Switch Lite is dead. Seeking hardware expertise to hopefully get it repaired. [It's fixed now!]

[sceptios | 9]

My Switch Lite died last night. I don't mean the battery has no charge (it was still at 84%). I mean the console is dead, and all of my Pokemon main series saves are trapped inside. If anyone is able to help or can point me to somewhere better for me to seek help, I would greatly appreciate it. Obviously, I don't expect any repair work to be free.

Short rundown of what happened:

1. I was using my console.
2. I put it in sleep mode and plugged it in. (I don't recall in which order)
3. Moments later, I decided I wasn't done, but I couldn't get the console to turn back on.

Things I have tried that normally wake up or turn on a Switch:

• Pressing the Power button
• Holding the Home button
• Inserting/removing a game cart
• Inserting/removing a SD card
• Plugging it in again

Edited September 21, 2021 by sceptios

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

How long does it normally take your battery to completely drain?   

Maybe if your battery completely drains so the system powers itself all the way off, then you charge it, it may power back on for you.

Sometimes electronics will get stuck in this weird state if there's enough "power" in it that it thinks it's still on.  I've seen it with computers several times.

[sceptios | 9]

It lasts multiple hours of gameplay (within Nintendo's official estimates). While in sleep mode, multiple weeks, maybe longer. I never turned it off, just put it in sleep mode, so I still left it in an "on" state. Whether it's still stuck in sleep mode or actually off now, I don't really know.

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

Too lazy to look up if there is a hard reset function but if there is try that. Otherwise my first step would be to pop it open and disconnect and reconnect the battery after about 30 seconds and then go from there. 
 

ifixit probably has a tear down with photos. 

Edited September 19, 2021 by a3quit4s

[sceptios | 9]

Holding down power, volume+, and volume- at the same time is supposed to activate maintenance mode (is that what you mean by hardware reset?), but mine remains unresponsive.

I'm hesitant to open the console myself since doing things like that often don't end well for me. I'd also need to pick up some smaller triwings. I've stripped enough joycon screws to learn that finally.

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

If you can’t figure it out and want to get it looked at you can ship to me and I’ll take a crack at it. Just pay shipping to 20879

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

1 hour ago, captmorgandrinker said:

How long does it normally take your battery to completely drain?   

Maybe if your battery completely drains so the system powers itself all the way off, then you charge it, it may power back on for you.

Sometimes electronics will get stuck in this weird state if there's enough "power" in it that it thinks it's still on.  I've seen it with computers several times.

This is probably the best first step. Leave it unplugged for 2-3 weeks, then plug it back in and see if it starts charging.

[sceptios | 9]

Thanks guys! I'll wait a bit and if it doesn't started working, I'm taking a3quit4s up on their offer to take a look.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

1 hour ago, a3quit4s said:

Too lazy to look up if there is a hard reset function but if there is try that.

If he wants to keep his data, might not want to try that!   

Not sure if the Switch has a hard reset that's truly a "hard reset", but some devices go into factory reset mode with that.

[sceptios | 9]

The Switch has an option to factory reset without deleting save data. This option exists in the Maintenance Mode too. https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22347/~/how-to-initialize-nintendo-switch-without-deleting-save-data

[sceptios | 9]

Hey guys, guess what? captmorgandrinker's guess turned out to be correct! I was reading the support link that I posted and noticed that I hadn't tried holding the power button for a full 12 seconds. I tried that and pressed power again, and it turned on!

Thanks for your help everyone! Crisis averted!

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

Sweet, glad to hear it’s back to life!

[phart010 | 1,707]

1 hour ago, sceptios said:

Hey guys, guess what? captmorgandrinker's guess turned out to be correct! I was reading the support link that I posted and noticed that I hadn't tried holding the power button for a full 12 seconds. I tried that and pressed power again, and it turned on!

Thanks for your help everyone! Crisis averted!

Great news. Now get a Nintendo Switch Online subscription and use Cloud Save Backups

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

4 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Great news. Now get a Nintendo Switch Online subscription and use Cloud Save Backups

Or even just a small micro sd card for saves!

[sceptios | 9]

27 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Great news. Now get a Nintendo Switch Online subscription and use Cloud Save Backups

I've had Nintendo Switch Online since day 1. Problem is its Cloud Saves feature doesn't support main series Pokémon saves, which happen to be the saves I care about the most.

22 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Or even just a small micro sd card for saves!

ALL Switch saves are stored in internal memory. There's no official way to move saves to an SD card. Speaking of which, I do have a hackable Switch (multiple actually), and I plan on moving my Pokémon saves to it and backing them up with homebrew.

[phart010 | 1,707]

16 minutes ago, sceptios said:

I've had Nintendo Switch Online since day 1. Problem is its Cloud Saves feature doesn't support main series Pokémon saves, which happen to be the saves I care about the most.

