Help repairing/rebuilding MLC on severely damaged Wii U NAND

[Nalyd217]

Hello all, first time poster here. My Wii U has been bricked for a while, and I recently found out about NAND-AID. In my case, I hit the memory error screen as soon as the wii u logo goes away.

I already had a pico, so I was going to try dumping nand and doing the prep before I actually bought a nand-aid and attempted the soldering. I hit an interesting problem though. In the original guide I was following (not the one from this forum), the person got theyre nand dumped, had about 900 errors in MLC, and remarked that that was quite a few. With this reference point to expect some errors, I began dumping. About 6 hours later, I was only around 5% of the way through the dump, and had close to 7000 errors. (I later stopped the dump when it was at about 4 GB and 14000 errors).

In this time, I had found better instructions in this forum, and messaged @SDIO about the errors to get some reference if this was normal. They replied that it's a miracle that I could still load the recovery menu...lol. SDIO then recommended that I create a thread about this and that I could potentially try just rebuilding MLC, instead of trying to repair mine. They also mentioned trying to build a recovery that doesn't retry on errors, so dumping would go much faster.

Now, I'm not really sure how to do any of this, but I'm good at following instructions, so please advise on how to proceed. Also, if it matters, I don't care about losing game saves, as I kept all of them on external storage afaik.

 

[SDIO]

THIS POST IS OUTDATED, now follow -> https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-set-up-isfshax.642258/#post-10280366 <-

Spoiler: outdated

Please understand this is still WIP and if something goes wrong, you might need to defuse.

The controls in minute and the isfshax installer are swapped compared to the recovery (Power moved the curser and Eject Enters)

1. get the latest version of my recovery fork: https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/recovery_menu/releases
2. put the fw.img, the ios.img, and the superblock files in the root of the SD: https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/minute_minute/releases/tag/isfshax-1.1
3. Put the wafel_isfshax_patch.ipx stroopwfel plugin in wiiu/ios_plugins: https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/wafel_isfshax_patch/releases
4. Put boot1.img in the root of the SD and put the wafel_core.ipx in wiiu/ios_plugins: https://github.com/shinyquagsire23/wii_u_modchip/releases
5. Load the recovery and from there select the "Load BOOT1 payload" and proceed. If everything worked you should now be in minute menu. (If you don't have screen output: 18x eject, 1x power, 1 eject, 1 power)
6. Remember the Controls are swapped
7. Go to the Backup and Restore menu and backup SLC.
8. go to the main Menu and select "Boot 'ios.img'" this should launch the isfshax installer
9. follow that installer, if it succeded you should see the minute menu whenever the Wii U turns on
10. You should be able to boot normally (like it was before) by selecting "Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc)"

With that we have an entry point in case the eMMC deteriorates further and we can also use it to setup the new MLC, after you installed NAND-AID.

Before you install the NAND-AID you could try to do a MLC backup through minute. For that go to Backup and Restore and select "Format redNAND". This will erase your SD card, so you have to set it up again after.

Credits: ISFShax was found by rw-r-r-0644 and implemented by him and Gary. The original source is here: https://github.com/isfshax

 

[lolorlofl]

Hey I've been going through a similar thing recently. Please note that everything I'm saying is just about installing NAND-AID and rebuilding the NAND.

Read through the OP in these threads 1 2 to get an understanding of what's involved with the NAND rebuilding and NAND-AID installation. You can reach out to @V10lator to order a NAND-AID. Please be aware that by default, the micro SD slot is not soldered on to the NAND-AID board so you will have to do that yourself. Soldering experience is definitely required to install the NAND-AID. DO NOT solder the microSD slot to the NAND-AID board until you solder the board to the Wii U motherboard first. There's a grounding pad underneath where the microSD slot is mounted that needs to be soldered into the Wii U motherboard first. You'll see what I mean when you get it. Violator asked me to take some pictures of my install so I'll share them if they look alright.

Sounds like you already have the Pico set-up so you're already done the first half of the set up. You have a couple options depending on how much storage you want in the NAND-AID. If you intend on just using a 32/64GB microSD card (assuming you have a 32GB model Wii U), you can remove the Pico from the system once you've fully rebuilt the NAND on the SD card in the NAND-AID. If you intend on going larger, you will need to keep the Pico installed in the Wii U permanently, or use something called ISFSHax which isn't publicly available at this point in time, but I believe you can request it.

I would consult with people who are more in the know than I am, but from my understanding, once you get the NAND-AID all you need to do is follow steps 4 and 5 in the second link I shared above to install the NAND-AID, then follow the steps under the Procedure header in the first link I shared to rebuild the NAND.

