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Hacking A few questions regarding USB loading Wii U games
- Thread starter RemixDeluxe
- Start date
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- Replies 46
Nah. USB 2.0 ports can power USB 3 devices just fine. The power spec is the same. It's just the data transfer rate that's improved. The Wii U's USB ports are just crappy. 90% of people that are buying USB Y cables are buying them for the Wii U. Virtually any other device would be able to power that HDD just fine.
If Nintendo wanted to cheap out on an internal storage space of only 32GB the least they could of done was allowed for better USB ports. I'd rather not cheap out on a console and suffer later on down the road.
I don't want to do this.
I was just kidding. Nintendo is infallible. Every decision they make is the right decision. The Switch is exactly what consumers want. It will be a huge success. It will make the NES look like the Gamecube in comparison.
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It's good that they did that. Everything Nintendo does is good.
So the Wii had stronger/better USB ports than the Wii U
Not sure whether to laugh or cry over that.
It's pretty stupid but at least there's four of them.
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Don't be a fanboy, d___.
Sorry, but this is not about being a fanboy, it's about attitude, and yours it's not exactly good. Not sharing your opinion doesn't make anyone a fanboy, but calling someone out for not agreeing with you is being a dick. Plain and simple.
Also i have a question about this matter: If the Wii U has worse USB ports than the Wii, how come it can take usb pendrives just as good?
The issue here comes from a simple fact: Wii U's USB ports are not 3.0, wich makes impossible to power USB HDDs since they need more power than USB 2.0 can give. As i tested, only HDDs with slower than slow rpm and certain enclosures can be powered by Wii and Wii U, and both will fail to power the rest. Such is not the case with pendrives.
Marko76 is right, for a console with low power consumption in mind USB 3.0 may not be the right choice, but there's nothing wrong with 2.0.
Now stop being an internet dick, i know it's a trend but this place does not follow it.
I didn't care to engage in a discussion with him because of his fanboyish response. I didn't feel it would go anywhere productive so I was sarcastic in my response. The Wii U handles pendrives just fine because they don't require nearly as much power as an HDD. The reason why is obvious. Solid state vs mechanical. I looked into the USB 3.0 standard further and I was factually incorrect when I said that the power spec of USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports are the same. They are not. USB 2.0 ports can output 500mA of power and USB 3.0 can output 900mA. My bad, I thought both types of ports outputted the same amount of power. So that being said, sure, the Wii U could power these drives if it had USB 3.0 ports. But these drives are designed to be compatible with USB 2.0 ports. USB 3.0 drives don't require more power. If anything they may require less because of the increased power efficiency of the USB 3.0 standard. So the point is that the Wii U should be able to use USB 3.0 drives without supplemental power. Connect a USB powered 3.0 drive to a USB 2.0 port on a PC. You'll find that it works just fine. Connect USB powered 2.0 drives to the Wii U. You'll find that it has difficulty powering those too. The Wii U has crappy USB ports. I'm sorry but it's really not a big deal since there's four of them.
I'm not being an internet d___. I assure you I'm just as big of a d___ in real life.
Edit: You calling me a noob doesn't exactly demonstrate a good attitude on your part.
Last edited by DocAmes1980,
I never see myself needing 4 usb port simultaneously. I'd much rather have two good ports than 4 subpar ones that are barely functional.
Last edited by RemixDeluxe,
Yeah it does seem like they give you more than you need. I don't have to worry about that though because two of my USB ports don't function properly. The bottom back port and the left front one are both unreliable. One of them will only recognize a device if it is connected at boot and the other one will only recognize a device on hot plug. Both will randomly disconnect devices. Not a knock on Nintendo's QA by the way. I will criticize the hell out of Nintendo's design decisions but their build quality is excellent. Nintendo runs circles around MS and Sony in that respect.
Here's a dumb question but would it be possible to remove the usb ports and solder in better quality ones or would that conflict with the other components of the system?
I kinda wish it were possible to change the I/O controller on the 3DS so that it can have better read/write with larger capacity cards.
I kinda wish it were possible to change the I/O controller on the 3DS so that it can have better read/write with larger capacity cards.
Nah. It's not the ports themselves that are the problem. I can't tell you on a component level why the Wii U USB ports can't power devices that other USB 2.0 ports can. My guess is that Nintendo was just over zealous with power management. The ports themselves seem to be very good quality. USB connectors fit nice and snug.
I'm so relieved to save .50 on my electric bill every month. Good old Nintendo passing on the savings to YOU.
This thread has been completely derailed so I'm gunna ask a question myself. I have download some USB-ready games but haven't setup the Brazilian method on my Wii U; is it possible to run haxchi with sysnand and also play usb-ready games? Or is this just a bad idea? I have slow internet speeds so would rather not have to download them again :/
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Sure you can install haxchi first. There nothing to really setup with the Brazilian method (sounds dirty). You just install them with a homebrew app (Wupinstaller Y Mod). Doesn't matter the state of your system when you do so except for the fact that you need to be sigpatched to run eShop, VC, and DLC.
I think that the question is another:
The USB2.0 specification tells 500mA per port. A lot of 2.5" mechanical disks want 1A to spin up, so the single USB 2.0 or 3.0 port is insufficient.
Pen drives and SSD external drives consumes less than 500mA.
Recently OEM manufacters build the USB ports over specification and they can erogate also 2000mA on PCs. That's why time ago any 2.5" external USB drives were shipped with a Y-Cable nad now not.
Nintendo, but also Raspberry PI 1, did USB ports with right specification. This is the simpler way to avoid any power related problem for a console that must live for many and many years like a toy.
Pen drives are electric where most external HDD's have spinning disk and require more power.
Unfortunately with the Y cable and my old GC controllers, I do use all four ports at once (Y cable and two ports for GC controller adapter). I hope I don't need to plug anything else into the USB ports! But this also means if you want to use the new style GC controllers for Smash, you can only use two of them at a time (via USB connector) if you are running Smash from the HDD, plugged in with the Y cable.
I'll have to test the power output of the Wii U's ports when I get home because I'm curious now. I'm curious to see if they are under spec. If they are putting out 500mA then nearly every 2.0 port I have is over spec. Regardless, the Wii U should be able to power a USB drive as well as your average laptop if not better since a high percentage of the user base will be using USB drives because the internal storage is so limited. At least the Wii U can actually run games off the disc though. It's why I consider the Wii U to be the only true console of the big three. XO and PS4 are just crippled, closed source PCs.
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You mean solid state (no moving parts) vs mechanical (moving parts). Not to be a d___ but somebody was probably going to chime in.
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