Hi everyone, thanks in advance for your time.
The thread title is my basic question:
does using a custom firmware circumvent Wiiu's check that the optical drive is the one that came with the system?
However, here is some background if you're interested.
I have owned a deluxe WiiU since launch but at some point the optical drive went bad.
It would accept discs but would report invalid disc regardless of which one I put in.
Otherwise, it boots and works fine; digital games work without issue.
Recently I decided to fix it because I had a Wii (the original) drive malfunction before and replacing the drive solved the problem.
However after the new drive arrived and I installed it, I was greeted by an error message (160-1402, iirc).
This is apparently due to the Nintendo "marrying" the drive to the Latte chip.
After learning that swapping the drive PCBs might workaround that issue I did that.
The new drive with the old PCB recognized a disc (icon appeared) but then refused to eject after which it stopped recognizing the disc.
I had to disassemble the drive and pull the disc out in the opposite direction from the slot where it was inserted.
After multiple PCB swaps I determined that BOTH drives ingest and eject discs properly with the NEW PCB and BOTH drives now do nothing at all with the old PCB installed.
There is a little corrosion visible on some parts of the old PCB so it appears it was failing and simply completely kicked the bucket during my attempted repair.
This is the worst case scenario because the internal check at boot PREVENTS the system from going to the Home Menu if the NEW PCB is installed.
Nintendo charges significant $$ to repair but I could easily do it myself if not for a deliberate, anti-consumer software roadblock.
So this is why I'm asking if a custom firmware exists at a low enough software level to circumvent the check that rejects a different disc drive.
It's my last idea before I'll have to VERY reluctantly send the WiiU to Nintendo.
The thread title is my basic question:
does using a custom firmware circumvent Wiiu's check that the optical drive is the one that came with the system?
However, here is some background if you're interested.
I have owned a deluxe WiiU since launch but at some point the optical drive went bad.
It would accept discs but would report invalid disc regardless of which one I put in.
Otherwise, it boots and works fine; digital games work without issue.
Recently I decided to fix it because I had a Wii (the original) drive malfunction before and replacing the drive solved the problem.
However after the new drive arrived and I installed it, I was greeted by an error message (160-1402, iirc).
This is apparently due to the Nintendo "marrying" the drive to the Latte chip.
After learning that swapping the drive PCBs might workaround that issue I did that.
The new drive with the old PCB recognized a disc (icon appeared) but then refused to eject after which it stopped recognizing the disc.
I had to disassemble the drive and pull the disc out in the opposite direction from the slot where it was inserted.
After multiple PCB swaps I determined that BOTH drives ingest and eject discs properly with the NEW PCB and BOTH drives now do nothing at all with the old PCB installed.
There is a little corrosion visible on some parts of the old PCB so it appears it was failing and simply completely kicked the bucket during my attempted repair.
This is the worst case scenario because the internal check at boot PREVENTS the system from going to the Home Menu if the NEW PCB is installed.
Nintendo charges significant $$ to repair but I could easily do it myself if not for a deliberate, anti-consumer software roadblock.
So this is why I'm asking if a custom firmware exists at a low enough software level to circumvent the check that rejects a different disc drive.
It's my last idea before I'll have to VERY reluctantly send the WiiU to Nintendo.