Hacking Hardware Homebrew Totally bricked switch? Need help

[ArkRID]

Hello, everyone.

First of all, I really apologize if that's a post that already exists and has been answered to. Having looked around for a few weeks now, perhaps I just missed the magical keywords to reach a post mentioning it. If so, I would be really grateful if you could direct me to said posts or suggestions.

To the point:

I recently messed up my switch lites and eventually bought a new one for repairs. (I usually do this as they get around 30-40 euros where I am, and know my way with hardware repairs so no biggie)

This system was listed as "bricked" so I assumed applying a modchip and going the NNM or Nand Fixing routes could be pertinent. So far, it hasn't. I will list the details that I consider might be important:

- The system was bought unchipped and there was no sign of tampering inside.
- The system does not boot to OFW.
- The system does not boot to maintenance (holding +/-)
- The system does boot to Hekate.
- The system has 23 burnt fuses, as per Hekate's device information section. (At least, I think. It says "23 | 0 - HOS 22.0.0+")
- The Secure Boot Key and Device Keys all refuse to show and announce "Can't be read (locked out)"-
- "CAL0 Info" says "Cal0 is corrupt or wrong keys" (I will try again the LV 2 & 3 methods with donor nand and update this post with the results later during the evening.)
- eMMC Physical partitions and GPP Partition table partitions all appear green and "healthy". (if it is how it is said, sorry if not)
- Benchmark test goes fine and without any issue, speed seems to be about 350MB/s for the SEQ 16MB rates and between 20-25 for the SEQ / RND 4KB rates.
- Testing another payload such as Lakka led to a system stuck on the app's main logo.
- All other payloads seem to work correctly.
- I have done the chipping twice, changing the connected chip too.
- The SD card has been tried, swapped and wiped and is now in FAT32. (That's a real one tested with H2testW.)


Only anomaly I found (from someone as little skilled as I am, besides the obvious issue)
- Fuse Checker says the following

"Firmware: 1.0.0
Burnt fuses: 23
Requires Fuses: 1

Status: CRITICAL ERROR <OVERBURNT>
Extra 22 fuse(s) burnt - OFW Will not boot !
System will black screen on OFW boot

What will work: CFW <Atmosphere>, Semi-stock <Hekate NoGC>
Cannot downgrade below FW 23.X.X"

I tried Atmosphere and Semi-stock nogc (both toggled on and off) and it did not work, as you might expect.


If anyone knows what may be going on and can bring a solution or gear me towards one, I would greatly appreciate the help / expertise of more knowledgeable people on the matter. I will, of course, bring any photo or information of elements that you'll require to help.

Thank you in advance for the attention you will give to this post.

P.S.: Apologies for the use of the word "bricked", I have read online that apparently, this is not the right word. If that isn't, then I misphrased my post and title.

 

[thelaHunGinjeet]

have you tried reinstalling hos on console's nand? if not, try it
there's also a series of video on youtube, give it a try

 

[master801]

Read this.
https://suchmememanyskill.github.io/guides/unbrick/

Make sure to make a safe backup and use emuNAND for any testing.

 

[ArkRID]

Hello everyone, thanks for your replies.

I have re-tried the Level 3 & 2 methods and good news, I managed to restore the CAL0 part. Everything seems to be "good" as in, it can give me any information I require on the partitions.

However, it did not change much in the fact that I still boot on a black screen. No logo, nothing. Hekate works well, tho.

I'm going to try a few more things to tweak with EmuMMC and if I can at least get it to work (or not), I will keep you updated.

In the meantime, if you have any suggestion, I rely on your knowledge to please help and suggest me through this all.

Cheers.

Edit: Hi, fellas, it's me again. Tweaked with NX Nand manager, Nand Fix Pro and other softwares I found or that were connected to the topic, nothing.

I though it could be an issue with the fuses too so I tried FUSEE (idk if there's something else or if it's still operational) and it's stuck on the atmosphere screen.

 

[l7777]

Normal boot sequence should be Hekate splash, AMS Logo, Nintendo Logo, Maintenance Mode/HOS Home Screen. Are you getting anything after the Hekate splash screen?