 

[SDIO]

If we are rebuilding the MLC anyway, I would suggest to go for 64GB, as that's the max thats supported without modifications. We can also go larger, but then you need to keep isfshax installed. We can streamline the boot with isfshax, once everything is working, so it boots faste and the menu won't show up.
isfshax has the disadvantage, that it breaks the Standby services and with that the Quickstart menu, but it gives you sigpatches, without the need to launch aroma / tiramisu and you can apply early boot patches, if you need any (like not turning on the gamepad when the wii u was powerd on from another source)

 

[Nalyd217]

Put the wafel_isfshax_patch.ipx stroopwfel plugin in wiiu/ios_plugins

Could you please elaborate on this step a little? Do I have to make a folder in the SD root called "wiiu/ios_plugins"? If so, the folder can't have a /, so what would it be called?

Edit: Looked at the documentation on that github page and realized I'm a dummy. /wiiu/ios_plugins is a path. So if I'm not mistaken, wiiu folder in root of SD, then ios_plugins within that.

Post automatically merged: Sep 10, 2023

Update: I'm getting stuck on step 5. I believe I did steps 1-4 correctly, but I have what's in my SD card attached so someone can verify.

I can get to the recovery menu still, I go down to Load BOOT1 Payload, select load, and then nothing happens. The first time I let it sit there for a few minutes. I wasn't sure if I pressed power hard enough, so I pressed eject to try and move the cursor, but it was frozen. Then it went to the wii u screen, said something about initializing at the top, then dumped me to the memory error screen.

I tried one more time, but it froze again. Power nor eject did anything. It never went to the Wii U or memory error screen this time though. I left it for about 10 minutes then turned it off. I can still get into recovery menu fine though.

 

[SDIO]

/ ist the path seperator. Create a folder wiiu and in that you create a folder ios_plugins.

Your SD should look like this:

 

[Nalyd217]

Yep, that is what mine looks like.

Post automatically merged: Sep 10, 2023

Unrelated to the freezing issue I'm having with the payload, but I just ran the MLC checker out of curiosity, and it's not quite as bad as originally thought...? Dumping MLC I had like 14000 errors after only 3gb dumped. Doing MLC checker, it's "only" 1660 errors. Ran SLC checker too, and that actually had zero errors.

Not sure how useful of a development this is, but figured more information wouldn't hurt.

 

[SDIO]

That's still more than I ever saw. 1600 broken files are a lot.
Interestingly you don't seem to have broken directories, so the Image could maybe even be fixed completely.
You could try to get a backup in a more reasonable time with minute if you want to try that...
Or we just install a fresh one.

 

[Nalyd217]

Whichever way is easier I guess, doesn't really matter to me. If I need to use minute though, I still can't access that for some reason. It just freezes when I try to do the Load BOOT1 Payload.

 

[SDIO]

Then maybe copy the boot1.img and the fw.img again to the SD and eject it safetly

Post automatically merged: Sep 11, 2023

Just in case I also prepared a recovery menu for you, which should be faster for dumping the mlc, but I am not sure how big the difference is.

Also when it freezes, do you still see the recovery or what exactly happens? You also need to use HDMI, the gamepad won't work for minute, in case you are using that.

 

[Nalyd217]

Oohhh, yeah I have definitely just been using the gamepad. I’ll try that in a bit.

Post automatically merged: Sep 11, 2023

Confirmed, minute does work, I just wasn't on HDMI. I'm going to attempt dumping with the nosleep recovery menu first just to see if it goes any faster.

 

[peilezhang]

Also when it freezes, do you still see the recovery or what exactly happens? You also need to use HDMI, the gamepad won't work for minute,

Yes, confirmed minutes menu works,there wii be no display on gamepad until the IOS booted.

Post automatically merged: Sep 11, 2023

Next I will expect the "new" solderless rednand toy

 

[Nalyd217]

Next I will expect the "new" solderless rednand toy

Is there theoretically a way to fix the issue without soldering?

 

[peilezhang]

Is there theoretically a way to fix the issue without soldering?

Yes, as far as I know, cause we have isfshax , I think this can redirect every code that access to MLC to sdcard, without original IOS system, like "old" rednand ,we must boot into hacked system. And I know someone have this worked.

 

[Nalyd217]

Oh I see, so instead of having to solder something to where the wii u expects the nand to be, you could just tell it to use the sd slot as MLC? Interesting. I don't suppose there is a tutorial for this yet

 

[peilezhang]

Oh I see, so instead of having to solder something to where the wii u expects the nand to be, you could just tell it to use the sd slot as MLC? Interesting. I don't suppose there is a tutorial for this yet

Yes ,use sd slot ,that is what I want to express.sorry for my english There is no "NEW" method rednand tutorial yet, the old rednand turorial wont work for isfshax ,I think.

 

[SDIO]

The only proper way to fix it is to replace it. There is the option to just erase the eMMC and then rebuilding the mlc or restoring the backup, but then it will corrupt again in a few months or years.
You can also use redNAND or redMLC to use a part of the external SD card as an eMMC replacement, but that's mor elike a workaround than a fix. It needs isfshax permanently installed and relies on the SD card. So you also can't remove the SD while the Wii U is running. And as already said isfshax will break Standby Services and with that the Quickstart menu.
If you want to go that route I would need to know from you, what exactly you want and if you were able to dump the mlc via the recovery. If you want to use the dump, we need to keep the redMLC at 32GB. But if you want rebuild, we can set it to an arbitrary size, you just have to tell me how big you want it (lited by the size of the SD you are going to use)
There would also be the solderless option to buy a presoldered SATA adapter (not available yet) and replace the Disc drive with an SSD. That will work with an arbitrary size SSD (required rebuild) and will work without isfshax. But you would lose the Disc Drive and without the Disc drive vWii is mostly broken except Wii VC games installed on the Wii U side.

