Switch seems stuck in RCM

[V-T]

Hi! It really sucks that I'm joining a community I've really enjoyed looking at from the sidelines for years with a help request but honestly, I'm at my wits' end so figured it was my best shot. Happy to be here, not happy about the circumstances.

Anyways, I took my modded Switch (bought in 2017, modded this May, no issues with the console whatsoever before this) with me while travelling. Was perfectly fine, I played some games, then I put it to sleep and put it back in its case. I left it in the case for about a month and when I tried to turn it on, nothing. Black screen, completely unresponsive. After trying basically everything I could come up with (hard reset, power cycling, leaving it charging for the whole night etc.) + scouring Google, I concluded it's probably not getting power and had a repair shop check it. They couldn't find the issue though, and so the console came back to me today. I decided to give it one last shot; I don't recall setting up AutoRCM but since I basically ran out of ideas, I ran TetraRCM and plugged the console to my PC. Bingo, it seems to be in RCM. Not sure how that happened but whatever. At least it's not completely dead.

My first instinct was to inject Hekate. The payload goes through, the splash screen appears, after which the screen goes black, TetraRCM says the device has been disconnected. Tried it a few times, still nothing. Tried injecting Fusee, same thing (except with the Atmosphere splash screen). Injecting RCM Check works no problem. Funnily enough, Hekate works when I take the SD card out (text-mode). Keeps not loading if I have the card in though.

Honestly, I'm really lost and I'd really appreciate some help; people on here seem to be capable of working out almost anything lol. This console was a gift from someone very dear to me, plus it's unpatched, so I'd really, really love to get it running again. Thanks in advance!

 

[sudeki300]

have you tried another sd card, that's what i would do first

 

[mrdude]

Open hekate and disable autorcm.

 

[V-T]

Thank you guys for the quick replies!

have you tried another sd card, that's what i would do first

I tried putting in my phone's SD card as a test (since that's the only other SD card I have lol) and injected Hekate. It does detect it and loads it (obviously text-only as I haven't actually put Nyx on there; it's a 16GB SD card so not too much room to mess around with). Could it possibly be a damaged SD card or emuMMC?

Open hekate and disable autorcm.

While I could do it in text-only, I'm a little apprehensive about doing it right now, as Atmosphere doesn't launch, RCM seems to be the only thing that's actually working right now and my jig is at my friend's place at the moment. I'll try to get in touch with him and get it back. Once I do, I'll turn off AutoRCM and report back! Unless you're sure it's gonna boot into something after that. It does seem like a generally good idea though, I honestly have no idea why it's on in the first place.

 

[mrdude]

Redownload atmosphere from the github and delete the entire atmosphere folder from your sd card. Put the clean atmoshphere folder you downloaded from the git onto your sd card and then boot. Also download hekate from the git and replace with the new one. That will solve all your issues.

Once you've checked the switch boots - then you can download the sig patches and put them on your sd card.

 

[sudeki300]

Thank you guys for the quick replies!


I tried putting in my phone's SD card as a test (since that's the only other SD card I have lol) and injected Hekate. It does detect it and loads it (obviously text-only as I haven't actually put Nyx on there; it's a 16GB SD card so not too much room to mess around with). Could it possibly be a damaged SD card or emuMMC?



While I could do it in text-only, I'm a little apprehensive about doing it right now, as Atmosphere doesn't launch, RCM seems to be the only thing that's actually working right now and my jig is at my friend's place at the moment. I'll try to get in touch with him and get it back. Once I do, I'll turn off AutoRCM and report back! Unless you're sure it's gonna boot into something after that. It does seem like a generally good idea though, I honestly have no idea why it's on in the first place.

16GB is more than enough space for clean atmosphere / hekate files, you only need to check that it boots into OS, just do what mrdude suggested above.

 

[V-T]

Redownload atmosphere from the github and delete the entire atmosphere folder from your sd card. Put the clean atmoshphere folder you downloaded from the git onto your sd card and then boot. Also download hekate from the git and replace with the new one. That will solve all your issues.

Once you've checked the switch boots - then you can download the sig patches and put them on your sd card.

I downloaded the clean Atmosphere files (already redownloaded Hekate before posting, probably should have mentioned that) and put them onto my SD card (the 128GB one I originally had in my Switch). After injecting Hekate, I still just get the splash screen, after which it goes black again.

Also, tried putting Atmosphere and Hekate on the 16GB phone SD card but alas, I'm getting the same thing.

 

[mrdude]

I downloaded the clean Atmosphere files (already redownloaded Hekate before posting, probably should have mentioned that) and put them onto my SD card (the 128GB one I originally had in my Switch). After injecting Hekate, I still just get the splash screen, after which it goes black again.

