Tutorial
Updated
How to setup USBMLC to fix system memory error 160-0103 (failing eMMC) without soldering
What is this for?
If you are encountering Error Code 160-0103 "There is a Problem with the system memory" or your Wii U is freezing at bootup or during Factory Reset it is likely that the eMMC Chip is failing.
This guide goes into fixing this Error 160-0103, by using a USB HDD to replace the failing eMMC, in a similar way redNAND does by using the SD card.
This guide will reinstall the system files to the USB HDD. If the HDD is already Wii U formatted and you already have games and saves on the USB HDD they *should* be preserved, but if something goes wrong, data might get lost.
It can also be used together with the USB Partition plugin.
This is a new Method, although I did some testing, there might still be some bugs lurking, if you want something more tried and tested, then I recommend redNAND
System updates don't seem to work, so please don't use vWii Decaffienator with this
Please note there are other possible causes for the 160-0103 error (like a CBHC brick). Also there are other possible solutions to this problem. To see if this Tutorial is right for you, check out the Ultimate Wii U Troubleshooting Guide
What this will do
We will first install ISFShax, which is an early exploit that runs before the operating system loads. This allows us to patch the OS to redirects the reads and writes, that normally go to the eMMC, to a USB HDD. So you will need to have the SD card in the Wii U to use it, as that is now it's new internal memory.
In this tutorial we are only redirecting the MLC. If you plan to try some dangerous things in the future, you can still mess up your system SLC and SLCCMPT. If you want to use this for such experiments consider using full redNAND, where all 3 devices get redirected.
What you need
- SD card with at least 2GB (If you really need to there is a way to do it with a smaller SD; but this guide requires 2GB for simplicity)
- Reliable USB Storage Device (Flash drives are notoriously unreliable, if they are not branded for endurance)
It is recommended to only have one USB Storage device connected, since this plugin will simply use the first one it finds. Generally USB devices in the back seem to be detected first, but as HDDs need some time to spin up it's a race between them. If you want to have a HDD for vWii I recommend you look into the USB Partition plugin to consolidate both on one HDD. Connecting another USB storage for data management after boot is still fine.
Installing ISFShax
For installing ISFShax follow this tutorial: https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-set-up-isfshax.642258 but skip the "Autoboot" part for now.
If you already have ISFShax installed, make sure to update the ISFShax files on the SD to the latest version.
Optional: Partitioning the HDD
If you want to partition the HDD to use part of it for vWii or Homebrew:
- follow the instructions for partitioning the USB disk here: USB Partition
- copy the
5usbpart.ipxtowiiu/ios_pluginson the SD card - copy the
5usbpart.ipxor5upartsd.ipx(for the SD emulation) tohax/ios_pluginson the SD card
Optional: Backing up savegames
If your Wii U can still run Tiramisu or Aroma: https://wiiu.hacks.guide/#/ you can use SaveMii to back up your save games.
If it can't you then you probably already used UDPIH to install ISFShax. Launch the recovery again using UDPIH and then use the Dump SLC + MLC option. Your SD card needs to have at least 64GB for that (for a 32GB console). You then need to merge mlc.bin.part files in the right order and can then extract the savegames using wfs-extract.
You can also backup your saves after setting up redNAND, even if your old system isn't booting anymore, see this post for more details: https://gbatemp.net/threads/fixing-...ing-rednand-with-isfshax.642268/post-10417998
If you lost the password to your NNID and can't recover it because the email doesn't exist anymore, you can transfer it. This is only a last resort option. If you still have the email address, it would be better to use the "Forgot Password" option now, as you won't have it on the new system.
There is also the option to use a password reset option on the PC. For that you need to create a Nintendo Account and then link the NNID to it. When linking it will ask for the password and give a reset option using the email.
Keep in mind this transfer only works on the same console and only if you don't do a Factory Reset.
To transfer the NNID It's enough to copy the account.dat file over.