ALL Switch saves are stored in internal memory. There's no official way to move saves to an SD card. Speaking of which, I do have a hackable Switch (multiple actually), and I plan on moving my Pokémon saves to it and backing them up with homebrew.

Which Pokémon game are we talking about?

[sceptios | 9]

Let's Go Pikachu, Let's Go Eevee, Sword, and Shield. That's every main series Pokémon game on Switch so far.

In addition, I think it's safe to assume cloud saves will not support Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, or Legends Arceus once those games are released.

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

1 hour ago, sceptios said:

I've had Nintendo Switch Online since day 1. Problem is its Cloud Saves feature doesn't support main series Pokémon saves, which happen to be the saves I care about the most.

ALL Switch saves are stored in internal memory. There's no official way to move saves to an SD card. Speaking of which, I do have a hackable Switch (multiple actually), and I plan on moving my Pokémon saves to it and backing them up with homebrew.

Gross

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Yeah Nintendo blew it on paranoia there.  Went so far with being ok with no region lock, but they poke-locked those games to the system because they're afraid of cheats and hacks ruining the experience.  The ONLY way to recover in that case is either sending it to Nintendo for repair at their Radio CIty repair shop in New York, or if some hacker repair dude has a kit that can brute force the data off the system like Nintendo would do, and restore it (which I've never heard of.)

I think my original Switch did that crap out once, didn't know it was officially documented to reset the system like that.  I just knew it was a non-bloat loaded Shield tablet they customized, so I used the old shields reset feature and boom, popped right back up, never had the issue again.  I've had the same thing since it came out, despite the problems the body has had from bad design of Nvidia with heat, it's still kicking well battery and all.

[phart010 | 1,707]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Yeah Nintendo blew it on paranoia there.  Went so far with being ok with no region lock, but they poke-locked those games to the system because they're afraid of cheats and hacks ruining the experience.  The ONLY way to recover in that case is either sending it to Nintendo for repair at their Radio CIty repair shop in New York, or if some hacker repair dude has a kit that can brute force the data off the system like Nintendo would do, and restore it (which I've never heard of.)

I think my original Switch did that crap out once, didn't know it was officially documented to reset the system like that.  I just knew it was a non-bloat loaded Shield tablet they customized, so I used the old shields reset feature and boom, popped right back up, never had the issue again.  I've had the same thing since it came out, despite the problems the body has had from bad design of Nvidia with heat, it's still kicking well battery and all.

I don’t understand.. why would they not allow cloud saves on a series of games that people invest so many hours into. I’m not sure I’m understanding the reasoning here

[Tanooki | 4,933]

1 hour ago, phart010 said:

I don’t understand.. why would they not allow cloud saves on a series of games that people invest so many hours into. I’m not sure I’m understanding the reasoning here

I didn't say it was smart or made sense, it just makes Nintendo sense.  Nintendo from what I can remember made the excuse that in certain games with an online mechanic where it has the potential to illegally trade X or hack the game to cheat in an online battle, spread copies of X or Y in a game, they basically won't allow it on the cloud (their policy, not third party wide.)  It's why there are a few Nintendo made/published games that don't exist on there.

That's not to say some third parties don't agree, so they block it too to cut the chances of those issues or whatever other hairbrained excuses they have.  There's a list updated like 8months ago last on NintendoLife here that gives an idea.

https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/guide-which-nintendo-switch-games-do-not-support-cloud-saves

A few on the list allow the save on their own 3rd party network/servers so the cloud isn't added which solves the problem, but the others, whatever...no idea.  Nintendo just iced anything pokemon and splatoon, and 1-2 switch, little else I think.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

On 9/19/2021 at 10:24 AM, a3quit4s said:

Too lazy to look up if there is a hard reset function but if there is try that. Otherwise my first step would be to pop it open and disconnect and reconnect the battery after about 30 seconds and then go from there. 
 

ifixit probably has a tear down with photos. 

This is what I was going to say as well, although the only thing I can add that you didn't say (based on spending a few years working as a board level cell phone repair tech) is to hold the power button down at the same time that the battery is disconnected.  That ensures that any sort of capacitor that's in-circuit with the power on process gets drained completely, as well as (usually) killing anything that was left or "stuck" in main memory by draining off any residual charge.  Can't tell you how many "dead" phones got fixed that way, although it did make my numbers look awfully impressive on a day that I stumbled on a batch of those, lol.

Glad to see this was resolved without having to resort to surgery!

[Estil | 1,264]

That's terrible that OP's Switch crapped out on him so soon.  I don't get it...I thought Switch Lite was supposed to be less filling and still play great?

Edited September 21, 2021 by Estil

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

1 hour ago, Estil said:

That's terrible that OP's Switch crapped out on him so soon.  I don't get it...I thought Switch Lite was supposed to be less filling and still play great?

He fixed it, just needed to hold down the power button for 12 seconds to force a restart

[sceptios | 9]

Yep. Works fine now. Updated the thread title so people don't have to read the whole thread to learn that.