AKAIO isn't firmware and doesn't have anything to do with DSi/3DS blocking, common mistake. Same with Wood and all that, they're softwares on the OS, not directly related to firmware updates.It's funny and annoying. I thought that AKAIO 1.9 was good with the latest 3ds firmware, because I was losing track a little, so long story short, I am here playing music on moonshell with a DSI, which has a broken r button. God how I know that was a mistake.
Firmware updates are stored on the flash cart itself, not the MicroSD. Since you can't directly hook an Ak2i or whatever to your PC, you need some other method to update the firmware.I'm kind of curious: why do we need to update via the DS? Couldn't we just update our flashcart by connecting the microSD to our computers via USB and then downloading the latest firmware? Or is not updating a DS simply to ensure that you can always use your flashcart? I don't see how you can get 'locked out' (if you don't have a second system) by updating your DS unless flashcart update via DS is somehow different than updating by connecting to your computer.
In order to do this, you need to actually RUN the update, not just put it on your flash cart. What you're downloading is the installer for the firmware update.
In order to run the update, you need to be able to run the flash cart, which means your flash cart cannot already be blocked. If it is already blocked, then you can't run it to update it.
Thinking "I can just drag the files on, I don't need to follow the instructions" is how many people find their carts blocked.