Hacking Question Switch won't boot - formatted SD Card and replaced with SDSetup files

[goldensun695]

Issue:
My Nintendo Switch won't boot past the Nintendo logo.

Background:
I manually updated Kosmos and Atmosphere on my SD card with the files on sdsetup and now my switch won't boot past the Nintendo logo. I didn't realize the modules folder had to be deleted first and formatted my SD card instead. After formatting, I copied the Kosmos and Atmosphere files from Sdsetup to my SD card.

Now Hekate (4.8) takes a long time to appear on screen after injection and shows a missing sleep module error.
I also can't boot into CFW or stock firmware.

I installed firmware 6.1 with ChoidujourNX to my SD card which is likely deleted. My original firmware was 4.1.

Advice/Help Needed:

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

NB: I'm aware that restoring nand and boot 0/1 is potential solution but I wanted to explore other options first.

 

[FanboyKilla]

Sounds like you got a whole lot going on at once. Could you clarify what you mean by "I deleted the Nintendo files after formatting my SD card"...??

Aside from doing a NAND restore, I would suggest starting fresh and clearing out your SD Card (or using a different one) and then...

- Drop a clean install of Kosmos v11.10.2 on there.
- Put your NS in RCM Mode.
- Inject "hekate_ctcaer_4.8.bin" using TegraRcmGUI (or whatever you're using).

Reply back with results.

 

[goldensun695]

Could you clarify what you mean by "I deleted the Nintendo files after formatting my SD card"...??

Formatting my SD card deleted my Nintendo folder with all my game installations etc.

Reply back with results.

I already downloaded the Kosmos 11.10.2 files through Sdsetup and placed them on my SD card but my switch still won't boot past the nintendo logo. It just shows a black screen indefinitely.

I'm using Hekate 4.8 and TegraRCMGUI to do the injection.

 

[FanboyKilla]

More than likely there is a config file leftover on your card that is causing you an issue. You need to start with a fresh card and dump a clean install on there and see if that works. That will help clear up a lot of the troubleshooting.

 

[eskinner3742]

If your fuse count is still matching 4.1 just restore the nand and boot files, Choi update, and call it day. It'll be a lot easier doing it this way if that's an option.

If you've already burnt your fuses for 6.1 normal boot, format your SD card, pop it in the switch to let it format it, redownload your SD files, put them on your SD card, try to boot using hekate. See what happens.

In my experience wiping your SD of everything but the Nintendo folder and then moving over a freshly downloaded kosmos build seems to fix issues with boot fails.

 

[goldensun695]

More than likely there is a config file leftover on your card that is causing you an issue.

Thanks, I formatted a different SD card and placed the Kosmos files on the new SD card. It's now booting into CFW on firmware 6.1 but all my game files and saves are gone. The game icons still appear on my home page on my switch but can't launch. It looks like I'll have to delete the games from data management and reinstall everything.

Strangely enough, my switch is even booting through my original SD card now with a fresh set of Kosmos files. It's wierd because I deleted all files off my SD card previously but it wasn't working.

Any idea why it was causing issues on my original SD card?

Also, I'm surprised I'm still running firmware 6.1 even though my original SD files are gone. I thought I installed the firmware to my SD card when I upgraded through ChoidujourNX?

In my experience wiping your SD of everything but the Nintendo folder and then moving over a freshly downloaded kosmos build seems to fix issues with boot fails.

Yes I should've retained by Nintendo folder but I panicked and formatted my SD card. Thanks for your input.

 

[FanboyKilla]

The issue more than likely was the fact that you dropped those Kosmos files on top of your older Kosmos files. You needed to delete those old ones FIRST and then drop the new ones on. Next time make sure you delete these folders FIRST before you upgrade...

/atmosphere
/bootloader
/modules
/sept

Which version of Kosmos are you using? Just a heads up, they just released another update yesterday....

Kosmos v11.11

What filesystem are you using on your SD Card? If you're using exFAT I would strongly suggest you switch to FAT32. Better to do it NOW before you put all your games back on.

 

[goldensun695]

The issue more than likely was the fact that you dropped those Kosmos files on top of your older Kosmos files.

Yes I've previously just dropped new files on top of existing files to update Kosmos and it always worked fine. After this incidents, I'll delete existing files first.

Which version of Kosmos are you using?

I'm using 11.10.2. Is there any benefit or new features on 11.11 worth updating for?

What file system are you using on your SD Card? If you're using exFAT I would strongly suggest you switch to FAT32. Better to do it NOW before you put all your games back on.

I'm using FAT32 with 32kb cluster size. I've never used exfat because of the corruption issues and exfat driver required.

 

[FanboyKilla]

Yes I've previously just dropped new files on top of existing files to update Kosmos and it always worked fine. After this incidents, I'll delete existing files first.

The problem is that sometimes certin files need to be REMOVED in older versions. When you just drop a new update over top of the old one, that will only replace files that exist in both the OLD version and the NEW version. The only way to remove files is either manually, or with a script.

I'm using 11.10.2. Is there any benefit or new features on 11.11 worth updating for?

You can check out the changelog and decide for youself.

Kosmos v11.11 - Counting Down

If you're on v11.0.2 and not really in the mood to update, then I would just skip the new version. There's nothing super crazy that's been added that you won't be able to live without.

I'm using FAT32 with 32kb cluster size. I've never used exfat because of the corruption issues and exfat driver required.

Ok that's perfect then!

 

[XaneTenshi]

Thanks, I formatted a different SD card and placed the Kosmos files on the new SD card. It's now booting into CFW on firmware 6.1 but all my game files and saves are gone. The game icons still appear on my home page on my switch but can't launch. It looks like I'll have to delete the games from data management and reinstall everything.

Strangely enough, my switch is even booting through my original SD card now with a fresh set of Kosmos files. It's wierd because I deleted all files off my SD card previously but it wasn't working.

Any idea why it was causing issues on my original SD card?

Also, I'm surprised I'm still running firmware 6.1 even though my original SD files are gone. I thought I installed the firmware to my SD card when I upgraded through ChoidujourNX?



Yes I should've retained by Nintendo folder but I panicked and formatted my SD card. Thanks for your input.

Looks like your problem is solved for now, but I'd like to add 1 thing: Firmwares are installed to the Nand, the fact that ChoidujourNX is on the SD Card has nothing to do with the location of the installation. With your original Nintendo folder gone however, yes, you are gonna have to re-install some stuff. The Switch itself should automatically make a new Nintendo folder though.

 

[goldensun695]

Looks like your problem is solved for now, but I'd like to add 1 thing: Firmwares are installed to the Nand, the fact that ChoidujourNX is on the SD Card has nothing to do with the location of the installation. With your original Nintendo folder gone however, yes, you are gonna have to re-install some stuff. The Switch itself should automatically make a new Nintendo folder though.

Thanks for clarifying the location of the firmware installation. I was always under the impression that the firmware update from ChoidujourNX was installed on my SD card because gold leaf gives the option of installing to nand or SD card.

Also, maybe my original SD card wasn't working after a fresh set of Kosmos files because a Nintendo folder wasn't created?

I also tried to inject Hekate multiple times when the screen went black after Nintendo logo. Maybe that caused temporary corruption in the memory?