#Unable to uninstall custom firmware

125 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

cold spruce
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I was trying to uninstall custom firmware to restore my 3ds to just default, following a youtube guide and right before actuallly reseting, my 3ds fails the safety_test and is stuck on a black screen. Is there anyway of fixing this or is my 3ds just bricked.

compact jewel
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You should never follow video guides, especially for something that has a brick risk such as removing cfw

compact jewel
hexed roost
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There's also generally no good reason to uninstall cfw

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You can factory reset to remove homebrew apps and then use it as stock

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Luma will remain but not change any appearance or function that you care about, besides removing cartridge region lock

cold spruce
hexed roost
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Are you sure?

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First 3 digits of serial

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And letter in firmware

cold spruce
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yeah lemme check again

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yeah it has a U

hexed roost
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Also, something in nand could have been edited, which makes cfw removal a brick event

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There's just no point in removing the cfw

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The page is full of warnings for a reason, it's an absolute last resort, not a task to be casually done

cold spruce
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oh okay

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ill just keep it as is then. i bought this 3ds from a seller who basically just lied about it being stock, its my fault for not being so careful about it but they tried uninstalling all the things themselves

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so it looked normal

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unitl i held enter and gm9 popped up

hexed roost
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Yeah, just having luma doesn't change the look of the system

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Buying prehacked, they probably region changed from Japan for a cheaper unit to flip

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Without homebrew apps the system works like stock, except for accepting foreign carts

cold spruce
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yeah i got played lol, it was advertised with pokemon crystal on it which was obviusly yk

hexed roost
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And maybe having broken eshop from region change

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One pre-installed app, maybe fine, if no nnid was ever attached

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Multiple pre-installed apps, illegal, seller is supposed to factory reset system before sale

cold spruce
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oh that makes sense cuase the eshop legit doesnt work

hexed roost
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To remove account and games, anything not tied to account would be redownload able after wipe

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Error ending in 2001?

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That's broken eshop due to region change, which is why uninstall bricks

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First 3 digits of serial indicate model and original region

hexed roost
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Without the original nand backup of the original region, you can't remove cfw without bricking

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Must be the one for that specific 3ds

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Lots of ebay and Amazon and such sellers buying Japanese systems, changing to e or u region for English, and selling as a region free or local system

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Ask for start of serial to catch that and check against the serial chart on 3dbrew

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Region free means modded, no consumer 3ds is region free stock, it has to be locked to one of the 6 regions

cold spruce
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Oh okay that’s good to know tho, the thing is I took a chance to buy off mercari and this listing literally stated it was a us console.

hexed roost
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Region locked systems, the model number or serial indicates region it was shipped for

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Well you have grounds to contest that if the serial says not u region system

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U region covers a bit over 2 continents though

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Both americas and some of Asia and Middle east

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Ask for a serial number buying used on such sites

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That's the check to validate tampering

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But cfw doesn't break anything just being there. The region swap is what did that

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And we have fixes for that

cold spruce
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Okay, I’m not home at the moment but I will check the serial to make sure

hexed roost
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So just depends on if you are going to dispute via mercari

cold spruce
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But the eshop was bricked

hexed roost
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An error doesn't mean bricked

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Likely just the error code for mismatched region

cold spruce
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Ik im just saying lol

hexed roost
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Because stupid console flippers don't use multiple systems to unbreak eshop on all but one

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They just region change and leave the function broken, when the fix is easy when you have multiple units

cold spruce
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lol, I’ll definitely be more careful next time, I bought this 3ds just because the price was pretty good for an “US” 3ds

hexed roost
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That's because it was a cheaper Japanese one being changed and resold for profit even undercutting actual us systems

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That's the trick. Some shady sellers even use a stealth Luma that you can't open godmode or luma config

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Only a crash might reveal it

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Notorious Ali express seller was ancient moon

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We still run into it 2 or 3 years later

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Technically, a lot of these marketplaces forbid modified consoles on their listings, which alone is grounds for dispute

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Nintendo got many of them to put it in their terms of service back around 2010

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But serial and region mismatch would be your proof there

cold spruce
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i see it right away on the serial numbner

