Hacking Anyway to unbrick a Coldboot start up

G0R3Z · Mar 23, 2017

CBHC is basically 100% safe. It's easy to brick if you do it wrong.

The only bricks I seem to see are from user error. Non-legit VC DS game, installed haxchi over, formatted without uninstalling, etc.

I think CBHC is completely worth it. Having to run Haxchi everytime is a massive pain and if you're using unsigned games, it just makes everything much simpler to have it boot straight to a CFW state.

FRITZINATOR · Mar 24, 2017

G0R3Z said:
Basically don't be an idiot and listen to the warnings.

Like that new post about someone who tried to format. It specifically says not to damn format it whilst CBHC is installed.

Yea, I followed the guide step by step. Contacted the person who wrote the guide and there is your user error. CBHC might save seconds but I still won't do it now that I had to start from scratch. Not worth the risk, I'm sure its easy... It looked easy, but the guide was incomplete and I got fucked. I knew the risk before starting. I really don't think this has anything to do with being an idiot.

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G0R3Z said:
CBHC is basically 100% safe. It's easy to brick if you do it wrong.

The only bricks I seem to see are from user error. Non-legit VC DS game, installed haxchi over, formatted without uninstalling, etc.

I think CBHC is completely worth it. Having to run Haxchi everytime is a massive pain and if you're using unsigned games, it just makes everything much simpler to have it boot straight to a CFW state.

Not worth it, it's not 100% safe. It takes a minute to load up homebrew and haxchi. Not worried about spending a minute to play a fail safe system.

recgame77 · Mar 24, 2017

EyeKey said:
No need to dump it before the brick, soldering it is risky too... The OTP is enough to fix the brick. I am going to release a tool to fix it soon, probably this weekend.
And Leefy already explained how to dump it with teensy.

Cool ; do you have a link for the leefy post ?

icw35 · Mar 24, 2017

G0R3Z said:
I think CBHC is completely worth it. Having to run Haxchi everytime is a massive pain and if you're using unsigned games, it just makes everything much simpler to have it boot straight to a CFW state.

Really? One click, wait for 10 seconds? A massive pain? Jesus, don't want your life.

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recgame77 said:
Cool ; do you have a link for the leefy post ?

https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-wii-u-nand-tools.465386/#post-7198317

And this one is a good read (last few pages)

https://gbatemp.net/threads/success...-nand-with-hardmod.457165/page-7#post-7197683

EyeKey · Mar 24, 2017

recgame77 said:
Cool ; do you have a link for the leefy post ?

Oops, Leeful (damn autocorrect)
https://gbatemp.net/threads/success...-nand-with-hardmod.457165/page-3#post-7070452

(But read the edit in the end, it is important)

G0R3Z · Mar 24, 2017

That wiiu.guide is a nightmare, it keeps telling people to install CBHC, Rednand and Mocha. Who needs all of it?

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icw35 said:
Really? One click, wait for 10 seconds? A massive pain? Jesus, don't want your life.

The fact that so many people use it with absolutely no problem is an indication that it's pretty safe. No need to be a sarcastic ass about it.

raphamotta · Mar 24, 2017

icw35 said:
I couldn't care less if millions of people use it with no issue - that not the point. -snip-

I agree with @icw35 . And CBHC it's not safe for ordinary user. A simple format you can brick. A DS game corruption and you can brick. an SD card corruption and you can brick. It's not like Luma3DS that you can do almost everything and you are safe.

wiiu.guide needs to be a guide for ordinary user, non-tech people. And the most reliable way is to use only haxchi and wait a pain of 1-click and 10 seconds to play some games.

eteles · Mar 24, 2017

This is so frustrating... People here tries to prove all the time that CBHC bricks only happen when it's users fault for not reading or for being idiots or careless or for using cheap SD cards... The truth is I made no mistake and read carefully the tutorials. I had only one DS VC game and it was legit. Bought from e-shop. It was Brain Age. So, there was no way I made a mistake. CBHC 1.5 was working flawlessly. The HAXCHI installation was OK too, cause I was playing The wonderful 101 just before updating CBHC.

Bottom line: trying to update CBHC from 1.5 to 1.6 resulted on brick. No user error. CBHC is risky. Even if you follow every step, there's a little chance you can brick your console.

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Felek666 said:
I don't recall anyone bricking from installing a CBHC update.
If somehow he manages to prove me wrong that he probably moved his game to usb...

The game was installed to system memory...

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EyeKey said:
No need to dump it before the brick, soldering it is risky too... The OTP is enough to fix the brick. I am going to release a tool to fix it soon, probably this weekend.
And Leefy already explained how to dump it with teensy.

Did I read it correctly? You gonna release a tool to fix CBHC bricks? Are you for real?

