Hacking [SX Lite] Bricked the console by just installing the chip! Purple screen all the time now. Pics!

[mvmiranda]

Hello,
I'd like an advise on a very specific subject.

TL/DR: after just installing the SX Lite modchip the console only gives me a purple screen. No NAND dump or emuNAND creation was tried before neither any NAND tempering was done by me at all!

Long version:
I use official products from an official reseller here at my country and I've done dozens of installations on both SX Core and SX Lite but this one is intriguing me...

It's a Switch Lite I installed perfectly fine and everything went smooth: blinked blue a couple of times then green, SX splash came in then the SX OS menu.

Some photos to show the installation:

Since the customer would "configure it" by himself I would only need to "test" whether the console booted or not, so I proceeded on "custom FW" and then I was "greeted" with a purple screen. Trying to boot in the "original FW" produces the same issue!
At this point, literally, all I had done was install the modchip and turn the console on. No NAND dump or emuNAND creation was completed or even tried!

What I tried so far?
I tried to "cleanup" the SX modchip "traces" from the NAND then a "original boot", tried letting the chip work again and, ultimately, "cleanup" and removed the modchip. All produced the same error: purple screen.

I know from experience that blue or purple screens mean something's not right on the NAND and I know the SX modchips writes a modified bootloader, so my concern here is whether the modchip did write something "bad" on the NAND. If so, is there any way I can resolve this issue or am I stuck with an expensive paper weight now?

Did anyone else experience this?

Any advise is greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

 

[izy]

curious have you tried another sd card, i had a lite with a similar issue turn out it was the card all along.

also have you tried dumping the nand itself to see if it works because you may be able to dump the nand and boot into emunand bypassing the nand error at least as a stopgap fix

 

[Deleted User]

Since you get purple screen that means the bootloader was read and loaded from NAND (eMMC). So it seems unlikely to be NAND related, unless maybe it's not being able to get full bus width on the eMMC DAT lines and it manages to load the bootloader on 1bit eMMC bus.

EDIT: It's probably not 1bit bus either since SXOS boot menu only works with full bus width eMMC

See here for possible reasons of the purple code: https://switchbrew.org/wiki/Panic_codes

Most evidence does point to a hardware failure or perhaps solder bridge somewhere.

The tools for debugging this are currently not supported for Mariko.. so unless you're a developer and know your way around the bootloader to debug this through, you'll have to wait for the tools to get updated

 

[mvmiranda]

Since you get purple screen that means the bootloader was read and loaded from NAND (eMMC). So it seems unlikely to be NAND related, unless maybe it's not being able to get full bus width on the eMMC DAT lines and it manages to load the bootloader on 1bit eMMC bus.

See here for possible reasons of the purple code: https://switchbrew.org/wiki/Panic_codes

Most evidence does point to a hardware failure or perhaps solder bridge somewhere.

The tools for debugging this are currently not supported for Mariko.. so unless you're a developer and know your way around the bootloader to debug this through, you'll have to wait for the tools to get updated

When you say "most evidence does point to a hardware failure or perhaps solder bridge somewhere.", hardware failure on where specifically, the console or the modchip?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Deleted User]

When you say "most evidence does point to a hardware failure or perhaps solder bridge somewhere.", hardware failure on where specifically, the console or the modchip?

Thanks in advance!

The console

 

[mvmiranda]

curious have you tried another sd card, i had a lite with a similar issue turn out it was the card all along.

also have you tried dumping the nand itself to see if it works because you may be able to dump the nand and boot into emunand bypassing the nand error at least as a stopgap fix

I can dump the NAND perfectly fine,,,
Oh... you mean creating an emuNAND on the card then trying to boot the emuNAND?!
I'll try it...

The console

So, triple checked the all of the solders and they are fine.
I even swapped the flat cables cables with no success...

So, you mentioned the console might be failing, can you mention any specific part to check?

 

[K0ld4]

Not sure if this helps you, but I have also experienced very strange brick after SX installation (which was luckily resolved).

At first - remove that thermal paste from all resistors (thoroughly) and from everywhere else except the Tegra core. It seems to be causing shorts when mixed with IPA or any other cleaning solution.

If this won't help, this might help you.
1) Update your SX via USB debug port to 1.3 (Windows updater can be found on sx. xe... com) and try to boot it
2) Attach SX to Windows PC via debug port
3) Look up it's COM port number via Windows device manager (SX acts as a serial port)
4) Download and open putty or any other terminal application and open a new connection to COM port from step 3 (speed 115200)
5) Press v (it should show you SX version)
6) Press e (it will erase modifications from eMMC)
7) Press s (it will disable SX chip)
And try to unplug it and reboot

Then you can re-enable SX chip by issuing the s command again, the chip will restore eMMC changes by itself.

 

[Modificatorul]

Can you check the point in the picture seems very high not flat, use some not sharp twizeers to hold the qsb flat and resolder. Ignore this for now you can read the nand so probaly you have , dat 0, cmd, clk,gnd, and vcc or dat 1 conected, i can't fiind emmc pinout test points for lite.

First remove power, let it dry after recleaning., etc.
Can you inspect micro sd port inside, or put some ipa on micro sd or some compressed air , and conect and reconect, i suspect dirt from cleaning in micro sd port ? and you can get strange result.

 

[maxking]

Hello K0ld4, may I ask where the source of the putty command you said？I google the info but no found, thanks!

 

[Astur_torque]

Thermal paste spreaded all over the capacitors.... why?

 

[yakara]

purple led or purple screen?

 

[sudeki300]

purple led or purple screen?

TL/DR: after just installing the SX Lite modchip the console only gives me a purple screen. No NAND dump or emuNAND creation was tried before neither any NAND tempering was done by me at all!

 

[izy]

https://switchbrew.org/wiki/Panic_codes

 

[yakara]

TL/DR: after just installing the SX Lite modchip the console only gives me a purple screen. No NAND dump or emuNAND creation was tried before neither any NAND tempering was done by me at all!

did you remove all the solder points of the mod chip, when I have a problem, always remove all the solder points, check for stock boot, and retry

 

[leerz]

View attachment 219324

Can you check the point in the picture seems very high not flat, use some not sharp twizeers to hold the qsb flat and resolder. Ignore this for now you can read the nand so probaly you have , dat 0, cmd, clk,gnd, and vcc or dat 1 conected, i can't fiind emmc pinout test points for lite.

First remove power, let it dry after recleaning., etc.
Can you inspect micro sd port inside, or put some ipa on micro sd or some compressed air , and conect and reconect, i suspect dirt from cleaning in micro sd port ? and you can get strange result.

my search brought me here, we still don't have pinout for the swlite dat lines
there are no stock for sxcore worldwide and using an sxlite chip + jerryrig might save many mariko and eristas

 

[Shiro_The_Fox]

View attachment 219324

Can you check the point in the picture seems very high not flat, use some not sharp twizeers to hold the qsb flat and resolder. Ignore this for now you can read the nand so probaly you have , dat 0, cmd, clk,gnd, and vcc or dat 1 conected, i can't fiind emmc pinout test points for lite.

First remove power, let it dry after recleaning., etc.
Can you inspect micro sd port inside, or put some ipa on micro sd or some compressed air , and conect and reconect, i suspect dirt from cleaning in micro sd port ? and you can get strange result.

Yes double check the solder point on this pic , i had a similar issue and it took 3 times of soldering and unsoldering / cleaning each time, was able to boot back into Normal switch OS to realize that was the issue. after making sure it was not making contact with anything on the board SXos loaded up just fine.