Hacking Get rid of banner brick on 3.4 without TP Hack

[fellaw]

Lately I was dealing with a banner brick on 3.4E firmware. From all resources I searched(including this forum), it came clear that it isn't possible if you had at least TPH on the Wii(which I hadn't). With TPH it would have been possible using an autoboot from TP starting Wad Manager.

Well I was able to successfully restore my Wii, and I want to share my experience.

Initial situation:

3.4E firmware
No TPH(restored my original because I wanted to play TP)
No modchip
No prevention against banner bricks
Maintenance mode not booting
SaveMiiFree working

According to every source this would mean a full brick. Indeed, that's not completely true.

Step by step procedure what I did:[*]Borrowed a working Wii with 3.4E firmware(no chip, but some homebrew on it)[*]Patched Wii Backup Disc 1.31 to PAL using RegionFrii[*]Installed a modchip(Wiikey2) in bricked Wii to enable autoboot[*]Exchanged drives between Wiis[*]Booted up working Wii with Backup Disc using SaveMiiFree[*]Backed up everything from working Wii to SD using Backup Disc[*]Exchanged drives again[*]Booted up bricked Wii with Backup Disc using SaveMiiFree[*]Restored all to bricked Wii, with "Finish Repair"(actually means eject disc and reboot)[*]Booted again with Wii Backup Disc[*]Chose "Delete All" in Backup Disc MenuThe last step seemed to have deleted all user data from the bricked Wii, including corrupt channels and saves. From there, my Wii was just as if it would have been initialized from the system settings.

Most probably I could have skipped steps 1 and 4-7, but I wasn't sure about any system files related. This procedure should be reproducable on NTSC, just skip step 2. Step 2 is necessary despites the chip, because it otherwise the Wii wouldn't boot after step 8(didn't research why). The Backup disc didn't seem to copy over any saves(TPH was on working Wii), thus step 11 is mandantory.

Unfortunately, I have to dash some hopes regarding unbricking a banner brick without a modchip on 3.4(TPH doesn't matter): That's simply impossible, because you don't have any chance to execute at least the Backup disc, not to mention any custom code. This applies to >=3.3 and 3.2 without starfall. I just repeat this to make it clear, though it was mentioned on every source I searched.

I won't post any links to the backup disc, use Google instead. I also won't provide my my backup.

 

[tueidj]

Well of course, that's pretty much exactly how Nintendo repair them. Except obviously they use an original backup disc and hence don't need the modchip.

 

[linkinworm]

lol so in the end you just used a modchip, fail post

 

[kisamesama]

lol so in the end you just used a modchip, fail post

why fail post? he recovered from banner brick without tp hack!

 

[Deleted User]

Even with a modchip we can get rid of the brick using Autoboot WAD Manager

 

[fellaw]

Well of course, that's pretty much exactly how Nintendo repair them. Except obviously they use an original backup disc and hence don't need the modchip.
So why hasn't somebody mentioned it yet? To me this procedure is of course pretty obvious. Every source I read said: Banner Brick on 3.4 = GAME OVER.

QUOTEEven with a modchip we can get rid of the brick using Autoboot WAD Manager

No you can't because trucha signed discs won't boot on 3.4. You'd need tp hack and wad manager on SD.

 

[WiiPower]

I'm curious, how do you get a banner brick on 3.4?

 

[WiiShizzza]

How to get the disc patched to pal ?
All tools I used said "not a valid wii disc"

I can't get the original disc to autoboot through recovery mode, nor Does it work through disc channel.
Desplay just stays black...

Any hint ?
Ii never got it to run on mmy PAL wii.

 

[WiiPower]

How to get the disc patched to pal ?
All tools I used said "not a valid wii disc"

I can't get the original disc to autoboot through recovery mode, nor Does it work through disc channel.
Desplay just stays black...

Any hint ?
Ii never got it to run on mmy PAL wii.

Wasn't it just 1 byte to be changed in the .iso? Did you look at WiiBrew for disc structure information?

 

[WiiShizzza]

Hmm.... changing to autoboot requires altering one byte.
Didn't find any info on how to patch that gc disc to pal...

 

[WiiPower]

I found some info about it, but looks complicated:
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiidisc

 

[WiiShizzza]

Yes, meanwhile I found the same.
as far as I unnderstand, I have to change 0x003 I just try it....

//EDIT:
Okay, got it. changing 0x003 to 50 hex or P in unicode works.
But as usual, TV is black...

 

[fellaw]

I'm curious, how do you get a banner brick on 3.4?

I fiddled around with channel icons on injects, because for some reason, my edited TPLs(created with tpl_conv) didn't display at all(no distortion or anything, just plain white). At some point I used a working icon.bin from a homebrew chan and exchanged the TPLs in it with my own. After I installed the wad: Brick. The dimensions of the images were right(compared to the original icons). Guess the animation file had something to do with it.

 

[fellaw]

How to get the disc patched to pal ?

RegionFrii

Sry, wrote it wrong in my first post(correctly edited now).

: RegionFrii complained about iso not being valid, nevertheless patching worked

 

[WiiShizzza]

Yes, got it.
First 400 bytes of a gc iso are same then in a wii iso.
So, I got it patched to pal.
The disc also autoboots. But only a black screen.... on bricked wii same as like on a working wii.

 

[D-Jay]

I'm interested in this, too.

 

[fellaw]

But only a black screen.... on bricked wii same as like on a working wii.

Try this:[*]Insert Disc into bricked Wii[*]Pull the power cord[*]Plug it back in[*]Press eject to power up the Wii, not the power button[*]Attn: The disc will not be ejected, the drive just spins up[*]Boot directly into SaveMiiFreeShould help booting, at least it does/did here. Btw. which chip?

 

[WiiShizzza]

also ich brenn die disc dann zum 3. mal als DVD
Hab jetzt die gebrickte wii nicht da, aber die dvd sollte ja auch auf ner ungebrickten wii laufen....

ich hab saveMii und nen wiikey2

/EDIT:
Alles wie gehabt...... Schwarzer Bildschirm...

That disc won't run on my PAL wii

 

[BL4Z3D247]

maybe the speed in which he burned the disc matters

 

[fellaw]

hmm.

Used Sony DVD+R burned with 8x.

Dunno whether other speeds or disc types make a difference.