Hacking I may have bricked my friend's Wii :(

[JonLeung]

This is the third time I've hacked a Wii, but this time around was a lot later than the other two. Unfortunately this is a friend's Wii now, so I feel really bad about it. But enough with that, let's see if I have any chance of fixing this.

I used bannerbomb this time instead of the Twilight Hack. Everything was going fine until the Homebrew Channel appeared upside-down. So I reinstalled it, and that seemed to fix it. Then I decided I should install Preloader, just like I did to mine, to keep things safe. I did, but then the Homebrew Channel wouldn't load, and the System Menu wouldn't load either ("Wii System Files are corrupt"). I remembered that the version of the system menu was 3.4U, which apparently isn't a good candidate for the Preloader...crap.

I figured out that the Preloader wasn't loading the Homebrew Channel because it was a new version of the Homebrew Channel so I installed the modified version of Preloader 0.29 and that at least let me get into there. I thought I was on easy street, something should be able to fix the system menu. I tried the AnyRegionChanger to change it to 3.2U. But I noticed that the region number didn't match USA (which is like 47 or something), it was 18 (which I assumed is for Canada, where I live). I changed it to 47 (or 49 or whatever it was), since I heard the region was supposed to match, and installed it. There was some error about some ES_Identify.

Lo and behold, it doesn't work. No Preloader appears if I hold down the Reset button when pressing Power, nothing at all, not even a "Wii System Files are corrupt" message.

Any suggestions? Anything at all? Or am I seriously hooped?

...

While writing this, I talked to my friend about it. No hard feelings. But if he trusts me to do it again, I'm definitely going to be less hasty.

 

[zektor]

What do you get? Black screen? No bootmii in boot2 and nand backup? Doesn't sound to promising...

 

[fvnfish]

same thing happen to me about 4 days ago. The only thing you can do is tell your friend to fork up the money and send it to nintendo. Same situation I am in, but thank god I still had my warranty and nintendo sent me a new one it should be here in 3 days.

Wish you the best of luck, I really hope his warranty is still good it will save you about 100 dollars maybe a lil less.

 

[JonLeung]

Okay, I think I see where I went wrong.

Reading this guide here:
http://www.wiihacks.com/recommended-faqs-g...od-any-wii.html

Here are the two points I should've noticed:
"If you bought your Wii this year and it came with 3.4+ on it then it will be a boot2 v4."
"This step is optional unless you are on 3.3 or 3.4, you may upgrade now if you wish, boot2 v4 owners cannot downgrade!"

Since I didn't want 3.4, I should've gone up to 4.0 or 4.1 instead of going down to 3.2 since that didn't work. If I recall correctly I was getting an error when trying to run the installer applications.

And yes, I should've made a NAND backup when I was in BootMii. Stupid me!

My friend is going to acquire another Wii somehow and he doesn't hold this against me since I was only trying to help. And if I do have to buy him a Wii, it's just money, I learned my lesson. He sounds like he might trust me to try again, so if I follow that particular guide, I'll do so to a T.

Kind of scares me how sloppy I was when I modded my own Wii, considering all the saves I had on my Wii and how much of a n00b I was back then. How close was I to bricking it? Though maybe overconfidence screwed me up this time by making me too hasty since I thought I knew what I was doing.

 

[0M39A]

i'd recommend you stay well away from modding anyone elses wii in future, as its clear you have little idea what you are doing.

it should also be you forking out to pay for his new wii/sending it back to nintendo, as its now bricked due to your own stupidity. hell, you said you didnt even take a nand backup in bootmii, thats just asking for trouble.

 

[xzxero]

this is the happiest guy who has ever bricked a Wii, knows where he went wrong, points out his own over confidence, and the step he clearly bricked on.

nice, glad i opened this thread.

 

[JonLeung]

Well, whatever, I know what went wrong now, this is all going to be worked out one way or another, in the worst case scenario it's just money, yeah, yeah, so you think I'm a n00b just for messing up one of three, however obvious it is for me to have avoided it, etc. etc. Hope you guys have never made a single mistake in your life, great or small, important or not. I was really asking for advice, not your opinion or sympathy, and apparently it's another mistake I made if I sounded like I was.

