Hacking In Desperate Need Of Help With Semi-Brick

[mauifrog]

Thanks for going to such extremes for me Mauifrog.

I really appreciate it. Is this thing even fixable? I'm seriously starting to wonder, and I want to be sure before I shell out money for a new drive.

There is only one way to know for sure, get your hands on a working wii dvd drive and put it in your wii. You could pull one from a working wii. It is impossible to guarantee anything, but I am very very confident that a working dvd drive will fix your issue.

Probably the best bet would be to buy a bricked wii off of ebay, on that is black screen but hopefully has a good dvd drive.

 

[Labatryth]

Maybe I should just keep this Wii for homebrew and get a new one?

 

[mauifrog]

Thanks for going to such extremes for me Mauifrog.

I really appreciate it. Is this thing even fixable? I'm seriously starting to wonder, and I want to be sure before I shell out money for a new drive.

You mentioned in your prior post that you had opened the wii, you may want to check the the drive is properly connected. Possibly you just knocked the ribbon cable or power supply loose.

 

[mauifrog]

OK, I just got home from work, ripped the dvd drive out of the wii. Guess what happend? Nothing works, most channels and usb games load to disc read error.

I call BULL SHIT
How old is your wii? What SM is it on? Those things might be what is making the difference. But there certainly is no bullshit here. I had to take the drive out of my kids wii when I accidently busted the drive on my tech wii. Its been running for well over a year now without a drive. It's mostly boots straight into wiiflow, but like today I went into the SM so I could launch a wiiware game and it worked without a hitch.

Come on, as someone else mentioned, there have been ppl who mod their wii and take out the dvd drive and put a hard drive inside. Lots of ppl have done that and they aren't complaining of not being able to launch games and such. How can you call BS on this?

I'm not even sure what SM my family's wii is on. I haven't updated it in forever.



QUOTE(mauifrog @ Mar 18 2011, 07:24 PM)

It is an lu65, SM 4.1, and it does almost nothing without a DVD drive. If you think it is the wii, I have an older one I can test as well. The op is not the first to have this issue, replacing the DVD drive seems to do the trick.

OK, so before I go to bed I pulled the dvd drive out of my lu3051. Same result as before, no N channels load, no usb games loads, all give disc read error. I do not think it is possible for any wii to load most N channels or any game from usb without a half functional dvd drive. DF, I would suggest you open that wii of yours up again, if it is playing games from usb, I suspect you'll find a dvd drive or in the least a dvd board inside that wii.

Perhaps it would be possible to load a game via usb from sneek. I don't know as I have not taken the time to setup usb loading from sneek, but I suspect it would give the same error.

Channels loading to disc read error, usb games loading to disc read error = bad/disconnected dvd drive.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

OK, so before I go to bed I pulled the dvd drive out of my lu3051. Same result as before, no N channels load, no usb games loads, all give disc read error. I do not think it is possible for any wii to load most N channels or any game from usb without a half functional dvd drive. DF, I would suggest you open that wii of yours up again, if it is playing games from usb, I suspect you'll find a dvd drive or in the least a dvd board inside that wii.

Ok, just because you doubt me, I tried putting a disc inside my wii and there was nothing preventing me from putting the disc in freely, and there was no mechanics trying to pull the disc in. I've put the disc almost all the way in and I can flop it all around. I could put it all the way in if I wanted to and it would just fall in place and the just loosely rattle around in my wii.

I know FOR A FACT that I did not leave the logic board of the dvd drive in the wii because it is still attached to the dvd drive that I got connected to my tech wii. I don't understand why you do not believe me. This is really simple, and like I said and other people have said, there are people that remove the dvd drive and use the space to put in a hard drive. How can you still question it?

 

[Labatryth]

Think I should just remove the drive altogether?

 

[mauifrog]

OK, so before I go to bed I pulled the dvd drive out of my lu3051. Same result as before, no N channels load, no usb games loads, all give disc read error. I do not think it is possible for any wii to load most N channels or any game from usb without a half functional dvd drive. DF, I would suggest you open that wii of yours up again, if it is playing games from usb, I suspect you'll find a dvd drive or in the least a dvd board inside that wii.

Ok, just because you doubt me, I tried putting a disc inside my wii and there was nothing preventing me from putting the disc in freely, and there was no mechanics trying to pull the disc in. I've put the disc almost all the way in and I can flop it all around. I could put it all the way in if I wanted to and it would just fall in place and the just loosely rattle around in my wii.

I know FOR A FACT that I did not leave the logic board of the dvd drive in the wii because it is still attached to the dvd drive that I got connected to my tech wii. I don't understand why you do not believe me. This is really simple, and like I said and other people have said, there are people that remove the dvd drive and use the space to put in a hard drive. How can you still question it?

