Hacking USB Loader GX on vWii: Detects 256gb USB but doesn't show any of my games (most of the time, anyway)

[Paolosworld]

PLEASE READ BOTH

Okay, The short version;
USB loader GX was working on my vWii for a while and now isn't. I tried a bunch of stuff but nothing has worked yet. As of right now the USB loader simply shows the foreworder as the only choice to select. Someone tell me how to get it working so I can play my backups again.

And now, The long version (There is a lot of stuff that might not be important, I put it here just to be safe):

I originally hacked my vWii before my Wii u by using the "Smash stack" exploit. I hacked it in late 2015. I was interested in CTGP-R (A Wii homebrew application) and a couple other things that the homebrew channel offered (at this time I had no Idea about the Wii U homebrew scene). I eventually saw people talking about USB loader GX and started to get greedy. I read a bunch of threads about cIOS istallers and patchers and other random homebrew crap (most of which were answered by Cyan, so kudos to him) and so I eventually could get USB loader GX. At the time I just used a 36gb USB drive and a 2gb SD card for my vWii because I didn't really want all that much stuff, and with this setup, everything worked just fine. After playing a bunch of wii backups (that were definitely mine to begin with), I started to homebrew my other stuff, like my 3ds and more importantly, my Wii U. After a couple months my 2gb SD card was replaced with a 36gb SDHC card and I began hacking my Wii U. I ended up playing a bunch of Wii U games that I installed with WUP installer GX2 (I definitely installed games that I paid for, of course). Here's the thing, after that USB loader GX on my vWii wasn't doing so well anymore. My 36gb USB drive was being detected along with the amount of games but none of them were showing up in the menu. I ended up reformatting my 36gb USB (which was used only for Wii backups, never Wii U ones) to Fat32 instead of NTFS like it was originally used on and still nothing. After that I thought that my vWii might be outdated, so I rehacked everything. I reinstalled the cIOSes like so.
Base:56, Slot:249
Base:57, Slot:250
Base:58, Slot:251
I of course downloaded the latest version of USB loader GX as well and still nothing. I even tried reformatting the USB to NTFS again and the back to FAT32 just to try to see if one would show up, but still nothing. Worst of all, now USB loader GX doesn't even notice my USB drive anymore, now it just shows the USB loader GX channel and occasionally the other channels as well, so in all of my efforts I ended up making it worst. I then swithched my 36gb USB drive with a 256gb 3.0 one instead (the other one was also 3.0, though) and then I reinstalled homebrew on my vWii AGAIN along with the cIOSes, and of course, same result, nothing.
Then I read something, It was how the Wii U's PSU is garbage and the USBs in the back of the console with eventually not work with large drives, meaning that I will need to end up getting a External Hard Drive along with a "Y-Cable" to finally get my games recognized. However, a decent HDD and a Y-cable comes out to around 50$ bones, and that's a significant investment. But it is one I'm willing to take.

Anyway, I know I sound like a total noob but I really am hitting the bricks here.
The guy who looks like he knows the most about this sort of crap is Cyan, and so if he's reading this, may he please bestow me with his knowledge.
I'm going to pull the trigger and purchase the HDD and Y-cable on February 10th, 2019.
So please Cyan, hook me up!

 

[Cyan]

be sure you connect the USB to port0 (back-top USB port). if you use a Y-cable for HDD (useless for flashdrives) be sure to plug the data cable to Port0, and power cable to Port1 (bottom or any other usb providing power).

if, one day, the drive wasn't plugged in the correct place or had issue initializing, the loader switched to "channel mode" to prevent having no games listed at all.
if after that your USB is detected again, it does NOT switch back to display wii games automatically. you need to go to the setting and tell the loader that you want to list the found wii games.
so, it's maybe your issue ?

Main screen in USBLoaderGX > Top menu > 4th icon > enable Wii games.


