Hacking vWii USB Loader GX stuck on Initialize USB device screen

HikariWS · Dec 18, 2018

Hello guys.

In 2017 I bought a WiiU and at the time I installed a modded vWii and a homebrew to it, and tried to load Wii games. I remember I was able to load a few games and try them, but later it didn't work anymore. At the time I was using a USB HD and this HD stopped working on PC too, so I believe it died for unstable power... Anyway, I went to play WiiU games and then moved back to PC games. Now I wanna make Wii homebrew work, I've bought a SATA-USB dock with its own AC and a SATA 500GB HD.

But I'm still unable to make it work. I'd be very thankful if somebody could help me.

When I run USB Loader GX, it hangs on Initialize USB device screen.

Sometimes, I get a "Exception (DSI) occurred!" message. When it happens, sometimes WiiU crashes and I need to take its power cord off. Sometimes it restarts back to homebrew screen.

Some info I know, if needed I can provide more:

- I have a 64GB SD
- My WiiU has 5.5.1 firmware, I'm able to open loadiine on its browser and load games from it. I've tried some games and all them worked, in 2017 I finished Zelda Wind Waker with no issue.
- I have original vWii+HBC backup, from 2017 when I installed WiiU's and vWii's homebrews.

I've read some threads trying to find more ppl with same issue. In https://gbatemp.net/threads/run-usb-loader-gx-inside-neek-and-enable-nand-channels.485020/ Cyan says

USBLoaderGX > settings > features > dump NAND > full.
USBLoaderGX > top menu > 4th icon > enable listing of emuNAND channels

but where is USBLoaderGX's settings? When I click on it only options I have is to delete, load or back.

I've run SysCheckHDE on it, here's the log:

IOS513 base hash:
55 b9 ca 5e, 37 fc ec fb, 28 46 bd 20, 98 63 70 f6, 8c 13 3a 35

IOS512 base hash:
2a 35 73 f2, f1 b6 a6 4b, ab d5 7c bd, 7f 75 a9 cd, 54 28 1b 52

IOS236 base hash:
97 b0 be b9, d7 3f e7 0c, 21 90 5f 75, 28 9b 55 6f, c1 c2 1d 98

