Hardware Stupid Question: Should i update my mod Dsi ??

[VNpencakss]

I have a mod Japanese Dsi ( 1.3J, twilight 21.1.0 , Unlaunch 2.0 ) and i dont know what would happen if i update it , and should i update it to latest version

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I have a mod Japanese Dsi ( 1.3J, twilight 21.1.0 , Unlaunch 2.0 ) and i dont know what would happen if i update it , and should i update it to latest version

There is literally nothing to gain unless you want to re-download purchased DSiWare. Most of these updates were attempts to block flashcarts.
https://dsibrew.org/wiki/System_update

I've no idea if unlaunch would cause any trouble. Please do not update. The situation is different on 2|3DS consoles. Some games require higher firmware versions to work. Your DSi will do everything on lower version.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[lifehackerhansol]

Not to mention updating has been known to brick even stock DSis, because the NAND died a natural death (Nintendo put some shitty one in and expected it to last.)

So yeah no point in updating.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Not to mention updating has been known to brick even stock DSis

Do you have a source for that? Would have caused a lot of warranty claims since the updates came out when the DSi was new and the shop was actually usable.

because the NAND died a natural death (Nintendo put some shitty one in and expected it to last.)

I've no idea where this idea comes from. This gets repeated over and over again, but I never saw any proof for this. Furthermore I can't confirm this from own testing. The NAND seems to be a standard Samsung chip and I couldn't get one to fail by overwriting the complete chip multiple times with a hardmod (not that I would have expected a NAND to fail after a few cycles; but this is what is told all the time about DSi NAND chips: "Bad quality, dead after a few write cycles!").

 

[Pk11]

Do you have a source for that? Would have caused a lot of warranty claims since the updates came out when the DSi was new and the shop was actually usable.


I've no idea where this idea comes from. This gets repeated over and over again, but I never saw any proof for this. Furthermore I can't confirm this from own testing. The NAND seems to be a standard Samsung chip and I couldn't get one to fail by overwriting the complete chip multiple times with a hardmod (not that I would have expected a NAND to fail after a few cycles; but this is what is told all the time about DSi NAND chips: "Bad quality, dead after a few write cycles!").

iirc at least two people have come to the DS⁽ⁱ⁾ Mode Hacking! Discord server with DSi's that bricked after doing System Updates and I've seen at least one more on r/NDSHacks or somewhere, I know I've seen it happen at least three times. Unfortunately I'm not able to find the messages though as there's 211,530 message in the Discord help channel and Discord's search is kinda awful... This all in the past 2 or so years, dunno if it ever happened back when the DSi was actually new.

So it's not a common occurrence by any means, but it's definitely a (small) possibility. It seems to be about likely to happen as a brick when installing Unlaunch, which makes sense as both are writing to files that would cause a brick if the write somehow failed. And neither have a reason for a brick to make sense besides just the NAND dying of overuse, I have no confirmation but it's possible the ones that are bricking are ones where people took a lot of photos or played a lot of DSiWare or such, would make sense but no way to prove it unless someone bricks, knows their DSi's history, and shares about it...

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Oh my… we went horribly off-topic. For the original topic I can only repeat: Updating a DSi makes no sense unless re-downloading purchased games.
Since the other, off-topic part is really interesting, I'll put it into a spoiler

Spoiler: Off-topic

iirc at least two people have come to the DS⁽ⁱ⁾ Mode Hacking! Discord server with DSi's that bricked after doing System Updates and I've seen at least one more on r/NDSHacks or somewhere, I know I've seen it happen at least three times. Unfortunately I'm not able to find the messages though as there's 211,530 message in the Discord help channel and Discord's search is kinda awful... This all in the past 2 or so years, dunno if it ever happened back when the DSi was actually new.

So it's not a common occurrence by any means, but it's definitely a (small) possibility. It seems to be about likely to happen as a brick when installing Unlaunch, which makes sense as both are writing to files that would cause a brick if the write somehow failed. And neither have a reason for a brick to make sense besides just the NAND dying of overuse, I have no confirmation but it's possible the ones that are bricking are ones where people took a lot of photos or played a lot of DSiWare or such, would make sense but no way to prove it unless someone bricks, knows their DSi's history, and shares about it...

Discord server. Well… what should I say to that? Unfair prior conditions. My searches on that topic only included the freely available sources on the internet. Things that can be found with a general search engine without signing up on some closed place. (To go even further off-topic: That is one of the reasons, why I dislike Discord. Locking important pieces information behind a login is not a good idea)
The part with "dunno if it ever happened back when the DSi was actually new" is important. I'm used to Nintendo stuff being extremely durable. >30 year old (S)NES, GB and the games… working as on day 1. Not uncommon for (S)NES in a house having seen multiple TVs come and go because of defect. All things degrade and wear down, but old Nintendo stuff is so sturdy that it makes me forget this sometimes. Sadly I can't say the same of newer Nintendo stuff. The DS hinge stuff is everything but long-term stable and what I've read about the Switch with Joycon drift is awful.
I've seen countless electronic devices fail after a few years of usage (or even without much usage). The DSi came out end of 2009. The consoles are more than a decade old. Not that I like this, but failures have to be expected.

I'm not saying the statement about poor NAND quality in DSi is wrong. I just never saw a proof or at least some kind of evidence for that claim. Everybody just seems to repeat it as if it was general knowledge based on easy observations like "water floats downhill". I feel like a moron for being unable to understand where this comes from.

Firmware upgrades generally carry some kind of risk on any device – that doesn't need a defective chip.
https://hackmii.com/2009/11/updates-and-bricking/
I have seen it myself – rather my mum: She got a smartphone brand new out of the box, connected it to the internet → System update → Bricked. Forced firmware upgrade via PC → unbricked. Working since two years – pretty obviously not a dead EMMC.

What Nintendo devices are missing is an intended way for the end user to reinstall the OS from SD via an emergency bootloader or similar. There is no fault tolerance.
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To get a really educated impression of the DSi NAND quality, it would – in my opinion – require a targeted test on many consoles doing various different things on different groups of devices. I've only a single data point: My testing device died with the infamous black screens of death, while the hardmod still allowed me copying the NAND. Result: m5sum the same as a known working image (working on that console previously and on no$gba). No idea what failed, but it was not the NAND.