Switch OLED won’t boot into Hekate

[ItsYeBoi2016]

Hey, so I bought a switch modded oled a few months ago and everything worked 100% perfectly. After not playing for about a month, the switch won’t boot to hekate. Whenever I press the power button, my switch immediately boots to ofw. The weird thing is, sometimes it DOES boot into hekate and I have absolutely no idea why.

When it doesn’t boot into Hekate, I just keep pressing power and vol- over and over again until Hekate launches. Yesterday I spent 30 minutes just trying to power on the switch..

Does anyone know why this is suddenly just happening and can I do anything about it? I’ve read that it might be the dat0 connector, but as far as I can tell, it’s soldered on.. Maybe a loose connection, but I cant tell, the soldered wires feel secure though. Attached are the pictures of the inside, maybe thatll help.

As I didn’t do the work myself, I have no idea what exactly I'm looking at or where even the issue could be. Anyway, I’d be very grateful for any help I can get.

 

[MrVtR]

Looks like a soldering problem
Those who welded, probably don’t know how to do it right.
If you don't know how to solder, don't try to “fix it”, it will make it worse, send it to someone in your country who works with this (and has recommendations) or contact the previous owner to know who welded

 

[leapingliger]

Almost certainly dat0 issue. Assuming they used the dat0 adapter, over time it has potential to lose the solid connection. You can check the diode values for each point with a multimeter to be certain.

 

[ItsYeBoi2016]

Looks like a soldering problem
Those who welded, probably don’t know how to do it right.
If you don't know how to solder, don't try to “fix it”, it will make it worse, send it to someone in your country who works with this (and has recommendations) or contact the previous owner to know who welded

Thanks for the quick reply!

Luckily, I do know how to solder since I worked in my fathers electronic repair shop about 4 years ago. The issue is just, that the switch modchip is smaller and more "fragile?" than what I'm used to. So before trying to do it myself (or asking my father to help), I wanted to ask if something else could be the problem. Since you say its indeed a soldering problem, I guess I have no choice.

Do you perhaps have any idea where exactly the issue could be, or should I resolder every connection? Are there maybe certain connections I can check with a multimeter? I dont even know what chip is installed, Picofly or Hwfly. Can you tell? I just find it weird that it works sometimes and othertimes not. I would expect a bad solder joint to not work at all. Thats why I want to know what resistance each connection should have, maybe a diverging value can tell me where the error is. I just have no idea what those values are, since I know nothing about the chip currently installed.

Post automatically merged: Jan 2, 2024

Almost certainly dat0 issue. Assuming they used the dat0 adapter, over time it has potential to lose the solid connection. You can check the diode values for each point with a multimeter to be certain.

Since it works sometimes, im guessing there is still a slight resistance between the connections, so I would need to know the exact value to see if my connection is faulty. The only problem is that I have no idea what modchip is currently installed and what the functioning multimeter value should look like. Its either a picofly or hwfly, but both have different versions. Is there a way to check whats currently installed, and where could I get the values.

 

[leapingliger]

It doesn’t matter what chip you have installed, the values should be the same. From my experience and others,

A, C, D = 0.500v ~ 0.800v

B = ~1.2v

If it’s a dat0 connection problem, you’ll need to take the motherboard out of the switch and resolder / reseat the adapter with the friction method or reflow. Or kamikaze method which seems like it’s the most stable by far but also very risky.

 

[ItsYeBoi2016]

It doesn’t matter what chip you have installed, the values should be the same. From my experience and others,

A, C, D = 0.500v ~ 0.800v

B = ~1.2v

If it’s a dat0 connection problem, you’ll need to take the motherboard out of the switch and resolder / reseat the adapter with the friction method or reflow. Or kamikaze method which seems like it’s the most stable by far but also very risky.

Ahh cool, thanks a lot! I'll probably end up doing reflow or friction method, I find kamikaze WAY too risky, plus I dont have a grinding pen. Would recommend friction or reflow? I read on reddit that reflow isnt recommended anymore as it can lead to the solderballs cracking down the line, but I also read that the friction method can loosen after a while.. I'll just test the values before deciding. Thanks again!

 

[leapingliger]

Ahh cool, thanks a lot! I'll probably end up doing reflow or friction method, I find kamikaze WAY too risky, plus I dont have a grinding pen. Would recommend friction or reflow? I read on reddit that reflow isnt recommended anymore as it can lead to the solderballs cracking down the line, but I also read that the friction method can loosen after a while.. I'll just test the values before deciding. Thanks again!

I’d start with friction and see if you can get a solid contact. Reflowing has risk of damaging the emmc itself from too much heat and the potential cracking like you said. I personally have not attempted kamikaze but to be honest I think it’s the only truly reliable way of getting a solid connection to dat0 with the least amount of hassle.

 

[lovemyswitch]

Hi there, I have been looking for months everywhere for a fix to this as I was having the exact same problem. My experience is similar, I bought a modded OLED last summer and it was working great but then sometimes it would load to Hekate & other times it wouldn't. After a while it would load but at the moment it won't load Hekate no matter what I try. Were you able to fix the issue?

 

[Lxier_9]

Hi there, I have been looking for months everywhere for a fix to this as I was having the exact same problem. My experience is similar, I bought a modded OLED last summer and it was working great but then sometimes it would load to Hekate & other times it wouldn't. After a while it would load but at the moment it won't load Hekate no matter what I try. Were you able to fix the issue?

Has your problem been solved?