Hacking USB Loader GX: Black screen when loading Wii games

ProtossEvo · Dec 31, 2018

I'm having problems with blackscreen, I had with Just Dance 1 (ntsc-u), and Kirby Return to Dreamland. Problem is, it's the vWii, not the real Wii, and most of the anwsers here are to real Wii.

All ios and usb loaders are the one in the gbatemp tutorial to hack the vWii. Plus the ios80 I found from other tutorial (but the black screens were already hapenning before I installed the ios80). Are these games know for not working in the vWii? There is any version of the app Modmii to vWii, so I can post my ios situation?

Cyan · Jan 1, 2019

Just dance require an IOS based on IOS57.
having that IOS installed is not enough, you need to use it !

go to your loader's settings, change the game's IOS from 249 to 250.
if you want, you can also set the loader's IOS to 250 too, or 58 if your HDD has init issue. having both the same slot number just speed the game launch.

No idea for kirby. do yo play from USB or SD? I know one of the kirby game doesn't work on SD, nor with d2x r53.

I don't know which version of the cIOS you installed.
there are two different v10 : v10 and v10-alternative.
alternative version (r53) has issues with some games. be sure you installed r52.

ProtossEvo · Jan 2, 2019

Thx for reply, Cyan. All my games are on a USB HD, with external power, Wii games in a wbfs folder in the root, GC games in a folder called games in the root. Tried Just Dance with cIOS 249 (ios base 56) and 250 (ios base 57), and didn't worked. I'm using usb loader gx and wiiflow. I remember that in my real Wii, some games only worked with uLoader, but there's no version of it for the vWii. It had the ugliest skin and theme, but was the more functional of all, no single game failed to work with it...! Anyway, I tested Just Dance 2, 3 and Summer Party, all worked flawlessly (the only part I couldn't make work was DLC, since the servers were shut down long ago, and the wad with the DLC songs that I found in the internet installs normal with YAMMN, but doesn't work or appear in the game, same for Guitar Hero 5 dlc wad songs).

Maybe I need to change other settings besides the cIOS 250? Like region string, language, video patching, etc? I use global settings for everything.

My Wii U is Japanese (I hate it: no Language Selection options in the Wii and Wii U menu for Japan, Nintendo seems to ignore foreigner players living in the country... It's a headache to configure things in the option menus, since they are complex, with layers and more layers of sub menus), and the Just Dance wbfs I tried was the NTSC-U, and the European version. And I downloaded the NTSC-U from more than one different site, to be sure the problem it's not a bad rip. I think it work on Dolphin, but I don't really want to spread the games over many platforms, I want JD 1 to JD3 on vWii, and from JD4, all in the Wii U.

Cyan · Jan 2, 2019

ah, then it's possible the issue is the japanese console.
you can try to change the console region (but I never liked that option), or use modmii to generate a NTSCU emunand for neek to load USA games not working on the JPN console.

Tobbler · Jan 12, 2019

Hi. I've read every page on this forum, but the advice seems to be don't try and fix your problem with somebody else's solution, so if I explain my problem perhaps someone can help?

I have an old softmodded Wii and I would play games using CFG USB Loader off a USB stick. I transferred them using WIii Backup Manager. Never had a problem until I downloaded a few games which are recognised by USB Loader, even playing the music when you select them, but when I try load them I'm getting a black screen. It's not every game. But like Mario Party 8 is black screen whereas Mario Party 9 loads.

What can I do? Thanks in advance

Cyan · Jan 12, 2019

Are you still using CFG Loader? this thread was about USBGX, but I guess it should be similar:

are the game the same region than the console?
black screen is either a wrong video region (rare but can be baclscreen instead of set to current video mode)
or bad iso
or file is write protected on a FAT32 partition (no idea why, as it's never needed to be written). verify your wbfs file's properties doesn't have the write protected setting.
or you enabled debug pause at start (so it waits for a debugger to be communicating with the console)

did you try the game in another loader?

