My Adventures Hacking my Switch - From Bricked to Working

Content:

• Why I Bought a Switch
• The Story of My Switch
• What Games I’ve Played
• The Context Behind Re-Installing the OS
• The Process of Re-Installing
• The SOP for Re-Installing the TX System

I bought my Switch in 2020 when I was working as an infrastructure manager at a game company. I was also responsible for an SLG game line. Before joining that gaming company, I rarely spent time playing games. Most games I had played were casual ones like Contra and Plants vs Zombies. So in order to make better game products and tailor our infrastructure to the company’s needs, I needed to cram on game knowledge.

Although I wasn’t very interested in playing games, working in the industry meant I needed true understanding by trying games myself, not just reading about them. I wanted to pick a beginner-friendly game product. My friend Chen Kun had introduced us to the Switch before which I thought was pretty good. So I ordered a dual system Switch, one being the native OS and the other being the TX System, which has modified circuits and chips installed through hardware hacking. My thinking then was that I could play legit games with game cards, and also try out hacked games. In the end though, I bought very few legit game cards, and didn’t play many hacked games either, as work kept me very busy with little personal time.

After buying it in 2020, I played some Zelda. I also recommended it to my friend Wang Haojie. Later at Chinese New Year I played Snipperclips with friends. After that it mostly gathered dust.

Earlier this year after moving, I didn’t charge it for over a month. When I tried to turn it on after charging, it wouldn’t start up. At the time I thought it was a battery issue so I just set it aside.

Yesterday, December 24th, I was at my friend Chen Kun’s place for lunch. His home is very high-tech and smart. After eating, we played Super Mario Party together and had a blast. I realized there were so many multiplayer games I hadn’t tried, and I should fix up my Switch. Next month I’m traveling to Dali with friends and thought it’d be fun to bring it and play games together at night!

So last night after getting home, I started tinkering with my unresponsive Switch. I first searched Little Red Book for a solution tutorial, since before this I had no idea if my console was hard or software modded.

For a long time actually, I had searched online for tutorials but they were filled with terminology like “short circuit”, “atmosphere” etc that I didn’t understand. So this time I didn’t use a search engine directly.

Since the console booted to an interface with SX OS, I tried a tutorial I found in Little Red Book. But after about an hour I still couldn’t get it to work.

Switch Hacking Steps

1. Copy SX OS files to tf card root directory;

2. With console off, insert card. Short circuit, inject payload, hold Volume + during inject to enter SX OS boot menu;

3. Enter Options menu, click NAND on left. Click DumpNAND on right, click Continue. This takes 1+ hour, plug in power if needed;

4. When done, click Power Off top left to shutdown, remove tf card. Copy sxos/backup folder fully from card to computer and store properly;

5. Insert card with console off. Short circuit, inject payload, hold Volume + during inject to enter SX OS boot menu. Select first item Custom FW to enter hacked OS;

6. Check if hack successful by entering Albums to see if able to enter hacked OS.

Although this tutorial didn’t succeed in the end, it gave me a sense that hacking Switch is a mature industry. There should be professionals focused just on this. If I could find one of them and ask, I should be able to get a solution.

I didn’t ask ChatGPT at this point because its strengths lie in legal, well-documented surface knowledge. What I needed now was gray area stuff without robust solutions, and even if there were solutions they’d be highly obscure, closed-source, hidden in registered-only forums. So finding a practitioner seemed key.

I searched IdleFish with a “nothing to lose” mindset and found sellers of SX OS activation and virtual systems. I started chatting with one and as expected, professionals in this industry are reliable in their expertise. With his help I learned my console was hard modded with an early original chip that is very stable. He told me to directly search for tutorials on re-installing TX dual system hacked Switches.

So I searched those keywords and found some TX system tutorials on Game Years forum where I had occasionally downloaded hacked games before when directed by the shop I originally bought the console from (didn’t ask them now since they’ve closed on Taobao). However none were specific to re-installing, only migrating TX to Atmosphere. After discussing with the IdleFish seller I felt emboldened now knowing the hardware likely wouldn’t break from my tinkering. Although I still didn’t understand Atmosphere well, I took a “nothing to lose” approach and followed a mashup of steps from a few tutorials I found. Eventually after the final reboot when it turned back on, I was extremely happy!

After getting set back up around 11 PM, I realized the only cartridge I had on hand was Snipperclips which needs 4 controllers to play, while I only had 2. So I searched how to install more games on the hacked OS.

After another 1+ hour I finally got some party games installed to test: Super Mario Party, Just Dance, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I also put on Contra to test single player. A small hiccup occurred when detaching the Joy-Cons - the console and controllers were disconnecting, which worried me at first into thinking I had messed up Atmosphere causing pairing issues. But a search on Douyin uncovered the solution. And now my Switch has successfully come back to life!

I’ve since bought another set of Joy-Cons and a 4-slot charging dock ready for multiplayer gaming at gatherings in the future.

I’ll document the SOP for installing Atmosphere on TX system separately to refer to if I ever need to re-install again.