IOS80 base hash:
17 6c 61 67, 32 21 32 87, 87 95 75 0a, 84 ad 4e 1b, 70 86 7b 3c

IOS62 base hash:
c6 30 ec c3, 24 5e 8c d1, e2 cd 25 a9, 2f 55 28 b4, 3a 9c 0f 01

IOS59 base hash:
20 f8 f6 64, 8a 1c 56 42, 3a 31 77 fa, a8 56 31 a4, 09 5b ae 0f

IOS58 base hash:
ed ce 29 22, 86 d5 40 cf, 1e b0 0f dc, 09 68 7a ae, ca ba 4f 60

IOS57 base hash:
9b cd 04 d5, 4d b1 65 be, f0 7a 09 35, 9a 5e ea 68, c5 6f e2 21

IOS56 base hash:
1a d5 62 38, 10 fd 14 4b, 94 fd 24 a9, 65 5b 16 65, a2 d1 cb 5b

IOS55 base hash:
7b 8e 33 ae, ad e9 79 ca, bf b2 bb d6, 20 ca 08 a7, ea c8 2e ff

IOS53 base hash:
89 bf 1a 35, 2b d8 e1 43, a6 e1 fd 47, 59 69 02 f3, ae 24 86 4d

IOS48 base hash:
c3 a1 ff bc, 6f 2b 26 49, 0a 76 73 30, 95 9f f1 df, ba 8d 01 b2

IOS46 base hash:
ca b6 c4 3f, 4d 4c df 49, 17 86 ee 08, 26 63 b1 6a, d9 3f 8e 0a

IOS45 base hash:
3a 60 8c 3e, c3 5a e2 b1, 70 f5 7b e4, 0c f6 4a 2b, d1 cf 98 6d

IOS43 base hash:
54 f5 9a 45, 91 f8 7a 50, 80 51 db 3f, 1e cf 51 7c, 85 9c 38 a2

IOS41 base hash:
5d 52 4f 58, 21 df 26 e7, 55 7b 6f e7, 60 25 68 d9, b1 79 8e 46

IOS38 base hash:
48 6e 21 de, 40 16 a4 d7, 9d 7e 2b b5, a3 b8 ac 91, 73 91 5a 00

IOS37 base hash:
66 81 b0 ce, d6 3a 69 71, 7f da 96 e4, ac d0 83 65, f7 6a 20 6f

IOS36 base hash:
fc c6 8c f6, 96 46 3d 48, 4b 62 a3 d6, 82 10 ba c0, 56 27 b6 dd

IOS35 base hash:
f6 01 9c d4, 4f 43 5e ca, 0a 7b c8 6e, ae a6 d7 27, 42 1d c7 1f

IOS34 base hash:
cf 9e c3 1e, 5f 1d c9 78, 02 22 63 ef, 73 1c 19 f3, ff 44 17 07

IOS33 base hash:
b2 b3 6a d9, 70 b9 6c 52, 11 50 a3 07, d7 0b 86 4e, 87 11 08 ee

IOS31 base hash:
3f 08 b3 bb, d4 0e ca 36, dd 7c a5 4f, 18 fa 4c b3, f3 af 6b 3d

IOS28 base hash:
18 44 bb a1, 70 1e ec fa, 59 f6 49 b2, 92 2f 17 8f, 8f 37 76 c2

IOS22 base hash:
b6 37 fd 6e, 63 89 d4 56, 3e ea 7f b8, 3a 00 e8 9e, bf 91 b5 c2

IOS21 base hash:
5f 74 e5 99, f6 ff 78 b3, 03 db 1d 9e, 41 de 0e 44, 70 0a 0b be

IOS17 base hash:
51 6a 92 f8, 42 5a 50 2e, 45 16 cd 0c, e1 a4 b1 88, ca 91 16 40

IOS15 base hash:
bf e8 7f c4, 55 6b 69 20, fb 1a b7 be, 99 20 a1 b9, 7d 3f 33 68

IOS14 base hash:
57 8a 2b 74, 4d e6 d6 b3, b7 d1 84 7c, f1 e9 6b 8c, 9a 43 99 29

IOS13 base hash:
b9 f0 5c cb, 5b 0f 6f 50, f1 f6 78 15, 54 50 5f 42, fe 73 46 ae

IOS12 base hash:
1b f4 f9 fc, 04 a7 c0 4d, 14 37 1e bf, a2 2f 89 06, cd 68 7b 37

IOS9 base hash:
5f eb d0 50, e5 1b 4c d7, f3 ac ce e4, b7 7a 66 74, 5a 94 4e 92

and its csv

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on vIOS58 (rev 6432).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v609)

Drive date: 07.12.2012
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 619916366
Console Type: vWii
Shop Channel Country: Brazil (16)
Boot2 v0
Found 45 titles.
Found 35 IOS on this console. 0 of them are stubs.

vIOS9 (rev 1290): No Patches
vIOS12 (rev 782): No Patches
vIOS13 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS14 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS15 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS17 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS21 (rev 1295): No Patches
vIOS22 (rev 1550): No Patches
vIOS28 (rev 2063): No Patches
vIOS31 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS33 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS34 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS35 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS36 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS37 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS38 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS41 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS43 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS45 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS46 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS48 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS53 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS55 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS56 (rev 5918): No Patches
vIOS57 (rev 6175): No Patches
vIOS58 (rev 6432): USB 2.0
vIOS59 (rev 9249): No Patches
vIOS62 (rev 6942): No Patches
vIOS80 (rev 7200): No Patches
vIOS236 (rev 65535): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
vIOS249[56] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS512 (rev 7): No Patches
vIOS513 (rev 1): No Patches
Report generated on 12/19/2018.

I'm running USB Loader GX 3.0 r1271. I don't remember which cIOS I installed on the day, but if needed I can try to reinstall them.

HikariWS · Dec 18, 2018

I will update this post with more info I find out.

When USB Loader GX loads, I hear HD spinning, it means that it's being accessed. But it just hangs on this screen and HD is never accessed again.

I tried running it with HD powered off - my dock has a button to turn on and off. That's when the exception message occurs.

Cyan · Dec 19, 2018

HikariWS said:
but where is USBLoaderGX's settings? When I click on it only options I have is to delete, load or back.

you need to launch USBLoaderGX first to go into USBLoaderGX's settings.
what you are describing here is Homebrew channels buttons, not USBLoaderGX settings at all. it's not a setting, it's HBC option to load the homebrew, delete it from your SD card or cancel and do nothing.

HikariWS said:
I've bought a SATA-USB dock with its own AC and a SATA 500GB HD.

these rarely work. if the dock works like an USB HUB then it will never work with Wii games.
you'd better buy a real USB external HDD, not a dock or hub with connected SATA.

solution :

- reinstall your cIOS with r52 instead of r53
- in usbloadergx settings :
loader's IOS : 58
game's IOS : 250 (the one where you installed base57)

if not helping, don't use a dock !
note that the dock might work inside the loader if you use 58, but you won't be able to launch a wii game from it.
use an USB HDD, either externally powered or with a y-cable.
no dock, no HUB !

