Hacking Hardware A memory to never forget.

[SkylakeEevee]

On November 6th, 2022. 2 of My friends and I decided to buy a Wii off eBay. We found one for $21.05. So we decided to get that since my old Wii didn't have a working SD Card slot.

However, The Wii we got was for parts or repair. (I was aware of this because I had a replacement disc drive for it.)

As it arrived on November 10th, We opened it and I replaced the broken disc drive. We had so many fun memories with it.

We played Mario Kart Wii and 100% it.

We played lots of Wii Sports.

And played other Nostalgic games on it and had a lot of save data and memories.

On the night of February 24th, 2023. This Wii had me crushed.

The day before this, I was playing Mario Kart Wii.

The next time I turned on the Wii. Oh boy, was it awful...

We didn't really have anything homebrew based on it besides the channel itself and USB Loader GX.

But It gave a message in corrupted text saying "The system files are corrupted. Please refer to the Wii Operations Manual for help troubleshooting."

One of my friends moved away. Knowing that this Wii no longer works, It hurts because it was the only memory that remained.

It was very special to me.

(This Wii did not have much modifications on it, Not even PriiLoader or BootMii.)

Flashing the NAND is all I know is possible.

If anyone can help me repair this, or flash the NAND in any way. Please tell me.

I'm counting on you all.

 

[Marusu]

I am not an expert on this topic.

Do you have a nand backup?

 

[SkylakeEevee]

I am not an expert on this topic, so please put very little faith in me.

Do you have a nand backup?

No, I unfortunately don't have a NAND backup from this Wii.

However, I do have an OLD backup from my old Wii.

 

[Marusu]

No, I unfortunately don't have a NAND backup from this Wii.

However, I do have an OLD backup from my old Wii.

Does it boot up correctly with the SD card removed?

 

[SkylakeEevee]

Does it boot up correctly with the SD card removed?

Nope... Right when it powers on, It goes straight to that screen. Not even the (Warning: Health and Safety) shows.

I even tried BlueBomb. Nothing.

 

[morning_glory]

Sounds like it was never modded properly/fully.
Once you mod it, back everything up & save it to a safe place.
Also, could be just a corrupt game file. Any other games that are giving grief ?

Save your time & sanity - Use ModMii.
It's easy as. It will get you where you wanna go.
Hats off to XFlak (& all the other app contributors). Wii world couldn't be happier

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Check out this software. It's kind of a last-ditch effort sort of thing but it may help.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ohneswanzenegger-wii-entry-pc-software.279750/

https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Ohneschwanzenegger

Save data is likely not recoverable unless you can dump the full NAND contents manually, unless you have some sort of access to do that on the hardware itself. Always make a NAND backup

 

[SkylakeEevee]

Sounds like it was never modded properly/fully.
Once you mod it, back everything up & save it to a safe place.
Also, could be just a corrupt game file. Any other games that are giving grief ?

Save your time & sanity - Use ModMii.
It's easy as. It will get you where you wanna go.
Hats off to XFlak (& all the other app contributors). Wii world couldn't be happier

That's what I was thinking. I was only playing Mario Kart before this happened.

Post automatically merged: Oct 28, 2023

Check out this software. It's kind of a last-ditch effort sort of thing but it may help.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ohneswanzenegger-wii-entry-pc-software.279750/

https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Ohneschwanzenegger

Save data is likely not recoverable unless you can dump the full NAND contents manually, unless you have some sort of access to do that on the hardware itself. Always make a NAND backup

Thank you so much.

 

[morning_glory]

Just examine the lesser volatile methods before using Ohneschwanzenegger
Read & learn what awaits you. ModMii is your safer solution

 

[SkylakeEevee]

Just examine the lesser volatile methods before using Ohneschwanzenegger
Read & learn what awaits you. ModMii is your safer solution

Only issue is that It won't boot at all. It just boots straight to that screen, not even Health and Safety shows.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

On November 6th, 2022. 2 of My friends and I decided to buy a Wii off eBay. We found one for $21.05. So we decided to get that since my old Wii didn't have a working SD Card slot.

However, The Wii we got was for parts or repair. (I was aware of this because I had a replacement disc drive for it.)

As it arrived on November 10th, We opened it and I replaced the broken disc drive. We had so many fun memories with it.

We played Mario Kart Wii and 100% it.

We played lots of Wii Sports.

And played other Nostalgic games on it and had a lot of save data and memories.

