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DS Misc > I own a bricker proof DS

#72423 - caitsith2 - Sat Feb 18, 2006 1:54 pm

In the process of testing/customizing homebrew firmware on my DS, and I ended up finding that I had to short SL1 every single time I decided to install an update. If I didn't short SL1, the update would not get installed. This led me to investigate exactly how many 256 byte pages of my DS firmware was SL1 protected. That ended up being everything except the last 8 pages. (which is 0.78125% of the firmware space.)

Basically, that means no bricker can turn my DS into a high tech brick, unless I specifically short SL1 to allow it to happen. In any case, the most I would lose from running such a bricker, assuming I don't short SL1, is my user settings and wifi connection ID/settings. (and I have a complete backup of that info already).

In case your wondering, the chipID I have retrieved from the firmware is 0x16621600, using joat's getID code.

#72426 - quadomatic - Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:20 pm

holy crap....

how the hell did that happen? i wonder if there are any more like it....?

#72460 - JaJa - Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:04 pm

Well that might go someway to explaining why some DS's needed shorting when you did Flashme V5 --> Flashme V6, whilst others didn't

#72502 - The 9th Sage - Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:02 am

JaJa wrote:
Well that might go someway to explaining why some DS's needed shorting when you did Flashme V5 --> Flashme V6, whilst others didn't


Well...I guess so. O_o I wouldn't have expected this though. When did Nintendo start doing this I wonder?
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#72504 - caitsith2 - Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:32 am

I have no idea as to when. my DS came with firmware V3, and is serial # NU11282***5.

Most likely, Nintendo plans on using the remainig 2 unused pages in the future, and thats it. Its possible that nintendo was looking for a firmware chip that had individual page protection, so as to be able to protect everything except the last 8 pages. The best they were able to do for the time being was protect 1/4 of the firmware from being changed.

I have to short SL1 for every flashme update, where those with only 1/4 firmware protection only has to short SL1 for updates in the first 64K of the firmware.

#72505 - natrium42 - Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:33 am

Some DSes have a flash chip by Sanyo. It allows to select the protected area. There is a data sheet for LE25FW206: http://www.maid.gr.jp/jubai/bandbrothers/binary/LE25FW206_v1.0.pdf
But the data sheet for LE25FW203 (the chip used) couldn't be found so far. Although, it's probably similar.
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