HikariWS · Dec 19, 2018

Hey Cyan tnx for the help!

you need to launch USBLoaderGX first to go into USBLoaderGX's settings.
what you are describing here is Homebrew channels buttons, not USBLoaderGX settings at all. it's not a setting, it's HBC option to load the homebrew, delete it from your SD card or cancel and do nothing.

So, this settings is done on a GUI once USBLoaderGX is loaded? It's sad it requires reading a USB storage so its GUI to be accessible, would there be anything on these settings that would help?

these rarely work. if the dock works like an USB HUB then it will never work with Wii games.
you'd better buy a real USB external HDD, not a dock or hub with connected SATA.

Well now that's really sad. I knew from when I bought my WiiU that its USB ports lack providing power and some USB HDs might not work due to that, but I didn't know a SATA-USB dock could not work.

I could try buying a USB HD with its own AC, but before investing even more money on this I'd like to be more certain that my homebrew has no issue and a self-powered USB HD would indeed work on it.

reinstall your cIOS with r52 instead of r53

Could you point me a tutorial explaining how to do it?
In https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-definitive-vwii-hacking-guide.425852/ it talks IOS 56, 57 and 58, I found nothing about 52 or 53.

- in usbloadergx settings :
loader's IOS : 58
game's IOS : 250 (the one where you installed base57)

Is this regarding https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-definitive-vwii-hacking-guide.425852/ d2x cIOS Installer?

If so, the tutorial says to install 56, 57 and 58. You're suggesting to install base 56 on slot 249, base 57 on slot 250, and base 58 also on slot 250?

Update. I haven't found any USB HD with AC adapter smaller than 4TB. That would require a cluster of 16KB, I believe. I already have one, I'm gonna try to move its files elsewhere and format it and give it a try. While I move files I'm gonna try to reinstall cIOS, but gonna wait your answer first to assure I understood it.

HikariWS · Dec 21, 2018

Well I did now my best bet. I'm unable to find a 1TB external HD with dedicated AC or a Y USB adapter. So I took my 4TB external HD and moved all its files out.

MBR has a limit of 2TB and formatting it with BOOTICE led the HD to being unreadable and Windows kept asking to format it. So I used Acronis Disk Director to delete any partition it would find and create a 1TB FAT32 primary partition, then used Wii Backup Manager to copy some games to it.

And the same DSI Exception happened. It happens just after "loading resources" message, after the "loading USB device" which used to crash the console when I used the dock.

I had on my SD v3.0 r1262 of USBLodaderGX. Now I'm using r1271.

If the issue is on HD compatibility, obviously it could be because this is a 4TB HD with a 1TB partition. It could also be because it's USB 3.0. USB 3.0 should be backward compatible with 2.0, but who guess.

Everything I could try on HD side I did. I'd have to go now into looking for ppl with some old used HD and try to buy from them, or some SATA-USB adapter that doesn't use an internal hub.

I'll now follow https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-definitive-vwii-hacking-guide.425852/ starting from "What are cIOS Files?" and reinstall these cIOS following exactly what the tutorial says and using d2x-v10-beta52-vWii. I can also try USBLodaderGX r1262.

Thanks again for your help Cyan. If you see this thread again, if possible answer my previous questions replying you. If you have any idea of what I can try I'll do it.

Update. I tried USBLoaderGX with no HD and it shows "waiting for USB" message, and before the counter finishes I get DSI Exception.

I tried to install cIOS but I also get a DSI Exception, which reloads homebrew in 10s. I followed the exact parameters:

Procedure for IOS56:
- at "Select cIOS" press right and select "d2x-v10-beta52-vWii"
- at "Select cIOS base" select "56"
- at "Select cIOS slot" select "249"
press A to install → cIOS 249 installed.

Repeat the above procedure for IOS57:
- at "Select cIOS" press right and select "d2x-v10-beta52-vWii"
- at "Select cIOS base" select "57"
- at "Select cIOS slot" select "250"
press A to install → cIOS 250 installed.

Repeat the above procedure for IOS58:
- at "Select cIOS" press right and select "d2x-v10-beta52-vWii"
- at "Select cIOS base" select "58"
- at "Select cIOS slot" select "251"
press A to install → cIOS 251 installed.