Second thing :
you said you reinstalled cIOS.
which version did you install ?
d2x v10 or v10-alt ?
the alternate version (r53) is beta and has compatibility issues. be sure you reinstalled d2x v10 (r52)

the slot/base you did is the common setup, but not the best.
some games doesn't work with base56, and the default slot used by USBLoaders is slot249.
you installed base56 in the default slot => not the best setup.

either :
- change the setting in the loader to use slot250 (where you have base57)
or
- install base57 in slot249 and use the default loader's settings. you can install base56 in slot250 in case base56 is really required by a game (I don't know any game requiring base56 and not working with 57)


Third :
Flashdrives, and newer HDD, have initialization issues with cIOS.
to fix the init drive bug, you need to set IOS58 as default IOS.

unplug the USB
USBLoaderGX, go to settings > loader settings > loader's IOS : replace 249 by 58.
exit, plug USB.
try launching the loader again. if should fix the drive detection issue.

 

[Paolosworld]

Had a feeling you would show up, awesome.

I always installed d2x v10 for the vWii, I never installed the Alternative. So I'm 99% sure that cIOS isin't the issue here.
I also always put my USB in slot 0, so that isin't the problem either.
I also have checked the USB loader GX drive compatibility list, and found that my flash drive works fine. I'll try setting default as IOS58 anyway.

What I haven't tried is changing the IOS slot in USB loader Gx's settings yet though, So I'll do that tonight.
I'll get back tonight on if it works or not, so don't close the thread yet.

Just to be clear, the Wii U's PSU is only an issue for HDDs and not flash drives, right? Or is there a possibility that my drive is too large to run stuff on without it's own power source?

Anyway thanks mate, the homebrew scene wouldn't be as big as it is without you, brother!

 

[Paolosworld]

Welp, two steps forward, one step back.

So I reinstalled the cIOSes like you said and all of my backups showed up.
I got really exited here and wrote this massive thank you post but then I started to notice some things.

For one, The covers on the games that I downloaded in Wii Backup Manager aren't showing up. Not that it matters much, but all the games look kind of bleak without any cover art.

The next issue came from me trying to launch one of the games. I opened it, pressed start, waited, and waited... and waited. A black screen. Damn. So close and yet so far.

I reset the Wii u and then return into USB Loader GX, but now it says that my 256gb USB is way larger than it actually is and stopped detecting games on it. So it looks like I'm back at square one. Ah well.
I don't think cIOS is the issue here but like I said my game covers aren't being detected, so does that have anything to do with it?

I was about to head into loader settings and screw around until I get it working but the last time I tried to fix things on my own it didn't go so well, so I'll hold off for now.

If you got any ideas for me then please reply (no rush, of course, it's pretty late right now).

Anyway thanks for all the help!

Edit: Also sorry for the double post; I heard that it is a big taboo in GBATemp.

 

[Cyan]

for covers, don't rely on WiibackupManager to get them. they don't end in the correct folder. so, either you need to move them afterward, or edit the path before downloading them.
the better solution is to get the game's art directly inside the loader : press 1 or 2 on the wiimote to open the art download menu.


If you can list games, but they don't launch, it feels like the problem is the Flashdrive which is not compatible with d2x.
so, while you are in the loader I guess you set IOS to 58 (compatible with flashdrives), but when you launch a game it reloads to d2x cIOS (not working with LOT of flashdrives).

you said you often changed and used different flashdrives. did you get a good result at least once with newer drives?
I suspect only your first and old drive is compatible with cIOS and games can be launched. all other drives are not compatible (hence why it's not even detected at loader's boot), and if you use IOS58 in the loader it can list the device content but can't be used to play wii games.

The only useful thing is for gamecube games, because nintendont rely on IOS58 to play them.


I suggest that you either go back to your first working flashdrive, or get a real external HDD.
Western Digital Element is fine. no need to get a very big. 250/300/500GB is enough. don't get greedy and get a drive bigger then 2TB or you'll have to take care of things you wouldn't want to.

 

[Paolosworld]

I'm a pretty greedy dude by nature, so it looks like I'll be buying the HDD after all.