You'll have users telling you to not use flash drive, but if other games are working fine that's not the problem. you are lucky to have a working flash drive.
Note that flashdrive in general have write issues. so, if you try launch a game which needs to write something on the flash at boot, it might also be a blackscreen result. (can't write, so can't launch. for example launching nintendont with gamecube game, it requires memory card creation on the same partition, can't create the card, can't launch the game).

Tobbler · Jan 12, 2019

Thanks for the reply. Here's what I can find out:

- The loader brings up a big CFG as it's loading. It's loader version 70r65 if that helps

- I'm not sure what region the games are. I've looked at the "info" of the games within the loader, but can't see any indication of region. They're WBFS files. Country Fix is set to Off

- Write Playlog is set to Off

- Can't find anything about Debug Pause in the Options

Sorry I'm not really great with all this. I softmodded it about 10 years ago

Cyan · Jan 12, 2019

look at the game's TitleID. the 4th letter is the region.
P = PAL/EUR
E = USA
J = Japan
K = Korena
T (rarely found) will be taiwanese

example :
SMNP01 : New Super mario EUR

The video setting is best set as "use the video mode based on the game you are playing".
If you don't know which video mode to use, try them all one by one.
in USBLoaderGX, by default it's set correctly and called "disc default" (to use the video based on the game's disc region). I never used CFG Loader so I can't help you here.

You could try USBLoaderGX (link in my signature).

Tobbler · Jan 12, 2019

Mate I've tried your USBLoader and it's done the trick. I just have to remember how to make it a channel, rather than loading it through the Homebrew Channel. But great work, thanks a lot for your help and time

Cyan · Jan 12, 2019

no need to make it a channel, there's already an existing one :
https://sourceforge.net/projects/usbloadergx/files/Releases/Forwarders/
download the "5.1" if you are on Wii, and the "vWii 5.1 fix" if you are on vWii.
use a wad manager to install the channel to your menu.

You'll still need the files on your SD card, as it's a forwarder and not a full channel.

Anyway, I'm glad you fixed your issue

not sure what the problem was, but it works.

Rafael0055 · Jan 12, 2019

Yeah in my experience with CFG and WiiFlow they've always been pretty buggy but USBLoaderGX always works like a charm and looks great as well

richittgb1 · Jan 14, 2019

when I format my hard drive with "BOOTICE" in fat 32, my pc does not recognize it. when formatting in NTFS usb loader remains loading in "initializing usb device". it helps as I format it and in what size to be able to play games of wii and gamecube and how to pass the games to the hard disk. psdt: My hard drive if it is compatible, try with a usb and it only works when I format it in wbfs

jeannotte · Jan 14, 2019

Hello,

@richittgb1 :

To have the games Wii and Gamecube on the same partition, it is necessary that the external hard disk is in FAT32.

Maybe you need a Y-cable for better connectivity.

Did you try this utility (FAT32 format) ==>http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

richittgb1 · Jan 14, 2019

Hello @jeannotte
Hi. If I tried Guiformat, now that message was happening but now it freezes in the message "loading files". help I'm like a week formatting.
Psdta: My hard drive is Western Digital Elements 2 Teras

Greenie17 · Jan 17, 2019

I posted a new thread but didn't get much help. So I am latching on here since I am having the same problem as most are saying....

I am using USB Loader GX on a U.S. Wii and it was working perfectly. Last week I fired it up and it loads up fine but nearly 90% of the games hang at the black screen now. Is there something that changed? One thing I will note is that I have the 4TB drive formatted with NTFS and I have read seemingly mixed reviews on NTFS and the Wii and USB Loader GX. So the first question is can I use an external USB 4TB drive formatted with NTFS? And if your answer is no... What changed? Since this used to work just fine. I have <version>3.0 r1271 <release_date>20181218174915. Any thoughts?

FYI I used Wii Backup Manager to copy the Wii files over so they are broken up into 4GB wbfs chunks IF the files are larger than 4GB.

