Hacking Disastrous Wiiclip installation - Help needed

[dunsybhoy]

Hi guys! I'm new here and really need some help. I was trying to install a presoldered wii clip (I didn't fancy my own soldering skills) but after installing it things really went wrong. After fitting the clip over the chipset I went to refit the ribbon cable to the optical drive and I managed to break the brown clip that holds it in place. The hinges are broken so I reckon it's a new drive needed. However after messing around with insulating tape to get it to stay in place (with no success), I got a solid red light on the front. The system wouldn't power on at all. I looked closely at the drive again and I noticed one of the pins on the drive power connector was bent and causing a short. I managed to straighten it out and although the drive ribbon cable wasn't seated properly the wii would now power on and boot up. I decided to to test things out but I have found that whenever I load any channel the Wii freezes when I try to quit back to the Wii menu. I just get a black screen and it won't respond to the remote or the power button. I have to remove the power cord to reboot it and again it works fine from the main dashboard. The channels are stable when they are run and work without any issue. I tried a VC game but they are crashing during play (eg SMB1 crashes when you pick up the first power up mushroom or jump over the third pipe). I have managed to find a supplier of refurbished Wii optical drives which takes care of the broken brown clip and the bent pins and may get me up and running again. I am just concerned that I have managed to knacker the whole thing and a new Wii is needed. Am I chucking good money after bad and I will still have this crashing problem after the drive is replaced or is this normal if you run your Wii with no drive in it?

Any advice at all is greatly appreciated.

 

[Psychopathic]

i broke that clip too on the drive that holds ribbon cable, i just pushed it in and used electrical tape. has been fine ever since.

 

[SenorClean]

I broke a clip on one install I did... I just pushed it in and it has been fine.

Some channels won't run without a working drive being connected... you may recall hearing the drive reset when you go in to channels.... this freaks them out if there is no drive there.

You need the data cable connected!

 

[dunsybhoy]

That's the thing guys, I broke the hinge off the clip too so it won't stay in now at all. Even if I manually hold the data cable in as tightly as possible into the connector and power it up, the drive won't work. It won't accept any discs at all. I'm guessing this is because of the bent pins on the power connector on the drive and I am assuming they are damaged and beyond repair. I don't mind taking the hit in the pocket and getting a replacement drive, I am just concerned with the Wii freezing up and crashing out when running VC games. I had assumed with the Wii channels it was because it was trying to access the drive but I don't see why it would try to access the drive when playing SMB1 so I'm concerned the only solution for it is a new Wii. I might speak to the guy and see if he will give me a refund if I put the drive in and it still won't work. They're refurbs anyway so it's not like he's giving me brand new stock

Ps I'm not too concerned about the VC channels running anyway. That's what Emulators via the homebrew channel are for. (only for anything I've already downloaded obviously!!)

 

[bubbleboy]

Hi guys! I'm new here and really need some help. I was trying to install a presoldered wii clip (I didn't fancy my own soldering skills) but after installing it things really went wrong. After fitting the clip over the chipset I went to refit the ribbon cable to the optical drive and I managed to break the brown clip that holds it in place. The hinges are broken so I reckon it's a new drive needed.

I broke my brown clip too.. with a bit of patience you should be able to plug the flat cable in, and use some gum or glue to hold it in place. I did that about a year ago and it's still working 100%.

Edit after reading above post: take some photos of the bent pins on the power connector, post them here, ppl will be able to tell you if it's fixable or not.

 

[tomqman]

Hi guys! I'm new here and really need some help. I was trying to install a presoldered wii clip (I didn't fancy my own soldering skills) but after installing it things really went wrong. After fitting the clip over the chipset I went to refit the ribbon cable to the optical drive and I managed to break the brown clip that holds it in place. The hinges are broken so I reckon it's a new drive needed.

I broke my brown clip too.. with a bit of patience you should be able to plug the flat cable in, and use some gum or glue to hold it in place. I did that about a year ago and it's still working 100%.