But are you sure it's my flash drive? I'll admit that I haven't seen much success with the new drive in USB loader GX but the compatibility list gives my 256gb USB the green light.
Just for the record, my 256gb USB flash drive is a Sandisk Ultra USB 3.0, the model is SDCZ48 - 256gb

Anyway I'll go ahead and try to load a game on my old 36gb flash drive. If that works then I'll just get an HDD and throw down the fifty bones.

Also most Wii games range in size from about 750mb to 6gb, so I don't think that anybody will actually be down with using such a small drive like you suggested.

For the time being, I'll make do with the 36gb. It just hurts having such an awesome drive go down the shitter.

Ah well, can't win em all. I'll test it out tonight.

Thank you anyway.

P.S. I saw that you've never played Earthbound! Get on that!

 

[Cyan]

sorry, I meant GB, not MB.

if you found the flashdrive model in the compatibility list, it's probably an old report.
years ago, it used the WBFS format, not FAT32. It seems the issue with cIOS compatibility is only with the FAT32 library.
so, you can try to format your flash to WBFS, or NTFS. but you won't be able to use it for anything else than Wii games.
gamecube and emuNAND will not work. at least, with NTFS you should be able to use emulators and some other homebrew.

 

[Paolosworld]

Sorry for the CRAZY late reply, I've been balls deep in homework.

Basically, I went back to the old drive that used to work, formatted it to FAT32 and did WiiBackupManager on it.
I gave it 5 games. It saw none of them.

I then tried formatting the drive to NTFS (what I used to have it on when I used it).
It ended up sensing 4 different drives, all of which were said to be higher than the drive actually is.

Then I formatted it to WBFS as a hail mary.
And one of the 5 games I put on there showed up.
Resident Evil 4.

I have no idea what any of this means.
Keep in mind that the drive i'm using was working just fine on NTFS back in the day.

If my USB is fine... (which it probably is because it was working fine before)
And my cIOS bullshit is configured right (which it is)
And Everything is as according to the official pages on how to setup USBloaderGx, WiiBackupManager, and so on, all are fine...
Then what the hell.

So, new strategy, delete everything off of my Wii U, reset it to factory fucking defaults, and then re-hack everything JUST LIKE I DID the first time when it worked.
But, in theory this wouldn't do anything but waste my time, so I'm kind of lost here.

I have a lot of faith in that meaty brain of yours but based off of all your knowledge that I read from you on your posts, I think you are kind of running out of Ideas as well.

So please, follow up and tell me if resetting everything is the right coarse of action here. Because I'm 99% sure that it isn't.
I really want this to work, but if you're out of ideas then you can just lock the thread and that'll be fine.
But then again, that would REALLY suck.

 

[Cyan]

So, new strategy, delete everything off of my Wii U, reset it to factory fucking defaults, and then re-hack everything JUST LIKE I DID the first time when it worked.
But, in theory this wouldn't do anything but waste my time, so I'm kind of lost here.

you are right, waste your time and at worse brick it if you don't know what you are doing.

if you want to re-softmod it, overwrite things, don't format or delete!


When you say "it used to work years ago" it was on WiiU or on Wii ? I suppose you talk only about vWii, right?
on WiiU, you need a yCable for HDD to work. Flashdrive shouldn't need additional power, but HDDs do.


you added multiple games and only some were found? that's very weird.
added 5 games, and showed only resident evil.... and only on wbfs format?
so, either the loader has a settings which hides games (lot of possibilities to hide games), either the games are bad/wrong/corrupted/under dumped/not copied correctly to the partition.

I tend to think the problem is the loader's setting.
delete the full folder of USBloaderGX from your SD card, and create it anew from a new clean install (only 3 files : dol, png, xml)

 

[Paolosworld]

you are right, waste your time and at worse brick it if you don't know what you are doing.

if you want to re-softmod it, overwrite things, don't format or delete!


