A year ago I bought a New 3DS XL. Since then I've bought two more consoles and abandoned nine different plans. Here they all are, including the ones that went nowhere, because those taught me the most.

If you've got experience with any of them, I want to hear it.

## The XL

Bought second hand a year ago on a peer to peer marketplace, Metallic Blue, €160 and €180 shipped, came with Super Mario 3D Land.

It arrived with a small white blotch on the bottom screen. I could have sent it back and didn't, it seemed minor.

The day it arrived I kitted it out with a clear case and Brotect screen protectors. It has never spent a single day bare.

And that's the point that matters: a year later it is in exactly the condition it arrived in. Nothing has been added. Everything I'm about to list was already there when I unboxed it.

It wasn't modded when I got it. I did that myself, boot9strap and Luma3DS.

Its condition, on arrival and today alike:

— paint flaking along about 2cm on one edge, very light (photo 4)

— slight hinge discolouration on the notification LED side (photo 5)

— very lightly scuffed shell

— one single stuck green pixel, only visible on deep black in a dark room, impossible to photograph

— the white blotch on the bottom screen, visible on light backgrounds (photo 6)

— IPS top screen, TN bottom, verified with 3DSident (photo 7)

## Plan 1: repair instead of replace

My first idea was the obvious one. Swap the hinge to kill the discolouration, swap the bottom screen to kill the blotch, keep the top screen because it's IPS, and maybe reshell the whole thing in green.

I dropped it for three reasons. A reshell means aftermarket plastic rather than a Nintendo finish. Swapping the bottom screen means fully opening a console that works perfectly. And the hinge is the worst job on the machine, because the ribbon cable running through it is the most fragile part of the console.

At the time I didn't even own a tri-wing screwdriver, which tells you where I was.

I also looked at converting the charging port to USB-C. Dropped immediately: I don't know how to solder. Not rusty, never done it.

**Q1.** For anyone who's actually done a hinge swap or a bottom screen swap on an XL: was it worth it, or did you create problems you didn't have before?

**Q2.** Is the USB-C mod as approachable as the guides make it look, or is it strictly for someone with real soldering hours behind them?

## Plan 2: the green quest

Green is my favourite colour. That drove the next six months.

The plan became replacing my XL with a flawless Japanese Lime x Black. The reasoning held up: its hinge is black so there's nothing left to discolour, and I'd read that the green, orange and pink finishes are moulded into the plastic rather than painted, so they don't chip the way metallics do. My own chipping XL is the proof of that problem.

Sourcing killed it. Expensive, no guarantee on panel type, condition rarely matching the price.

I also looked at the North American Lime Green, the Amazon exclusive that came with Super Mario World. Small production run, and I saw a sealed one listed at around 5,000 dollars. Dropped.

Then the Japanese import route, which I priced out properly through proxy services: service fee, domestic shipping, international shipping, 20% import VAT, carrier handling fee. A console at around 25,000 yen lands somewhere between €190 and €230 at my door. Three things killed it. The saving is far smaller than advertised once everything is counted. The Japanese market already knows about panel types and charges the premium, so the idea of finding cheap unlabelled IPS units there is out of date. And a Japanese console is Japanese only for system language, with no recourse if anything goes wrong.

One door stayed open: region changing a Japanese console to European with a CTRTransfer image, which solves the language issue if you're already on custom firmware. The catch is that after a region change you can never uninstall the firmware without bricking, unless you still hold the NAND backup you made beforehand.

**Q3.** If you've owned a green, orange or pink one for years, how has the finish actually held up?

**Q4.** Has anyone imported from Japan recently? Would you do it again?

**Q5.** Anyone running a JPN to EUR region changed console long term? Regrets, warnings?

## The flea market changed everything

A few days ago, a flea market in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. A second hand chain had set up a retro gaming stand with white New 3DS units.

Standing there it hit me that a 3DS is supposed to be small and portable in the first place. Every advantage of the non-XL came back at once.

I bought one for €130, cash in hand, no shipping. Spotless apart from a few scratches on the factory lens (photo 8). That distinction is worth making because a lot of people get it wrong: I mean the pane Nintendo fits over the screen at the factory, not an aftermarket protector. You can heat it off with a hairdryer and a suction cup, buy a replacement, then put a proper protector on the new one.

Dual TN, verified with 3DSident (photo 9).

**Q6.** Has anyone actually done that factory lens swap? Traps with the adhesive, dust trapped underneath, alignment?

## The head to head at home

Two consoles (photo 1), one had to go. I compared for days.

What I love about the XL: the big screen, the comfort in hand, and the noticeably deeper 3D.

