Hardware Unhacked N3DSXL bricked itself after system format

[summer_star]

Hi,

So, in 2017, I bought a broken N3DSXL (Japanese model) on eBay for £45. The problem was the typical "pop" and switch off during start. But it arrived already tampered with (found chewed up flex connectors inside and a broken camera cable). I just gave up on it at that point because it felt like too much effort and money to fix.

But last month (8 years later!) I got parts from AliExpress to fix it. I didn't buy a camera because it was £20 and not neccessary from what I understood. Other than that, I put it together yesterday and it booted just fine. I played EoS for a bit as a test and everything worked great. Thankfully, the speaker ribbon was causing the pops. Not the LCD.

I then went to the settings to see if anyone had left a Nintendo ID behind. Tapping the button caused the system to go black and unresponsive. I then went to format it and after the reboot, nothing. Just backlight, orange and blue lights.

It goes to recovery mode. But the update fails pretty much immediately.

I see these possibilities here:

1. The missing camera is causing this—but I can't find anything about it online, and it wouldn't make sense for it to
2. The NAND chip is bad—less possible since after 2017, it wasn't receiving any read/writes, so it barely has any wear
3. The firmware is corrupted—possibly from the NAND chip cells loosing charge because of being unpowered for so long. This is a thing that happens to flash storage.
4. The previous owner had installed hacks that corrupted it.

I have a flashcart that can do NTRboot. Its probably possible to do it (since it does go to recovery) but the question, what do I try from there? I'm not very knowledgable on 3DS hacking. But I was wondering whether its possible to perform a firmware update outside the OS.

 

[summer_star]

I spent the night installing Luma3DS and B9S through NTR_boot. Since Luma actually shows OS crash logs, it told me that the QTM module fails, which has to do with super stable 3D.

This apparently happens because the setup uses the cameras to initialize super stable 3D. You know, the cameras which I don't have.

The solution to all this might be to use this: https://wiki.hacks.guide/wiki/3DS:2DSaver

I'll confirm whether it works tomorrow. Just leaving all of this here in case someone finds this thread useful in the future.

 

[Kwyjor]

The missing camera is causing this—but I can't find anything about it online, and it wouldn't make sense for it to

Odd as it may sound, I have indeed read numerous threads about how a functioning camera is necessary for the system to boot properly. But you seem to have figured that out.

 

[Titus1239]

I spent the night installing Luma3DS and B9S through NTR_boot. Since Luma actually shows OS crash logs, it told me that the QTM module fails, which has to do with super stable 3D.

This apparently happens because the setup uses the cameras to initialize super stable 3D. You know, the cameras which I don't have.

The solution to all this might be to use this: https://wiki.hacks.guide/wiki/3DS:2DSaver

I'll confirm whether it works tomorrow. Just leaving all of this here in case someone finds this thread useful in the future.

Have you tried booting into safe mode? Or a factory reset?

 

[summer_star]

Have you tried booting into safe mode? Or a factory reset?

The factory reset is what killed it, actually.

Odd as it may sound, I have indeed read numerous threads about how a functioning camera is necessary for the system to boot properly. But you seem to have figured that out.

I read that it's fine as long as you don't go to camera dependent apps. And it certainly seemed to be until I did a factory reset, which starts the camera dependent setup.

So, obviously, don't factory reset a 3DS with a broken camera.

 

[Titus1239]

The factory reset is what killed it, actually.


I read that it's fine as long as you don't go to camera dependent apps. And it certainly seemed to be until I did a factory reset, which starts the camera dependent setup.

So, obviously, don't factory reset a 3DS with a broken camera.

Ah i see, if you open the camera app, does it show error codes? my cameras broken on the 2ds, and its just the module, sometimes its just not seated properly, again this is a 2ds, but if you open yours up, its an option, i dont know if you fixed the problem or not though