Hacking SXOS won’t boot anymore. Boot.dat? :(

[slaphappygamer]

switch was working just fine when a game, Mario kart, locked up and I rebooted switch. I’m using sxos and was in emunand. I rebooted switch and was greeted with boot.dat sadface. I can see that my sd card is well. I see boot.dat and, in OFW, my demos work fine. I’ve charged my sxos dongle, and have tried to boot multiple times. Still I’m greeted with boot.dat sadface and OFW continues to work. What should I try next? Kind of want to reformat my card and reinstall everything as a last resort.

 

[yusuo]

Sounds like the boot.dat corrupted, just redownload it and put it in your sd card again. No worries

 

[slaphappygamer]

Sounds like the boot.dat corrupted, just redownload it and put it in your sd card again. No worries

Sweet. I try right now.

damn, yo. it didnt work

if it matters, the sxos dongle lights up blue quickly then nothing, as if it couldnt find boot.dat.

I think you are close. One of the times I copied the boot.dat over, I noticed the file on my card had become 0kb in size. I was on sxos 2.9.3, but I’m copying over 2.9.4. Do you think I should only use 2.9.3? I can’t find that download again.

 

[Taorn]

Do you use exfat on your sd card? If so you're possibly experiencing corruption. Backup the content of your sd card and afterwards reformat it to FAT32. Try to boot with a minimal setup afterwards.

 

[yusuo]

Sweet. I try right now.

damn, yo. it didnt work

if it matters, the sxos dongle lights up blue quickly then nothing, as if it couldnt find boot.dat.

I think you are close. One of the times I copied the boot.dat over, I noticed the file on my card had become 0kb in size. I was on sxos 2.9.3, but I’m copying over 2.9.4. Do you think I should only use 2.9.3? I can’t find that download again.

Use the latest

 

[slaphappygamer]

Do you use exfat on your sd card? If so you're possibly experiencing corruption. Backup the content of your sd card and afterwards reformat it to FAT32. Try to boot with a minimal setup afterwards.

Ok. My card is exfat. I’ll reformat to fat32. Wait. Shit. I have emu and and it’s installed to the sd card. I know there is a special way to handle this. Can I mirror the drive? Or just format the partition after the emunand image (I allocated space)?

 

[petermesh]

This happened to me ... It ended up being the SD Card reader. I have to put a little bit of cardboard under the microsd to raise it a little. It is not ideal as I ended up breaking the Micro SD .. I had to buy anoither. Eventually i had to buy a replacement SD Card Reader.

Hope yours is just your Micro SD and not the reader.

 

[slaphappygamer]

This happened to me ... It ended up being the SD Card reader. I have to put a little bit of cardboard under the microsd to raise it a little. It is not ideal as I ended up breaking the Micro SD .. I had to buy anoither. Eventually i had to buy a replacement SD Card Reader.

Hope yours is just your Micro SD and not the reader.

oh boy, i hope thats not the case. ive reformatted my exfat to fat32 and still have the same issue. boot.dat?

actually, i dont think that my sd card reader is at fault. i can boot to OFW and i can "see" my sd card information in the settings. the switch can read my card. ive tried to download and copy the latest boot.dat over to no avail. im not sure what to do next.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Do you use exfat on your sd card? If so you're possibly experiencing corruption. Backup the content of your sd card and afterwards reformat it to FAT32. Try to boot with a minimal setup afterwards.

Ok, my card is fat32 now. I've got emunand i the first partition, the rest is fat32 I'm digging around for another sdcard i can use.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Ok, my card is fat32 now. I've got emunand i the first partition, the rest is fat32 I'm digging around for another sdcard i can use.

I’ve ruled out the fact it might be my sd card slot on the switch. In OFW, I see that some games are requiring redownload, because I removed the sd card. When I reinsert the sd card, the game is back and I can play it. The slot is good. Wondering if I should try to switch to atmosphere.

 

[slaphappygamer]

This happened to me ... It ended up being the SD Card reader. I have to put a little bit of cardboard under the microsd to raise it a little. It is not ideal as I ended up breaking the Micro SD .. I had to buy anoither. Eventually i had to buy a replacement SD Card Reader.

Hope yours is just your Micro SD and not the reader.

this will be the last reply to myself.
for what its worth, it was my connection at the motherboard. i reconnected it and it works now. if it happens again, ill put some more padding there. thanks!

 

[slaphappygamer]

FFS!! I replaced the sd card reader and still get this boot.dat? error. What else can I do?

 

[Andalitez]

Try a different microSD card

 

[slaphappygamer]

Oh man, I think, the boot.dat got corrupt from the faulty sd card reader that was on the switch. I replaced the reader, but didn’t copy over a new boot.dat. After replacing the sd card reader, I then copied a fresh boot.dat and now it boots. I’ve formatted that card so many times. Hopefully this is a permanent fix. Please pray, or say nice things my way.

 

[Clark97]

Unfortunately I have the answer to this. If you open your switch and remove the SD card reader then inspect the socket on the motherboard you'll find 1 or 2 pins in the bottom right of the socket broken or missing. Only solution is to replace with soldered wires from pads to left of socket.

 

[RogerBr]

the same problem here. sometimes woks and sometimes dosent, i have to replaced my slot card or soldered wires. Clark97 you are right.

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

Unfortunately I have the answer to this. If you open your switch and remove the SD card reader then inspect the socket on the motherboard you'll find 1 or 2 pins in the bottom right of the socket broken or missing. Only solution is to replace with soldered wires from pads to left of socket.

the same problem here. sometimes woks and sometimes dosent, i have to replaced my slot card or soldered wires. Clark97 you are right.

 

[slaphappygamer]

My switch has been working great since April. I looked at that socket v e r y close and all the pins are intact. I see this is a common problem with the only fix being to solder the adapter to the motherboard. Luckily I didn’t have to go there.

 

[RogerBr]

My switch has been working great since April. I looked at that socket v e r y close and all the pins are intact. I see this is a common problem with the only fix being to solder the adapter to the motherboard. Luckily I didn’t have to go there.

good luck for you. My Switch dosent working as Clark97 mentioned before and only to way to fix is solder the wires

 

[Jenowar]

good luck for you. My Switch dosent working as Clark97 mentioned before and only to way to fix is solder the wires

Hello there,

I made a Reading of this very interesting thread.

I had from Times to Times problems with games installed on Sd card.

It becames regular.

It was still possible to start atmosphere (sx dongle) and play games till a crash randomly occurred.

I tried several SD card and no changes.

I ve just changed the SD card reader.

But now, with the new or old SD reader, the boot.dat? pop

The SD is recognized on official firmware.

The FPC looks good, all pins are there

Any idea except motherboard issue ?

 

[vlvt]

good luck and hope u get this sorted out mate