Hello,
I purchased a regular black-colored US-region New 3DS XL around two weeks after the Feb 13th release day. After performing a system transfer from my old 3DS XL, I have been playing Monster Hunter 4U on the new device with no issues. Aside from MH4U, I just purchased Etrian Mystery Dungeon (released on the 7th April), and played that for an hour or so.
Today, I applied a system update that I had been holding off on. The update was seemingly applied without issue - after it completed, I OK'd the usual "update complete, system will restart now" prompt. However, the system did not restart properly - it now shows black screens both top and bottom.
The black top and bottom screens are slightly backlit, and the blue power button glows. When the system is connected to the charger, the orange charge button is lit as well.
None of the device's buttons are responsive in this state, aside from the power button which can be held down to power the system off.
I can start the system while holding down L+R+X, L+R+Y, and L+R+Up+A to access the touchscreen/circle pad calibration and system update functions normally. Updating via this method does nothing - after a few seconds of the "Updating" progress bar staying empty, it tells me the system is up to date and exits (at this point, turning the system on again just gives the same two black screens).
I have attempted to start the system without a game cartridge inserted, as well as without the SD card inserted. Neither yielded results.
I have also allowed the system to sit in a black screen state for over an hour to no avail, as well as allowing the system to sit, turned off, for around an hour before turning it on again (once more, to no effect).
Searching on these forums and elsewhere on the web mostly returns results pertaining to the "Black Screen of Death" issue, which is different as far as I can see. The handful of similar hits I found either have little discussion or only received a brief answer along the lines of "you will need to pay to send it in for repairs, and there is no guarantee that data can be retained".
I would greatly appreciate any feedback or advice, or information about similar situations and how they were resolved.
Thanks in advance.