Possible emmc to SD replacement for Wii u

SDIO · Mar 17, 2023

Interesting that we have a Toshiba failure. Can you be a little more specific on how it failed?
If you used an NAND backup and the wii u was tunred on ofter creating the backup, then you also need to restore the SLC. It might look like your console is fine, but you will get file system problems if the slc and mlc don't match.

pulterbit · Mar 17, 2023

I wish I could be a little bit more specific however I do recall having installed cold haxchi. My guess is that the title used to launch it must have corrupted as it's been sitting in non-climate control storage for a while. And as far as the backups go they were performed right before it went into storage, because I had issues with my 3dsemunand SD card corrupting from underutilization. So nowadays before I put a console back into storage if I can I always try to back up it's file system and any console specific keys or operating files. I do apologize I wish I could give you more information.

GaryOderNichts · Mar 17, 2023

SDIO said:
Thank you all. If I could get the Firmware emulator to work, I would try it. But I had problems last time I tried it.
I am thinking about buying a cheap 64GB emmc from ali express and try that on the real console. But there is also not much incentive to do so, as we don't have a way of growing the FS as far as I know.

@GaryOderNichts can you tell me the exact size it is checking against?

C:

if (size < 0xe60000) {
    (blkDrv->device_params).max_lba = size - 1;
}
else if (size < 0x3a30000) {
    (blkDrv->device_params).max_lba = 0xe5ffff;
}
else if (size < 0x7478000) {
    (blkDrv->device_params).max_lba = 0x3a2ffff;
}
else {
    (blkDrv->device_params).max_lba = 0x7477fff;
}

Note that these are LBAs so you need to multiply by 0x200 to get the size in bytes.

SDIO · Mar 17, 2023

thanks this confirms that my sdcard is big enough with 0x3A79800 LBAs. This gives me piece of mind, because I was afraid it would be to small and cause errors later.
Later I will check the 64 card.
One explanation why it doesn't work might be the SLC cache. It probably falls in the next bigger category and so the cache manger notices that the cache it has doesn't fits the device.

V10lator · Mar 17, 2023

@SDIO Could it also just be some weird incompatibility with either the Wii U or the SD card not beeing 100% standard compilant? If so: Do you have other cards to test?

SDIO · Mar 17, 2023

The same SD card is working in the SD slot, so I don't believe that. I have another 64gb card in my phone as adaptable storage, but I would rather not mess with that.
I though about getting a 64GB emmc and try that.

I am wondering why Nintendo artificially restricts the size of the eMMC with these hardcoded values instead of using the true size. Maybe to give the controller more spare blocks to work with?

pulterbit · Mar 17, 2023

@SDIO do you think something like this might work it's a little bit expensive but it might do the trick for testing purposes

ghjfdtg · Mar 17, 2023

SDIO said:
I am thinking about buying a cheap 64GB emmc from ali express and try that on the real console. But there is also not much incentive to do so, as we don't have a way of growing the FS as far as I know.

I would argue that it's a good idea to go a bit bigger. Since the fs is encrypted and the OS does not issue TRIM/erase commands (it would reveal which areas of the encrypted partition are used) the eMMC has barely any room left for wear leveling. And more capacity means distributing the same writes across more flash pages. That is assuming 64GB works. In my experience eMMC is much better than SD cards because it's optimized for running an OS from it. Better random read/write performance and durability (if the firmware isn't buggy).

pulterbit · Mar 22, 2023

Good news I've managed to free my original emmc from the epoxy that I put on it told the SD card in place and I also managed to free it from the board. However some bad news I ran into the issue that SDIO points out in their write-up, if you do not take a backup of your system and after the console has been powered down you will run into the slc cach issue. Meaning that I now have to reflash my slc.bin with a teensy 2.0 ++ in order to get my Wii u working again.

SDIO · Mar 22, 2023

Wait, with soldering to the SLC. If you can get the recovery menu to load, I can write a flash back tools for you. But you would have to wait a little bit, as I first want to finish my work on the dumper.

There are also clips for putting over the TSOP, so you wouldn't have to solder, but they are a little bit expensive ~$40 maybe I find the link later.

pulterbit · Mar 22, 2023

@SDIO yeah I can wait, that would be amazing if you could write a flashback tool. In the meantime I'll see if I can get the recovery menu to boot on my wiiu. Thank you.

xXHeroooreHXx · Mar 23, 2023

I would be very interesting to make a pcb that can be solded. Like the latest ones on GC modding.

Post automatically merged: Mar 23, 2023

It could be very interesting to make a pcb that can be solded. Like the latest ones on GC modding. I think only a cable or two could be needed, and the 0.1uf cap could be on the board itself. I found today my wiiu was a Hynix one, and I'm prepairing the backup, I think this could be a really good fix.

SDIO · Mar 23, 2023

@Voultar is looking into creating such a PCB: https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-i-fixed-160-0103-system-memory-error.626448/post-10106466

pulterbit · Apr 3, 2023

Just wanted to say thanks to all of the hard work from @SDIO @Voultar You have successfully saved another Wii u from the recycling pile . It wasn't without its risky bits though. I did accidentally lift a trace and had to manually repair it on the Slc nand chip but this Wii u is functioning on nothing but a 32 gig SD card. Thank you guys again for all of your help

SDIO · Apr 15, 2023

What is the brand and name of the SD cards? Then I could add it to the list of working ones.

V10lator · Apr 15, 2023

SDIO said:
What is the brand and name of the SD cards?

You can see it in the pictures when zooming: It's a SanDisk High Endurance.

pulterbit · Apr 16, 2023

@SDIO V10lator is correct it is a SanDisk High endurance 32 gb

Danook28 · May 3, 2023

Any one try remove chip use heat gun. Hot air. Temperatur!!!!!

hasboa · Jan 24, 2024

GaryOderNichts said:
It's in the md_blk_drv of the IOSU.
It's doing something like this:

Code:

if size < 8gb totalSize = size else if size < 32gb totalSize = 8gb else if size < 64gb totalSize = 32gb else totalSize = 64gb

This would imply that 64gb internal storage is technically possible, but this hasn't been tested yet.
If you have anything larger than 64gb it will just be capped to 64gb though.

Yeah if you want to test if the console would boot with 64gb, the firmware emulator would be a simple test.

cant we just change the total size = 64 to something different like 256 ?
or is it too hard to do so

GaryOderNichts · Jan 24, 2024

hasboa said:
cant we just change the total size = 64 to something different like 256 ?
or is it too hard to do so

It can be changed but requires coldboot patches to apply, for example using de_Fuse to boot stroopwafel (see https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/wafel_unlimit_mlc).
64 GiB can be done without any patches.

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