Chosen Solution

After about 2 months of not being used, my son opened his Nintendo 3DS and it goes to the Sleep Mode screen. It gives you the option to power off or go to Home Menu and that is where it freezes. Once you’re on Home Menu, you can’t go any further. It just says ‘Home Menu’. I’ve tried taking out battery and reformatting sd card. I’ve tried turning on and off the console. Can’t go any further. Seems like something so simple but yet so expensive to get fixed. Any suggestions before I’m another $60 in the hole on top of all of the games and the cost of the console? P.S. I’ve spent countless days researching this online so I have done my homework for the most part.

I had a similar or exactly the same problem: 0) I have a nintendo DS LL, bought in JP

  1. turn on and have both blank screens, no response on anything
  2. press power button, after few secs the sleep screen appears. Sounds and keys work normally.
  3. press “home” key and, the home screen appears, but no apps, system is kind of “frozen” (key work, music is there, but no apps. Upper screen is empty.) Switched off, pressed L+R+A+UP together with Power (had to stick a pen in my mouth to do that !) and the update screen appeared. I could connect to my wifi and update the OS. All went well, but after reset, situation was exactly the same as above. I feel the hardware is OK. I presume there is some corruption in the system ROM/RAM that prevents the boot-OS to start. Clearly, the “sleep” and “update” routines are not corrupted so they work regularly. If I am right, it is very disappointing that Nintendo didn’t think about a factory reset key somewhere, would be nice to press a key and the boot-OS is reloaded… GR

The 3ds sleep function is activated when a speaker (containing a magnet) comes in contact with a spot on the mother board when the top-screen folds down. This happen at about the B button. You can mimic the sleep feature waving a regular kitchen magnet over the area surrounding the B button. This triggers the sleep feature. Therefore, some component of the mother board is responsible for the sleep feature. Has anyone figure out which component of the mother board is responsible for sleep and see if anyone had figured out to re-solder or bypass it.

Hey I know this is old but I recently had the same problem. I managed to fix it by turning the 3DS off completely, taking out the SD card, and turning it on again with no SD card inserted. It booted up normally and I simply reinserted the SD card again. Everything is working just fine now.

Did you try unplugging the battery from the logic board and then reconnecting it?

When that happens to my Nintendo 3DS I press and hold the power button until it turns off.Then I wait some seconds and press the power button. Then it turns on and boots up and is fine. That procedure should work for other Nintendo 3DS systems.

I have the exact same problem you… If you found a solution, please, share, since I am still searching… I opened 3ds up, took wi-fi card off, tried to force update the system with the L,R,A, Up trick… Nothing worked… In the end, stil have the 3ds stuck the same way yours…

HEY THERE. I had the same problem and I was freaking out because it was 3 days old. I heard to take off the screen protector so I tried it. At first nothing happened but I left it on for a while and now everything is back to normal. Hope I helped.

I’m having a problem with mine as well. I was using the internet on the 3DS, and just when I was done using it, I try going back to the 3DS menu, and it freezes at Home Menu. I tried turning off the 3DS and nothing is happening. It’s been stuck in that screen for 15 minutes.

Make sure your 3DS is off when you try to force the update system. Press L, R, A, Up and then turn it on. It works for me. Cesar,

I have the EXACT same problem, did everything you guys said. If you come up with a solution don’t hesitate to tell me PLEASE.

I have had this problem for awhile I have tried everything looked at videos and everything I can’t figure it out and I can’t send it in to the Nintendo to get it fixed! Plz help!

I have the exact problem but with my 2ds. so I am not sure about the magnetic thing since i can’t fold it. I have to slide a button to put it on sleep mode and this doesn’t help me. as for the battery, this is a relatively new 2ds (a few months old) so I don’t think this is the battery either. I also tried everything people said on this article

%#*!^@ I have had exactly the same issue. Permanent orange light and black screen freezing on HOME when selected instead of powering down. I took the thing apart and messed around with wifi cards and so on to no avail. I held down combinations of buttons and restarted and installed system updates to no avail. I scoured the web for help to no avail - YouTube is full of people making videos either asking for help and demonstrating the same issue, or showing how to take the thing apart and wiggle the WIFI card to fix it. The fact is the unit was dropped (not dramatically, just from child height, while on, on to a carpeted floor) and it behaved like this thereafter, so something is amiss inside. Ultimately I ended up sending it to Nintendo to be fixed. Defeated.

Maybe try holding the home button and power button at the same time it works on mine.

I know this Is old but it MAY be possible that I can help,experienced with a 3DS from launch. First one to try is if your using a Micro SD card with a adapter,try and remove it from the adapter and clean it off and blow out the adapter port. Another one to try is removing the battery and holding the power button for 30 seconds and re-inserting it afterward. Try and copy all the files from the SD card to your PC/Tablet/Phone/Toaster/ect. and format the SD Card. Restore the files afterward to the SD card and re-insert into the system. This one is NOT recommended,due to it requiring to take the system apart. You would need to disassemble the system (According to what 3DS you have). You would then need to remove the Wi-Fi board and use compressed air or blow it off and re-seat (Put back/replace) the wi-fi board and reassemble the system (Don’t forget the L and R buttons!) and try to power on. You could inspect inside the system for damaged/un attached ribbon cables that require fixing. Hopefully I helped anyone in need!