When you say "it used to work years ago" it was on WiiU or on Wii ? I suppose you talk only about vWii, right?
on WiiU, you need a yCable for HDD to work. Flashdrive shouldn't need additional power, but HDDs do.


you added multiple games and only some were found? that's very weird.
added 5 games, and showed only resident evil.... and only on wbfs format?
so, either the loader has a settings which hides games (lot of possibilities to hide games), either the games are bad/wrong/corrupted/under dumped/not copied correctly to the partition.

I tend to think the problem is the loader's setting.
delete the full folder of USBloaderGX from your SD card, and create it anew from a new clean install (only 3 files : dol, png, xml)

>So I tried getting a fresh install, didn’t work.
>I tried resetting to default settings in USBloaderGX, didn’t work.
>Tried all three format styles again, didn’t work (except for RE4).
>Tried downloading the same game from 3 different sites and re-setup Wii Backup Manager to assure my games weren’t corrupted, didn’t work.
>Reinstalled cIOS for the 80,000th time, didn’t work.
>Tried different USBs again, didn’t work
>Took a shit and calmed down
>Did everything over again, didn’t work.
>Got annoyed
>Tried different loaders, none worked.
>passed out

At this point is it just a hardware issue? Like maybe my USB port on the Wii U is messed up and I just got to resort to pc emulation?
Or what?

 

[Cyan]

if it's a USB port problem, no other homebrew would work. no wiixplorer, or wiimc, or emulators, or nintendont etc.

Tried different USBs again, didn’t work

what do you call usb?
this is USB:

this IS NOT a USB, this is a flash drive:

this IS NOT a USB, this is a USB HDD:

don't call something by its plug name.
it's like if you call your WiiU or PS4 a "hdmi" because it's connected using HDMI plug type.
if you call both your consoles a "hdmi" how do you want people to know when you talk about one or the other console?

like I said MANY MANY times on this forum : NEVER USE FLASHDRIVE WITH USB LOADERS!
stop expecting flashdrive to be fixed magically by trying one more time, or trying to discover a hidden technique that maybe nobody thought about for years of hacking, just because you don't want to buy a HDD.
get a working element once and for all and enjoy your gaming, instead of trying a non working element indefinitely and never play any games.

 

[Paolosworld]

if it's a USB port problem, no other homebrew would work. no wiixplorer, or wiimc, or emulators, or nintendont etc.


what do you call usb?
this is USB:

this IS NOT a USB, this is a flash drive:

this IS NOT a USB, this is a USB HDD:

don't call something by its plug name.
it's like if you call your WiiU or PS4 a "hdmi" because it's connected using HDMI plug type.
if you call both your consoles a "hdmi" how do you want people to know when you talk about one or the other console?

like I said MANY MANY times on this forum : NEVER USE FLASHDRIVE WITH USB LOADERS!
stop expecting flashdrive to be fixed magically by trying one more time, or trying to discover a hidden technique that maybe nobody thought about for years of hacking, just because you don't want to buy a HDD.
get a working element once and for all and enjoy your gaming, instead of trying a non working element indefinitely and never play any games.

WE HAVE SOLVED THE MYSTERY.
I HAVE BEEN USING A FLASH DRIVE THE WHOLE TIME
I will go ahead and buy the usb HDD now, this forum proved to be a huge waste of time.

The only thing that puzzles me is that my flash drive was working before just fine, so it's odd that it's not working anymore.
But whatever I'm just going to burn 50 bones to avoid the headaches.

Sorry for being such an idiot.

Just to be clear, is a "y-cable" one that has two USB plugs or two hard drive plugs? Will a y-cable use both USB ports?
Can you link a "y-cable" online so I know what one looks like? Because I looked up what one was and got links to thousands of different cables.

Once you answer that you can lock this thread. Or delete it. Or just let it go under.
Again sorry for being so stupid.

 

[Paolosworld]

Sorry for the double post,
But is this a compatible HDD?
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Ext...8-13&keywords=external+hard+drives+500gb&th=1

 

[Cyan]

Y-cable is one HDD and 2 plugs to the console.
one of the Y plug is the data and power, the other one is only power, so the HDD get twice the power from 2 USB ports of the console.
so, yes, it'll use two USB ports of the console.