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YJM

hexed roost
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y is n3ds, jm is Japan

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It's region changed from j to u region

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Hence the failure of the safety check

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Region change followed by cfw uninstall = brick

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N3ds is also uncommon in u region, but plentiful in j and e regions so u n3ds are more expensive by a good margin

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The xl version got larger production for u region

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3dbrew wiki, serials page

cold spruce
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oh okay, yeah ill just leave it alone then, i cant dispute because its a lil too late by 2 days and the seller is called "inactive user" on the site with 0 listings

hexed roost
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Probably for pulling that with other people, which may make it worth disputing

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They might still uphold it given multiple offenses

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Sounds like they banned the seller

cold spruce
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yeah if i remember correctly they had other listings maybe someone also disputed lol

hexed roost
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Had that happen to another seller my employer discovered to be fencing stolen company ipads and iphones enrolled in airwatch from the factory

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Someone stole a pallet of the devices from the shipping company

cold spruce
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wow LOL thats crazy

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infnite money glitch

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i had to check another ds i bought off mercari and its fine, i just got played with this one

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ill just stick to ebay i guess but i already have enough 3ds lol

hexed roost
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We had a bunch of random home users calling out tech support number on the setup screen (airwatch means even wiping the device, you need an email address from our company to log in and set up the device) between Thanksgiving and Christmas

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Asking why this iPad they just bought online says it belongs to our company

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We got info on where they bought it, it all lined up with the same shipping source address, from a seller on ebay and one on aliexpress

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And we got police in their city involved

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And the account was banned about 2 weeks later

cold spruce
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💀 so that guy who was selling, does he get fined also for doing that? or is that like being sent to jail or what?

hexed roost
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Jail and fines

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Also, international crime

cold spruce
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LOL wow

hexed roost
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We're talking like 100k of apple devices

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That's major theft in many countries

cold spruce
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that is one hefty fine

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debt for life prolly

hexed roost
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Companies buy the devices preenrolled from apple. Stealing them is pointless, they report I their location over internet and require a company login to set up, and won't accept a different login until disenrolled by administrators

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Mdm is pretty good in certain brands

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Wiping the device won't disenroll it and you get locked out as soon as internet is used

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Apple won't disenroll either without original proof of purchase and proper company ID

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So seller was selling bricks

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I think we did end up unlocking them from people the seller scammed

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And doing an insurance claim, and insurance company went after thief and fence

cold spruce
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so was this guy just a employee who helped with the shipments and just decided to steal? or was he an actual factory worker?

hexed roost
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I don't know the details

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I was in IT, not the legal department

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It became a legal issue

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We just got instructed to unlock them if they showed us they bought from that seller

cold spruce
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oh okay, i heard of a similar situation with pokemon cards, dude stole 100k+ in pokemon cards

hexed roost
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And we kind of pieced together what the devices and callers had in common

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And when the offer is give us info for us to cooperate in unlocking your device, people tend to talk

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Else they have to dispute with the seller, who we are building a case against

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And an international company with multiple legal teams is going to have priority over you for bringing down a hammer on a scammer

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So working with us is going to be faster and more convenient

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So yeah, we got the info on the source of the stolen items and handed it to management, where it went to legal and we no longer got info on what was going on, other than to check the seller links we found and see the listings disappear and then the account get banned

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So we figure they caught the guy, and if it was a fence, they ratted out their source for mercy

cold spruce
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lol i wonder how that person felt when they got caught

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just imediate sense of doom lol

hexed roost
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https://www.mercari.com/u/486564032/

Mercari: Your Marketplace
on Mercari

Mercari is your marketplace. It's the perfect place to declutter and discover items that are uniquely you. Say 'goodbye' to your old go-tos and 'hello' to one-of-a-kind treasures.

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reading up on the saga real quick, one was stolen from inventory, one was ordered and never arrived to be added to inventory, so was intercepted in shipping or was stolen before opened by staff

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Found my log of it

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Banned user becomes inactive user

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So yeah, possible inside job in shipping company and our own company

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Man, Dec 2021