On the night of February 24th, 2023. This Wii had me crushed.

The day before this, I was playing Mario Kart Wii.

The next time I turned on the Wii. Oh boy, was it awful...

We didn't really have anything homebrew based on it besides the channel itself and USB Loader GX.

But It gave a message in corrupted text saying "The system files are corrupted. Please refer to the Wii Operations Manual for help troubleshooting."

One of my friends moved away. Knowing that this Wii no longer works, It hurts because it was the only memory that remained.

It was very special to me.

(This Wii did not have much modifications on it, Not even PriiLoader or BootMii.)

Flashing the NAND is all I know is possible.

If anyone can help me repair this, or flash the NAND in any way. Please tell me.

I'm counting on you all.

Try holding +, - while pressing A on the health and safety warning, this disables the Wii Message Board which can bypass a specific type of brick (mail brick), if this works then the brick is easy to fix.
If this doesn't help, then it's a banner brick (from installing a bad WAD file), still fixable but slightly more troublesome.
If you can't get to the health and safety screen, then it's not either of these types of bricks.
The other way to possibly unbrick the console would be using a GC controller in slot 4 along with any exploitable game that can be used to load homebrew.
If you can get into homebrew, the issue is almost certainly fixable (it shouldn't require flashing the NAND, that should be left as a last resort)

 

[CheeseBurgerwithLove]

Without access to HBC either through bootmii or Priiloader it will be difficult to recover it. Once you have access, I would recommend reinstalling the current installed firmware or using the program they have mentioned that can install a completely virgin nand.

 

[SaulFabre]

Only issue is that It won't boot at all. It just boots straight to that screen, not even Health and Safety shows.

Without access to HBC either through bootmii or Priiloader it will be difficult to recover it. Once you have access, I would recommend reinstalling the current installed firmware or using the program they have mentioned that can install a completely virgin nand.

Maybe someone else can explain this further.

@XFlak, @jeannotte, are you there?

 

[XFlak]

Maybe the savemiifrii method could get u into a homebrew environment?

 

[morning_glory]

Apologies folks - The error pic wasn't visible until 12hrs ago (just gray).
Darn Windows updates really slows & weirdly effects my PC.
I couldn't figure out why everyone was referring to bricking.
All good now - Sorry (not dementia )

 

[SkylakeEevee]

Maybe the savemiifrii method could get u into a homebrew environment?

Maybe. But how do I do that?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Maybe. But how do I do that?

GameCube controller in port 4 with all d-pad directions held down.
May require the GC pad to be disassembled to achieve this.

Source: https://wiibrew.org/wiki/SaveMii_Dongle#SaveMiiFrii

More info about the process here: https://savemii.net/

 

[SkylakeEevee]

GameCube controller in port 4 with all d-pad directions held down.
May require the GC pad to be disassembled to achieve this.

Source: https://wiibrew.org/wiki/SaveMii_Dongle#SaveMiiFrii

More info about the process here: https://savemii.net/

Is it also possible to get a SaveMii dongle? I have RVL-001. Which has GC controller and card port.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Basically, you'd be loading a bare minimum amount of system files (in this recovery mode) and, hopefully, booting into some sort of burned recovery disc if you went with this method. It requires either cIOSCORP/DARKCORP or a modchip to enable booting the recovery disc, though, since the Wii won't read burned media without one or the other, and some Wii revisions with later disc drives don't work with burned media at all without a modchip.

Dunno if the SaveMii chips are still available anywhere.

 

[SkylakeEevee]

Basically, you'd be loading a bare minimum amount of system files (in this recovery mode) and, hopefully, booting into some sort of burned recovery disc if you went with this method. It requires either cIOSCORP/DARKCORP or a modchip to enable booting the recovery disc, though, since the Wii won't read burned media without one or the other, and some Wii revisions with later disc drives don't work with burned media at all without a modchip.

Dunno if the SaveMii chips are )

Basically, you'd be loading a bare minimum amount of system files (in this recovery mode) and, hopefully, booting into some sort of burned recovery disc if you went with this method. It requires either cIOSCORP/DARKCORP or a modchip to enable booting the recovery disc, though, since the Wii won't read burned media without one or the other, and some Wii revisions with later disc drives don't work with burned media at all without a modchip.

Dunno if the SaveMii chips are still available anywhere.

They are, I found one.

What are the other modchips would I need for this process? I think my drive is also compatible.