3DS:Black screen unbrick

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When a 3DS boots to a 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, then power off again, hold HOME, and then press POWER - if the notification LED lit up a color or the fastboot3DS menu appears, 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 - RTCBug

  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 RTCBug - return by pressing B, 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. Follow the instructions on the ctrcheck page
  2. If the console doesn't boot to the HOME Menu after all applicable fixes have been tried, continue to the next section

Section VII - New 3DS camera brick

OOjs UI icon information-progressive.svg If you are currently troubleshooting an old model console, ignore this and skip to the next 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 this file already exists, rename it to _errdisp.txt
    2. If this file doesn't exist, skip to the next section
  4. Reinsert your SD card into the console
  5. Power on the console
  6. Wait 30 seconds without pressing any buttons
  7. Power off the console
  8. Navigate to the /luma/ folder
  9. Look for errdisp.txt
    • If this file exists, open it in a text editor, and check if the process name is qtm
      • If the process name is qtm, you need to disconnect your inner camera or replace it
      • If the process name is something else, your console has a very unusual issue and you should ask in the Nintendo Homebrew Discord for more advanced help
    • If this file doesn't exist, continue to the next section

Section VIII - 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 IX - 3ds_hw_test

  1. Follow the instructions on the hardware test page
    • If the number of errors from this is zero, continue to the next section


Section X - Manual CTRTransfer

  1. Follow 3DS:CTRTransfer/Manual

By this point, you have exhausted all conventional fixes. If your console has not booted to the HOME Menu by now, 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 the console
  2. Wait 30 seconds without touching any buttons
  3. Press the POWER button
    • If the shutdown menu opens (a grey screen with text), you're experiencing f000000b corruption and must install boot9strap with ntrboot in order to fix the issue
    • If the screen stays black and the console only powers off if you hold the button for 15 seconds, this may be potentially fixable with ntrboot if it is not a hardware issue
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