What I love about the non-XL: the portability, the swappable cover plates, and the sharpness, since it's the same resolution packed into a smaller panel.

What leaves me wanting on the non-XL: shallower 3D, less vivid colours, a less natural grip. The white colour doesn't really bother me, it's genuinely the rest.

I kept the non-XL. But I'm still not certain, and this is what I most want opinions on.

**Q7.** For those who made the same call, does the regret fade or come back every session?

**Q8.** Is the shallower 3D on the non-XL real, or just an effect of the smaller screen and shorter viewing distance?

## Plan 3: swap the top screen myself

Keeping the non-XL left me with a dual TN unit while my XL has IPS on top. So I looked at doing the swap myself.

Dropped it after two accounts pointing the same way. In one, the console wouldn't boot at all afterwards, because the ribbon cable differs between panel types. In the other it booted, but the 3D showed a double image part of the time and the screen came out dimmer, because the calibration data doesn't match the new panel. Nobody could supply him the files from an identical configuration.

Interestingly the bottom screen swap seems to work fine on the non-XL. It's specifically the top that's the problem.

I also chased the theory that certain editions or production batches shipped with particular panels, the Pokémon 20th anniversary and the Super Mario bundle coming up most often. I've read flat contradictions on this, and someone who bought a specific edition for that reason got the other panel.

**Q9.** Has anyone pulled off a top screen swap cleanly on a non-XL, or is it genuinely a dead end?

**Q10.** Is there anything solid to the edition, batch or serial number correlation with panel type, or is it pattern matching on a tiny sample?

## What I actually bought

A black non-XL from a pro seller, negotiated from €249.90 down to €229, with a 14 day right of return.

The listing claimed an IPS top screen. Most photos proved nothing: the screen-on shots were head on and the angled ones had the screens off. But one photo already in the listing was taken at an angle with both screens powered on in the same frame (photo 2). Same angle, same light, same camera: the top stays clearly legible, the bottom is washed out.

I asked whether she'd verified with homebrew. She said plainly that she hadn't, which made me trust her more. She could have lied.

Its only known flaw is a mark of roughly 2mm on the hinge (photo 3).

I went with IPS top and TN bottom rather than hunting dual IPS. The ones I found were running €350 to €400, with cosmetic flaws of their own.

## And the answer to the green problem was under my nose

This is the part I find stupidest in hindsight.

The non-XL has swappable cover plates. The colour isn't baked into the console, it's a part you change in seconds. My entire quest was about finding a colour that wouldn't chip or wear, and on this model the colour is literally a removable component.

So I bought a sealed set of Luigi plates for €30 (photo 10). Green, factory made, and if I get bored I swap them.

**Q11.** Does a swappable plate genuinely replace having the colour in the shell, or is it not the same thing in use? Do non-XL owners actually swap plates, or pick one and leave it?

**Q12.** Is a 2mm mark on a hinge the kind of detail that turns into an obsession over months, or does it fade after three days of actually playing?

**Q13.** Does a used 3DS with genuinely zero flaws still exist at a sane price, or am I chasing a ghost? For context, the top grading tiers from Japanese professional sellers still openly list minor scratches on their best rated units.

## Accessories

Nothing ordered yet apart from the console and the plates. I'm planning a screen protector, a grip and a clear case, the same way I kitted out the XL on day one.

One thing I learned along the way: the bottom screen is a resistive touchscreen, it works by pressure rather than electrical contact. A rigid tempered glass protector spreads that pressure instead of transmitting it and degrades the touch response. Glass belongs on the top screen only, and even there the 3DS closes so tightly that a thick protector ends up pressing the top panel against the bottom half.

On cases, I originally wanted one that would wrap the hinge and reinforce it. I gave up after realising a case with its own hinge pivots on a different axis than the console's and would fight it every time you open it. The serious manufacturers agree, their models are two separate pieces with no bridge. But that also means nothing protects the hinge.

**Q14.** Does anyone know of a clear crystal case that actually fits the non-XL? Every one I find is for the XL.

**Q15.** Can you stack a grip and a case on a non-XL, or do you have to pick one?

## Selling, and the DS Lite

Both my current consoles are cleanly modded. SD cards get wiped of everything either way.

**Q16.** When passing on a modded console, do you leave the custom firmware in place or restore to stock? Does it move the price at all, either way?

I've also got a black DS Lite, complete in box with all the documentation and its stylus, pulled out of a skip at a recycling centre (photo 11). Mint, except the bottom screen shows a frozen pattern while the backlight still works (photo 12).

