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Hacking Hardware Homebrew Homebrew app How do i brick my Wii?

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MechaBronics

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Yes, you've read that right. I WANT to brick my Wii.

Why? Here's the full story:
I have already bricked my family wii and since wiis are so cheap nowadays, i bought 2 for the equivalent of $30 to experiment with. I've seen many posts about a hardware unbrick method which is the only unbricking option left for me so before i turn on my soldering iron and start ruining my childhood device, i would like to experiment with a different Wii to see if it's at all possible.
There isn't a definitive Tutorial out there and most posts are very vague so experimenting and researching is only logical in my eyes. Please understand where i'm coming from.

So again, is there a way to deliberately brick my wii? I tried installing the same homebrew software as i did on my original wii and it still runs. I tried installing pimp my wii and doing all kinds of shenanigans with it and this wii is still standing. It's like this thing is teasing me with its resiliance. So any reliable and fool proof bricking method? I'd be forever grateful.

I am planning on documenting and publishing my findings so we can have one big and detailed guide on NAND Swapping and unbricking and whatnot. Again, i'm not trolling and this is a genuine question.
 
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Last I heard someone bricked their Wii by restoring a bad NAND backup. I'd imagine if you used all zeroes or zero out a significant portion at the beginning, you'd end up with a brick.
 
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lightwo said:
Last I heard someone bricked their Wii by restoring a bad NAND backup. I'd imagine if you used all zeroes or zero out a significant portion at the beginning, you'd end up with a brick.
Click to expand...
I remember watching a video by FunkyScott doing exactly that. Not so sure why i didn't think of that.
Thanks a lot my friend! I'll update the thread if i succeed
 
No need to brick to test this. Just use a hardware flasher to try restoring a different nand backup (either an older one or one generated using ohneschwanzenegger).

If you're successful, you'll see the system menu changed in-line with the restored backup. If it failed then you'll see no change. If it failed catastrophically only then would you have actually bricked.
 
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XFlak said:
No need to brick to test this. Just use a hardware flasher to try restoring a different nand backup (either an older one or one generated using ohneschwanzenegger).

If you're successful, you'll see the system menu changed in-line with the restored backup. If it failed then you'll see no change. If it failed catastrophically only then would you have actually bricked.
Click to expand...
I'll keep that in mind. I still would rather brick the wii because i have no nand backup of my original one so i wanted to test if it's possible to dump the keys of a dead device. Sounds absurd, i know but i've seen some posts that claim to have accomplished it and i wanted to verify because, as i said in my post, there aren't many people who talked about this let alone who verified these methods.
 
First do what @XFlak says, then make it worse. Then you'll know it works on a good one, you can establish if your handywork is up to scratch. If you do it on a bricked one you won't know what is screwed up, the faulty console or your own bodge job.
 
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zxr750j said:
First do what @XFlak says, then make it worse. Then you'll know it works on a good one, you can establish if your handywork is up to scratch. If you do it on a bricked one you won't know what is screwed up, the faulty console or your own bodge job.
Click to expand...
on second thought you guys may be right after all. This means i can get to work sooner than anticipated! Thanks a lot!
 
MechaBronics said:
I'll keep that in mind. I still would rather brick the wii because i have no nand backup of my original one so i wanted to test if it's possible to dump the keys of a dead device. Sounds absurd, i know but i've seen some posts that claim to have accomplished it and i wanted to verify because, as i said in my post, there aren't many people who talked about this let alone who verified these methods.
Click to expand...
I'm not a hardware expert so take with a grain of salt, but iirc you can only recover a wii without keys/nand backup if the console has a vulnerable boot1 (i.e. It's an older console capable of installing bootmii boot2), then u can just flash the first handful of blocks on the nand to inject bootmii boot2. Then launch into bootmii boot2 to dump keys/nand
 
Installing a Wii IOS 80 on a Wii Mini or vice versa is another good way to brick your console since Nintendo's code has never exactly been very tolerant of even small hardware changes

https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Brick/IOS_brick

Obviously your "unbrick" could depend what part actually broke
 
XFlak said:
I'm not a hardware expert so take with a grain of salt, but iirc you can only recover a wii without keys/nand backup if the console has a vulnerable boot1 (i.e. It's an older console capable of installing bootmii boot2), then u can just flash the first handful of blocks on the nand to inject bootmii boot2. Then launch into bootmii boot2 to dump keys/nand
Click to expand...
ik that my next question isnt part of this thread but i have a real challenging question here.
MKT Retro Rewind patched iso try to write settings in the shared2/Pulsar/RetroRewind6 on wii (physical console) NAND, of course fails (idk why other stuff like ghosts can be saved there)
i tried to inject via FSTools and Wiixplorer settings file (since the ISO just cant packed with...) but i cant write in the nand, in fact y cant write in the nand via via FSTools and Wiixplorer and idk why.
did you know something about how can i write on the nand as i wish i think i just finished my knowings about this
 
MechaBronics said:
Yes, you've read that right. I WANT to brick my Wii.

