Hacking USB Loader GX + Nintendont = Black Screen

[spartacus603e]

Hi all,

New member, but have lurked for a while. Anyway. I have an original Wii with HomeBrew and everything. Updated to cIOS 249 base 56 v10 beta53-alt and cIOS 250 base 57 v10 beta52 by following https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/installation. I have downloaded the latest USB Loader GX (1262) and latest Nintendont (both downloaded today).

I have a 2GB (non-sdhc) memory card in the front slot and a 32GB Lexar flash drive on USB 0. Both are formatted correctly (I just did a full format on the USB drive today) with MBR, Fat32, single partition, 32k clusters, etc. Games load correctly every time when I load them in Nintendont via the HomeBrew Channel. However, when I use USB Loader GX (which CAN see the games on my USB stick), I get a black screen (after pressing Play on the screen where the GameCube music plays). Occasionally, about 1 of every 10 times, the GCN game (MarioKart DD) will load correctly.

I've tried installing and pointing USB Loader GX to Nintendont both on the memory card and on USB, where the game is stored. Neither makes much difference. I've used a second memory card AND a second USB drive (SanDisk 16GB) with no change.

I've Googled, Reddit-ed, searched through here, and haven't come across any solutions to this problem.

SysCheck results below. I'm about ready to throw all of this stuff in the garbage bin. Thanks for any help!

Spoiler: SysCheck

sysCheck v1.6.2 by Erik Spyder
Region: NTSC-U
The system menu v513 is running under IOS61 (rev 5662)
Hollywood v0x11
Console ID: 53505759
Boot2 v4
Found 84 titles
Found 31 IOS on this console
Found 15 IOS Stubs on this console
IOS (revision) IOS Stub Trucha Bug ES Identify Flash Access NAND Access Boot2 Access USB 2.0
IOS4 (rev 65280) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS9 (rev 1034) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS10 (rev 768) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS11 (rev 256) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS12 (rev 526) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS13 (rev 1032) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS14 (rev 1032) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS15 (rev 1032) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS16 (rev 512) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS17 (rev 1032) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS20 (rev 256) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS21 (rev 1039) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS22 (rev 1294) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS28 (rev 1807) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS30 (rev 2816) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS31 (rev 3608) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS33 (rev 3608) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS34 (rev 3608) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS35 (rev 3608) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS36 (rev 3351) No Enabled Enabled Disabled Enabled Disabled Disabled
IOS37 (rev 5663) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS38 (rev 4124) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS40 (rev 3072) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS41 (rev 3607) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS43 (rev 3607) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS45 (rev 3607) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS46 (rev 3607) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS48 (rev 4124) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS50 (rev 5120) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS51 (rev 4864) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS52 (rev 5888) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS53 (rev 5663) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS55 (rev 5663) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS56 (rev 5662) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS57 (rev 5919) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS58 (rev 6176) No Enabled Disabled Disabled Enabled Disabled Disabled
IOS60 (rev 6400) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS61 (rev 5662) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS62 (rev 6430) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS70 (rev 6912) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS80 (rev 6944) No Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
IOS222 (rev 65280) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS223 (rev 65280) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
IOS249 (rev 21010) No Enabled Disabled Disabled Enabled Disabled Enabled
IOS250 (rev 65535) No Enabled Disabled Disabled Enabled Disabled Enabled
IOS254 (rev 65280) Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?

 

[GreyWolf]

That version of syscheck is very old but I guarantee you either your partitioning is bad or your folders/disc images are named incorrectly. Once Nintendont is loaded from USB Loader GX everything is in its hands. The Wii is a single-user system. IMO try a real HDD. Flash drives absolutely suck on the Wii.

cIOSes are not used by Nintendont but beta53 is not recommended at all. The CSG is wrong.

 

[spartacus603e]

Thanks for your quick response! I didn't realize I had downloaded an old SysCheck; fixing this now.

My flash drive is FAT32, 32k cluster sizes, and there is only one partition (I did this on a Windows 7 machine today; full, not 'quick, wipe).

Game path is /games/Mario Kart Double Dash [GM4E01]/game.iso and /games/Super Smash Bros Melee [GALE01]/game.iso

I don't currently have a spare USB HDD; but I suppose I could order a cheap USB enclosure from Amazon.

Note that when the Wii freezes after pressing play, the activity light on the flash drive blinks about 5 times every couple of seconds

Regarding the cIOS, what should I have installed?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Interestingly, I just put MarioKart Wii (which had been my one and only working USB-loaded game) back on the my USB flash drive (again, same one I've used since I modded my Wii 6 mos ago), and it exhibits the exact same behavior. So it appears to be USB Loader GX, not Nintendont, that is having issues.

I re-downloaded USB Loader GX from SourceForge and completely replaced the version that was on my SD card (apps/USBLoaderGX folder). I also reset USB Loader GX to defaults via the menu option to do so. The issue persists.

At this point, it looks like my best bet might be an external hard drive?

 

[GreyWolf]

Nintendont only requires an original IOS 58. Have you checked the game ISOs to make sure their MD5s are valid? That shouldn't affect them not loading from USB Loader GX but it doesn't take long to check. On a Wii everything has to be handed off in an uninitialized state since there is no standard "operating system" so if they're working on Nintendont when you load it from the HBC then something else isn't right.

 

[spartacus603e]

How do I check the MD5? The Mario Kart Wii ISO is the same one I've used for 6+ months with no issues, so I'm not quite sure why it would stop working all of the sudden as well.

Is there a way to completely re-set and re-install the software on the Wii? Restore it to factory defaults and do the mod all over again?

 

[GreyWolf]

If your IOS58 is unpatched you shouldn't need to change anything in the NAND. There is a tool in my sig called "GCVerify" that will tell you if the disc image is valid or not. If it is we can go from there.

 

[spartacus603e]

Thanks for the tool. I received the result of Redump 'Found' for both games.

I'm trying to find an old SATA HDD to test this with in the mean time. Are there perhaps USBGX settings I have missed? I tried to restore those to defaults

 

[spartacus603e]

Update: Games are currently working on a 16GB MicroSDHC card in with a USB adapter. Temporary solution until I get a USB HDD for this setup. I guess the flash drive I was using (Lexar) was just of poor quality.

I have a spare laptop SSD - has anyone tried using something like that instead of a rotational disk? (old 64GB SSD from a MacBook Air, but it can be formatted appropriately)