Same thing goes to IOS 236. So, yeah, something is wrong on my WiiU/vWii :/

Here's an updated SysCheckHDE:

IOS513 base hash:
55 b9 ca 5e, 37 fc ec fb, 28 46 bd 20, 98 63 70 f6, 8c 13 3a 35

IOS512 base hash:
2a 35 73 f2, f1 b6 a6 4b, ab d5 7c bd, 7f 75 a9 cd, 54 28 1b 52

IOS236 base hash:
97 b0 be b9, d7 3f e7 0c, 21 90 5f 75, 28 9b 55 6f, c1 c2 1d 98

IOS80 base hash:
17 6c 61 67, 32 21 32 87, 87 95 75 0a, 84 ad 4e 1b, 70 86 7b 3c

IOS62 base hash:
c6 30 ec c3, 24 5e 8c d1, e2 cd 25 a9, 2f 55 28 b4, 3a 9c 0f 01

IOS59 base hash:
20 f8 f6 64, 8a 1c 56 42, 3a 31 77 fa, a8 56 31 a4, 09 5b ae 0f

IOS58 base hash:
ed ce 29 22, 86 d5 40 cf, 1e b0 0f dc, 09 68 7a ae, ca ba 4f 60

IOS57 base hash:
9b cd 04 d5, 4d b1 65 be, f0 7a 09 35, 9a 5e ea 68, c5 6f e2 21

IOS56 base hash:
1a d5 62 38, 10 fd 14 4b, 94 fd 24 a9, 65 5b 16 65, a2 d1 cb 5b

IOS55 base hash:
7b 8e 33 ae, ad e9 79 ca, bf b2 bb d6, 20 ca 08 a7, ea c8 2e ff

IOS53 base hash:
89 bf 1a 35, 2b d8 e1 43, a6 e1 fd 47, 59 69 02 f3, ae 24 86 4d

IOS48 base hash:
c3 a1 ff bc, 6f 2b 26 49, 0a 76 73 30, 95 9f f1 df, ba 8d 01 b2

IOS46 base hash:
ca b6 c4 3f, 4d 4c df 49, 17 86 ee 08, 26 63 b1 6a, d9 3f 8e 0a

IOS45 base hash:
3a 60 8c 3e, c3 5a e2 b1, 70 f5 7b e4, 0c f6 4a 2b, d1 cf 98 6d

IOS43 base hash:
54 f5 9a 45, 91 f8 7a 50, 80 51 db 3f, 1e cf 51 7c, 85 9c 38 a2

IOS41 base hash:
5d 52 4f 58, 21 df 26 e7, 55 7b 6f e7, 60 25 68 d9, b1 79 8e 46

IOS38 base hash:
48 6e 21 de, 40 16 a4 d7, 9d 7e 2b b5, a3 b8 ac 91, 73 91 5a 00

IOS37 base hash:
66 81 b0 ce, d6 3a 69 71, 7f da 96 e4, ac d0 83 65, f7 6a 20 6f

IOS36 base hash:
fc c6 8c f6, 96 46 3d 48, 4b 62 a3 d6, 82 10 ba c0, 56 27 b6 dd

IOS35 base hash:
f6 01 9c d4, 4f 43 5e ca, 0a 7b c8 6e, ae a6 d7 27, 42 1d c7 1f

IOS34 base hash:
cf 9e c3 1e, 5f 1d c9 78, 02 22 63 ef, 73 1c 19 f3, ff 44 17 07

IOS33 base hash:
b2 b3 6a d9, 70 b9 6c 52, 11 50 a3 07, d7 0b 86 4e, 87 11 08 ee

IOS31 base hash:
3f 08 b3 bb, d4 0e ca 36, dd 7c a5 4f, 18 fa 4c b3, f3 af 6b 3d

IOS28 base hash:
18 44 bb a1, 70 1e ec fa, 59 f6 49 b2, 92 2f 17 8f, 8f 37 76 c2

IOS22 base hash:
b6 37 fd 6e, 63 89 d4 56, 3e ea 7f b8, 3a 00 e8 9e, bf 91 b5 c2

IOS21 base hash:
5f 74 e5 99, f6 ff 78 b3, 03 db 1d 9e, 41 de 0e 44, 70 0a 0b be

IOS17 base hash:
51 6a 92 f8, 42 5a 50 2e, 45 16 cd 0c, e1 a4 b1 88, ca 91 16 40

IOS15 base hash:
bf e8 7f c4, 55 6b 69 20, fb 1a b7 be, 99 20 a1 b9, 7d 3f 33 68

IOS14 base hash:
57 8a 2b 74, 4d e6 d6 b3, b7 d1 84 7c, f1 e9 6b 8c, 9a 43 99 29

IOS13 base hash:
b9 f0 5c cb, 5b 0f 6f 50, f1 f6 78 15, 54 50 5f 42, fe 73 46 ae

IOS12 base hash:
1b f4 f9 fc, 04 a7 c0 4d, 14 37 1e bf, a2 2f 89 06, cd 68 7b 37

IOS9 base hash:
5f eb d0 50, e5 1b 4c d7, f3 ac ce e4, b7 7a 66 74, 5a 94 4e 92

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on vIOS58 (rev 6432).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v609)

