Hardware What's Wrong With My Wii U?

[FlashStrife]

I used minitool partition wizard to format the 64GB SD card to Fat32 since the app mentioned in the other thread didn't work and it let's me use all the available space. That okay?

 

[SDIO]

Yes that works. But you can also make it smaller so it won't get wiped

 

[FlashStrife]

So make it 32GB then? Got it. Then copy redNAND. Not home at the moment but will do once I get back.

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2024

Done. Got 4 files, backup_otp_0.bin, backup_seeprom_0.bin, SLC.RAW and SLCCMPT.RAW. Also gonna try and get another WiiU power brick to test if that might be the issue though I think I tested it before with a different one and still had freezes but may as well test it.

 

[SDIO]

The sdcard now has another partition. You can use wfs-extract on that to get your saves.
What OS are you using?
And with power problem I meant the internal regulators not the power brick

 

[FlashStrife]

Yeah thinking about it I did try another WiiU a while back using the same brick and it worked fine so it's not that. Also Windows 10 here though can use 7 as well. As for the internal stuff is that something I need to open the console up and poke around with a multimeter? I do have one just never used a multimeter before.

 

[SDIO]

Here you can get wfs-extract: https://github.com/koolkdev/wfs-tools
But instead of the raw PhysicalDrive you need to specify the second partition on the sdcard. Not entirely sure how to do that in Windows. Maybe its calledLogicalDrive or Volume

 

[FlashStrife]

I'll check it out later. If I'm not able to fix the Wii U I was wondering if it's possible to clone another system (minus the hardware issues of course) using the data from my Wii U. I was thinking of buying one anyways as an extra if I can find one cheap.

 

[SDIO]

You could copy the saves over and after you asked Nintendo to unlink your NNID from the old one you can use it in the new one to get all your eShop purchases

 

[FlashStrife]

Picture of the multimeter I have is attached. Basically the same one I have. Hoping it's good for testing. Gonna look up how to use it and how to safely open up the Wii U then open it up in the next couple of days for testing. I'll post a picture of the motherboard once I do just in case anyone spots anything odd.

Also is there anything I should do before then? Any backup or anything I should do before in case I mess up somewhere when opening it up? Would be nice to have a PC style full image backup in case I need to restore it on a new machine.

 

[Dakangel]

I'm gonna ask and maybe is useless, but your Wii u is in a ventilated place?

The console air vents holes are dust free and the little fan in the back is properly working?

Sometimes the console gets hot quikly because the internal acumulated dust and shut down itself to prevent damage in the cpu's.

 

[FlashStrife]

Semi ventilated yes, could be a bit better but not bad with the layout I have. Doesn't appear dusty on the vents and believe the fans runs fine, would have to check again but I looked into it before thinking it might be a overheating issue and fan seemed to run okay.

 

[SDIO]

Did you already extract the saves, to make sure they are save?

 

[FlashStrife]

With wfs-extract? Not yet, have the contents on the 2nd card and on a laptop just need a chance to check it. Should have time later hopefully so will do it then.

Post automatically merged: Feb 27, 2024

So how do I get wfs-extract? Do I just get the main.cpp file in the wfs-extract folder from github? Sorry I'm inexperienced with using github.

 

[FlashStrife]

So because the logs said there were Core 0 errors heartbeat failed and it sounds like a hardware problem I did the full teardown, first time doing a full console one. Took pictures to see if anything was off. Not sure if I should start another thread or not but I'll post it here first. I noticed pic #3 it had that coloration and looks a bit greasy on the bottom of the board under the back usb part. Pic #4 similar but without discoloring. Pic #5 has that but seems to be related to pic #8. Pic #6 seems to have a bit of a greasy look on that small chip. That's the only one on the top side that looks greasy. All of the greasy stuff seems dried except for the ones on pics #5 and #8. Not sure if that's normal to look like that but may as well post all details I noticed.

Not sure if this helps. I also have a multimeter that I attached a picture of in a earlier post but I don't know how to use it yet so if anyone could give me pointers or tell me what to prod (pointing to it in a picture would be great!) that would help too. If you need better pictures I'd be happy to take them as well. Thanks!

 

[SDIO]

Could be flux, is it possible that someone tried to rework something on the board in the past? Can you clean it up?

The black thing in the last picture is the thermal pad for one of the wireless modules.

Can you maybe mark in the pictures what you mean?

Post automatically merged: Mar 1, 2024

The red one should be arounf 0.95V and the blue one 1.15V.

You measure with the multimeter in DC Voltage mode and put the red probe on the voltage to measure and the black one on GND. All of the shield and the gold around is GND

 

[FlashStrife]

Having no luck for some reason, not sure what's up. Did connect the power cord and poked it and got a DC voltage reading around 15 and also connected it to the system and get a reading by poking the wire portion of that yellow part where it connects and I get the same but when touching anything else I get no readings, all at 0. Would put black on ground and poke around with red where the white boxes/metal is on those chips you circled and nothing. Even poked other stuff and 0 as well. Does the system need to be powered on or something?

 

[SDIO]

Yes, it needs to be on

 

[FlashStrife]

Figured as much since everything else didn't give readings. How would it be turned on like this? I'd assume it would be near where the power button would be but I don't see anything like a switch to power it on the top of the board. Is it the thing the arrow is pointing at on the bottom of the board?

 

[SDIO]

Either connect the front panel or is a remote to turn it on

 

[FlashStrife]

Forgot it should still turn on fine even after teardown. Tested and all came up around 0.95, red and blue circled ones. Tried the ones below the red circle and they seemed to be the 1.15 ones except one might have been reading much higher, meaning around 2-3. Would have to check again when I get a chance.