Hacking Can you give me tips to avoid bricking my Wii?

[dreameaterlol]

So I'm trying to softmod my Wii, and I really don't want to brick it, so before I go any further, can you guys share tips with me on not bricking my Wii?

Also, with the 3DS and flashcarts for example, you want to update your flashcart before updating your 3DS. Is there anything like that with the Wii? For example, if a new version of the Wii comes out, is there any order that you should follow in order to update your Wii (for example, changing some soft mod settings/updating your softmod before updating your Wii)?

Thanks


Edit, also, when was the Wii first hacked to allow great compatibility with backups (say 90%+ compatibility with Wii titles)?

 

[JustChillin1414]

My tip: Priiloader, Priiloader, Priiloader. As long as you have a backup and priiloader installed, you can almost always recover. Basically the only things that'll brick your wii is screwing with ios' and themes. Make sure you backup before attempting those things. If you follow guides correctly you should be good.

 

[XFlak]

just the fact that you are asking this question tells me that you will never brick your will, lol. But it's true, 99% of bricks are caused by people guessing at what they should do.

As long as u don't do the following things u should always be safe:

• lose power during short installations of a few things ie. bootmii@boot2, system menu (SM), SM IOS, priiloader. And if you are able to install bootmii@boot2, once it's installed anything other losing power during another boot2 installation is easy to recover from (and bootmii@boot2 updates are scarce so that's almost a moot point).
• do something stupid like uninstall your system menu or system menu IOS (or install a stubbed SM IOS), but these u can recover from if u have bootmii @ boot2
• bannerbrick by installing a bad channel or custom theme, but these u can recover from using priiloader (or bootmii@boot2)
• update a region changed (formerly korean wii) to system menu 4.2 or higher or downgrade a newer lu64+ wii to

 

[Taleweaver]

My advice: get informed about all the technical stuff, learn what could cause a brick and why it happens. Xflak's list is correct, so it's well worth learning what the technical things he mentions really mean (this site or wiibrew.org can answer these questions pretty good).

My tip: Priiloader, Priiloader, Priiloader. As long as you have a backup and priiloader installed, you can almost always recover. Basically the only things that'll brick your wii is screwing with ios' and themes. Make sure you backup before attempting those things. If you follow guides correctly you should be good.

Hmm...not exactly bad advice, but a tad vague and incomplete. Bootmii as cIOS + priiloader may be better than nothing, but "almost always recover" is an overstatement.
Also..."if you follow guides correctly" sounds to me like a fork on a blackboard. The problem is that there are "wii hacking guides" on the internet that are misinformed, incomplete and downright dangerous to use (just because it worked for one guy with a certain wii at some time doesn't mean it will work on every wii...especially not years later).
So for a good guide...check on the date, make sure you know the author knows what the f**** he's on about...and then just abandon it and go with modmii, as that program is not only up to date, easy to use and complete, it's also pretty informative about what it is that it is doing.

 

[guinness]

tips:

1. Use ModMii
2. Carefully read and fully follow the guide ModMii creates.

That's it.