Drive date: 07.12.2012
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 619916366
Console Type: vWii
Shop Channel Country: Brazil (16)
Boot2 v0
Found 46 titles.
Found 35 IOS on this console. 0 of them are stubs.

vIOS9 (rev 1290): No Patches
vIOS12 (rev 782): No Patches
vIOS13 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS14 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS15 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS17 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS21 (rev 1295): No Patches
vIOS22 (rev 1550): No Patches
vIOS28 (rev 2063): No Patches
vIOS31 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS33 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS34 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS35 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS36 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS37 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS38 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS41 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS43 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS45 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS46 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS48 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS53 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS55 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS56 (rev 5918): No Patches
vIOS57 (rev 6175): No Patches
vIOS58 (rev 6432): USB 2.0
vIOS59 (rev 9249): No Patches
vIOS62 (rev 6942): No Patches
vIOS80 (rev 7200): No Patches
vIOS236 (rev 65535): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
vIOS249[56] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS512 (rev 7): No Patches
vIOS513 (rev 1): No Patches
Report generated on 12/21/2018.

Indeed it's still with v10beta53, so now I'm unable to reinstall cIOS...

Cyan · Dec 21, 2018

hello,

I'm not sure why you are having DSI exception so often.
in the loader, it's possible if I made a mistake, but also in the cIOS installer?
to me, it feels like there's a problem with one of your device (probably the SD card).

you are using SD card, right? always put all homebrew files on SD, never on HDD. the HDD should be used only for ROM and ISO, that's all. no dol, no elf, no game covers, settings, etc.
if you put homebrew on HDD, the wii often has to reboot the USB Port and you'll temporarily lose access to these files and it crashes the console if one of the file is being used while the drive is disconnected.
using SD ensure that the link to the used files are never broken.

If you want to edit the loader's setting, yes it's inside the loader's GUI.
to go into that menu, just disconnect all USB drives, the loader will launch. you can press B at the 20sec count down to skip it.
note : if no usb is detected once, the loader goes into channel mode. You'll have to re-enable wii games manually next time ! I'll change that one day.

HikariWS · Dec 21, 2018

Thanks a lot for the reply!

you are using SD card, right? always put all homebrew files on SD, never on HDD.

Yes all files are on SD. In HD is only my games. Homebrew is able to see all apps I've put on SD:/app folder.

My SD is very slow, when I access it on PC it even hangs win explorer due to I/O slowness. But I've never got any I/O error on PC. I've deleted app files and extracted again, so I doubt my SD has any problem.

I'm not sure why you are having DSI exception so often.
in the loader, it's possible if I made a mistake, but also in the cIOS installer?

It's really odd. I tried to install cIOS with USB cable unplugged, to make sure that installers or anything else weren't trying to read HD while installing cIOS, but the same exception happened. This excludes HD or USB as the cause.

My guess is that there's some issue on my WiiU, or on my hacked vWii. At least it didn't brick while trying to install cIOS.

if you put homebrew on HDD, the wii often has to reboot the USB Port and you'll temporarily lose access to these files and it crashes the console if one of the file is being used while the drive is disconnected.

I didn't even know it was possible to put apps on HD, much less homebrew itself.

Anyway, I described exactly how I formatted my HD, given the issue of it being 4TB. But, considering these errors while trying to install cIOS with USB cable unplugged, I think I'd need to step back from trying to find a working HD and move to troubleshooting vWii and homebrew themselves.

Well... yesterday I downloaded newest version of Dolphin and tested it. I was able to play Mario Galaxy smoothly @ 60fps with 3x native resolution, 16x FSAA 16x AF. Configuring wiimote emulation is a pain but I was able to use xbox 360's RStick to simulate wiimote's IR and placed A and B into gamepad's shoulders and it worked pretty fine. I think I'll just stick with Dolphin and leave my WiiU only for WiiU games. I don't wanna risk bricking it and not being able to play even WiiU anymore.

If you have idea of anything I could try regarding cIOS installers I'll do it. Otherwhise I'm giving up :/

FanNintendo · Dec 21, 2018

HikariWS said:
Thanks a lot for the reply!

Yes all files are on SD. In HD is only my games. Homebrew is able to see all apps I've put on SD:/app folder.

My SD is very slow, when I access it on PC it even hangs win explorer due to I/O slowness. But I've never got any I/O error on PC. I've deleted app files and extracted again, so I doubt my SD has any problem.

It's really odd. I tried to install cIOS with USB cable unplugged, to make sure that installers or anything else weren't trying to read HD while installing cIOS, but the same exception happened. This excludes HD or USB as the cause.

My guess is that there's some issue on my WiiU, or on my hacked vWii. At least it didn't brick while trying to install cIOS.