 

[Nalyd217]

The dump is almost finished this time. It's been running a little under a day and looks like it has about 2gb left to dump. It's currently reporting 51000 mlc errors, so if that's too broken to be fixed, maybe rebuilding is easier, but I'm no expert.

A solderless option is intriguing to me, as I definitely don't have the experience to install nand-aid, and while my friend has a lot more experience than me, he's not a pro either. (I do have one coming though).

For erasing the existing eMMC and rebuilding/restoring, is there a way to stop it from corrupting? I remember reading the initial reports of this issue, and many said systems that hadn't been powered in a while got corrupted. If I powered it on like once a month, would this push off the corruption? Or is it simply inevitable because of the hynix chip?

For using the SD slot, what other side effects are there? I don't really care about the quick start menu, but I don't know what else is a standby service. Having to use a 32gb card is a non issue to me though, as I will continue to use external storage for my games. If I tried this route, would it still be possible to undo it and switch to nand-aid in the future?

I don't really want to go the sata route, as basically all of my games are physical copies.

 

[SDIO]

It's currently reporting 51000 mlc errors, so if that's too broken to be fixed

Always depends whats one these bad sectors. Could be just empty space, then it doesn't matter, could be files, than it is fxiable, If it is filesystem metadate, then it get's nasty.
You can run wfs-extract on the dump to see how bad it is, I would expect similar errors to the the MLC checker.
We could put it on redMLC and just see if it works.

For erasing the existing eMMC and rebuilding/restoring, is there a way to stop it from corrupting? I remember reading the initial reports of this issue, and many said systems that hadn't been powered in a while got corrupted. If I powered it on like once a month, would this push off the corruption? Or is it simply inevitable because of the hynix chip?

Some of the people claiming that seem to believe that flash works like SRAM, which it doesn't. It is possible that the eMMC does scrubs and corrects emerging errors from time to time, but we simply don't know. Maybe turning it on makes it even worse by causing read disturbance. We don't know and I wouldn't rely on it. I can tell you how, when you have isfshax installed, it might be worth also having the eMMC in working order, when you go the redMLC route, just in case.

For using the SD slot, what other side effects are there?

For redMLC or redNAND, we will either disable SCFM or move it to the SLCCMPT to not disturb the SCFM for the eMMC. Disabeling it would improve the performance, reduce the wear on the SLC and make the MLC independent of the SLC (so you can just restore older backups). This comes at the cost of putting more wear on the SD faster.
Moving it to SLCMPT uses 128MB of the 512MB vWii Memory (and put the wear there). Also then the state of the MLC on the SD would be entangled with the SLCMPT, which makes restoring backups much more involved. - I don't like that
Even with SCFM the SD needs to sustain lots of writes, so using something like the SanDisk Max Endurance cards is recommended. Samsung also has a Endurance series.
Also system updated probably won't work and you would need to apply them manually.

Having to use a 32gb card is a non issue to me though, as I will continue to use external storage for my games.

You would need to use a 64GB card to have your original 32GB eMMC. Also now you have the chance to use something like a 512GB card and have all your games installed "internally".

would it still be possible to undo it and switch to nand-aid in the future?

Yes, but if you now choose a size that is not 8, 32 or 64GB for the redMLC, then you would need to either rebuild the MLC on the NAND-AID or keeps isfshax.
But rebuilding isn't a big deal anyway. You can just copy all the games and saves to an external storage first and then move them back after rebuilding. You just have to be carefull to create the users in the same order, so the savegames match.

I don't really care about the quick start menu, but I don't know what else is a standby service

It's just doing stuff like downloading (game) updates and notifications while the Wii U is "off", so mostly relevant now. The updates still can be downloaded while the Wii U on.

I don't really want to go the sata route, as basically all of my games are physical copies.

The Discs will rot away anyway. The wii u has a particular bad problem with disc rot. So I would recommend you dump your discs, as soon as we have your Wii U running again. You can then Install them and they will work like installed from the eShop

 

[Nalyd217]

Alright, I think I'm going to try nand-aid like I was originally planning. The dump did finish now, currently backing it up to my PC. Where do I get wfs-extract, and how do I use it? If you've already explained this somewhere, or I overlooked it, just link me.

Also, just to confirm, a 32gb endurance samsung micro sd will work for nand-aid with my 32gb wii u correct?

Kind of a bummer about the discs, I didn't know those had problems too. Once I get my console sorted out I'll definitely dump those. Btw, thanks for answering all my questions , I know I have a lot, I just like to make sure I'm understanding things properly.