Now, if we're done rubbing my face in it, for round two, since he would still rather have me do it (experience counts for something), would you recommend GBAtemp's own guide or the WiiHacks one I posted above? Now this is an opinion I would value.

I'm pretty sure either should do it if I follow just one of them to the letter, but I thought I'd run it by you experts. (And no, I'm not being sarcastic about that for the majority of you.)

 

[wiistarter]

Why not just do it thw way you were successful. Just because its newer doesnt mean its better. If you can use the TP hack then just do it that way if you are more comfortable. Thats the way I do it. I know it takes longer but if you know what you are doing then its safer

 

[xzxero]

Well, whatever, I know what went wrong now, this is all going to be worked out one way or another, in the worst case scenario it's just money, yeah, yeah, so you think I'm a n00b just for messing up one of three, however obvious it is for me to have avoided it, etc. etc. Hope you guys have never made a single mistake in your life, great or small, important or not. I was really asking for advice, not your opinion or sympathy, and apparently it's another mistake I made if I sounded like I was.

Now, if we're done rubbing my face in it, for round two, since he would still rather have me do it (experience counts for something), would you recommend GBAtemp's own guide or the WiiHacks one I posted above? Now this is an opinion I would value.

I'm pretty sure either should do it if I follow just one of them to the letter, but I thought I'd run it by you experts. (And no, I'm not being sarcastic about that for the majority of you.)

i would say stick to my guide instead of those 2.
wiihacks has no good guides, and the other hasnt really been updated.

 

[FenrirWolf]

Why not just do it thw way you were successful. Just because its newer doesnt mean its better. If you can use the TP hack then just do it that way if you are more comfortable. Thats the way I do it. I know it takes longer but if you know what you are doing then its safer

What's the TP Hack got to do with it? It's not like BannerBomb bricks Wiis.

 

[nabster92]

I recommend reading my guide and following xzxero's after understanding it.

 

[JonLeung]

Thanks, xzxero. I think I misread your first post as being condescending or sarcastic. Sorry about snapping earlier. But in any case your guide that you mentioned looks helpful.

Another question: wiiman123 suggested i look at VGC Repairs. Looks like we may be able to get the Wii unbricked for considerably cheaper than buying a new Wii. Does anyone know if I were to get the Wii repaired through this method - it involves SafeMii, apparently - once I get it back, would I still be able to do the same modifications as if it was a new and unmodified Wii?

 

[KiiNG]

Thanks, xzxero. I think I misread your first post as being condescending or sarcastic. Sorry about snapping earlier. But in any case your guide that you mentioned looks helpful.

Another question: wiiman123 suggested i look at VGC Repairs. Looks like we may be able to get the Wii unbricked for considerably cheaper than buying a new Wii. Does anyone know if I were to get the Wii repaired through this method - it involves SafeMii, apparently - once I get it back, would I still be able to do the same modifications as if it was a new and unmodified Wii?

It's just a SaveMii. All it does is reinstall a few system files so you can ultimately get back into HBC to finish the job. Then again, its still a SaveMii, and depending on what really happened.. if the integrity of IOS60 is dead, then SaveMii wont do anything. If you can't get into Preloader, then chances are.. SaveMii methods will not work. It sounds like your only true option is a nand flash with Infectus, but if you got to this point now -- I probably shouldn't recommend it.

 

[nutta_nic]

is the wii definitely new? you said you had bootmii, was this installed as an ios or directly to boot2

 

[Skizzo]

Hell, just tell Nintendo you tried updating to 4.2 and that bricked it. Free repair.

 

[Goveynetcom]

I had a 3.4U Wii, I installed the homebrew channel through the twilight hack and then after having it there for a while, I said what the hell and updated to 4.0U through the Waniniko's Updater. SO in my opinion, I would use twilight hack for Wii's 3.4 and under.

 

[wolffangalchemist]

the moral of the story: don't softmod someone else's wii without knowing what you are doing.

seriously guys how many noobs brick there own wii's and post it on gbatemp on a daily basis...
if you have bootmii installed as boot2 it would boot so long as the files are on the sd card.
since it sounds like it didn't and just boots to a black screen of nothingness your might want to call up Nintendo tell them the power went out while updating and get it fix'd.
if you where my friend i might be tempted to strangle you, lets hope your friend is more forgiving than i would be in that situation.