I didn't even know it was possible to put apps on HD, much less homebrew itself.

Anyway, I described exactly how I formatted my HD, given the issue of it being 4TB. But, considering these errors while trying to install cIOS with USB cable unplugged, I think I'd need to step back from trying to find a working HD and move to troubleshooting vWii and homebrew themselves.

Well... yesterday I downloaded newest version of Dolphin and tested it. I was able to play Mario Galaxy smoothly @ 60fps with 3x native resolution, 16x FSAA 16x AF. Configuring wiimote emulation is a pain but I was able to use xbox 360's RStick to simulate wiimote's IR and placed A and B into gamepad's shoulders and it worked pretty fine. I think I'll just stick with Dolphin and leave my WiiU only for WiiU games. I don't wanna risk bricking it and not being able to play even WiiU anymore.

If you have idea of anything I could try regarding cIOS installers I'll do it. Otherwhise I'm giving up :/

why not get Wii? I have Wii U hacked vwii and i love it every moment.

Cyan · Dec 21, 2018

HikariWS said:
Yes all files are on SD. In HD is only my games.

good

you can tell HBC to list apps from USB instead of SD (press 1 or 2 on wiimote for the options while in HBC). but it's always better to put them on SD for the reason I explained above.

I don't think your issue is the USB or the game, but I still suspect the SD card because you said it's slow, and both homebrew need access to SD at the start.

is your SD card write protected? check the adapter if you are using one.
sometime, the Wii has issue detecting the write protection of the SD (it's just a physical part on the card) you can force it to never be protected by putting a rubber band on the lock. it'll always be in writable position.

can you try another SD? you said it's slow, maybe it has a FAT32 sync issue? old homebrew could cause sync issues.

Another solution, you can try to format the card using Panasonic SD Formater. that tool fixed lot of previous user's issues, it's worth a try

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html the link says 4, but it's v5 now.

HikariWS · Dec 21, 2018

FanNintendo said:
why not get Wii? I have Wii U hacked vwii and i love it every moment.

Hello. Do u mean get an actual Wii? I actually have one, bought a used one already homebrewed on the same time I bought a new WiiU, it's from where I got my wiimote and original USB HD I used. But I didn't like its HDMI conversor, image gets too dark and ugly, it looks like analog/VHS.

The short time I had my WiiU's vWii working, games image was much more beautiful.

is your SD card write protected? check the adapter if you are using one.

It's actually indeed a microSD with a SD adapter. on PC I use a microSD to USB adapter.

This adapter doesn't have write protection feature, and it's not readonly because WiiU games are able to write their saves on it. It's also not full, it has over 1GB free.

I don't think your issue is the USB or the game, but I still suspect the SD card because you said it's slow, and both homebrew need access to SD at the start.

That would be the case only if cIOS installers and USBLoaderGX fail due to short read timeout. Indeed, Twilight Princess has an annoying load time. BotW took so much time to load the starting game I believed the game was broken, it stayed many many minutes on a white screen until the game started when Link is hibernating and wakes up.

you can force it to never be protected by putting a rubber band on the lock. it'll always be in writable position.

Do you mean the microSD or the SD adapter? I'd be shocked if any of them would have a write lock and I haven't noticed. But anyway, as I said WiiU games are able to write their saves on it.

can you try another SD? you said it's slow, maybe it has a FAT32 sync issue? old homebrew could cause sync issues.

I have another SD, I'm gonna copy app files to PC and copy it to the other SD and try it. I'll also try to reformat it but first I must move all files out.

Do you know of any WiiU incompatibility with new SD/microSD? Or is any microSD bought today compatible with it?

I'm just thinking on what to do in case my SD dies. I verified now and store has microSD, microSDHC, SDHC and SD, with fewer amount of other types like miniSD, CompactFlash, etc. And they seem to have classes too. What types of SD is WiiU compatible with and what's the most recommended?

If I was to buy one today it would be a " Sandisk Micro Sdxc Ultra 100mb/s 128gb". But I don't really wanna spend any more money to hack my WiiU, as WiiU games are working with loadiine.

DarkDengar · Dec 21, 2018

Cyan has already greatly assisted you, but I just wanted to reiterate the important thing I think you should try based on my experience with USB Loader GX on vWii.
Based on what you've told us, it seems to me your SD card is the one that has issues, like Cyan's last post mentions- you should try using a different SD card before you give up!

