Hacking "Fixing" a pre-softmodded Wii

[cryingfist]

Hi,

my wii was softmodded (firmware-mod) by a specialized third-party company here in italy. For what I could understood the wii is a 4.1E and they installed Homebrew Channel, MPlayer Channel and Backup Loader 0.3 Rev 249 Channel. Still, I don't know the exact procedures of the modding, so I'm threading on an obscure zone...

I've had my first problems when trying to load copies of some of my wii games (Mortal Kombat, Just Dance, etc) which gave me loading issues (black screen, error 002, green screen). I started searching the net for solutions and i discovered the Backup Loader was pretty outdated and that was the thing that caused all the issues.

I now wish to have a valid loader (specifically USB Loader GX to run from external hard drive, and eventually Neo Gamma R7 for the DVD versions), and i've started reading tutorials to get the job done.

Problem is, I'm more confused now than the moment I started: some tutorials tell me to simply put Neo Gamma R7 on a SD card, boot it with Homebrew Channel and run DVD games from that, others tell me that i have to uninstall my old backup loader, others tell me that i have to use preloaders and bootmii during the procedure and do a "NAND" backup...the final results is that I'm overwhelmed with infos and I still don't know exactly what to do.

The only thing that was clear in every tutorial is: "if you mess something up, you risk to brick your wii" and i definitely DON'T want that.

Can anyone please give me an advice on how to move from my situation to having a functioning and valid backup loader?

Thanks everybody, Merry Christmas, and excuse my (probably) bad english...

 

[wadzinsky]

Well, if you can run homebrew from the Homebrew Channel, the safest way you could run USB Loader GX is to put a copy in your APPS folder on your SD card and run it from the Homebrew Channel. It doesn't require you to mess with the NAND in anyway and 'should' in no way brick your wii. Of course you always run the risk and nothing is a guarantee which you are constantly reminded of.. You'd really have to do something horribly wrong for that to happen.

Just download the USB Loader GX DOL and put it in a folder in your APPS folder on your SD card. If you want to remove the outdated loader channel from your Wii, you can go in the the Wii menu and go under data management / channels. Copy the outdated loader to your SD card for safe keepings should you decide you want it back. Then delete the channel from the Wii. Don't delete the HBC channel tho. That is your means of running homebrew.

If your encounter any problems, just let me know. I'll try to help you as best I can.

 

[giantpune]

do what this guy said^ pluss youll most likely need to reinstall the cIOS you have since yours is most likely outdated. thats the bare minimum youll need to do to play games. all the other shit in those guides say to do doesnt have to do with playing games at all. its more of a safety net in case you mes something up. i would recommend (at some point) to do the nand backup, but theres not much you can mess up with installing a cIOS and putting a dol on your sd card. so you really shouldnt lose too much sleep about it.

also USB loader GX plays games from DVD-r and USB.

 

[cryingfist]

Thanks for your replies: for USB Loader GX i'll try their easy installer first and then, to directly copy the .dol file (i think that that's what the installer does).

For the CIOS...how do I safely upgrade it? and to which version? I tried to look it up, but i was soon lost between 249, 222, 36, etc. etc.

 

[wadzinsky]

You'll want cIOS v14 or 15. I am using 15. You can install it through WADmanager 1.x and that SHOULD show up in HBC if its in your apps folder. If not, find the latest WADmanager and put that in your apps folder as well.

I don't know of any auto installers for USB Loader GX. I think it's pretty straight forward (unless you want it as a channel) Just copy it (the folder) to your APPS folder on your sd card. It will show up in HBC when you load it

 

[TroyTheZombie]

go with rev 14. 15 has some, issues.

only thing 15 has over 14 is reading dual layer games from DVD backups. But since you are using a usb loader, that doesn't even matter

but, i'd personally recommend using hermes cios rev 4. Very stable and allows for loading of games froma regular old fat32 drive. (as opposed to formatting your drive to wbfs)

 

[cryingfist]

Ok, thanks again for your replies...but I'm stuck again (^^"):

- i've got Waninkokos cIOS38r14 through http://filetrip.net/file.php?id=5958: i've got a zip with a cIOS38r14_installer.dol
- i've got IOS38-64-v3610.wad (with a bunch of other files, like cetk or tmd.3610, which i think aren't useful) through NUS downloader database
- i can't seem to find wad manager v 1.4: where i can download it from? (please don't send me to the "noob starter guide" by nabster92, the wad manager links sends me to a teknoconsoles.es page to which i have "no access rights". I also tried to register on teknoconsoles, but i can't find the file!)

