Switch Unbricking Guide - ProdInfo Fix (PikaFix)

Adran_Marit · Jan 6, 2021

guyman70718 said:
Hey, just curious, why do you need a custom exosphere.bin? The way I rebuilt my nand I am able to use normal unmodified OS and normal Atmosphere just fine.

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

someone I know tried to fix a patched switch with a sx core, but the sx core doesn't allow for tsec keys to be dumped so it wasn't possible to get it working.

A normal unmodded atmosphere or Horizon OS will boot if your console prodinfo is intact. A few years back there was a bricker that corrupted that section of your nand and without a backup, it rendered your switch useless unless you could restore a working prodinfo file. You could do this with someone else's prodinfo, and resign it with your keys (Done in the tutorial) however, it still wouldn't boot as there was a mismatch in the deviceID, the custom exosphere in this tutorial has been modified so that with the donated prodinfo, both deviceID's match and the console will boot.

They don't need the tsec keys, they just need to be able to launch Hekate and then lockpick_rcm to get their console biskeys. As I said it may work on a chipped console but I am not sure and take no responsibility.

In theory, it should be able to work on them, but if you have a chipped console you really really really should have a full nand backup.

guyman70718 · Jan 6, 2021

Adran_Marit said:
A normal unmodded atmosphere or Horizon OS will boot if your console prodinfo is intact. A few years back there was a bricker that corrupted that section of your nand and without a backup, it rendered your switch useless unless you could restore a working prodinfo file. You could do this with someone else's prodinfo, and resign it with your keys (Done in the tutorial) however, it still wouldn't boot as there was a mismatch in the deviceID, the custom exosphere in this tutorial has been modified so that with the donated prodinfo, both deviceID's match and the console will boot.

They don't need the tsec keys, they just need to be able to launch Hekate and then lockpick_rcm to get their console biskeys. As I said it may work on a chipped console but I am not sure and take no responsibility.

In theory, it should be able to work on them, but if you have a chipped console you really really really should have a full nand backup.

oh, i used prodinfogen to generate a new prodinfo from scratch so that's why I don't need custom exosphere. I can dm you something to add to the post to add about prodinfogen, which I see is blank in your post now, but just a note prodinfogen breaks the cart slot, unless your custom exosphere fixes it?

Adran_Marit · Jan 6, 2021

guyman70718 said:
oh, i used prodinfogen to generate a new prodinfo from scratch so that's why I don't need custom exosphere. I can dm you something to add to the post to add about prodinfogen, which I see is blank in your post now, but just a note prodinfogen breaks the cart slot, unless your custom exosphere fixes it?

Ahhh yeah from scratch is a minimal, this is meant to restore as much functionality as possible, also the prodinfogen has recently been updated so a donor prodinfo will have the gamecard working - I still need to test - only having 2 days a week off doesn't leave much spare time so I'll update it soon, but if you wanna dm me something feel free

dytri · Jan 10, 2021

Adran_Marit said:
Did you try restoring anyone else nand backup at some point?

What format is your sd card?

Did your biskeys match your nand?

As I said message me on discord it's going to be a quicker reply

If I did reformat my SD, it would always be set to Fat32.
Sadly and stupidly enough, I didnt even make a NAND backup way back when I homebrew my switch nor did I ever restore to another already existing Nand backup that a different person made.
As for the BISH keys, when I did use HacDiskMount... every key would work besides the keys for Prodinfo.
Looking further into it, I found out my prodinfo was tamper with so it was corrupted (Im not even sure how, given I never miss with it besides just trying to sync the crypo keys when trying to downgrade).. but stumbling upon this guide, I figure It would correct that by making a different one entirely.
Sadly that didnt seem to work. I'll try to contact you on your discord if I must, but I'm not sure what else I can possibly do.