The SD card could be corrupted or damaged in some way. I had a related, awful experience where I would load Super Mario Galaxy from my HDD using USB Loader GX. Every other game I had would work, but Galaxy would always freeze at the exact same moment during the opening cutscene. After lots of tinkering with settings and checksums to confirm my dump was good, my HDD died on me and I lost tons of saves I had not recently backed up. Once I copied backups I did have to a new HDD, Super Mario Galaxy no longer froze there or anywhere else. After that mess, I'm highly suspicious of hardware corruption and damage when problems I have are clearly not caused by common issues. To me, you seem to be in this situation, but with your SD.

Using a laptop SATA hard drive and a SATA -> USB enclosure, along with a Y cable and USB power supply, I've had a great, working setup going for over a year now. You'll get there!

HikariWS · Dec 21, 2018

DarkDengar said:
The SD card could be corrupted or damaged in some way. !

Well I had my finished Wind Waker save backed up in 2017 and backed up my Twilight Princess save too lol. The biggest loadiine advantage is to have saves on SD.

I think my previous post answers you. But I'll continue only next week, this is taking too much time and getting me stressed, I wanna spend next days relaxing in plain old gaming.

Cyan · Dec 21, 2018

HikariWS said:
BotW took so much time to load the starting game I believed the game was broken

this is not caused by the SD, but the fact that the game has so many small files to load. it's not one big file with data in it.
it's a known issue when using loadiine with this game, and it's recommended to just install the game to the console or HDD instead using wup installer.
another game with this problem is 3D Mario world, but only for the beginning, once loaded the game works fine. but it's not as long as zelda.

HikariWS said:
Do you mean the microSD or the SD adapter?

the adapter. but like you said, if it's writable on wiiu then the console properly detects it, it's can't be a problem only on vWii as it's a physical element on big SD card, or adapters.

HikariWS said:
Do you know of any WiiU incompatibility with new SD/microSD? Or is any microSD bought today compatible with it?

no. I think everything should work, even the SDXC should work on WiiU and vWii (while they shouldn't on Wii).
if your card is bigger than 32GB, when you use the SD formatter tool it'll be in exFAT. You'll have to reformat it to FAT32 using your operating system.
formatting only to FAT32 without SD formatter doesn't have the same effect, SD formatter does something to the card (maybe repositioning sectors, I don't know) and users reported only good effect.

HikariWS said:
Sandisk Micro Sdxc Ultra 100mb/s 128gb

SD card have classes, up to 10.
Starting at class 10, It's noted "U1". above that, it's U2, U3, etc.

the class (and U value) is only a ratio on the writing capability speed, not a read speed information.
it's just how fast it is to write to the card from your computer for example. it'll not affect how fast it'll load Zelda.

for common use, I suggest U1 (class10)
if you want a card to write on it often (like a camera, recording video, etc.), then get U3
For example, it can also affect how fast the Nintendo Switch can record a screenshot or 30sec video when you press the capture button. Switch is compatible up to U3 in write speed, no need to buy a higher speed.

As for brand, be careful as some can be fake cards.
Go with Sandisk or Kingston and compare price with other sellers, if you see a too much price different (too low) then it's a fake one. lot of fake card are for example telling you capacity 256GB while it's in fact 64GB ! the card looks like it has 128GB free on your computer but once you reach 64GB of data it overwrite itself...

last I bought for my switch : https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B06XFHQGB9/
lot of people liked this one for capacity/speed/price ratio.
it's now even half the price I got it last year! 25€ for 128GB, go for it!

HikariWS · Dec 21, 2018

this is not caused by the SD, but the fact that the game has so many small files to load. it's not one big file with data in it.
it's a known issue when using loadiine with this game, and it's recommended to just install the game to the console or HDD instead using wup installer.
another game with this problem is 3D Mario world, but only for the beginning, once loaded the game works fine. but it's not as long as zelda.

Well that's interesting! I tried Mario 3D World and don't remember any big loading, but I might had just forgotten.

Is this BotW loading issue only on the begining, or does it persist the whole game?

I rly can't/don't wanna install Haxchi, because Nintendo left Brasil years ago and when I bought my WiiU they had blocked us on their eShop. Even on Mario Kart - which came installed on the console - I was unable to download its DLCs that I earned by buying the console, because eShop was blocking me. Their support said they were working on the issue. I also don't wanna risk having firmware updated.

if your card is bigger than 32GB, when you use the SD formatter tool it'll be in exFAT. You'll have to reformat it to FAT32 using your operating system.
formatting only to FAT32 without SD formatter doesn't have the same effect, SD formatter does something to the card (maybe repositioning sectors, I don't know) and users reported only good effect.

Do you mean use Panasonic SD Formater to format it to extFAT then Windows to format it to FAT32?

Well I can't buy from Amazon lol. I was looking on Mercado Livre. For a more reliable store, there's https://www.waz.com.br/cartao-de-me...andisk-ultra-sdsquar-128g-gn6ma-116877-html/p . But I rly don't wanna spend money on my WiiU now, only if both my SDs die.

