What Is a Bricker on Nintendo DS?
Brickers are virus-like programs that can render the internal working of a machine inoperable, turning an expensive piece of electronics into a brick-like dead weight. The Nintendo DS, with its large home-brew base, is not immune to such programs. There are a few ways to identify and protect against Nintendo DS brickers.
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Nature of Brickers
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Brickers are pieces of software similar to a PC virus. The programs use malicious code called a "Trojan," which gets its name from its propensity to gain access to the machine's code banks under false pretenses and do damage from within. Brickers cause internal errors in the software of the Nintendo DS, infecting the machine with perpetually-present code that stops the machine from turning on or operating.
Contracting a Bricker
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Brickers are only spread through unauthorized hardware such as flash cards and media cartridges (R4, NinjaPass, CycloDS Evolution ETC) and unlicensed software such as amateur-developed applications and games. Bricker code is most commonly found in maliciously designed and mis-labeled Nintendo DS programs. One bricker that damaged many consoles was disguised as a hentai (adult cartoon) slideshow while another was labeled as a way to play pirated commercial games. One manufacturer of Nintendo DS flash cartridges, the R4 company, once promised to release bricker software that would damage Nintendo DS consoles running counterfeit R4 cartridges. As of June 2010, this threat had not been carried out.
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Avoiding Brickers
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The easiest way to avoid brickers is to only run officially-licensed games and hardware in your Nintendo DS. No Nintendo-authorized piece of hardware or software is capable of bricking your system. If you do use unauthorized hardware or software on your machine, avoid bricker viruses by only using software that is supported within the amateur community. Unfortunately, as of 2010, there's no centralized list of software that can harm your DS. However, sites like Quickjump and DS Homebrew Hive will only provide files for download after those files have been tested and certified virus-free.
Examples
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The most prominent example of a Nintendo DS bricker was a modified version of the PSPbrick virus that infected a number of PSP systems in 2005. Nintendo collector and salesman Danny Goulter from Christchurch, New Zealand's Dick Smith Electronics, talked about the DarkFader bricker from 2005.
"It infected the firmware of users' flash cards and media cartridges, (but) was incapable of doing lasting harm to the system itself," he said. "So that was more of an annoyance than a genuine threat."
Fixing a Bricker
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Nintendo DS brickers can only be fixed if the processor chip on the motherboard is replaced. This process requires soldering and a high degree of electronic know-how, and a replacement chip can cost almost as much as a new console. Nintendo will repair the console if it is within warranty. The use of flash cards and media cartridges does not technically void your warranty.
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