iFixit - Answers With Device "Nintendo 3DS"

Nintendo 3DS: Screen freezes after one touch

Sun, 23 Aug 2015 13:43:22 -0700

My sons 3ds charges, and the screens both come on. I am able to click on the sd folders....they register as empty. Then if I try and touch any other icon (settings, web, camera) the game freezes? Can anyone one give suggestions?

⟐ Answered 8월 23, 2015 at 13:43 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: How do you fix a broken hinge

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:42:04 -0700

going to fix ds's and sell them of again need to know how to fix this stuff

⟐ Commented 1월 22, 2015 at 13:42 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Nintendo 3DS full housing replacement

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 00:03:53 -0700

I have recently bought a 2nd hand 3DS and it was full of scratches and marks on the outer casing, i have bought a full housing replacement kit and was wondering if you could make a tutorial on how to use it.

⟐ Answer edited 1월 14, 2015 at 0:03 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Not functioning correctly after water damage

Sun, 05 Jan 2014 12:27:24 -0700

i accidently dropped my 3DS in water. the power was on while underwater. i immediatly took it out of the water and then it automatically turned off. when i dried it off and turned it back on the top screen was completly black. after about 2 hours i turned it back on and the top screen was back on but there are now many other problems such as: circle pad moving by itself forcing all movements to go to the left

notifications light is staying lit green

A and X button not always responding.

does anyone know what i should do?? PLEASSEE HEELLP!!!!

⟐ Answer deleted 1월 05, 2014 at 12:27 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Why won't my game work?

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:03:20 -0700

I had recently gotten a 3DS XL since my last one broke. I got it and started to play it on April 3rd. I decide I would play on of my favorite games, Tomodachi Life, and for a few days it was going pretty good, until April 7th. I took out the card of Tomodachi Life to start playing Miitopia, and after a good 1 hour and 30 minutes I took it out and put in the Tomodachi card again. It still read, but when I tried to get into the game it brought up and error screen. I tried turning off and on again, and I even cleaned it with rubbing alcohol, but no matter what I did, it still brought up that error screen.

All my other games work, but not this one. Everything is clean and none of it looks broken or damaged. If I can’t do anything about it I may just buy a new one. But if anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, please tell me.

⟐ Commented 4월 08, 2020 at 6:03 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Broken 3D Slider on 3DS

Sun, 11 Dec 2016 12:18:32 -0700

The 3DS slider is broken, when it's off all the way, the 3D is still on. Even turning it off in Parental Controls didn't work.

Nintendo 3DS: Is there any way to enable battery use on a 3ds demo-unit?

Sun, 03 May 2015 03:46:49 -0700

Hi there!

I recently got a Nintendo 3ds which can't run from battery alone.

While connected to a charger, everything is fine. It can play regular 3ds games, do software updates, etc, but as soon as the cable is unplugged, the system shuts down.

I disassembled the 3ds and checked the usual suspects:

The charge port was fine and showed conductivity at every connection
Both fuses F1 and F2 showed conductivity
There are no signs of water damage or physical damage on the motherboard
The battery packs seem to charge. The orange charging light switches off after a while and both packs read open-circuit voltages at 4,12V(Nintendo) and 4,09V(3rd party) after charging.

After further research, I think this might be a demonstration unit for use in stores and therefore shows this special behavior:

If connected to a charger, it automatically starts up. After pressing the power button and choosing 'power off', the system will shutdown completely and after second automatically starts up again.

If the charger is pulled out at any point, the system will power off immediately. Pressing the power button has no effect.

Since I don't own a retail 3ds, I couldn't check the mainboard for missing traces or parts.

I'm curious how this behavior is forced and if it's software or hardware controlled, so if anyone has an idea or fix regarding that, I would really appreciate that :-)

I took some photos of my mainboard, if that helps:

Bottom right (battery connector)
Top right (charge port connector)
Mainboard side A
Mainboard side B

Nintendo 3DS: Only powering on with charger

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 20:27:45 -0700

I’ve recently bought a 3DS. It can only work when the charger is plugged in. The charger can charge the battery (I’ve checked with a multimeter and a spare battery). When I unplug the charger the device shuts off. 3DS also automatically powers on when I plug the charger cable. I checked the power button but when the device is open it functions properly. I haven’t found any postings with similar issue. What can be the cause of this?

⟐ Answered 9월 27, 2025 at 20:27 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: My 3DS Won't turn on?

Mon, 20 Apr 2015 10:45:40 -0700

I recently bought a Nintendo 3ds and after a month of playing it, it just shut off. Every time i press the power button, the blue power light shines for three to five seconds and then shuts off with a loud powering off sound. The system never completely turns on.