Adran_Marit · Jan 10, 2021

dytri said:
If I did reformat my SD, it would always be set to Fat32.
Sadly and stupidly enough, I didnt even make a NAND backup way back when I homebrew my switch nor did I ever restore to another already existing Nand backup that a different person made.
As for the BISH keys, when I did use HacDiskMount... every key would work besides the keys for Prodinfo.
Looking further into it, I found out my prodinfo was tamper with so it was corrupted (Im sure, given I never miss with it besides just trying to sync the crypo keys when trying to downgrade).. but stumbling upon this guide, I figure It would correct that by making a different one entirely.
Sadly that didnt seem to work. I'll try to contact you on your discord if I must, but I'm not sure what else I can possibly do.

You can try following THESE steps to getting your biskeys, and they may work, not sure entirely though. Depending on the section it's failing, it may work it may not.

Amberlightin · Jan 12, 2021

I got a problem. I carefully follow the step in guide and before i get to flash BOOT0 and BOOT1 with BalenaEtcher everything was fine but when i try to flash from file in archive boot0/1 Etcher gave me error on step with verification and so i can't flash boot0/1. Is the any way to flash boot0/1 without Etcher or how i can fix this problem? By the way restoring boot0/1 from backup works fine. Read only in Hekate is off. Thx for replying.

Adran_Marit · Jan 13, 2021

Amberlightin said:
I got a problem. I carefully follow the step in guide and before i get to flash BOOT0 and BOOT1 with BalenaEtcher everything was fine but when i try to flash from file in archive boot0/1 Etcher gave me error on step with verification and so i can't flash boot0/1. Is the any way to flash boot0/1 without Etcher or how i can fix this problem? By the way restoring boot0/1 from backup works fine. Read only in Hekate is off. Thx for replying.

I've never had this issue before, did you extract the boot files from the archive? And there is, I however, am not sure the s method I'm thinking of would work, I'll test some stuff later and update the first post

Amberlightin · Jan 14, 2021

Adran_Marit said:
I've never had this issue before, did you extract the boot files from the archive? And there is, I however, am not sure the s method I'm thinking of would work, I'll test some stuff later and update the first post

Yeah. I download boot from your archive. Well I was able flash this boot by using memloader and hekate 4.7 but in the end it didn't work for my console. Even Nintendo boot logo didnt show up.

By the way. If I have my own, original prodinfo, prodinfof and all keys can I just borrow some working backup change prodinfo and etc and just restore this backup using hekate restore?

Adran_Marit · Jan 14, 2021

Amberlightin said:
Yeah. I download boot from your archive. Well I was able flash this boot by using memloader and hekate 4.7 but in the end it didn't work for my console. Even Nintendo boot logo didnt show up.

By the way. If I have my own, original prodinfo, prodinfof and all keys can I just borrow some working backup change prodinfo and etc and just restore this backup using hekate restore?

If you have your original prodinfo and it isn't bricked, you can restore that, then just use emmchacgen to make firmware files and flash those - provided its an rcm vunerable switch

Amberlightin · Jan 14, 2021

Adran_Marit said:
If you have your original prodinfo and it isn't bricked, you can restore that, then just use emmchacgen to make firmware files and flash those - provided its an rcm vunerable switch

Is the any way to check bricked my prodinfo or not?
Originally my eMMC enable read only mode after error in restoring original backup process. Then my HDD died and i lost any backup files from original emmc but i still can restore prodinfo and proninfof from old eMMC.

Adran_Marit · Jan 14, 2021

Amberlightin said:
Is the any way to check bricked my prodinfo or not?
Originally my eMMC enable read only mode after error in restoring original backup process. Then my HDD died and i lost any backup files from original emmc but i still can restore prodinfo and proninfof from old eMMC.

if it restores and the console boots with new firmware its not bricked

chronoss · Jan 25, 2021

Hello !

I use this methode when i got a bricked switch, it work well with Atmo 0.14.4, i use this tuto. Now, i update my switch to lastest firmware and it don't work, i can boot into sysnand with a payload but nothing on cfw (black screen). To use my switch again, i use a new prodinfo genereted by Prodfingo_gen and with this, no need deviceid_exosphere.bin and now, i can use my Nintendo Switch with the last fw without problem, see here for more info about my road to victory

@Adran_Marit : i think, u need to update your guide

Adran_Marit · Jan 25, 2021

chronoss said:
Hello !

