I hate this!!!!!

[dateq]

I just made a brick!!!!!! #@$@#$@!!!

The frikkin tutorial said it was allright to turn of your DS if no numbers appeared. They didn't so I turned the f*cking thing off.

Result: A BRICK!!!

woah-est me!

[darkliquid]

What tutorial? Be more specific so other peeps dont get the same.

[dateq]

This one:

http://www.dspassme.com/FlashMe.shtml

[dateq]

Darkfader has put something up on his site:
http://darkfader.net/

What do you all think? Will this help me recover my brick?

Dateq

[Z80]

First try booting holding X+A+Y+B with the cartridge to install flashme inserted. Maybe the recovery code was flashed. If not, then ya, you'll need the firmwire completely restored which is a complicated job.

[dateq]

Tried that.. Didn't help..

I'm guessing I just have to give it a try..

Does anyone know if Darkfader is somewhere online?

Dateq

[Mithos]

Try:

A+B+SELECT+START when booting the DS...

[dateq]

Okay here's a little update.

Apparently yesterday very, very late.. while trying the ppflash util from Darkfader, my DS died due to a short. This morning I found out that the fuse (yes there is one) was blown out at the battery side, so first thing I did was restoring it (read: used a tiny piece of wire).
GREAT! the DS has power again!

Now, on to the flashing...

I did everything mentioned here, but still to no avail.
I still get a white bottom screen if I use A+B+SELECT+START while booting and a FlashAdvance card is inserted. However, I tried the original flashme.nds and the one I modified with ndsloader.bin (Let's call that one flashme_binned.nds)

Results:
Original: The screen is white and slowly there are vertical colored lines appearing.

Binned: The screen is white and stays white.

Any suggestions?

[enlightx]

hi m8 i carn`t help with your problem but if you decide to bin the DS ill have it off you as i need 1 for spares

let me know
djenlightx@hotmail.com

[dateq]

Already posted on dsdev.org.

To recap: Saturday I tried to flash my NDS. According to the tutorials and forums all over the net, it is quite save to turn off your NDS when there are no numbers showing in the lower right bottom of the screen.
Little did I know that all those tut's where outdated. I had NO numbers, but I had percentages in the middle part of the screen. To make a long story short, I turned of the machine while flashing (Yep, dweeb at this end). Saturday and yesterday I have been painstakingly trying to revive my NDS. And at 5:57 PM it finally gave in to my wishes and started to breath again!

I want to take this oppurtunity to thank nman, ratx, natrium, whacko and the rest over at #brickhelp
Last, but not least I want to say a BIG thank you to Darkfader, for giving so much support and advice on how to revive my NDS.

Now, to how my NDS came back to life.
A bit of the firmware was already in place, but not enough to try the fail-safe feature. That's why I started soldering and used the plans from Darkfade for ppflash.
That also didn't work at first because I was missing some vital dll's.
After consulting Darkfader, he gave me a couple of dll's and some instructions and of I went to flashing again.
Again, nothing or at least, it appeared like it. (I later found out that a flat-cable was not properly inserted and kept giving me white lower screens).

From a great guy, who wishes to remain anonymous, I got a working firmware and not just the fail-safe fw.bin file and flashed the working firmware (again with Darkfader's ppflash).
Lo' and behold! It worked!

I had to re-enter my data just like when it came out of the box, restarted it, enter the data AGAIN and that's that.

Again, a big thank you to the guys who helped me and gave me advice!!!

Richard

[dateq]

Already posted on dsdev.org.

Sorry I have made no pictures. I was too busy concentrating on doing things right :)

To straighten things out: It was NOT Darkfader's fault my DS was bricked, I did it MYSELF!

Anyways.. As for the walkthrough:

It's not too bad if you how, but keep in mind that the soldering points are VERY, and I mean VERY, small.
Also, for the cutting of trace 28, you need a very sharp knife.

The things I used for to flash the firmare:

1. A voltage/ohm meter
2. An external power supply (Set it to 3 volts!!!!! Anything more and you'll fry you DS for good!)
3. A soldering iron with a small tip
4. Some soldering wire
5. A printer cable that you don't need anymore. (I cut mine in half) (MAKE SURE YOU USE A CABLE WHERE THE CONNECTOR CAN BE OPENED, OR YOU'LL NEED A SEPARATE CONNECTOR TOO!!)
6. A very sharp and tiny knife.
7. Patience, a whole lot of it.
Recommended: A magnifying glass (you DON'T want to short things out!)
You'll also need a GBA Flash cartridge (NOT SUPERCARD!), like Flash Advance. If you don't have one, you'll need a complete firmware dump (Not just fw.bin as provided by Darkfader).
Ask around for a firmware dump, there are lots of people around that'll want to help you.

Okay.. Step by step:

-Cut the printercable, make it as long as you need, only keep in mind that the longer the cable is, the bigger the chance of garbled packages and you don't want that!

-Solder the wires on the connector end and write down the colors you used on pins: 2,3,4,5,6,13,18. You can cut all other wires away.

-Make sure you have the corresponding colors on the end where you cut the cable in half and make sure they don't touch.

-Now it's time to start ppflash. First thing you need to do is make sure you're LPT port has been set in the BIOS to use EPP. If set, plug in the connector.
Secondly, you'll need at least three DLL's, namely cygwin1.dll, cygioperm-0.dll, cygpopt-0.dll. Furthermore, you'll also need ioperm.exe and ioperm.sys
which you can download from www.cygwin.org.
Open up a command prompt and go to the directory where you put ppflash. Start ioperm -i and then start 'ppflash fw.bin'.
The screen should show you: "Flashing.." or something in that order. Now take your voltage meter and put the Ground end
on the wire that corresponds with pin 18 and put the '+' end on pin 2,3,4,5,6 (either one). The meter should now register something like 3,3 volts.
If it registers 5V, you'll need to use resistors. I can't tell you what kind, because I didn't need them :)

-Okay, now for the hard part. Stop ppflash and remove the connector from your computer. Now open up your DS.
The picture supplied by Darkfader is clear enough where to put the wires on the mainboard of the DS.
I suggest you start at the bottom of the RFU at the left side (I'm right-handed, so it's easier to work from left to right)
Also, to make an attachment ready for the external powersupply, make an Y-connection on the wire corresponding pin 18 on the connector.
Use one end on pin 2 of the RFU and one end on the Ground of your powersupply.
If you have a steady hand, it should not be too hard. If you feel unsure of your ability to solder, practise on some old piece of hardware.
Lastly solder the +3.3V wire to pin 28 on the RFU, but NOT before you used your sharp knife to cut away the trace between the small dot and the RFU.
Once the trace is cut, you can solder the +3.3V wire to the RFU and make sure you haven't made a connection between the dot and pin 28 again.

-Tape the wires down on the mainboard of the DS (You don't want any wires coming of and start poking around with 3.3V on the mainboard.
It doesn't seem much, but it will RUIN your DS beyond the point of repair.). Now you're set for uploading your firmware.

Put the LPT connector in your computer, attach the power supply to the +3.3V wire and attach the Ground to the split wire of pin 2 on the RFU.
Open up a command prompt on your computer and go to the directpory where you put ppflash. Type in 'ppflash fw.bin' and it should start as soon as you hit 'Enter'.
You should see appearing som code (three lines to be exact) and then you're almost done! REMEMBER: If you don't have a flash cartridge like Flash Advance,
use a complete firmware dump!! It'll take considerably longer to upload, but you're set from the start!

All that is left, is removing the wires you soldered and rebuilding the trace you cut on pin 28. (Just use an excess of soldering tin. No too much mind!)
Put the back lid back on the DS, and insert the battery. You don't have to screw all the screws back in, maybe you'll have to solder again!

If you boot up your DS now, a green light should be visible, if it's not something is definately wrong.
Plug in your socket adapter of the DS and simultaniously turn on your DS.
If your DS boot and immediately shuts off, you most probably have blown out fuse F2 on the mainboard.
THAT is why I recommended not closing your back lid.
Remove the back lid again and look for F2 near the battery connector. Use your meter and see if there is a connection. If there is a connection, there is another
fuse on the other side of the mainboard. If there is no connection, take a tiny piece of wire and bridge the two ends of the fuse. Quick and dirty, but it works.

If your DS boots up, it'll do nothing yet. Put in your Flash cartridge and boot up your DS whilst holding START+SELECT+L+R. The DS will now boot from the cartridge and
you can re-flash the firmware. You may or may not need to short SL1 again, you'll know if the percentage counter stops :)
If you flashed the complete firmware, You'll immediately get the data-entry screen just as the DS came out of the box.

If you experience problems or need some advice, PM me.

Greetz, Richard

[whitetigre88]

Does opening the ds void the warranty. If so, how can they tell u opened it?

[ultrablade]

This topic is very old. But I needed to ppflash my NDS and thanks alot dateq for the info!!!

Just wish for luck!!!

tHE aNoNymoUS ultrablADe

[Hank]

Hi!

Tryed ppflash, but writing fails, the three lines showed as Result 0, 1, or 3, sometimes 0,0,0, sometimes 0,1,0 ... but never 1,1,1.

Read in this thread that Supercard wouldnt work, but thats all i have. Could anybody post a full Firware Dump please? Perhaps this would work for me.

Thanks,

Hank

[Zener]

I have the same problem that Dateq.

I had a corrup firmware, I have used ppflash and OK but I have a Supercard and then I can still put a complete Flashme.

I need a complete firmware dump for put with ppflash, a bin file.

I have been looking for it but I don't see it at any place.

If somebody knows where can I find it, please tell me.

Thanks in advance.:o

[FifthE1ement]

Try the unbricking guide in the flashcart guide:

http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=27045

FifthE1ement

[Zener]

Thanks for the help FifthE1ement,

I have readen, and I have tried, but don't work for me. I have "done" the combined file with ndsloader.bin + flashme.nds on binary mode with copy command and with result name of flashme.nds.gba.

I have put on Supercard, I can load the file, but then all stop. The installer don't execute it. And any other rom no too. Only load, but not execute.

I have tried with A+B+Select+Start, with A+B+X+Y, with L+R+Select+Start, ..... and all time the same result.

This because I need a full flash for put it with ppflash.

Thanks again.