This is awesome...

eteles · Mar 29, 2017

New unit has arrived. Every nand chip and keys are already dumped... Haxchi installed. Never going to install CBHC again, unless there's a safe software unbricking method...

ssb4master · Jun 4, 2017

I have the same problem, but I can access the quick start menu if that helps.

ssb4master · Jun 4, 2017

ItsKipz said:
Do you have access to the quick start menu on the gamepad??

I have the same problem, but I do have quick start and the gamepad works 100%

LH1980 · Jun 5, 2017

TheCyberQuake said:
I hate when people say coldboothax is similar to menuhax on the 3ds. The only similarity is that it boots homebrew from coldboot. Other than that menuhax is FAR safer as it only installs to the home menu themes or saves, which are located on SD. Meaning if anything goes wrong with the hack, you can pull the SD and you'll still have a functioning system. One small screw up with coldboothax on Wii U and your console is a big paperweight. Not only is it a fairly unstable process to start with, you also have the fact that you MUST keep haxchi installed to sysNAND. If you accidentally move it to USB, delete the title, or uninstall/break haxchi, your system is dead. I've just stayed with keeping haxchi installed and loading it from home menu. The slightly faster load isn't worth the much greater brick risk.

I am new to this so I may be wrong but doesn't coldboot boots right into rednand so you don't have access to that file. So it should be safe unless you intentionally boot into sysnand and move/delete the file?

godreborn · Jun 5, 2017

LH1980 said:
I am new to this so I may be wrong but doesn't coldboot boots right into rednand so you don't have access to that file. So it should be safe unless you intentionally boot into sysnand and move/delete the file?

no, booting into say mocha redNAND from cbhc will have the same restrictions as booting into sysNAND. if u do the above processes, u'll brick the system. it's best to make a NAND backup. u can do so before or after installing cbhc as eyekey has released tools to fix NANDs that already have cbhc installed. I have cbhc installed myself, and I've had no problems with it, just be careful.

LH1980 · Jun 5, 2017

godreborn said:
no, booting into say mocha redNAND from cbhc will have the same restrictions as booting into sysNAND. if u do the above processes, u'll brick the system. it's best to make a NAND backup. u can do so before or after installing cbhc as eyekey has released tools to fix NANDs that already have cbhc installed. I have cbhc installed myself, and I've had no problems with it, just be careful.

So even booting into mocha rednand is still not safe? Deleting nnid or deleting the vc title would result in brick?

What happens if the SD card become corrupted? The Wii U does not boot without the SD card inserted.

godreborn · Jun 5, 2017

LH1980 said:
So even booting into mocha rednand is still not safe? Deleting nnid or deleting the vc title would result in brick?

What happens if the SD card become corrupted? The Wii U does not boot without the SD card inserted.

if ur booting into cbhc (redNAND), u'll brick if u delete the exploited game, move it to usb, or format the system. yes, those will result in a brick as the owner of the title will be gone from the system, and deleting the game will result in a brick as well. the reason is that signatures haven't been patched when booting up the system until it loads haxchi from a coldboot standpoint.

the game will be on ur internal flash, so if the sd card becomes corrupt, it won't have any effect on that. r u trying to boot into redNAND from cbhc? I'm pretty sure the system will still boot with no sd card inserted since no files from the sd card r needed unless ur using redNAND. and, even then, u can just press home to choose another default boot option.

jeffyTheHomebrewer · Jan 7, 2019

You can always sell it on eBay as a "Spares and Repairs" Wii U. (Y'know, so others could use it to fix their own Wii U, eg, if their system has a broken HDMI port, they could use the bricked one to fix it.)

JediAviator · Jan 15, 2019

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:
You can always sell it on eBay as a "Spares and Repairs" Wii U. (Y'know, so others could use it to fix their own Wii U, eg, if their system has a broken HDMI port, they could use the bricked one to fix it.)

How much is it worth?

Captain_N · Jan 15, 2019

FRITZINATOR said:
So, what can I do with this 10 pound paper weight? Any way Gamestop would take it?

Ill be glad to take your paper weight. for free ofcourse

Jayro · Jan 15, 2019

Coldboot hax should provide a GUI to choose OFW or CFW, that way it's a bit more brick-proof. And why the fuck don't we have a better coldboot hack yet? Not being able to write the NAND backup back to the Wii U with softmod is just pathetic.

Ryab · Jan 15, 2019

FRITZINATOR said:
I have tried to install the coldboot method and when I tried to make a secondary haxchi, it loaded as the homebrew launcher as the first "brain age" I tried to restart my system and now I have a black error screen on the boot up saying "There is a problem with system memory" Error code 160-0103.
Anyway to bypass this?

unless you made a nand backup no

Hacking Anyway to unbrick a Coldboot start up

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