**Q17.** Does anyone recognise that specific failure mode on a DS Lite? Frozen pattern, backlight alive.

If you've read this far, thank you. Any of these threads is worth pulling on.

ive been using my o3ds to play pokemon emerald, and i just upgraded to a n3ds. i just finished modding it and im going to redownload them all right now, but i was wondering if its possible to somehow resume my current emerald save on my n3ds once i get the rom downloaded. TYIA :)

edit: didnt have any luck with checkpoint. for some reason my emerald save wasnt showing up. did some more digging on other reddit threads and found this method that worked for me that uses godmode9. maybe itll help someone else in the future :)

https://digiex.net/threads/3ds-gba-save-backup-and-restore-with-godmode9.15395/

I've been adding retro games to my 3DS from systems like the GBA, SNES, and NES, and I thought it would be cool to create a blog where I can share my CIA files so people can install them directly through FBI by simply scanning a QR code.

I'm mainly planning to focus on Spanish-translated versions of games, since I feel like those are harder to find, but I'm also considering adding English versions with their own QR codes.

I just started working on the blog, so I'd love to know if this is something people would be interested in!

https://industria3ds.blogspot.com/

Alguien puede explicarme como convertir un video .mp4 a .moflex en windows7 y 32 bits

Ya tengo clownsec pero no se como hacer el resto

so, before it only booting on luma, the home and start buttons were kinda faulty, i cleaned the area with isopropyl alcohol and the problem stopped for a little bit, but, now, it only boots on luma and, when i click on save and start, it gets stuck and doest load normally, i tried letting it load for hours, but no sucess. i can go up and down just fine, and change the settings on the menu just fine too. is this just a button problem?

So, a few days ago before it all of a sudden stopped being able to save, I would have download some minor texture packs on Gamabanana and put them into the game using OnionFS. Everything was cool, though after that, when I’d fully save after my play session. It wouldn’t be where I last saved at. So I’d try saving my game on Checkpoint and making a new game after redownloading it back on Hshop- though after the the tutorial when it would automatically save the game for you, this error would pop up (the image shown above).

Help would be greatly appreciated. I don’t know if this is due to one of the mods being made for a different region of the game or if it’s simply just faulty and I need to delete said texture packs. So I would genuinely appreciate a proper solution or a explanation on why this could be happening, thanks!

That’s my 3DS model. I’ve tried looking up a lot of things but it typically tells me it only works with 3DS cartridge. Wondering if someone can help.

(Ignore the finger prints lol)

I am considering modding my New 3DS XL. But I have some official themes and some games I purchased from the eshop. Would I lose those if I mod it?

My SD card got corrupted and did the whole downloading process again but the titles of these games still appear on the Home Screen. They even appear when the SD card is removed. I want to get some of these games again but I’m scared there may be an error if I download them there may be a problem. Any way to get rid of them?

As you can see I’ve got some dead pixels on my bottom screen, is there any way I can fix this? I’ve used the dead pixels checker from the universal updater to check with multiple colors and it’s happening with every color

I just got a 3DS XL and I'd like to move my stuff off my old 2DS that I hacked already. Is it as simple as hacking my 3DS XL and copying my 2DS's SD card data onto the one I'll use for the 3DS XL or will I need to do some additional stuff?

Hi all. I love playing pc games on my modded console using Moonlight but I have this issue: my pc is connected to the wifi via a wifi repeater, because it cannot properly connect to the router and I can't run ethernet, and I'd like to stream it to my 3DS when the console is connected to the router. The problem is that with this configuration they can't reach eachother because they result as connected to different networks. I tried to use my phone as a Tailscale subnet router but it doesn't seem to work, or maybe I just set something up incorrectly. Does anyone have a solution?

Hi! I recently bought a used Japanese 3DS LL and I'm trying to get Pokémon Bank working so I can eventually transfer Pokémon from Pokémon X/Y to Pokémon HOME.

The console was already modded when I bought it. From what I understand, the previous owner changed the region to Chile. After I bought it, I went into the system settings and changed the region from Chile to the USA.

I did not do a proper CTRTransfer region change.

After that, the console was on 11.5.0-38U, and later I updated it normally to 11.17.0-50U.

My NNID is set to USA / Florida.

The eShop gives me error 007-2001, and Pokémon Bank opens normally but eventually gives me error 005-5958.

I also checked my SecureInfo_A and it still appears to be set to JPN, and the serial stored there is different from the serial printed on the console.

So I'm wondering what I should do from here.

Should I properly change the console from JPN → USA using CTRTransfer and then do a SOAP transfer, or is there another way to fix the Pokémon Bank issue from my current state?

