its probably safer?

As for the backup you have, sounds to me like you have your boot 0/1 and your rawnand which is split up. Did you use hekate to make the backup? If so you can utilize the joiner script to combine those.
https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate/releases

 

[Hoang Tran]

I used the reinx guide to make back up of those files. A bummer indeed and I did not expect for such a thing to happen. Makes me feel like I hooked it to a car battery and it blew up. I do have another switch that is hackable and have not been hacked yet. Its just upsetting that my current hacked switch may go to waste :\

 

[mdmachine]

Well I never used reinx, so maybe someone else can confirm that the backup is indeed based of hekate. Then you can combine all the files and restore. With any luck that'll help. However if the USB matrix is toasted then that'll require some good ol fashioned hardware repair.

Out of curiosity, @The Real Jdbye would that be the bq24193 or M92T36 chip?

 

[Hoang Tran]

I'm not really sure what to do here, so I called Nintendo and this is what occurred.

I spoke with a Nintendo Rep on the phone as I could not make a repair claim over on the nintendo website as it could not validate the S/N. According to the Rep, the S/N was not registered on their system and after asking when I bought it, (which was well over a year ago, but I lied) she then registered it with no problems and that she will begin to start the repair claim. She also asked if I used any 3rd party docks or charging cable in which I said no(lied again /sigh)...

Interesting part to me anyways was when she typed in the S/N to find out more information she said that there is a ban in accordance to the S/N and I said I dont know what that is about....I then asked her if she knew and she said it doesn't say why. I asked her does this ban void the warranty or so and she said it doesn't.

5 minutes later I get a email confirmation that I can send in the switch for repair via purolator.


Worst case scenario they find out what I have been up to and send it back not repaired?

 

[crissal]

THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY IF THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN DAMAGED BY PRODUCTS NOT SOLD OR LICENSED BY NINTENDO (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADAPTERS, SOFTWARE, AND POWER SUPPLIES).

IN ADDITION, THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY IF THIS PRODUCT (a) IS USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES (INCLUDING RENTAL); (b) IS DAMAGED BY ANY UNAUTHORIZED MODIFICATIONS OR TAMPERING; (c) IS DAMAGED BY NEGLIGENCE, ACCIDENT, UNREASONABLE USE, OR BY OTHER CAUSES UNRELATED TO DEFECTIVE MATERIALS OR WORKMANSHIP (INCLUDING USE WITH GAME ENHANCEMENT AND COPIER DEVICES); (d) HAS HAD THE SERIAL NUMBER ALTERED, DEFACED OR REMOVED; OR (e) HAS BEEN INTENTIONALLY MODIFIED USING MALICIOUS CODE, MALWARE, VIRUS, BOTS, WORMS, TROJANS, BACKDOORS, EXPLOITS, CHEATS, HACKS, OR HIDDEN DIAGNOSTICS THAT MAY HARM THE PRODUCT OR OUR SYSTEMS.

According to the bold phrases, they won't repair your Switch. More here.

 

[mattytrog]

Well I never used reinx, so maybe someone else can confirm that the backup is indeed based of hekate. Then you can combine all the files and restore. With any luck that'll help. However if the USB matrix is toasted then that'll require some good ol fashioned hardware repair.

Out of curiosity, @The Real Jdbye would that be the bq24193 or M92T36 chip?

Its the M92T36 that gets it normally. The multiplexer / matrix chip on the reverse of the board is normally safe.

BIG however though... Your symptoms could be a faulty BQ24193. Test your battery stats in Hekate. See if they are stable or go to 103% or something silly. Or battery (seems) to charge super-fast. If anything seems wrong with your battery in hekate (check the millivolts, boot numerous times) should be a nice linear decrease in voltage as battery runs down (press a button to update the screen / stats).

If suspect, the BQ24193 is a very likely culprit. Easily fixed though.

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

If you have access to a multimeter, a quick BASIC check of M92T36 is check VCC-IN pin 5. If between 3v and 6v when plugged into the Nintendo mains adapter, the power detector within M92T36 can be assumed to be working. This is only indicative however, not definitive.

 

[Paulsar99]

Wait if this brick was caused by a third party dock or charger frying your switch shouldn't the switch even turn on at all? His still goes on the nintendo logo or even the payload screen. This sounds like a corrupted nand.

 

[mattytrog]

Wait if this brick was caused by a third party dock or charger frying your switch shouldn't the switch even turn on at all? His still goes on the nintendo logo or even the payload screen. This sounds like a corrupted nand.

It does. However, a broken BQ24193 has VERY similar symptoms.

Normally when M92T36s fail, you cannot get anything out of them. Should have mentioned that.