Settings > credit, look at the top right = Rev 1271 IOS58 (Rev 6167) + AHB
Settings > Loader settings > Game IOS = IOS 249

Thanks.

Cyan · Jan 18, 2019

Greenie17 said:
first question is can I use an external USB 4TB drive formatted with NTFS?

yes.

Greenie17 said:
I have read seemingly mixed reviews on NTFS and the Wii and USB Loader GX.

no reasons.

black screen is either a wrong video mode setting, or you enabled different settings inadvertently (like debug option, while you don't have a debugger!)
Another possibility is because you enabled Compressed option for NTFS setting on your computer. disable that option.

Greenie17 · Jan 22, 2019

Cyan said:
yes.

no reasons.

black screen is either a wrong video mode setting, or you enabled different settings inadvertently (like debug option, while you don't have a debugger!)
Another possibility is because you enabled Compressed option for NTFS setting on your computer. disable that option.

Thanks for getting back to me.

So I have the Video mode to be forced NTSC to true in the Loader Settings
I am not sure where the debug option is but I did find 2 mentions of debug in Loader settings as well;

* Wiird debug is set to OFF
* Debugger Paused Start is set to OFF

Also Loader's IOS is 58 and Game's IOS is 249

The drive properties have the 'Compress this drive to save disk space' is not checked.

Is there another Debug somewhere that I can check? Is there a reset to default somewhere in the menu?

Cyan · Jan 23, 2019

forcing NTSC is not good.
it's good only for NTSC games, but will fail with PAL games.
The best option is "disc default" to set the console's video mode to the game's region you launch.

debug option are fine (off)

compress drive not check : good

Black screen for all games or only some?
if it's for all games, it could be incompatible device with cIOS (like flashdrive), or wrong USB Port (you need to plug USB to Port 0)
Don't use HUB, don't use HDD socket (something like a base where you plug the HDD when you need), it's working like a HUB.

if you have a HDD (not a flashdrive) plugged in correct port, then I don't know what to suggest.
only the video mode seems not correct to me, but only for non USA games.

Greenie17 · Jan 23, 2019

Cyan said:
forcing NTSC is not good.
it's good only for NTSC games, but will fail with PAL games.
The best option is "disc default" to set the console's video mode to the game's region you launch.

I have it back on disc default (but it was like that before so it seems to not make a difference). Nearly 99% of the 1,200 games are USA games.

Black screen for all games or only some?
if it's for all games, it could be incompatible device with cIOS (like flashdrive), or wrong USB Port (you need to plug USB to Port 0)
Don't use HUB, don't use HDD socket (something like a base where you plug the HDD when you need), it's working like a HUB.

I am getting a black screen for what seems like 80% of games. I have to shut down and restart to get it back so to try them all would take me years. But all the real basic games (Wii Party for example) fail.

I have no hub. I have the hard drive directly plugged into the usb 0 (far left top when facing the front of the wii). IS it true that if it was plugged into the wrong usb that none of the games would even show up on the menu? They are all there so just askin.

if you have a HDD (not a flashdrive) plugged in correct port, then I don't know what to suggest.
only the video mode seems not correct to me, but only for non USA games.

Its just odd that they ALL worked 6 months ago. Maybe the drive is corrupt or something. I can copy all the images over and reformat and copy them back. Just curious if there was something that changed that I am missing.

Interesting, if I change the view for the games a few times I get a black screen of death. Exception (DSI) occurred. There is a code and stack dump as well. I also don't recall this happening before. Does that shine any light at all? Maybe I need to just start all over.

Cyan · Jan 24, 2019

ah, it crashes with 1271 ?
try 1268 and do the same (changing the view, etc.) to see if it has the same problem. It's maybe a bug in latest version only.

if you have a code dump, please take a readable screenshot of it, and provide the exact revision number of the loader you are using.
it'll help find the bug.

Hacking USB Loader GX: Black screen when loading Wii games

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