I got some decent probes and can reach the capacitors next to the ram. I spent more than an hour, but I can’t get one probe to ground and the other to move it first to the ram capacitors and then to the B-side.
I’m thinking of soldering a wire to a ground and then coiling it onto the probe, but I don’t think that would improve the situation, maybe make it worse.
The best I could do is to see the values.
Honestly, both the failed cap we identified last time and the two caps near the ram marked in red come to values of 9.0 or 9.1 ohms. They oscillate a little, but when they oscillate all the three still seem to have the same value.
I don’t know if you have any suggestions for a more stable ground, I used this
Sorry I don’t really understand? What is your native language bud?
Yeah you can do that You can even zero out your leads too if you want which can sometimes make things simpler.
What I don’t think you really understand is, the caps themselves (probably) aren’t at fault… the three areas your measuring approx 9 ohms at are all on the same rail, as such a fault on this rail will cause the fault wherever this rail shows up… Even though we are testing on components on this same rail we can detect minute difference as a result of line length (and I mean minute) but again, the rail at these points is one and the same.
I hope that makes sense. Going back to are “game” analogy, think of the rail as being the same as the “room” where the object is hidden, all the objects are in the same room, if the room were to catch on fire, then so to would the objects in the room… sorry, I’m a terrible teacher.
I think the issue is your not seeing a very substantial difference whenn measuring at these areas, but that’s to be expected, the difference might only be a single digit, and possibly flicking back and forth even, the rail is question is pretty hefty (large traces/planes) which means it’s hard to detect a difference, especially when the components in question are so close to each other (SoC and Ram)
In regards to good ground, screw hole pads are good for probes. TP’s like you’ve spotted are good for soldering wires too.
Ahahah I apologies! No, I honestly don’t know what I wrote either. I think it is due to the fact I was writing via phone and was interrupted several times during the process.
No you are not a terrible teacher, the concept is understandable. It is just difficult to imagine concretely what the concept applies to.
Unfortunately, the scale on my multimeter does not reach the second digits, so I have no idea how to measure it at the moment. Unfortunately my second multimeter is also not working.
This is also the ground point I’ve approached. I think the measure is now 13.4 because of that ground point. Anyway, still the same problem in measuring.
Hello guys. I’ve been planning to modchip my V2 switch and i just happened to stumble upon this post. I read everything and i barely understood anything bedsides the NAND has been corrupted in one of its partitions and the modchip eddits the NAND. Now i’m affraid something like this happens to my switch if i mod it and i have a couple questions in order to prevent it. The modchip i have looked is the same one as @minimanimo, a RP2040 with a pi chip.
Can i just make a full backup of my NAND in case something goes wrong with the software? If it is i’ll have to look into it on how to do it since i know anything about raw software and codes.
Should i mod it or should i just stay with my original switch without modding it?
Any feedback will be really appreciated, you all have been doing an amazing job.
Depends on your soldering skills. The ‘ready to use’ picofly RP2040 modchip for the V1 or V2 where you only have to solder the both caps at the SoC and pluging in the emmc, is pretty straight forward and less problematic.
The first thing after boot into Hekate, is an emmc boot0/boot1 and raw backup.
Yeah, i was planning on using those “ready to use” packs. Even that it will be a challenge for my soldering skills but i see it as doable.
I have been searching information and i got a bit lost. I have seen that, with a jig and some program on the computer, i can use hetake to make the backup before i do the mod. Is that true or is it just impossible to do so on a V2 switch? I think that’s impossible because if you can inject hetake through recovery mode why not just using it as it is? I don’t really know… My main concern is that i want to make my NAND backup before doing the mod in case anything goes wrong but i don’t really know if that’s possible in V2.
Older V1 models have an recovery state which could be entered with a jig. In this rcm state it is possible to inject little programs and allows to load complete OS from sd card.
With newer V1 and from V2 on, this hardware ‘bug’ was fixed.
You can backup your nand with another hacked Switch. (Caution! Do not boot to ofw. If your emmc has a higher firmware version, it will burn fuses at the hacked Switch)
Or if you have an Ubuntu (Linux) system and a mmcblkNX writer/adapter you can hook your emmc to the Ubuntu system an make a full backup (boot0/boot1 included).
