Hacking Weird SL1 problem

[mr_jrt]

I've flashed a lot of DSes over the years, and not had a single problem until now.

I had to replace my old DS's mobo recently, and whilst I don't really need to install flashme anymore (my old Supercard SD is more novelty now than anything - though comes in handy for REIN), the heath and safety screen annoys me, so I figured I'd get rid of it and get all the other benefits of flashme as well should I ever need them.

So I fire up the flashme 8a installer, it tells me the current firmware is v7 (I'll come back to that), and then I tried shorting SL1. Nope. Nada. Wiggled the screwdriver a bit, and off it goes. I'm well aware of shorting it out and the risk of blowing a fuse, but no, it's fine, so I tried again. And again. And again.

No matter what I tried, it never once got off 0%. I scratched the pads a bit in case the surface had oxidised (my box of spare parts is somewhat old and lives in a cold garage), but no joy.

Ultimately, I got somewhat frustrated and pulled the back cover off my DS, found a couple of vias I could use as handy seating points for my multimeter's probes, and confirmed I was in fact bridging SL1. I was. I also gave the pads a once over with a fibreglass pencil to seal the deal. With much awkward battery fiddling I even reran flashme with the cover off but again, it never got off 0%. I even tried using a resistor (~1.2k ohm IIRC) rather than a simple short, to no avail.

Ultimately it dawned on me I could use my Acekard RPG to boot my old slot 2 card, so I gave up, but I don't like mysteries!

Back to the firmware - Interestingly, going by the old wiki article, when I pop a game card out in Pictochat, I get magenta screens, suggesting I have v5 firmware, not v7 (which apparently only came on Mario edition DSes?)...and the host my mobo came from is just a bog standard black one. Bit weird. But definitely isn't already flashed.

 

[SoraK05]

I took a toothpick and flattened out the tip, putting aluminum foil over it. It has worked for me very easily every time.

 

[driverdis]

I used a flathead screwdriver. I had to as i was trying to see if it made good contact and was not 100% sure I wanted to use a screwdriver. but then i got it to say 0% and had to finish it as my ak2i does not like autobooting and did not want to risk taking it apart and relying on it to finish the flash. I do not recommend to flash any ds with a screwdriver.

 

[LDAsh]

You probably all already know this - but, if you want to simply get rid of the health and safety screen then use the battery trick. Take the battery out for a few minutes to clear the settings, put it back in and adjust your settings, then right at the end instead of pressing A to shut down, just turn it off instead. The settings will keep but no health and safety screen stealing your precious seconds.

 

[mr_jrt]

You probably all already know this - but, if you want to simply get rid of the health and safety screen then use the battery trick. Take the battery out for a few minutes to clear the settings, put it back in and adjust your settings, then right at the end instead of pressing A to shut down, just turn it off instead. The settings will keep but no health and safety screen stealing your precious seconds.

I'd never heard that one before...but it didn't work for me? Just prompts me to fill in the details again, but the date and time are as I set them the previous run through.

 

[mr_jrt]

As for SL1, I always used a security bit to do the job - it fits the hole perfectly and makes great contact with the pads, and has always worked previously. All I can conclude is that the traces must be broken elsewhere somehow, the pads are definitely shorted as evidenced by the multimeter. The bit I use is like the bottom right one shown here:

 

[mr_jrt]

Interesting end result to this. I just discovered the BIOS was on the removable module I assumed was just the wifi, so I tried swapping my module into my old DS mobo and tried flashing it from there - same issue, wouldn't go past 0%. Put my old module in my new DS, and voila, I have Flashme again. Haven't bothered trying to flash it from 8 to 8a as it seems a bit pointless, but there you go. Perhaps it's the module that has the problem, not the SL1 traces.