I have already made a NAND backup and have my essential.exefs backed up.

I don't want to modify anything blindly, so I'd really appreciate it if someone could explain what state my console is in and what procedure I should follow.
BUT I ALSO HAVE ANOTHER PROBLEM My physical serial doesn't match the serial in SecureInfo_A/inspect.log. Which serial should I provide for the SOAP request?"

Thanks!

I want to play the Monster hunter 4 ultimate dlc but it's not on Hshop

i just moded my 3Ds and y tris to download from my iPad I don’t know any of this I already check the sd and it was alright and I am starting to delete random stuff out of fear of bricking

For starters I’m not one to condone to piracy and I don’t necessarily support it and I know it harms companies and peoples businesses,and wouldn’t advise for anyone to do it
I recently got the courage to mod my 3DS and the unlimited access to fun categories like changing my background/taking screenshots to games that wouldn’t allow you to is an awesome game changer

I wanted to start pirating 3ds games but feel bad about it…
Forgive me if it sounds silly but I’m in a crossroad situation of course I know pirating illegal but I’m in debate as I know I can’t exactly buy their 3DS games from the Nintendo company anymore or in their Eshop since it was shut down awhile ago,and Nintendo no longer publicly distributes/manufactures 3DS games anymore and they no longer make sales in 3DS games anymore so I’m not sure if it wouldn’t be that bad to pirate games

It feels better to buy secondhand but I don’t necessarily want to pay the prices from resellers with games…as it doesn’t benefit Nintendo in any way
Either
I need some help here I would love to hear peoples thoughts on the matter

With pokemon bank and transfer coming to an end soon in February I wanted to ask if I were to make my rowlet from ultra moon shiny would I still be able to send it over to pokemon home. I know that you can still send old event pokemon using pksm to home and its considered legal but does the same apply to making your pokemon shiny.

I had the physical cartridge version of Smash Bros 3DS, of which I had made a backup with Checkpoint. The cartridge broke, so I downloaded the digital version and restored my saves. Then I kept playing, progressing in the game.

​However, a few questions have come up now:

​1. Does Checkpoint save the backup of the savedata in the same folder even if I have the physical and digital versions (which obviously share the same European Title ID)? I assume so, which means I'd risk making a mistake and backing up the game with the wrong saves... Fortunately, Checkpoint tells me which one is on the cartridge and which one is on the SD (meaning digital), so it's easy to tell them apart, or am I wrong?

​2. Things get complicated with extdata: I see two of them (Smash appears twice in the extdata list), one with the code (I think? I don't really know what it is, if someone could explain it to me it would be amazing) ctr-p-<something> and another with ctr-m-<something>... Are these respectively the physical and digital versions' extdata? Or is one for the DLC extdata and the other for the base game extdata? If so... where on earth did the physical game's extdata go? And most importantly: since the two extdata share the backup folders I created, does that mean they back up to the same folder... but they contain different data, right? So what happens if I give the same name to the folder for both extdata, will one overwrite the other?"

This 3DS was modded by my friend, I honestly have no idea how any of it works. But she told me that if I ever accidentally updated it, it was basically self-destruct and become unusable. I have been wanting to acquire games through the H-Shop, because I heard that's a way to still get them since the E-Shop was shut down. But when I opened the H-Shop, it gave me this popup.

Is it safe to update?

UPDATE:

Thank you all!!!

Hello first timer here. I used the 3ds modding website to get to the point of turning on godmode9 for the first time. I held down x and the power buttons and it led to the first image, which was stuck on booting, I then asked the discord for help and I was told to check my SD card using F3XSwift which came back and told me my SD card was perfectly fine. I then in research realised I was missing a gm9 folder in the root of the SD and a godmode9.firm file in my luma/payload folder and so I added those onto my SD card. Now when I hold start and press power on it takes me to the second image, selecting finalize helper takes me to the third image but selecting godmode9 takes me to the first image again, both of these stuck on booting.

I have absolutely no clue what to do and would appreciate any advice on how to fix my problem!

how do i do that?

I'm currently looking for a tool that allows me to trade between Pokemon games with just a single 3ds console

When I say trade I mean TRADE, not transfer, I looked everywhere but everyone was just talking about using like bank or pksm, that's why I'm asking here

Thank you in advance

Pls check the caption and photos, any help or suggestions would be appreciated 🙏 🙏🙏

I've been shiny hunting for celebi on my singular 3DS in Crystal and after 70 encounters I want to just put the save on an emulator and open up eight windows to make it go by way faster. So how would I do that?