Switch not booting (Hekate works)

[Pawrent]

Hi everyone!

So, I bought a used Nintendo Switch HAC-001 (Unpatched) that wouldn't boot. I've modified a couple of consoles before, but never worked on a Switch, so this is a new challenge.
The Switch charged normally, displayed the Nintendo logo and then got stuck on a black screen. The only other thing I noticed was that the touchscreen isn't working which I'll get sorted if I manage to get this Switch to work...

After spending days discovering hardware and software mods, I learned about Hekate and tried to get Atmosphere running, thinking it was a CFW that would overwrite the OFW, which gave me a black screen after the Atmosphere triangle logo.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this "UNBRICKING THE NSW LEVEL 3" YouTube video and followed every single step successfully. Unfortunately the Switch still didn't want to boot into OFW.
Thinking I might have done something wrong, I tried following the same video today and now the Nintendo logo will not even show anymore. The Switch doesn't display anything on the screen but will still boot into Hekate.

I don't know if anyone has ever tried to modify this Switch before, but it has definitely opened before since there were some misplaced or missing screws. I don't know if the eMMC inside the console is the original one or not.

Spoiler: HW & Fuses Info

Spoiler: eMMC Info

Spoiler: Hardware

Spoiler: eMMC Chip

I'm using a SanDisk Ultra 128GB SD Card formatted as exFAT.

Now my question is... Will getting a new eMMC online (original eMMC board + chip) and following the video tutorial mentioned above do the trick?
I do have a working Switch on hand. Should I backup it's files and use them to flash the new eMMC?
Or could there be any other hardware fault worth checking? I'm getting a Multimeter soon to check all components.

As mentioned I'm new to this and I think that I've already learned a lot in the past 3 days but now I feel a little lost.
Any help is highly appreciated! Thank you

Post automatically merged: Apr 29, 2023

Update: I tried this again with a different FW version (16.0.1). If I boot into OFW via Hekate the Nintendo logo shows up but then goes black again. Still no luck

 

[Pawrent]

After playing around with it for a few more days I gave up. I've ordered a new eMMC in hopes that'll fix the job.

 

[Hayato213]

If OFW doensn't boot, you can try to rebuild the nand with emmchaccgen.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hi everyone!

So, I bought a used Nintendo Switch HAC-001 (Unpatched) that wouldn't boot. I've modified a couple of consoles before, but never worked on a Switch, so this is a new challenge.
The Switch charged normally, displayed the Nintendo logo and then got stuck on a black screen. The only other thing I noticed was that the touchscreen isn't working which I'll get sorted if I manage to get this Switch to work...

After spending days discovering hardware and software mods, I learned about Hekate and tried to get Atmosphere running, thinking it was a CFW that would overwrite the OFW, which gave me a black screen after the Atmosphere triangle logo.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this "UNBRICKING THE NSW LEVEL 3" YouTube video and followed every single step successfully. Unfortunately the Switch still didn't want to boot into OFW.
Thinking I might have done something wrong, I tried following the same video today and now the Nintendo logo will not even show anymore. The Switch doesn't display anything on the screen but will still boot into Hekate.

I don't know if anyone has ever tried to modify this Switch before, but it has definitely opened before since there were some misplaced or missing screws. I don't know if the eMMC inside the console is the original one or not.

Spoiler: HW & Fuses Info

View attachment 367783

Spoiler: eMMC Info

View attachment 367781

Spoiler: Hardware

View attachment 367785

Spoiler: eMMC Chip

View attachment 367786

I'm using a SanDisk Ultra 128GB SD Card formatted as exFAT.

Now my question is... Will getting a new eMMC online (original eMMC board + chip) and following the video tutorial mentioned above do the trick?
I do have a working Switch on hand. Should I backup it's files and use them to flash the new eMMC?
Or could there be any other hardware fault worth checking? I'm getting a Multimeter soon to check all components.

As mentioned I'm new to this and I think that I've already learned a lot in the past 3 days but now I feel a little lost.
Any help is highly appreciated! Thank you

Post automatically merged: Apr 29, 2023

Update: I tried this again with a different FW version (16.0.1). If I boot into OFW via Hekate the Nintendo logo shows up but then goes black again. Still no luck

Following a YouTube guide was probably a mistake. Those are often outdated, and sometimes dangerous, they can gloss over important steps that could be the difference between success and brick... There are guides here on this forum for unbricking that are not a whole lot better (they are very complicated with many steps that are not well explained so there is a higher chance of mistakes), this is rather uncharted territory right now so there are not any good guides that I know of, but they may explain some parts better than the video does or use better (potentially safer) methods.
For the original issue, it's very likely a hardware issue but I wouldn't be so sure that it's the eMMC. I've seen this issue caused by other components being faulty, and the eMMCs on these aren't really known for failing. It's an easier troubleshooting step than doing component level troubleshooting with a multimeter, but it can be a costly one if it turns out that isn't the issue, as the profit margins on repairing used consoles are already slim (meaning, if you have to spend much at all on parts it usually ends up costing the same or more than a working console would have, especially if you factor in the time spent troubleshooting in order to diagnose the real issue)
As for the current issue it's likely you messed up a step in the NAND rebuilding + flashing since it didn't happen the first time you followed the guide. That should be fixable by simply following the guide again and reusing the NAND backups you made the first time rather than making new ones, and taking extra care to follow the steps exactly.

 

[Pawrent]

Following a YouTube guide was probably a mistake. Those are often outdated, and sometimes dangerous, they can gloss over important steps that could be the difference between success and brick... There are guides here on this forum for unbricking that are not a whole lot better (they are very complicated with many steps that are not well explained so there is a higher chance of mistakes), this is rather uncharted territory right now so there are not any good guides that I know of, but they may explain some parts better than the video does or use better (potentially safer) methods.
For the original issue, it's very likely a hardware issue but I wouldn't be so sure that it's the eMMC. I've seen this issue caused by other components being faulty, and the eMMCs on these aren't really known for failing. It's an easier troubleshooting step than doing component level troubleshooting with a multimeter, but it can be a costly one if it turns out that isn't the issue, as the profit margins on repairing used consoles are already slim (meaning, if you have to spend much at all on parts it usually ends up costing the same or more than a working console would have, especially if you factor in the time spent troubleshooting in order to diagnose the real issue)
As for the current issue it's likely you messed up a step in the NAND rebuilding + flashing since it didn't happen the first time you followed the guide. That should be fixable by simply following the guide again and reusing the NAND backups you made the first time rather than making new ones, and taking extra care to follow the steps exactly.

Thank you so much for trying to help! It was actually a tutorial on here that led me to following that video. I still have all the backups I did from Boot0/1, rawnand and prod.keys before I played around with it. As suggested, I tried re-flashing it with the data generated by emmchaccgen using the 16.0.2 FW (fuse burn is 18) and my backup prod.keys.

The Switch now flashes the charging icon but then goes black again.


ps. I don't mean to sell this console. I rather want to understand how it works and play around with CFW.

 

[leerz]

Thank you so much for trying to help! It was actually a tutorial on here that led me to following that video. I still have all the backups I did from Boot0/1, rawnand and prod.keys before I played around with it. As suggested, I tried re-flashing it with the data generated by emmchaccgen using the 16.0.2 FW (fuse burn is 18) and my backup prod.keys.

View attachment 368207

The Switch now flashes the charging icon but then goes black again.


ps. I don't mean to sell this console. I rather want to understand how it works and play around with CFW.

sounds like a bad wireless module chip