Hardware Do the D4 drives read retail GC discs?

[AndyLines]

The drive on my Wii recently died, so I purchased a replacement from a seller on eBay and it's a D4. I know that the D4s can't read GC backups, but I can't seem to find information anywhere about whether or not they can play the retail GC games. Does anyone here know? Thanks.

 

[wiismodrome]

It should if it was made before mid 2011.

 

[AndyLines]

Do you mean the drive or the Wii? My Wii was purchased in February of '07. I know that the new Wii's just spit the GC discs back out, but I was curious as to whether or not that logic is on the drive's daughterboard or on the Wii's mainboard.

 

[daxtsu]

It's all based on the drive, as far as I know.

 

[wiismodrome]

Do you mean the drive or the Wii? My Wii was purchased in February of '07. I know that the new Wii's just spit the GC discs back out, but I was curious as to whether or not that logic is on the drive's daughterboard or on the Wii's mainboard.

The relevant logic should be on the drive controller. A while ago I saw some pictures of a new D4 controller board (from a no-GC Wii) which was missing a chip. And yes, I meant if the drive was made before mid 2011, although I do not know exactly when Nintendo started production of Wii drives that do not read GC discs. The first Wiis which had such drives came out in the fall of 2011.