3DS CFW Coldboot: Arm9loaderhax vs. Menuhax

NOTE:
There may be some speed differences between individual 3DS units, this seems to be unique to the unit itself and the reason why is currently unclear. Thank you to YouTube user Connor O'Neill for pointing this out.

Since I uploaded this video, both A9LH and MenuHax have undergone some major upgrades in terms of speed and stability, so the times depicted in this video may no longer be accurate to the current state of 3DS modding.

A comparison on booting times between Arm9loaderhax and Menuhax. (sorry about the crappy audio, I originally had the athletic theme from Super Mario World, but then YouTube had a copyright hissy fit and it had to be digitally removed)

Menuhax: 25.02 seconds with 75% success rate
A9LH: 10.56 seconds with 100% success rate

Arm9loaderhax gives a 58% reduction in loading times, always successfully boots into emuNAND, and also gives you a way to restore the device in case of bricking without a hardmod.

Both consoles were equipped with the exact same make and model micro SD card and while the number of installed games was slightly different, this should have a negligible impact on load times.

A9LH console:
N3DS 9.0sysNAND/10.6emuNAND
Arm9loaderhax + AuReiNAND 3.2

Menuhax console:
N3DS XL 9.2 sysNAND/10.6emuNAND
Menuhax 2 + Ctrbootmanager + ReiNAND 3.2

The guide I used for installation is here:

Be very careful during the process, make sure you're using the right files otherwise flashing wrong files could lead to a hardbrick.

Credit to:
Smealum - 3DS homebrew development
Yellows8 - Menuhax and arm9loaderhax
Reisyukaku - ReiNAND development
Aurora Wright - AuReiNAND fork of ReiNAND
HouseBreaker - A9LH installation tutorial

[asdasdqweqwe]

the biggest clutch is the 100% boot rate. it was frustrating getting a yellow screen with menuhax multiple times in a row.

[AromaKitsune]

WOOOO, Arm9LoaderHax for the win! Plus I have Luma3DS CFW.
Best Custom Firmwares yet so far. :D

[NaamloosDev]

Thanks for finishing the music. take a like and a sub m8

[a-mane-man]

100% boot + unbrick without hardmod, best hax yet.

[astrangeone]

Yes, there's a big difference in boot times, but I swear I have more grey hair thanks to the long and involved process of adding arm9loaderhax into it. There's downgrading to 9.2, setting up an EMUNAND, then downgrading again to 2.1, using OTPhelper and then actually getting the OTP.bin, and then setting up AuReiNand with your flipflopped Sysnand and emuNand. Took me about five hours....

I did it to my 3DS XL and honestly, it's a great way to have access to all the tools you need and also to have a way to flash firmwares to a broken sysnand. I would do it again, but I don't have my 64 gigabyte card yet.

CFW and menuhax is much more pleasant to install.

[scream]

Arm9loaderhax speed is literally exactly the same as mine, I have a New 3ds Xl and it boots around 11 seconds after multiple times it has been from 10.92 to 11.03

[Hanimallover]

You should do it again but with Luma 3DS on both and take CTRbootmanager out of the equation

[Overrice]

the thing is - yes, it takes about 15s less to boot, but setting it up takes 3 more hours.

[levant]

You should point out that 3DS's are snowflakes, some start fast, some slightly slower regardless of model. But it is only a 1-4 second variable.

[gefqkfmwkqfm]

if you install luma with a9lh (you have to) it depends on your sd card speed because its emunand

[zlepotec]

My O3DS on a9lh boots up between 8-10 secs