I decided to make this thread because there is so little information about this error and so many people with this problem
I had a white 8GB Wii U long ago which just a day it decided to throw this error, since there was no info about it i had to buy a new 32GB one, and a couple of days ago the 32GB one started having the same issue
After reading through a very small thread, with very little attention i decided to make one that maybe could get more attention and bring people with the error to know what they need to do to fix it
Thanks to @tqhoang for finding out the problem component and putting an end to the nightmare
IF YOU INTEND TO TRY ANYTHING IN THIS POST, IT IS UNDER YOUR OWN RISK
First off your drive is most likely NOT the problem, sadly, soldering skills are needed to fix it
The Wii U has a couple of Common Mode Filters on the drive data lines on the motherboard which are close to the drive connector
I still don't know the reason but these can break, which causes the Wii U to not detect the drive and start throwing that very error
(pic is tqhoang's courtesy)
The components marked with CM9 and CM10 will only give signal on one side
This is variable though, it may only be CM9 or only CM10 or both
I repaired my two Wii U and one of them only had a problem on CM9 while the other had the problem on both
The exact model of these filters is https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/667-EXC-24CG900U (according to tqhoang)
The ideal fix for this issue would be to get some spare of these filters and replace them
What i did WHICH IS STILL IN TESTING AND UNDER OBSERVATION was to bridge the lines with a small length of wire
Both of my Wii U managed to boot into the Wii U main menu, start games, formatted the old one without issues, etc.
But yeah, sadly its not a problem the average user can fix, but at least we now know the cause of this error
10/Dec/2020: since the day i made this post (30/Aug/2020) to this date, the white 8GB Wii U has been running without any issues, played through Bayonetta 2 with the liberties of doing some Halo farming and its still running good
today i also got to open the white 8GB one to take photos of my (probably ugly) solderwork as well as marking where these components are in a full motherboard view
I had a white 8GB Wii U long ago which just a day it decided to throw this error, since there was no info about it i had to buy a new 32GB one, and a couple of days ago the 32GB one started having the same issue
After reading through a very small thread, with very little attention i decided to make one that maybe could get more attention and bring people with the error to know what they need to do to fix it
Thanks to @tqhoang for finding out the problem component and putting an end to the nightmare
IF YOU INTEND TO TRY ANYTHING IN THIS POST, IT IS UNDER YOUR OWN RISK
First off your drive is most likely NOT the problem, sadly, soldering skills are needed to fix it
The Wii U has a couple of Common Mode Filters on the drive data lines on the motherboard which are close to the drive connector
I still don't know the reason but these can break, which causes the Wii U to not detect the drive and start throwing that very error
(pic is tqhoang's courtesy)
The components marked with CM9 and CM10 will only give signal on one side
This is variable though, it may only be CM9 or only CM10 or both
I repaired my two Wii U and one of them only had a problem on CM9 while the other had the problem on both
The exact model of these filters is https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/667-EXC-24CG900U (according to tqhoang)
The ideal fix for this issue would be to get some spare of these filters and replace them
What i did WHICH IS STILL IN TESTING AND UNDER OBSERVATION was to bridge the lines with a small length of wire
Both of my Wii U managed to boot into the Wii U main menu, start games, formatted the old one without issues, etc.
But yeah, sadly its not a problem the average user can fix, but at least we now know the cause of this error
10/Dec/2020: since the day i made this post (30/Aug/2020) to this date, the white 8GB Wii U has been running without any issues, played through Bayonetta 2 with the liberties of doing some Halo farming and its still running good
today i also got to open the white 8GB one to take photos of my (probably ugly) solderwork as well as marking where these components are in a full motherboard view
Last edited by Drakkar Blackblaze,