To enter maintenance mode I hold volume + & - after the Hekate Splash screen until maintenance mode launches. If you're not seeing and error message, the AMS logo, or Nintendo Logos, you likely have a firmware problem. At minimum you should be able to manually update the firmware & boot0/boot1 to get something to happen. I feel like no logos at all is usually firmware/fuses mismatch but AMS also shouldn't care about that.

 

[ArkRID]

Normal boot sequence should be Hekate splash, AMS Logo, Nintendo Logo, Maintenance Mode/HOS Home Screen. Are you getting anything after the Hekate splash screen?

Hello ! Thanks for your reply !

It's an "early boot error", if I get things right. Basically, i get the loading screen with Hekate and the loading bar that you can disable.

Then nothing. Black / Atmosphere splash / Lakka icon screen freeze.

 

[l7777]

Odd, I wouldn't think Lakka would even care about what's going on with the emmc or HOS.

 

[ArkRID]

Odd, I wouldn't think Lakka would even care about what's going on with the emmc or HOS.

In case, I tried other "exploit installs" (idk if that's the right word but again, I'm not well versed in the lingo) and tried L4T Ubuntu and LineageOS.

Both get stuck on the splash screen.


Update: Fusecheck does not get the same error anymore, it says

"OFW / SYSNAND: N/A
EmuMMC Firmware: Unknown in DB
OFW Required FUses: N/A

OFWStatus: FIRMWARE NOT DETECTED"

I assume installing a new Firmware would help at that point or am I erring here?

 

[thelaHunGinjeet]

its strange, could it be something with the chip? try to load into sysnand without chip. turn on the console and hold + and - volume buttons

 

[ArkRID]

its strange, could it be something with the chip? try to load into sysnand without chip. turn on the console and hold + and - volume buttons

Hello! Lucky I caught that comment before going to bed, lol.

No, as me tioned above, that's an "early boot" error. I only get to Hekate's payload loading screen and whatever it is freezes.

And no, the console was doing this before I chipped it and it refused any combo command. I only chipped it to access advanced settings and modification.

 

[thelaHunGinjeet]

Hello! Lucky I caught that comment before going to bed, lol.

No, as me tioned above, that's an "early boot" error. I only get to Hekate's payload loading screen and whatever it is freezes.

And no, the console was doing this before I chipped it and it refused any combo command. I only chipped it to access advanced settings and modification.

+ and - should get you to sysnand without entering or loading hekate into RAM, try it one more time, it shouldnt even load to hekate, after sleep
gn

 

[ArkRID]

+ and - should get you to sysnand without entering or loading hekate into RAM, try it one more time, it shouldnt even load to hekate, after sleep
gn

Hi! Unfortunately, sysnand refuses any attempt at booting.

- Hekate > Reboot > OFW : Black screen
- Hekate > Launch > OFW Stock Sysnand : Black screen
- +/- : Black screen
- Hekate > Launch > Semi stock (both NoGC on and off) : Black screen
- Hekate > Launch > Sysnand cfw : Black screen

 

[l7777]

If it were me, I would do everything manually. Backup what you currently have and rebuild it all from scratch as if the EMMC totally failed. Get a known good donor nand image (I belive sthetix has these), Insert your existing PRODINFO into it and restore it. Essentially follow the failed EMMC rebuild process but since you have the PRODKEYS you don't have to rebuild those and should be able to use the console online if it hasn't already been banned.

 

[lukeh]

I'm curious. Were you able to unbrick your switch?

 

[ArkRID]

I'm curious. Were you able to unbrick your switch?

If it were me, I would do everything manually. Backup what you currently have and rebuild it all from scratch as if the EMMC totally failed. Get a known good donor nand image (I belive sthetix has these), Insert your existing PRODINFO into it and restore it. Essentially follow the failed EMMC rebuild process but since you have the PRODKEYS you don't have to rebuild those and should be able to use the console online if it hasn't already been banned.

Hi guys, sorry for the late reply, things have been a bit hectic where I'm from.

So far, nothing new under the sun! Been experimenting on the emummc so as not to mess with nature and nothing. I think there's flat out no firmware or whatever component handling it has died because the keys are still locked out, unfortunately.