I’m new to the Switch scene and have only been learning for a few days. Never temped to modify a Switch before. I’ve jailbroken iOS and rooted Android plenty in the past so I’m somewhat familiar to it.
Back in 2018 my launch Switch all of a sudden was having errors that told me to turn it off when I launched a game(once I was in a game it was fine). Over the next few days it kept getting worse where even just changing pages in settings would cause the error(don’t remember what the code was). When I shut it off sometimes it would get stuck on the Switch logo, but if I kept trying, it would boot. Eventually led to just showing the Nintendo logo and then the screen shut off, never to boot again. I managed to transfer my stuff to my siblings Switch right before it died luckily.
I took it apart and didn’t see anything wrong so I just left it for parts. Fast forward about a few days ago I saw a post that said he got his dead switch going by installing hekate and booting Linux. So I thought what the heck, I’ll try that out.
I managed to enter RCM and all that just fine. Got hekate working and checked out common problems, all seemed good with the battery etc. I got to the part where I’m booting into Ubuntu from Hekate but it just sits there on the black screen just like Horizon OS did. I let it sit there over hours and nothing, tried different SD cards at different sizes, reflashed lite and full, nothing worked. So I tried Android Lineage OS, same thing happens.
I was about to give up, but I thought I’d try Lakka yet. What do you know, it booted! It is able to do everything it was supposed to. So I can use it as an emulation machine. Trying to find anything else that worked, I stumbled upon Painless Linux and tried it out. The Linux desktop loaded! I was able to connect a bluetooth mouse and was using it. Bad thing about it though is it’s outdated and has problems like no sound, no joycons, no docking and everything, but at least it worked.
Does anyone know what the problem could be? It seems like anything that doesn’t use the dock works, but I can’t really confirm that as it could be a coincidence. Is there a way I could enable dock support in Lakka? That would help a lot.
I have a feeling it’s one of the chips inside, but I’m lost to what and I’m really not experienced with it either. I’ve searched for hours, but I can’t find someone with the same exact problem. From what I saw it’s usually the chip for charging, but that seems fine as I have no problems with it charging and I have never used a 3rd party dock or charger.
I’ve tried many other things as well, but none of it helped. I’m lost on what to try and I’ll see if you guys have any ideas.
TLDR: Switch shows the nintendo logo, then freezes with screen off on CFW and stock OS. I can access hekate and boot into Lakka and Painless Linux, but not Lineage OS and Ubuntu.
Back in 2018 my launch Switch all of a sudden was having errors that told me to turn it off when I launched a game(once I was in a game it was fine). Over the next few days it kept getting worse where even just changing pages in settings would cause the error(don’t remember what the code was). When I shut it off sometimes it would get stuck on the Switch logo, but if I kept trying, it would boot. Eventually led to just showing the Nintendo logo and then the screen shut off, never to boot again. I managed to transfer my stuff to my siblings Switch right before it died luckily.
I took it apart and didn’t see anything wrong so I just left it for parts. Fast forward about a few days ago I saw a post that said he got his dead switch going by installing hekate and booting Linux. So I thought what the heck, I’ll try that out.
I managed to enter RCM and all that just fine. Got hekate working and checked out common problems, all seemed good with the battery etc. I got to the part where I’m booting into Ubuntu from Hekate but it just sits there on the black screen just like Horizon OS did. I let it sit there over hours and nothing, tried different SD cards at different sizes, reflashed lite and full, nothing worked. So I tried Android Lineage OS, same thing happens.
I was about to give up, but I thought I’d try Lakka yet. What do you know, it booted! It is able to do everything it was supposed to. So I can use it as an emulation machine. Trying to find anything else that worked, I stumbled upon Painless Linux and tried it out. The Linux desktop loaded! I was able to connect a bluetooth mouse and was using it. Bad thing about it though is it’s outdated and has problems like no sound, no joycons, no docking and everything, but at least it worked.
Does anyone know what the problem could be? It seems like anything that doesn’t use the dock works, but I can’t really confirm that as it could be a coincidence. Is there a way I could enable dock support in Lakka? That would help a lot.
I have a feeling it’s one of the chips inside, but I’m lost to what and I’m really not experienced with it either. I’ve searched for hours, but I can’t find someone with the same exact problem. From what I saw it’s usually the chip for charging, but that seems fine as I have no problems with it charging and I have never used a 3rd party dock or charger.
I’ve tried many other things as well, but none of it helped. I’m lost on what to try and I’ll see if you guys have any ideas.
TLDR: Switch shows the nintendo logo, then freezes with screen off on CFW and stock OS. I can access hekate and boot into Lakka and Painless Linux, but not Lineage OS and Ubuntu.