Also, tried putting Atmosphere and Hekate on the 16GB phone SD card but alas, I'm getting the same thing.

You probably never removed the atmosphere folder from your sd card first though, and you will have some custom theme or plugin in there that's causing the crash - that's why you need to remove it and do a clean install.

 

[sudeki300]

does it boot to official firmware without any sd card in the switch?

 

[mrdude]

does it boot to official firmware without any sd card in the switch?

He's got auto rcm on, so unless he has the entry in hekate ini files to do that, he will be stuck in a boot loop until he does what we told him and removes atmpsphere and puts a clean version on.

 

[sudeki300]

You probably never removed the atmosphere folder from your sd card first though, and you will have some custom theme or plugin in there that's causing the crash - that's why you need to remove it and do a clean install.

OP said also tried his 16GB card, so that should have been a fresh install

 

[V-T]

You probably never removed the atmosphere folder from your sd card first though, and you will have some custom theme or plugin in there that's causing the crash - that's why you need to remove it and do a clean install.

I did remove it, did it again just in case but nothing changed. I also don't have any custom themes or anything; I modded it as a fun project and to emulate the PSP to be honest. Also, it was working perfectly fine before I put it to sleep and left it there, which is just strange.

does it boot to official firmware without any sd card in the switch?

I'm indeed seemingly stuck in a boot loop, so no, not really

 

[V-T]

Sorry for double posting.

I turned off AutoRCM and now the Switch is completely unresponsive, so I suspect it's a bigger issue, I'd guess it may be hardware related? I still don't have the jig since I got sick and don't wanna spread the germs to my friend lol

Anyways, any Switch experts have an idea on what could this be caused by? Should I just take it to another repair shop?

 

[mrdude]

Sorry for double posting.

I turned off AutoRCM and now the Switch is completely unresponsive, so I suspect it's a bigger issue, I'd guess it may be hardware related? I still don't have the jig since I got sick and don't wanna spread the germs to my friend lol

Anyways, any Switch experts have an idea on what could this be caused by? Should I just take it to another repair shop?

Hold the power button down for about 15 seconds - then let go, then press it again (remove any game cartridges and your sd card). This time is should boot, if not you might have a corrupt nand and you will need to updated it, maybe you've burned a fuse and your nand is on lower firmware and you should update to the latest.

 

[V-T]

Hold the power button down for about 15 seconds - then let go, then press it again (remove any game cartridges and your sd card). This time is should boot, if not you might have a corrupt nand and you will need to updated it, maybe you've burned a fuse and your nand is on lower firmware and you should update to the latest.

Attempted resetting it that way before posting and it still doesn't boot unfortunately, neither with the SD card nor with it in.

So then, how would I go about updating NAND? Or should I just try to restore from backups?

I was under the impression that even if a fuse is burned, Hekate bypasses the fuse check, so shouldn't the CFW have loaded normally before? I could be wrong but that's my understanding of things. Also, I should mention, I haven't updated nor booted into the stock firmware since I modded the console.

Thanks for helping me by the way, really appreciate it.

 

[mrdude]

If you can't boot into hekate, you won't be able to restore - you probalby still have autorcm turned on and that's why you're having issues. If you can boot into hekate by just sending the payload without using a jig, autorcm is on.

 

[V-T]

If you can't boot into hekate, you won't be able to restore - you probalby still have autorcm turned on and that's why you're having issues. If you can boot into hekate by just sending the payload without using a jig, autorcm is on.

AutoRCM is definitely off; TegraRCM doesn't detect it anymore, sending payloads doesn't work. After turning off AutoRCM nothing boots at all, at least not that I see.

 

[mrdude]

You will need to wait until you get your rcm jig back from your friend to get into rcm so you can boot into hekate. Once in hekate then restore your nand dump backup..

 

[V-T]

You will need to wait until you get your rcm jig back from your friend to get into rcm so you can boot into hekate. Once in hekate then restore your nand dump backup..

Hi, I got my RCM jig. Wanted to attempt a restore but for some reason, under the Tools section in text-only Hekate AutoRCM is my only option. I know for a fact it shouldn't be like that, I redownloaded Hekate again just to make sure - it's still like that. Man, it's really one problem after another.

 

[Dust2dust]

Hi, I got my RCM jig. Wanted to attempt a restore but for some reason, under the Tools section in text-only Hekate AutoRCM is my only option. I know for a fact it shouldn't be like that, I redownloaded Hekate again just to make sure - it's still like that. Man, it's really one problem after another.

It possibly doesn't display the option to restore the nand backup because it doesn't detect the SD card. I know you said it doesn't boot Hekate with the SD card in, but have you tried inserting the SD card after you booted the text version of Hekate? Besides, how would you restore the nand if the SD card is not in? (I'm probably not making much sense, am I?)