Now i should:

- create an apps folder in the SD card
- put in the apps folder the cIOS38r14_installer folder and rename cIOS38r14_installer.dol to boot.dol
- put the wad manager folder in the apps folder
- put the IOS38-64-v3610.wad file in the SD root folder (is that correct? shouldn't it be in the cIOS installer folder?)
- enter the homebrew channel...and...

...ok, i've never used the homebrew channel, so i really don't know how to proceed to install the cIOS, since every tutorial tells me to "run the installer with the HBC", and i don't know how.

the tutorials also tells me that this installation should prompt me to choose which IOS to use and that i should choose 36 (and not 249) since i did "the Trucha bug" (or something like that...but i didn't or, better, i don't know, since my wii has been modded by a third party company), so what IOS should I choose?

A last and, probably, very noob question: can i try to install the usb loader as the first thing and then the cIOS? Or there's an installing-order?
I ask because on some forum i've read that many new games using usb loader gx works fine even on older revs...and i'd prefer not to tamper with the cIOS...

 

[cryingfist]

i've correctly installed cios rev14 and used neogamma to boot dvds. I also used wad manager to install usbloader (the next thing i'm trying)...thank you for your help and merry xmas!!!

 

[wadzinsky]

Sorry I haven't replied to you last posts... It sounded like you were a little confused, as was I, i softmodded my first Wii only a week ago. I was scared and confused. Now that I've done it, I feel a little more knowledgeable in how the system works and aren't so afraid to try things. (Having a NAND backup helps) I suggest you do that as well.

I hope you got everything working.

You should check out this thread. It is a guide to mod 4.2 wii's only. But if you use it ONLY to install BootMii, I think you'll be fine. You might want to check

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=171901

In that thread is a e-mail adress that you can e-mail for a file that contains all the files you need to softmod a wii (including BootMii) All you need to do, is copy all those files from that .zip file to a SD card at least 1gb in size to fit the 528mb NAND.bin. If your Wii was modded correctly with BootMii installed as boot2, your wil will power on to a screen with 4 buttons. If not, your wii will go to the system menu. If it does, click the SD button on the bottom and when it init's the SD card it will ask if you want to load Boot.dol.. click load or yes. it will come up with a menu that tells you if you can install HBC, DVDx, and BootMii as Boot2 or IOS. If you have the option to install BootMii as Boot2, do it. if you can't install as boot2, I don't know what to do. I'm not going to suggest anything I haven't tried

Installing bootmii as IOS requires the ability to load the system menu, and run homebrew. If your wii is Bricked, this is not usefull. Your nand backup will be useless since you won't be able to load BootMii.

So Boot2 is better

Once you have BootMii installed as Boot2, and you've made a backup of your NAND, you can rest at ease. Copy your NAND.bin and Keys file to your computer or burn it to a CD (just make a backup of it somewhere safe) after you've done that, rename the BootMii folder on your SD card to something else (BootMii.bak) for example. If you boot your wii with the folder BootMii on your SD card, everytime you turn on your wii it will go to the BootMii menu instead of the system menu. If you rename the folder, it will just boot to the system menu.

any questions, let me know. I'll be checking back in an hour or 2

 

[cryingfist]

@wadzinsky: thank you for your exhaustive answer.

 

[wadzinsky]

@wadzinsky: thank you for your exhaustive answer.

Exhaustive in a good way I hope

.. otherwise, sorry. I've never been a very good teacher, but I try to be as descriptive as possible and sometimes I think I leave people more confused.