You can use ftpiiu everywhere to save it to the PC for now. Just copy the whole /storage_mlc/usr/save/system/act/ folder to the PC. In that folder you find one subfolder for each user and in that subfolder you find an account.dat (it's a plain text file, you can open it with notepad). The folders are numbered in the order the users were created.
On the new rebuild mlc the numbering will start again with 80000001. If the user with the NNID had a larger number just create new users on the new system until you reach that number. Then you can copy the account.dat back and reboot.
After that you should be able to access the eShop and download the games again.
There is also the option to use a password reset option on the PC. For that you need to create a Nintendo Account and then link the NNID to it. When linking it will ask for the password and give a reset option using the email.
Keep in mind this transfer only works on the same console and only if you don't do a Factory Reset.
To transfer the NNID It's enough to copy the account.dat file over.
You can use ftpiiu everywhere to save it to the PC for now. Just copy the whole /storage_mlc/usr/save/system/act/ folder to the PC. In that folder you find one subfolder for each user and in that subfolder you find an account.dat (it's a plain text file, you can open it with notepad). The folders are numbered in the order the users were created.
On the new rebuild mlc the numbering will start again with 80000001. If the user with the NNID had a larger number just create new users on the new system until you reach that number. Then you can copy the account.dat back and reboot.
After that you should be able to access the eShop and download the games again.
Installing the USBMLC plugin
Download the
4usbmlc.ipxof the latest release from here: https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_usb_mlc/releases and copy it to both wiiu/ios_plugins and hax/ios_plugins on the SD card.Rebuilding the MLC
- Download all the mlc system titles for your region from NUS. This can be done conveniently with MLCRestorerDownloader by @Xpl0itU. To use the MLCRestoreDownloader, you need to extract it and then copy the
otp.binfrom the SD card to it's directory. Then start the Downloader and selectmlcand then your consoles region.
You will get theoutput/MLC/{region}directory, which contains a directory for each title. In total there should be 52 titles totaling ~1.1GiB.
If your console has an older firmware also get the latest SLC titles.
- On the root of your SD card create a folder
wafel_install. Then copy all 52 titles to the wafel_install folder, so it now contains the 52 subfolders, one for each title. If you want to reinstall / update SLC titles, you would also put them there.
- Put the wafel_setup_mlc.ipx on the SD card only in
wiiu/ios_plugins.
- Make sure only the USB HDD you want to use is connected.
If the HDD isn't already formatted by your Wii U, then the setup will format it, erasing all data on it
- Select Patch (sd) and Boot ios (slc) in minute to start the setup of your fresh MLC.
During the setup you won't see anything on the screen. You have to go by the power led.
The power LED will flash blue, while it is installing the titles. (shouldn't take longer than 30 mins)
if something goes wrong the LED will turn orange, but it will continue as long as it is blinking.
The LED will become static once it finished. You can now power off the console.
If the led is blinking red, something fatal happend. Ask for help.
During the setup a short log gets written to the SD:wafel_setup_mlc.log.
In the end it will enable the inital setup on the next boot.
- Check that the
wafel_setup_mlc.ipxdeleted itself fromwiiu/ios_pluginsfolder on the SD.
- Select Patch (sd) and Boot ios (slc) again. If everything worked, the initial setup should launch.
- Follow through with the initial setup.
- (Optional) delete the wafel_install folder to free up space
Copy the plugins to the SLC
For now you need to have the SD card inside the console to boot the USBMLC. Without the SD it would just boot your old system from the internal memory.
To copy the files to the SLC so it also works without the SD in go back to the ISFShax guide and follow the instructions there for setting up Aroma and then copying the plugins to the SLC.
**Keep in mind, this will be undone by a factory reset**
Setting up autoboot
To not have to navigate the minute menu on every boot create the file sd:/minute/minute.ini with the following content:
INI:
[boot]
autoboot=1
autoboot_timeout=1This will automatically load the plugins installed to the SLC. You can also set
autoboot to 3 to load the plugins from SD, which is nice for testing new plugins.
Last edited by SDIO,