I use this methode when i got a bricked switch, it work well with Atmo 0.14.4, i use this tuto. Now, i update my switch to lastest firmware and it don't work, i can boot into sysnand with a payload but nothing on cfw (black screen). To use my switch again, i use a new prodinfo genereted by Prodfingo_gen and with this, no need deviceid_exosphere.bin and now, i can use my Nintendo Switch with the last fw without problem, see here for more info about my road to victory

@Adran_Marit : i think, u need to update your guide

This used the exact same method in the tutorial listed, both methods I listed tested and worked for me, from a bricked device. I need to add a prodinfo_gen section but I haven't had time lately. Did you also use a from scratch prodinfo or from a donor? as the ones I use are from donor.

Edit: Additionally the custom exosphere I linked is only needed if you use the donor I've provided, as they match.

chronoss · Jan 25, 2021

Adran_Marit said:
This used the exact same method in the tutorial listed, both methods I listed tested and worked for me, from a bricked device. I need to add a prodinfo_gen section but I haven't had time lately. Did you also use a from scratch prodinfo or from a donor? as the ones I use are from donor.

Edit: Additionally the custom exosphere I linked is only needed if you use the donor I've provided, as they match.

With prodinfo_gen, i use a scratched prodfinfo, no donor

Adran_Marit · Jan 25, 2021

chronoss said:
With prodinfo_gen, i use a scratched prodfinfo, no donor

That might be the difference, but again I need time to update my guide for the prodinfo_gen stuff

chronoss · Jan 25, 2021

Adran_Marit said:
That might be the difference, but again I need time to update my guide for the prodinfo_gen stuff

Ok, take your take and more information is always good

de9ed · Jan 30, 2021

I have followed from a-z on the unbricking progress, I have placed atmosphere 0.17.1 and hekate 5.5.3 with the modified exosphere.bin and hekate_ipl.ini. I am still getting black screen after trying to boot hekAtmosphere.

I had to use Tegraexplorer 2.0.2 instead of the latest one for the system cleanup and restore. I will try the guide again tonight to see if it makes any difference.

Do i need to create EmuMMC or can i use SysMMC ?

chronoss · Jan 30, 2021

de9ed said:
I have followed from a-z on the unbricking progress, I have placed atmosphere 0.17.1 and hekate 5.5.3 with the modified exosphere.bin and hekate_ipl.ini. I am still getting black screen after trying to boot hekAtmosphere.

Black screen afther the splash screen of atmosphere or when u launch atmo with Hekate ?

de9ed · Jan 30, 2021

chronoss said:
Black screen afther the splash screen of atmosphere or when u launch atmo with Hekate ?

black screen after splash screen of atmosphere launched through hekate. i don't even get the Nintendo logo or the joycon logo anymore

chronoss · Jan 30, 2021

de9ed said:
black screen after splash screen of atmosphere launched through hekate. i don't even get the Nintendo logo or the joycon logo anymore

The same problem with me when u update my switch, try to use prodinfo_gen.
Try this mini guide to create a new prodinfo scratched, no need device_exophere.bin with this :

Make sure you have a /switch/prod.keys file on your microSD card with, at least, valid master keys in it.
Launch prodinfo_gen.bin using your favorite payload injector or chainloader.
You should find /switch/generated_prodinfo_from_scratch.bin or /switch/generated_prodinfo_from_donor.bin depending on what you selected.
You can now write that PRODINFO to your NAND using a tool such as HacDiskMount (it is recommended to make a backup of the current PRODINFO first).

Walküre's Hacker

Well-Known Member

Walküre's Hacker

Active Member

Walküre's Hacker

New Member

Walküre's Hacker

New Member

Walküre's Hacker

New Member

Walküre's Hacker

Well-Known Member

Walküre's Hacker

Well-Known Member

Walküre's Hacker

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum