3DS:Black screen unbrick

When a 3DS boots to a backlit black screen instead of the HOME Menu, it is usually a bad sign. This page lists common troubleshooting steps to fix this issue.

The troubleshooting below should always be started at the first section. The troubleshooting will direct you to the next sections if necessary.

CFW Check

First, we will check if the console has CFW. This will help as it allows access to GodMode9, a helpful tool for troubleshooting and fixing issues.

1. Power on your console while holding the SELECT button
   • If your console boots to the Luma3DS configuration menu, press START to save, then continue to the CFW troubleshooting section below
   • If your console doesn't boot to the Luma3DS configuration menu, do the same without the SD card inserted
     • If your console does boot to the Luma3DS configuration menu, your SD card wasn't inserted correctly, re-insert it and try again
     • If your console turns off right away, you have CFW and can continue to the CFW troubleshooting section below
     • If your console doesn't boot to the Luma3DS configuration menu but black-screens, your console is likely bricked without CFW, and you should continue to the stock troubleshooting section at the bottom of this page
       • To make sure of this, hold SELECT+START+X+POWER for seven seconds while the console is powered off - if the notification LED lights up a color, then you have working CFW but something is interfering with Luma. Join the Nintendo Homebrew Discord for more advanced help

CFW troubleshooting

Section I - Prep Work

1. Follow Restoring / Updating CFW, then "Updating GodMode9" and "Creating a NAND backup" section on 3DS:GodMode9/Usage
2. Take out any inserted game cartridge
3. Continue to the next section

Section II - Lumabug

1. Power on your console
2. Wait ten seconds, then press L+↓+SELECT at the same time
   • If the Rosalina menu opens, you're likely experiencing Lumabug - wait 15 minutes, and the HOME Menu should load on its own. If this doesn't work, continue to the next section
   • If Rosalina doesn't open, continue to the next section

Section III - Luma3DS configuration reset

1. Insert the SD card into your computer
2. Navigate to the folder sd:/luma
3. Delete config.ini
4. Reinsert the SD card into your console
5. Power on your console
   • If your console doesn't boot to the Luma3DS config, follow SD Clean, then return to section 2
6. Do not enable anything, just press START to save the default configuration
   • If your console boots to the HOME Menu, you should look for and delete faulty patches in /luma/sysmodules and /luma/titles on the SD card before turning Enable game patching or Loading external FIRMs and modules back on
   • If your console doesn't boot to the HOME Menu, continue to the next section
   • If your console boots to an error, check the Luma exceptions page for how to fix your error, or ask for help in the Nintendo Homebrew Discord if your error isn't listed there

Section IV - SD extdata

1. Power on your console without the SD card inserted
   • If it boots to the Luma3DS configuration screen, press START to save
   • If it doesn't boot to the HOME menu, continue to the next section
   • If it boots to the HOME Menu, do the following steps:
     1. Insert your SD card into your computer
     2. Navigate to Nintendo 3DS -> ID0 -> ID1 -> extdata
        • ID0 and ID1 are 32-character long folders
        • If you have multiple ID0/ID1 folders, do the following for all of them
     3. Delete the corresponding folder for your region:
        • USA: 0000008f
        • EUR: 00000098
        • JPN: 00000082
        • KOR: 000000A9
     4. Reinsert your SD card into your console
     5. Power on your console
        • If it still doesn't boot to the HOME Menu, but does without the SD card, you're experiencing a very weird issue and should ask in the Nintendo Homebrew discord for more advanced help

Section V - Safe Mode

1. Power on your console while holding L+R+↑+A
   • If your console boots to the Safe Mode menu, perform the update and see if it boots to the HOME Menu
   • If it doesn't boot to Safe Mode, or doesn't boot to the HOME Menu after a Safe Mode update, continue to the next section

Section VI - ctrcheck

1. Open this link in a browser, click the Raw button in the top right, and then right-click the page and choose the option that says 'Save As', 'Save Page As', or similar
2. Place the resulting file (ctrcheck.gm9) in sd:/gm9/scripts on the SD card
3. Power on your 3DS while holding START
4. Press the HOME button, then go into Scripts... -> ctrcheck -> Everything
5. Once it finishes, read the outputs on the lower screen. If they say any of the following, do the matching instructions:
   • Warning: ______ installed to firm0/firm1: Update your bootloader using this page of 3DS Hacks Guide
     • This also applies if the Warning: text instead reads Critical:, but if it reads Fatal Error then ask for help in the Nintendo Homebrew Discord
   • Fatal Error: NVRAM is inaccessible: Ask for help in the Nintendo Homebrew Discord to receive a custom version of Luma that bypasses NVRAM
     • Even with this custom version, you cannot use Wi-Fi or play DS games on the console with this error - fixing it entirely requires a hardware replacement
   • Any text that ends with If you unlocked write perms earlier, this has been fixed.: The error that was fixed may now allow your console to boot. Reboot after checking the rest of the output and see if the HOME Menu appears
   • If any Warning, Critical, or Fatal Error that is not in the above set appears, ask for help in the Nintendo Homebrew Discord and provide the full output of ctrcheck
6. If the console doesn't boot to the HOME Menu after all applicable fixes have been tried, continue to the next section

Section VII - CTRTransfer

1. Follow the CTRTransfer guide on 3DS Hacks Guide
   • If the console doesn't boot to the HOME Menu at the end of Section II, continue to the next section of this guide

Section VIII - New 3DS camera brick

If you are currently troubleshooting an old model console, you can skip this section. If you are unsure whether your console is new or old, look at its shoulder buttons. A new model has four (ZL+L+R+ZR), and an old model has two (L+R).

1. Insert your SD card into your computer
2. Navigate to the /luma/ folder
3. Look for errdisp.txt
   1. If it exists, rename it to _errdisp.txt
   2. If it doesn't exist, continue to the next section
4. Insert your SD card back into your console
5. Power on your console
6. Wait 15 seconds
7. Power off your console
8. Navigate to the /luma/ folder
9. Look for errdisp.txt
   • If it exists, open it in a text editor, and check if the process name is qtm, if it is you need to disconnect your inner camera or replace it. If it's different, you're experiencing a very weird issue and should ask in the Nintendo Homebrew discord for more advanced help
   • If it doesn't exist, continue to the next section

Section IX - 3ds_hw_test

1. Download 3ds_hw_test.firm
2. Place this file in sd:/luma/payloads on the SD card
3. Turn on your 3DS while holding START
4. Select 3ds_hw_test
5. Press any button to start the test
6. The test will take up to 45 minutes, when it's done press any button to turn it off, then open the newly generated HWTEST.LOG file on the SD card in a text editor
7. Scroll down to the end, and look at the number of errors
   • If the number is 0, continue to the next section
   • If the number is more than 0, your console's RAM is dying and you need to replace the motherboard

Section X - Manual CTRTransfer

1. Follow 3DS:CTRTransfer/Manual

This is the end, if your console hasn't booted to the HOME Menu, go to the Nintendo Homebrew Discord and mention that you've tried this page already.

Stock troubleshooting

Section I - Safe Mode

1. Power on your console while holding L+R+↑+A
   • If your console boots to the Safe Mode menu, perform the update and see if it boots to the HOME Menu
   • If it doesn't boot to Safe Mode, or doesn't boot to the HOME Menu after a Safe Mode update, continue to the next section

Section II - Shutdown menu

1. Power on your console
2. Wait 30 seconds
3. Press the POWER button
   • If it enters the shutdown menu(grey screen with text), youre experiencing f000000b corruption, and need to install boot9strap with ntrboot in order to fix the issue
   • If it stays black and only powers off if you hold the button for 15 seconds, it may be potentially fixable with ntrboot if it is not a hardware issue

Fixing this is potentially possible with NTRBoot, if it isn't a hardware issue.