I have been looking arround and i didn’t find any mmcblkNX reader rather than Aliexpress ones for like 30€… I don’t really want to spend that kind of money in an adapter. Is there any adapter you could recommend or something? I don’t really want to risk loosing my nand data and brick my console so if i have to order that one to be able to have a backup i’ll invest the money. The adapter i found is this one:
https:// a.aliexpress .com/_EuBnyu3
(Just put together the parts, i can’t post links)
I just ordered the modchip and some antistatic tape to do the installation. I just need the eMMC reader but i don’t know where to buy it from a reliable place and make sure it will work for the switch nand. Do i need a specific reader or any eMMC reader will work just fine? I make this question because i read switch nands have been changing with every model revision and they are different from one and other. I am really lost in all this, so thank you a lot for helping and sorry for making so many questions…
If your doing the backup because your concerned about the data (games, saves etc) then what you gotta remember is, the data is basically useless without getting the keys (to decypt said data), the only way to get the keys (assuming patched / mariko console) is to install the modchip on the board (with your EMMC connected) so it would kind of defeat the purpose of buying a reader in this particular case.
Alternative case, your backing up the EMMC in the event the modchip corrupts the data, in which case, backing up the EMMC elsewhere may be handy (no keys) , but also note, data backup isn’t going to save you from a hardware fault (potentially caused by the modchip) which we’ve seen quite a few of here.
Also, just my two cents. While you may be able to do the install, there is a high chance you could unintentionally cause issues… if you do know someone or have a repair shop nearby, I’d have them do it for you just to reduce risks (though, as mentioned previously, I’m not fond of the latest wave of modchips, and problems could arise “naturally” later on as a result)
Dodgy, much like mmcblknx, there is no protection (much like the modchips)
And also, given it’s SD based, you won’t be able to dump boot0/boot1 partitions either. (these two are the most likely to be corrupted in regards to these modchips
Damn… Now i’m even more concerned than before hahaha. I think i’ll just stay away from modding it (i’ll keep the modchip) until it is barely used to give it a second life. I’ll just buy the games i really want as i have been doing. I don’t want to break anything or get it broken over time by “problems that may appear naturally”. Thank you a lot.
Hi,
Looking on all the issues the users are having with this modchip clone (me included), I would be reluctant to install it (regardless of who would do the welding). Unfortunately, I don’t think the original ones are on the market anymore.
A question a little far from this, but one I would like to try and verify: is it possible to test the firmware-related fuses with the multimeter? I would like to try to see if I burnt them out when I wrote the Boot0 and Boo1 we generated a few months ago.
I would imagine there probably is some I/O on the SoC where this could be tested, but determining where this is broken out on the board (if at all) is the problem
I’m not sure if the reason the version isn’t displayed on NXNandManager is as result of the thing being Mariko or if it’s as a result of the new(er) HOS version (for example a change in the location / offset) maybe in the future, maybe the dev of NXNandManager will figure it out and you’ll be able to see the version number again.
I guess you could search the Hex for the the presumed version number you’d expect (less the decimal place and numbers after it) and compare to one that is known to see if it’s at a similar location, though, I think there is going to be a lot of potential for errors with this method.
I think though, perhaps this is better left to worry about until later, as, in it’s current state, you wouldn’t be to boot stock as a result of the short on your Ram rail.
Can you load up lockpickRCM with the modchip in place to get the keys so you can decypt the EMMC data and uncover the OS version ? (I actually don’t know the compatability with the current wave of modchips tbh) I am also not sure how it will behave with the Ram issues too (I’m weary about you powering this thing up at all tbh with the current faults)
It would be nice but unfortunately it’s something I already tried to do a few weeks ago when I found that the modchip was able to boot.
Basically, I tried starting several payloads (Hekate, lockpickRCM included) and none of them worked. But usm-loader did, as it is a special payload that is ran using iRAM. It is the only payload I was able to launch. A lot of feedback says is a typical behavior of faulty RAM or corrupted partitions (Boot0/Boot1 and/or Sysnand).
In my case it could be both
Maybe as a result of the Ram issue. What about biskeydump? If I remember right though this is not compatiable with Mariko, and I’d imagine older versions of Hekate (no SD vers) would have the same problem too
I think if it is the ram causing the short in question, if that gets resolved I suspect you’ll be able to boot the thing up non stock via Hekate and recover the parititions in question through other means later
You can even zero out your leads too if you want which can sometimes make things simpler.
Can you load up lockpickRCM with the modchip in place to get the keys so you can decypt the EMMC data and uncover the OS version ? (I actually don’t know the compatability with the current wave of modchips tbh) I am also not sure how it will behave with the Ram issues too (I’m weary about you powering this thing up at all tbh with the current faults)