Hacking cloned Wiikey or some thing else?

[serrin]

I had what I thought was a wiikey (though I wasn't 100% sure and since it played all the games I threw at it, I never bothered to look) however, when I burned SSBB, I got the magical "error 001" screen; which was odd because I already patched the wiikey to 1.9g. So I decided to see if it really worked and I put the patch DVD in. And it asked me to patch again. So what I have is a wii, that can play out of region games without regionfrii/region code modified on the iso level (therefore can't be a D2C chip? Or perhaps it might be an Argon?) accepts the wiikey update disc 1.9g and settings disc with no problems, but doesn't circumvent the new disc check mechanism. I don't have a copy of SMG to test either (I got a real copy at the same time when I bought the machine).
I've played several games that haven't been regionfrii'ed/other region modification; games that I've downloaded and burned myself and I'm quite sure haven't been region modified.
I don't want to take it apart (for one I don't have a tri-wing screwdriver, this is probably the main reason) because if it's not a real wiikey I can just return the thing to the shop and get a new one or (better yet) a refund (though I doubt the shop will refund me).

So a little bit about my wii: It's a NTSC-U that bought it just after christmas 07 and when I asked the store keeper (bought it from the Golden Computer Centre Shopping Mall in Hong Kong) what sort of mod chip it was he said it was a wiikey. When I asked him for the holographic foil logo thing he said it didn't come with one, blah blah blah (he made up some more excuses that I've since forgotten) so I was immediately doubtful. But it played pirated Super Monkey Ball and Wii Sports (both Japanese) with no problems I thought "what the hell, what's the worst that will happen? I'll just get a new mod chip if it's fake" and bought it.
It had problems playing my PAL GameCube games so I decided to upgrade it to 1.9g to see if it would fix it. It accepted the disc and the patching process seemed to go ok (first it tested and that went ok, then it patched and I got the Homer sound bite) and I used to config DVD (with GCOS) to restore region patching just in case, but the gamecube games didn't run any better. I then figured out that you had to try a few times before they'd work and just left it at that (actually I haven't touched those GameCube games at all since then).
I've had no problems with it until I got smash bros. brawl which gave me the error 001 screen. This set off alarm bells in my head because the 1.9g wiikey shouldn't get this problem. So I figured, well if it was really patched to 1.9g, it shouldn't try patching again when I tried with 1.9g right? The patcher ran (again went through twice, first test then the actual patch) and Smash Brothers still wouldn't play. I used the Trucha signer to make a version that wouldn't do the disc check and I've been playing SSBB fine ever since. But now this begs the question, do I have a clone wiikey, or will any mod chip accept the wiikey upgrade DVD and then pass the checks to patch it?
Also because of the timing of when I bought it (a d2a/d2b/DMS wii in late 07? Must have been really old stock!), I decided to look up what drive chip it could possibly be (using Nintendo Scene's wii serial tracker) and it's well into the D2C zone. The first few digits are LU529... which means it either has a d2c drive or a refurbished older one; unless the shop changed it before they sold it to me. The copyright date is 2006.
So I'm confused; if it's another mod chip I'll probably keep it (assuming it can run a real SSBB), but if it's definitely a clone wiikey (and since because it can't be flashed it can never play a real SSBB which I intend to buy soon, I was going to wait for the new wiikey firmware but I guess that's kinda useless for me now) I'm definitely returning it for a new one/refund.

So the question is: can other mod chips accept the wiikey update DVD and then pass the update test successfully or is it only the wiikey and its clones that can do that?

Sorry for the long winded post and thank you for your replies.

 

[Tomobobo]

I wouldn't know if other chips would accept the update, I would doubt it, but it's possible. You'd figure if it wasn't a Wiikey or at least an ATMega 8L8 or similar microchip it would fail at the test stage of the update disk.

However, the Error 001 has come up on one of my Wii's when I had a very bad burn of SSBB, so I wouldn't jump to say that you don't have a Wiikey just because you got that error. It could be your burn.

I'd just take the Wii apart, if you have all the tools it only takes like 4 minutes, if you're that curious.

 

[serrin]

Thanks for you input. Here's my what I used:
nero 8.2.8.0
pioneer 215 with 1.18 firmware (the official unmodified, RPC2 version)
verbatim 2-4x DVD-R DL made in Singapore (media ID MKM 01RD30)
Burnt at 4x

Probably not the ideal setup (I could have probably used imgburn, but I've always used nero; I don't think the programs make that much of a difference anyway) but far from shabby. I didn't do a data verification check like I normally do because I was disparate to play the game. Both burns (un-Trucha Signed one that doesn't work and the Trucha Signed one that does) used the exact same setup.

But the main reason I'm concerned is that the wii accepted the same update disc, twice. It shouldn't do that should it? If you already have 1.9g, you can't flash it again with 1.9g right? You can go down from 1.9b or back up, but flashing with the same firmware should do nothing, right?

I should probably mention that my wii has 3.2U firmware. Not that it should matter though.

If there definately is a wiikey clone though that can't be flashed, there's no point in me taking it apart; in fact if I do the shop keeper might claim I voided warranty (they put their own stickers over the joints too and although I think I can probably pry it off, I think it's probably best left as is) - not Nintendo warranty the shop's own 1 year warranty.

 

[Richy Freeway]

(I could have probably used imgburn, but I've always used nero; I don't think the programs make that much of a difference anyway)

Friend of mine burnt 10 games while waiting for me to chip his Wii. He used nero, none of them worked.

I had already told him to use imgburn, but he didn't listen. He then burnt the same 10 games using imgburn, they all worked perfectly.

Make of that what you will. I've always used imgburn and never had a single bad burn.

 

[Lazycus]

Quite a few people are getting #001 error even though they have their WiiKey at 1.9g. My burn was very similar to yours (Verbatim DVD+R DL 2.4X burnt at 4X with Nero on a Pioneer DVR-109 with latest firmware). I just patched the byte to get past the #001 check and re-burnt with everything the same. I got the green text DRE after the save file creation but ever since then it's run perfectly.

I have had the #001 error come up on SMG a few times too, even though my WiiKey was at 1.9g.

I'm going to try burning SSBB without the modification again at different speeds and with IMGBurn just to see if it will still give me #001.

 

[serrin]

Thank you all for your replies. Well as it turns out the same day that the 1.9s firmware comes out, my real SSBB arrived in the mail and it works. So I think I have a real wiikey (or alternatively, a really good clone); honestly I am as happy as I am surprised. I really did think that guy was lying to me when he said it was a real wiikey. Looks like I won't have to take my wii back to Hong Kong with me after all.
The old version is still throwing error 001 so it's probably a bad burn, but someone I know has a D2Ckey modded NTSC-U Wii so I'm going to give it to them to see if it works for them or not. I guess Wii's are rather fastidious when it comes to what they will and won't accept.

 

[deilzfcjk]

It's not that dude....you all wrong. Doesn't matter if clone or not. It's the wiikey f/w that wasn't compatible with dvd9 discs. It's a bug in the wiikey f/w. That got fixed when the 1.9s f/w was released. You're inability to play your backup of brawl was 2 things dependent on. It for 1.) was not able to play dual layer games and 2.) You coincidentally burned it wrong. Because as you say even with newer f/w you still can't play the Brawl backup. You burned it wrong. One of the reasons was your fault....the other reason was wiikey team's fault.