Edit after reading above post: take some photos of the bent pins on the power connector, post them here, ppl will be able to tell you if it's fixable or not.

dont use gum

use electric tape

 

[dunsybhoy]

I've found a local repair guy who is going to take a look at it for me. I've caused enough havoc so might leave it to someone who knows exactly what he's doing with them. I'm more worried about it freezing up when trying to go back to the channels and going to a black screen when running the VC games than the drive cable being mangled. As I said even if I hold that cable in place manually and power it up it's still happening so I'm concerned the short may have damaged the board or the RAM. It's going in tomorrow at 10am so I'll keep you posted with the outcome.


Ps I almost used glue and then thought to myself wait a minute what if this goes wrong? How does it come back out. Glad I stopped myself!!

 

[hippyharry]

jees, what a nightmare. i done mine last night and fortunately i was alright. My only problem was when i was taking out the dvd drive screws, the driver i was using wasnt magnetic and the two screws fell inside it. Got them out eventually using tweezers. Felt like the game Operation.

Anyway, i hope it all works out for you. I watched about a million videos on taking it apart, and following countless pictures showing how it comes apart and i was safe to say, i done mine ok.

Oh, and how much of a bastard is the tri-wing screws on the bottom of the wii at the disc entry side? It was bloody stuck, good thing the wii can just pop over those screws and i didnt need to take them out. They were just in far too tight.

Anyway, sorry for not helping you. Good Luck!

 

[dunsybhoy]

Cheers man. As a fellow Scot you'll understand what I mean when I say the guy i found to fix it has a shop in The Barras !! You know what the guys in there are like, if there's money in something they'll find a way to extract it. The guys shop has been there for years (I bought a SNES adapter to play imports off him in like 1992 or something) and he knows exactly what he's talking about and comes highly recommended. He's told me if it's fixable he'll solder on the Wiikey for me for nothing rather than messing about with the clip as well. Fingers crossed things go well. The thing is I still don't know how I broke that brown clip. I didn't put any pressure on it and I didn't even notice it coming off until I noticed the ribbon cable had came loose and i had another go at reseating it. Really gutted about it though because like you I did my homework on it and made sure I knew exactly what I was doing (or so I thought). Just hope I haven't screwed the board as well, although I was nowhere near it I'm just worried the short has had some nasty side effects and a new Wii is needed. Anybody think Nintendo will support my VC games and the 2000 wii points I still have to spend if a new Wii is needed

 

[hippyharry]

the 200 wii points are still yours to keep.

you just register you account on the wiishop on another wii. They will still be there i think.

haha, thats mental about the barras. That guys shop has been going for millions of years. I use to get my ps1 games from the guys who hung about outside. I remember getting Toy Story racing. Amazing game!

I used a wiikey that was soldered on a V3 clip for mine last night. It was just the damn tri-wing that was screwed. I nearly did rip the cable last night. Theres the small black wiring thats taped and tucked under something, which i remembered only as i was lifting the drive out to pull it out from being tucked away so it releases the tension on the drive.

And the only other time i nearly ripped the cable was when i had the wii still apart, and was running the GCOS config disc and trying to plug the gamecube controller in was tricky.

Well, i do hope it all works for you. Those guys down the barras still punt all the games?

 

[NeSchn]

... I hope this doesn't happen to me. Now I am very concerned with getting a mod chip.

 

[dunsybhoy]

Yep V3 clip too. I managed to get it apart fairly easily to be honest, no real problems getting the screws out. Just that damned brown clip that probably costs about 0.001p. I didn't know that about the points, hopefully the games will be the same as well then and they'll show as already downloaded if a new board is needed. I'm on about 83 exits on Super Mario World as well. Still it'd be a pleasure to play through it again!


NeSchn,
I wouldn't worry just be careful with the drive ribbon cable and you shouldn't have any problems.