USB TypeA (hdd) to USB typeA (data + power)

USB 3.0 Type (hdd) to USBTypeA (data + power)

another one :

the middle one is the "data" plug.
the right one is the HDD plug
the left one, attached to the data plug is used for additional power source. it doesn't transmit data at all, only power.


edit:
yes, the drive you linked should work. I can't give you a definitive answer because I didn't test that drive, but most HDD are compatible so there's no reason this one wouldn't work.
maybe even without the y-cable (only big drives might require lot of power to work correctly. but get/buy a y-cable just in case it's required).
based on the picture, you need a Y-cable like the 2nd and 3rd picture I posted.

 

[Paolosworld]

Y-cable is one HDD and 2 plugs to the console.
one of the Y plug is the data and power, the other one is only power, so the HDD get twice the power from 2 USB ports of the console.
so, yes, it'll use two USB ports of the console.

USB TypeA (hdd) to USB typeA (data + power)

USB 3.0 Type (hdd) to USBTypeA (data + power)

another one :

the middle one is the "data" plug.
the right one is the HDD plug
the left one, attached to the data plug is used for additional power source. it doesn't transmit data at all, only power.


edit:
yes, the drive you linked should work. I can't give you a definitive answer because I didn't test that drive, but most HDD are compatible so there's no reason this one wouldn't work.
maybe even without the y-cable (only big drives might require lot of power to work correctly. but get/buy a y-cable just in case it's required).
based on the picture, you need a Y-cable like the 2nd and 3rd picture I posted.

Alright sweet.
Thank you for sticking through this whole thread.

Lets stop talking now so this thread goes underground and I don't embarrass myself further.

Thanks for everything Cyan!

 

[Cyan]

just let me know the result once you test with a hdd.
Good luck.

 

[Paolosworld]

I got you my boy just hit me up when you get the shit and tell me the result.
Keep it groovy my bro.

WE HAVE DONE IT MY GOOD MATE.

After months of suffering and stressful attempts, it finally works.

My drive arrived and works on NTFS perfectly.
When the beautiful series of games flashed in front of my eyes I practically shit my pants.
I cannot begin to emphasize how thrilled I am that this whole thing went through and I got it working.
And it's all thanks to you!

so
,
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
- The best solution to a problem is usually the simplest one.
- Flash drives are dumb, especially the non-metal ones.
- My signature is annoying
- GBATemp is a wonderful site.

Cheers Cyan!
And thank you for all of the help!

 

[Cyan]

Thank you for your report.
Nice quote from me, haha

and, happy gaming !

 

[Paolosworld]

Thank you for your report.
Nice quote from me, haha

and, happy gaming !

Welp everything was working pristine for about 2 months and then whadya know, it stops.

Instead of saying "Initialize USB Device" and then it loading the channel, it instead changes to "waiting for HDD" and then counts down from 20.

I assumed that it wasn't sensing the drive, so I turned off the consle re-plugged in the y-cable and HDD so that the light (on the HDD) was on, meaning that it was being run. I booted up the Wii U and it prompted me to format the drive, meaning that it was definitely reading it.
I selected no and went to the vWii menu, booted up USBLoaderGX and still; same result.

"Waiting for HDD 20s"

Is this a cIOS thing or is my hardware starting to kick the bucket? "Cause it would be a real shame if it were the latter.

 

[Cyan]

I guess you didn't touch anything cIOS wise, as it was working fine.
if you changed nothing, I don't know why this is failing now.

Verify the USBLoader has its setting set to "loader's IOS : 58", maybe it reverted back to default 249?
that's the main reason hdd have detection issue, so it's the main thing to check. set it back to 58 and try again.

If it's still set to slot 58, then try to plug the HDD only after booting the loader, at the 20sec count down. it usually works pretty good, but it's really annoying for you to plug it at that time and not keep it plugged all the time. but if it fix the problem that's a workaround until you find what the real issue is.


For now, I have only these two solutions.
verify your hdd is still good on PC, partition and files are present, etc.