Water damage, is my 3ds doomed.

[JackTheFroster]

The point is, boot9strap is installed to the NAND and the Luma menu (either loaded from the SD card or from the NAND) would be unreachable without boot9strap.

It seems very unlikely that water damage would somehow only corrupt parts of the NAND without rendering it completely inoperable. (It's hard to imagine anything capable of doing that.)

thats why i was just assuming. i definitely agree. just wondering why it boots to luma config and not to the homescreen...

 

[Thejax]

thats why i was just assuming. i definitely agree. just wondering why it boots to luma config and not to the homescreen...

I’m going to take another shot at it today, I believe it’s a fail safe reason it keeps going to LUMA, and luma won’t let me hit start while down on the DPAD is held.

Worse case, if it doesn’t keep randomly shutting off, I might disconnect the dpad entirely, still be good for DS games and some others, with a broken screen

 

[Kwyjor]

When you get to the Luma menu, it should say at the bottom if it is booting from the SD card or from the NAND. Are you using an SD card at this point?

 

[Thejax]

When you get to the Luma menu, it should say at the bottom if it is booting from the SD card or from the NAND. Are you using an SD card at this point?

SD, I can take it out to get the same version and same thing.

Can’t open Godmode, and may have sorta, tried to remove the DPAD, and pulled something off… and snapped the shoulder cable

 

[Kwyjor]

SD, I can take it out to get the same version and same thing.

You mean it says that it's booting from the NAND if you remove the SD card, right..?

Isn't it possible that the Select button is messed up, and it's automatically triggering the Luma menu?

 

[Thejax]

I got a notification saying 1k has seen this so.

Sadly no good answer, I listed all the problems that accrued and someone still paid like 180$ on eBay for it on a bid, so issue closed

 

[Hayato213]

I got a notification saying 1k has seen this so.

Sadly no good answer, I listed all the problems that accrued and someone still paid like 180$ on eBay for it on a bid, so issue closed

Well it is someone else problem now.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I got a notification saying 1k has seen this so.

Sadly no good answer, I listed all the problems that accrued and someone still paid like 180$ on eBay for it on a bid, so issue closed

That is a lot of money, is it a limited edition?
Anyways, I guess you got more than a fair price for it. Hopefully whoever ends up with it is able to fix it.

 

[gamecartgirl]

Rice doesn’t work neither does salt

 

[Thejax]

That is a lot of money, is it a limited edition?
Anyways, I guess you got more than a fair price for it. Hopefully whoever ends up with it is able to fix it.

I was honestly surprised, it was the buy it now price, the guy who bought it sells refurbed parts so probably has a better shot then me.

Not limited but was a galaxy, the newest one they made

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I was honestly surprised, it was the buy it now price, the guy who bought it sells refurbed parts so probably has a better shot then me.

Not limited but was a galaxy, the newest one they made

I suppose they wouldn't be paying that price if they weren't confident they could fix it.

On eBay, it's hard to find people who are up front when it comes to faulty devices. They either won't say how it was damaged, just vague things like "doesn't work" or "won't power on", or they mention one fault but there are 2 other faults they don't mention. And a lot of the time it has been previously attempted to be repaired by someone skilled, which obviously lowers the chance of it being repairable. Sometimes you even run into people buying bulk lots, using the parts to repair what they can, and then putting the faulty parts together and selling them off, so whoever buys it gets a device where basically every part is faulty and it's total garbage, can't even be used for spare parts.

So that makes buying faulty devices on eBay to repair a big gamble, and it's rare to come across honest sellers like you, so I guess whenever there is a listing with an honest fault, repair techs are all over it.
Still, liquid damaged devices are a pretty big gamble. Anything can be repaired, but sometimes it's just not worth the time and money it costs. The problem with liquid damage is that you just don't know how bad the damage is and it could affect multiple areas of the system, making troubleshooting it time consuming.

But on the upside, usually it doesn't cost much in parts, chips don't tend to be damaged (although it happens), it's mainly trace damage which is repairable with wires, and some small components like resistors might need replacing, but those cost cents. Voltage regulators or anything else dealing with the power delivery can be damaged, but they are typically easily and cheaply available. Chips can be proprietary or not available directly from the manufacturer, so they would cost more to replace.
I've noticed a strong correlation between the pricing of faulty devices, and the expected cost of replacement parts. For example, if there is a console with a cracked screen and the picture shows it turned on and otherwise functioning, and replacement screens are $20, then you can expect it to go for maybe $30 less than a fully working console in similar condition, and the buyer will only make $10 from reselling it, but they can whack out multiple of them in an hour and make a business of it. That doesn't necessarily translate to all types of damage (I haven't checked), but certainly seems to be the case with cracked screens, I guess because they are easy to replace (well, not so much on smartphones)
I've had a look on eBay and seems these go for $250-300 used depending on condition, and not knowing the condition of yours, I guess taking off $70 for the labor involved in the repair (and just a couple dollars on parts) and the gross factor of it having been dropped in a toilet (and the required deep cleaning the buyer is going to do) seems fair. You might've even been able to get a little more for it from the right buyer, but $180 is not bad at all. It wouldn't be close to the price of a working console like it is with cracked screens, since it's so much more complicated to repair due to not knowing exactly where the fault (or multiple faults) is, but on the right day, and to the right buyer, maybe you could've gotten $200. Sometimes it's as simple as cleaning everything and scraping off any stubborn corrosion and it comes back to life, if you're lucky.