If the onboard memory of a looper has gone bad, is the looper still fixable?
I don’t care about any phrases saved, just hoping to still make use of the looper.

I got a boss RC-3 pedal secondhand, and because it flashed (still does) Er, I followed steps per the Boss rc-3 manual (page 19) to reformat it. No dice. Instead of flashing Fn for a reformat, it flashes dn, which is apparently the code for “contact ur dealer.” Can I still replace the memory and use the pedal?

Things I’ve already tried:

• the above method for formatting, according to the boss rc-3 manual
• connecting to PC following the manual’s instructions:
  • on Linux, shows up in lsusb with the device name, “Roland rc-3” or something like that, but not in lsblk. Not sure why that was, and I wasn’t sure of what effective search terms to follow up with to troubleshoot further
  • on windows 11, doesn’t show in disk manager nor file explorer, but does show as “mass storage device” among my usbs. Updated my USB drivers, tried the “uninstall device, and restart” thing from Device Manager.
    Nothing’s changed. Properties of device from Device Manager also show a “device cannot start (code 10)” error
• I also tried to connect to pc in update-firmware mode, according to the manual. I still get the same results connecting to pc as above. I believe the looper data storage is shot.

All that said, is it worth prying open to fix it or nah?
If nah, what’s the most “budget” looper you would recommend that includes:

• fake drums
• a count-in feature
• a tap-tempo button
• and undo-redo?

I have a cheap looper for practice, but it’s a basic one-loop + overdubbing looper. It overwrites the one loop to an SD card, too, but I wouldn’t mind trading in that feature for the above list. Once I tried an RC-2 with the count-in, I couldn’t go back to using my cheap one. The rc-2 functions though felt way too crowded to use just to pick out a rhythm or write to memory, so I sold it and got this rc-3.

UPDATE:

No local help found: No boss-authorized service centers in Hawaii, except on the Big Island. I’m not flying out there for a pedal. I didn’t reach out very far in Oahu, but, like, the few guitar-sources I could message asking for pedal-repair references - they didn’t have anyone they could recommend.
The pedal’s serial number is… Gone, so I couldn’t submit an online ticket through Roland/boss. Their service request page requires a registered product, which requires a serial number.

So, I figured, I didn’t want to disappoint the guy I bought this from and return a junk pedal.

I opened it. Found a 4GB micro SD card inside. Covered in a pea-size’s worth of fucking GLUE. It looked and felt like wood glue because it was a BITCH to peel off.
Besides the glue, there’s a bracket around the SD card also permeated with glue on three sides. The bracket had to to be slid upward & tilted up to release the SD card. See picture of opened bracket

I’m gonna see if replacing the SD card with the default folders & update-files in place works. The smallest replacement I have is only 16GB. Wish me luck.

Update: I’m still getting the “dn” code, but all I really did was slap a folder named ROLAND & the v1.6 firmware files on a blank 8GB micro SD I found.

I can’t get to whatever was on the old 4GB SD card to copy files because my pc won’t detect it. The flat pins are tinged in green stuff

In case it’s relevant - anyone with a Boss loop-station here able to share what filesystem format it is when plugged in as a USB? Or share the file structure and whatever files should be in /ROLAND/DATA?