Why? Here's the full story:
I have already bricked my family wii and since wiis are so cheap nowadays, i bought 2 for the equivalent of $30 to experiment with. I've seen many posts about a hardware unbrick method which is the only unbricking option left for me so before i turn on my soldering iron and start ruining my childhood device, i would like to experiment with a different Wii to see if it's at all possible.
There isn't a definitive Tutorial out there and most posts are very vague so experimenting and researching is only logical in my eyes. Please understand where i'm coming from.

So again, is there a way to deliberately brick my wii? I tried installing the same homebrew software as i did on my original wii and it still runs. I tried installing pimp my wii and doing all kinds of shenanigans with it and this wii is still standing. It's like this thing is teasing me with its resiliance. So any reliable and fool proof bricking method? I'd be forever grateful.

I am planning on documenting and publishing my findings so we can have one big and detailed guide on NAND Swapping and unbricking and whatnot. Again, i'm not trolling and this is a genuine question.
Click to expand...
easy. install a wad with a bad banner. you will get a black screen after the health and safty. Or delete the system menu ios
 
DrEmuler said:
ik that my next question isnt part of this thread but i have a real challenging question here.
MKT Retro Rewind patched iso try to write settings in the shared2/Pulsar/RetroRewind6 on wii (physical console) NAND, of course fails (idk why other stuff like ghosts can be saved there)
i tried to inject via FSTools and Wiixplorer settings file (since the ISO just cant packed with...) but i cant write in the nand, in fact y cant write in the nand via via FSTools and Wiixplorer and idk why.
did you know something about how can i write on the nand as i wish i think i just finished my knowings about this
Click to expand...
I know for WiiXplorer you have to enable Nand write access in the settings. Did you do that?
 
NickArchiver52 said:
I know for WiiXplorer you have to enable Nand write access in the settings. Did you do that?
Click to expand...
far away from inherit permissions from AHBPROT and HW Channel. i cant find an option that enable those permissions, i tried FSTools also but with no success, probably im missing something regarding permissions how should i enable that?
 
MechaBronics said:
Yes, you've read that right. I WANT to brick my Wii.

Why? Here's the full story:
I have already bricked my family wii and since wiis are so cheap nowadays, i bought 2 for the equivalent of $30 to experiment with. I've seen many posts about a hardware unbrick method which is the only unbricking option left for me so before i turn on my soldering iron and start ruining my childhood device, i would like to experiment with a different Wii to see if it's at all possible.
There isn't a definitive Tutorial out there and most posts are very vague so experimenting and researching is only logical in my eyes. Please understand where i'm coming from.

So again, is there a way to deliberately brick my wii? I tried installing the same homebrew software as i did on my original wii and it still runs. I tried installing pimp my wii and doing all kinds of shenanigans with it and this wii is still standing. It's like this thing is teasing me with its resiliance. So any reliable and fool proof bricking method? I'd be forever grateful.

I am planning on documenting and publishing my findings so we can have one big and detailed guide on NAND Swapping and unbricking and whatnot. Again, i'm not trolling and this is a genuine question.
Click to expand...
You don't actually need to brick the Wii to try out hardware unbricking methods. All they are is a way to flash the NAND without a working console, and all you need in order to try that is a hardware flasher, and a NAND backup to flash with it. If you make a NAND backup and then delete something from the Wii Menu, and use the hardware flasher to restore the backup, you'll know it worked if the title you deleted reappears (and the console doesn't brick)

But if you really want to brick a Wii the easiest way seems to be installing a WAD with a bad banner, or delete every system menu IOS with AnyTitleDeleter or similar.
 
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Update: i haven't actually started working because i found out that my og wii AND my experimental wii are both bootmii boot2 INCOMPATIBLE.
I've done some research on the Wii's hardware as well as Bushing's (aka THE mastermind behind wii homebrewing) documentations and my wii might be dead forever. I probably wont work on unbricking it anymore unless i randomly stumble upon a super old forum that discusses a similar case.
 
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