⟐ Answered 4월 20, 2015 at 10:45 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Are there any possibilitys of downloading adobe flash player on the de

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 18:18:08 -0700

When my laptopis in use, I want to watch things on youtube but it says *DOWNLOAD ADOBE FLASH PLAYER*. Is there any way?

⟐ Answered 11월 04, 2014 at 18:18 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: 3DS R4 not working?

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 15:43:35 -0700

Just got the new R4, have downloaded the right kernel and my 3DS is updated to the right system, but the R4 still won't load games?

when i load the r4 and there's more than one game on the list, the screen freezes and when there's only one game on the list it freezes when I click on the game

any ideas?

⟐ Commented 8월 21, 2025 at 15:43 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Pressed the power button, it turns on but then turns off. And the scre

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 08:08:27 -0700

When you press the power button it turns on but it turns off instantly and the screen does not turn on at all I don't think it's the battery

⟐ Commented 6월 05, 2024 at 8:08 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Turns off with popping sound when moving the 3D depth slider

Thu, 14 Jan 2016 04:55:33 -0700

Hey! I replaced the charge port on a 3DS today and now when I turn it on and move the 3D depth slider up a little there is a popping sound and it shuts off. Could this be something to do with one of the flexes inside? I checked them all and they seem ok with no damage. Has anyone seen this problem before?

⟐ Answered 1월 14, 2016 at 4:55 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: What screwdriver should I use?

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:50:03 -0700

Hello there, I will be taking apart my 3DS ( Wifi card problems ) and I've been doing some research and it seems that the #00 Screwdriver which people recommend MIGHT strip the screws. Is this true? and if it is true what screwdriver should I use?

⟐ Answered 1월 22, 2015 at 13:50 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Game Disk Stopped Working on my Nintendo 3DS

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 07:27:54 -0700

For awhile now, I have had a Nintendo 3DS (And I love it!) but just recently, I tried putting in a chewed up game, because it wasn't very bad. It didn't work, so I threw it away and when I tried playing another game, it didn't work, it didn't read the game. So, we took it in to a repair shop and they said that I had to go and return it to Nintendo in order to fix the problem. Unfortunately, it costs a FORTUNE! It costs about another Three-Hundred Dollars for a complete repair! I really like my 3DS and I don't want to lose it, does anyone know how to replace the 3DS Game Drive in the system?

⟐ Answered 3월 20, 2025 at 7:27 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: 3DS won’t read just one game

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:28:28 -0700

Hi! So, I have a Pokémon game and I wanted to play it again, so I took out the game that was in my 3DS (which worked btw) and I entered the game and it wouldn’t read it. So I tried putting it in my other 3DS and it didn’t work on there! But when my cousin came with there 2DS I put it in and it worked fine! Any tips y’all can think of? I really wanted to play again... Thanks in advance!

⟐ Answered 4월 26, 2024 at 0:28 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: My 3ds wont hold a charge at all.

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 16:49:53 -0700

I have a 3ds (CTR-001) that won't hold a charge. I've tried a different battery, and it still won't work. It runs while plugged in, but the instant I unplug it, it shuts down. The RTC also doesn't work. If there's a capacitor or resistor I need to replace I'd like to know where and how to look.

⟐ Commented 11월 06, 2023 at 16:49 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: My console wont turn on with a new battery.

Sun, 06 Nov 2022 08:30:06 -0700

Hi, I recently bought a broken 3ds from ebay for $30 USD, without the SD card. The console won't turn on, and had some rust that I fixed with some WD-40. It looks and feels brand new, is the unit bricked? I have seen things about the black screen of death but I was going to go here before I made any moves. Here is the link to the pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/3Q2qbxT Thank you in advance.

⟐ Answer edited 11월 06, 2022 at 8:30 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Can anyone help me figure out why my 3DS isn’t charging?

Mon, 30 May 2022 07:27:14 -0700

When I plug the charger in the device (the one that came in the box with the device) the orange light comes on for a few seconds and just goes. When I press the power button, nothing happens. I purchased this 3DS in 2011 also. Can someone help please?

⟐ Answered 5월 30, 2022 at 7:27 GMT-7

Nintendo 3DS: Need to remove parental controls on 3DS

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 21:47:20 -0700

Is there any way to remove the parental lock without paying Nintendo?

Bought a second hand one and it's got a lock, original owner unknown.

Firmware is 7.1.0-16E - So requires 10 digit unlock code.

⟐ Answered 4월 09, 2022 at 21:47 GMT-7