Hacking Buying Used Wii

[AngelDamien]

Hello, and welcome to my first post.

After doing several softmods on friends' Wiis I've finally caved and decided I need to get one myself (I know, late, right?)
I've done all the research I need to get into softmodding, and now I'm looking for a Wii with a hackable boot2. Is there any advice as to what to look for as far as serial numbers go, etc to have the best luck getting one off ebay/cl?

Also I was reading here a bit, should I upgrade to 4.0 regardless of the current FW version, or only if the FW is > a certain revision?

 

[Szalkow]

The only indicator that the Wii has a vulnerable boot1+boot2 is if the serial number is less than LU64. Wiis with these serials were sold until November 2008, so age is probably a decent indicator.

You should probably upgrade to 4.0/4.1 for the SD menu and overall stability of the firmware - 4.1 is the standard now and affords full homebrew compatibility.

 

[AngelDamien]

Awesome, thanks for the advice, just got some bay bids in, found an '06 LU51 I'm hoping to be my new baby

 

[G0dLiKe]

If you dont win it, just search Wii 2007(check in descriptions), this brings up all Wiis which were intentionally bought in 2007 they have a vulnerable boot1 for sure.

 

[FenrirWolf]

Also, the LU64 serial doesn't have much to do with boot1. There are consoles from before that with a fixed boot1. As was mentioned, your best bet is to get a console made in '07 or early '08

 

[AngelDamien]

Chances are unless I get Ninja'd in the next 15 min this '06 is mine. That should definately be workable?

 

[xzxero]

yea is should have boot2 installed.


just update it via nintendo, then follow my 4.2 guide

 

[zektor]

If not, I have a second Wii with a hackable boot2 (has boot2 bootmii installed currently) that I am pondering selling. It'll come with all the regular stuff, including a backup of a "out of the box" nand as well as a backup of one already modified and ready to go.

 

[transam81]

Shoot i just softmodded a LU3x just last week i was surprised when i couldn't install bootmii to boot2. but i asked the owner about when it was purchased, when she came to pick it up. turned out they bought it late last year. i still don't understand how that can be.

 

[xzxero]

Shoot i just softmodded a LU3x just last week i was surprised when i couldn't install bootmii to boot2. but i asked the owner about when it was purchased, when she came to pick it up. turned out they bought it late last year. i still don't understand how that can be.

yea nintendo some sneaky bitches.

 

[AngelDamien]

Well, I'll let you know when it comes in, should be early next week. Like I've said before, it is an '06 so wish me luck

 

[BlackEnigma]

I'm certainly not saying that people should list their whole serial numbers but the first two numbers of the serial are likely useless unless they are LU10 or LU64 (and above). It's the reason that some LU36s are vulnerable and some aren't.
Who knows if there's any logic to it but if there is. It's likely within some kind of a range with say all serials below LU368789053 compatible and those above not.
Meanwhile maybe people with later more recent LU36s get confused when LU37s are compatible and there LU36 isn't. when maybe in truth an LU370001 was made at the same time as a LU36001 and that it's the LU36989 that was made way after the LU37001. And maybe the LU51001 was made around the same time as the LU36001 and the LU36989 was the one made way after.

It's just very difficult to find out having access to a large number of complete serials. Which I'm not quite sure the reason for people not listing them but I'm sure there's a good reason.

A project like the one here would be necessary to know once and for all. http://wiitracker.nintendo-scene.com/search.php

 

[xzxero]

it was bought in 06 so theres a great chance it has boot2 capabilities.

 

[BlackEnigma]

it was bought in 06 so theres a great chance it has boot2 capabilities.

Yeah that's probably pretty much a guarantee.
My response was more of a response to the general chatter on serials.

 

[xzxero]

it was bought in 06 so theres a great chance it has boot2 capabilities.

Yeah that's probably pretty much a guarantee.
My response was more of a response to the general chatter on serials.

yea you never know until you run the hackmii installer!

 

[BlackEnigma]

it was bought in 06 so theres a great chance it has boot2 capabilities.

Yeah that's probably pretty much a guarantee.
My response was more of a response to the general chatter on serials.

yea you never know until you run the hackmii installer!

you're right, you can never be too sure.
But still 06? The Wii was out for less than 2 months in 06 and that was before any of this hacking stuff. A non vulnerable 06 Wii surely would be a super abnormality.

 

[AngelDamien]

Well, good news. It works fine. At first I thought I got a bad wii, turns out it was just my TV giving me the middle finger

Dumping my NAND now, and then the modding begins

 

[TRushInfo]

Congrats!!!!

 

[SanzioSan]

lol at walmart where i live they have wiis on display (with security devices attached to them) and i looked at all their serial numbers and their all LU3X wiis! Brand New!

 

[jakejm79]

The serial number isn't a great way to tell, I have a LU39 that was purchased early this year and I can only do bootmii has an IOS. I think the date originally purchased/manufacture date is more important than the serial number.