After playing Mario Galaxy on Dolphin with higher resolution and filters and on 360 gamepad I rly gave up playing on vWii.

Cyan · Dec 21, 2018

HikariWS said:
Well that's interesting! I tried Mario 3D World and don't remember any big loading, but I might had just forgotten.
Is this BotW loading issue only on the begining, or does it persist the whole game?

on Mario, it's a matter of 30sec, 1minutes. nothing compared to BOTW 5-15 minutes !

it's whenever it has to load files (go into a dungeon, exit back to the map, etc.), and while playing the game the files are always loaded on the fly to display the maps, textures, sound, etc, so the game will be unplayable with loadiine.
if you want to play that game, you really should install it.

HikariWS said:
I rly can't/don't wanna install Haxchi, because Nintendo left Brasil years ago

Sorry to hear that.
then, there is still a solution for you, but not for all games.

1) you'll have to launch the browserhax to launch any homebrew. I recommend you stay on 5.5.1 for almost 100% success rate.
if you update to 5.5.2 or 5.5.3 you'll have to retry randomly (10-30 times) until it works.

For games you can't play with loadiine, you'll have to install them to the console or its HDD.
two option to play the game :
- if the game is from a disc : no CFW needed ! you don't need to do the browserhax to play the game ! it's even easier to install a game and play than using loadiine

- if the game is from eShop or contains DLC : you need CFW, which means you'll need to do the browserhax every time you need CFW.
if you can't install haxchi, there are other way to patch the CFW :
- long repatch : Mocha
- fast repatch : sigcheck2sysmenu, or syscheck2hbl <--- recommended. It's a homebrew which only patch the signature and return to wiiu menu, or to hbl. from here you can launch the game, or wup installer from hbl, etc.

remember, you can launch installed games without CFW !

for very few games, like zelda, smash and mario kart, there's a way to install and play the game without CFW even with DLC; but you need access to eshop, so you can't do it. If you install DLC you'll need browserhax.

so three choices for you :
1- loadiine : browserhax + loadiine
2- installed game (dump from disc) :
install : browserhax - wup installer
play : launch it when you want ! no cfw needed
3- installed game (dump from eshop, or game with dlc)
install : browserhax - sigpatch2hbl - wup installer
play : browserhax - sigpatch2sysmenu - launch the game

HikariWS said:
Do you mean use Panasonic SD Formater to format it to extFAT then Windows to format it to FAT32?

if your card is bigger than 32GB, yes.
if it's up to 32GB it'll be set to FAT32 directly by the SD formatter.

HikariWS said:
Well I can't buy from Amazon lol.

your link is not a U3 but a U1, and is more expansive than the U3 from amazon.
but it's maybe a good price for brazil/Brasil. I don't know.

HikariWS · Dec 21, 2018

Sorry to hear that.
then, there is still a solution for you, but not for all games.

1) you'll have to launch the browserhax to launch any homebrew. I recommend you stay on 5.5.1 for almost 100% success rate.
if you update to 5.5.2 or 5.5.3 you'll have to retry randomly (10-30 times) until it works.

That's what I'm doing ever since I bought my WiiU

Is there any list of games uncompatible with loadiine? I haven't have any issue with any I tested.

Only problem with loadiine is when the site is shut down.

if the game is from a disc : no CFW needed ! you don't need to do the browserhax to play the game ! it's even easier to install a game and play than using loadiine

Well if it's the original disk, sure.

What I don't understand still is these formats. All games I've seen are on the loadiine format, with code-content-meta folders. I've never seen games in any other format, that's another reason I don't wanna install Haxchi, because I'd need to find new copies of all games I've alrdy found.

Loadiine format seems to be the most common too. Is it rly impossibile to install games in this format?

Are syscheck2hbl and WUP Installer executed as we execute USBLoaderGX?

So I use Loadiine to load syscheck2hbl, then go back to WiiU Menu and execute WUP Installer to install the game on an HD. Then I use Loadiine to load sigpatch2sysmenu and then load the game?

From what I read about Haxchi, loading a game installed by WUP Installer doesn't brick the console, only makes it reboot, right?

But then I'd go back to the vWii issue... I'd need to find a HD that works on WiiU :/

your link is not a U3 but a U1, and is more expansive than the U3 from amazon.
but it's maybe a good price for brazil/Brasil. I don't know.

Everything in Brasil is 4 or 5 times more expensive than in USA. And our salary is 8 to 10 times smaller.

Tnx again for all the help. I'm gonna look for games in WUP format to try to understand the difference.

Hacking vWii USB Loader GX stuck on Initialize USB device screen

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