Hardware Switches with "init eMMC failed problem"

[elektoni]

I have had few Switches with presumably dead eMMCs. These switches were never opened before

One switch runs Ubuntu fine but Hekate or other payloads cannot access the eMMC and I can’t backup the eMMC even with HAC-EMMC external reader.

One switch (maybe patched) accepts payloads via TegraRCM but nothing on the screen (tested with another screen). How do I know if the switch is patched? Based on the serial number it is but no error when I inject the payload. I tried this eMMC on another one, but I get the same “init eMMC failed”. Also the external reader does not recognise the eMMC. This switch has had impact damage because I replaced the screen few months ago so maybe the eMMC is recoverable with reflowing?

There are no backups of these NANDs so I guess these switches are non-repairable. Have you had many of these dead eMMC cases and were you able to recover any?

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

With a patched Switch you can also succesfully inject a payload.
What you can't do is use the bug that is present in unpatched Switches so that is why you see nothing happening on the patched Switch.

I don't know if you have an original Switch but on eBay and Aliexpress there are some sellers that have the emmc board.
If you have a Switch Lite where the eMMC is on the main board itself, you can apply moderate pressure to the eMMC and then try to boot up. If it boots up, then you know you can recover the Switch by reflowing the emmc or better, get a fresh eMMC.
There are some manuals on this site which can help you create a new NAND with a NAND from another Switch.

 

[elektoni]

Thank you for the reply!

These are original switches (not Lites). I was under the assumption that I need PRODINFO and PRODINFOF partitions to create a new eMMC for a Switch. I don't have these partitions from these damaged Switches and I cannot access them even with external eMMC reader. I have several methods trying to boot up the Switches, (eg. tried pressing on the NAND chips, I also tried hot air ~150C). I have not tried reballing the NAND chips or swapping them to a different eMMC module.

 

[elektoni]

I am interested in cases where you have been able to recover dead eMMCs which cannot be read by eg. Hekate. What methods did you use to recover the partitions?

Is this "dead eMMC/NAND" a common problem?