You must have a special wii and mine two are crap. When I get my Korean wii back from Giantpune I will test that without a dvd drive and post the results.

BTW- If you say there is no drive, no board, and the wii is working fine, I believe you. However I think such a wii would be very rare.

 

[Labatryth]

I'll try taking the drive out and see what happens.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

You must have a special wii and mine two are crap. When I get my Korean wii back from Giantpune I will test that without a dvd drive and post the results.

BTW- If you say there is no drive, no board, and the wii is working fine, I believe you. However I think such a wii would be very rare.

Wonder if it has to do with board revision, hollywood revision, IOS's, or SM version.

Can't be all that rare if.... wait for it..... if other ppl have removed their drives to put in a hard drive.

 

[mauifrog]

You must have a special wii and mine two are crap. When I get my Korean wii back from Giantpune I will test that without a dvd drive and post the results.

BTW- If you say there is no drive, no board, and the wii is working fine, I believe you. However I think such a wii would be very rare.

Wonder if it has to do with board revision, hollywood revision, IOS's, or SM version.

Can't be all that rare if.... wait for it..... if other ppl have removed their drives to put in a hard drive.

AFAIK, your the only one. The others that have removed the dvd and installed a usb into the wii have left the drive board in the wii. I don't know, so far we are 2:1, perhaps others can test/confirm their findings. I am not pulling your chain here, I have two wii wide open and they do almost nothing without the dvd drive duplicating the op's issue 100%, no question about that. The drives are in my hand, and the wii does nothing but give disc read error from N channels and usb games, put the drive back in and it is right as rain. I have also tested with base ios 38, 37, 56, 57 for usbloading, all gives the same error.

AFAIK, there is nothing else that causes such an issue as the op's other than a malfunctioning/missing dvd drive. That is it, there is no other way to duplicate this brick. Granted the dvd drive must malfunction in just the right way, as many malfunctions do not cause this issue. I can tell you that it is 100%, nothing to do with the op's file system as he has just formatted and installed a brand new nand.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

AFAIK, your the only one. The others that have removed the dvd and installed a usb into the wii have left the drive board in the wii. I don't know, so far we are 2:1, perhaps others can test/confirm their findings. I am not pulling your chain here, I have two wii wide open and they do almost nothing without the dvd drive duplicating the op's issue 100%, no question about that. The drives are in my hand, and the wii does nothing but give disc read error from N channels and usb games, put the drive back in and it is right as rain. I have also tested with base ios 38, 37, 56, 57 for usbloading, all gives the same error.

AFAIK, there is nothing else that causes such an issue as the op's other than a malfunctioning/missing dvd drive. That is it, there is no other way to duplicate this brick. Granted the dvd drive must malfunction in just the right way, as many malfunctions do not cause this issue. I can tell you that it is 100%, nothing to do with the op's file system as he has just formatted and installed a brand new nand.

After your testing and having the OP run punes nand builder then I would bet that his issue probably is the DVD drive. But for my own personal knowledge I would like to figure out what is making it work for my wii. I will pull my wii apart in the next few days and check the board revision and do a syscheck. I have a feeling that those are the determining factors. Lets narrow this down.

 

[Labatryth]

No offense DeadlyFoez, but I have a name, and it is not "Op". It's subtly offensive for me to called by an acronym. Would you mind addressing me by name? Thanks. Also, people are talking in this thread as if I don't really exist, and are using this whole page for their own conversations. This makes me feel rather unimportant and more like just a "customer" coming for advice. It's been going on for several days now. Maybe you all don't mean to be offensive, but it does come off that way. Just wanted to put a little two cents in. Thanks.

 

[Streamlinehd]

I currently have over 30 wiis in my possession and have repaired more than 300 of them in the past 2-years. In every situation I've tested with the drive removed, the channels don't function and you can't USB load. I have 3 Wiis opened ATM which I just removed all the drives from and this proves true on all of them. I've never had a wii that functions fine with the drive detached.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

No offense DeadlyFoez, but I have a name, and it is not "Op". It's subtly offensive for me to called by an acronym. Would you mind addressing me by name? Thanks. Also, people are talking in this thread as if I don't really exist, and are using this whole page for their own conversations. This makes me feel rather unimportant and more like just a "customer" coming for advice. It's been going on for several days now. Maybe you all don't mean to be offensive, but it does come off that way. Just wanted to put a little two cents in. Thanks.
No offense to you man, but OP means "Original Poster". Yes, you are not nameless, but for ease of others understanding it just works. But the fact that we are talking in your thread in what you think in an unrelated manner is really not the case. If you never asked your question then we would not be discussing it. Your issue IS related to what we are conversing about. You are not a "customer" because we are not asking for money from you to help you. Instead of looking at how YOU feel about this, look at how a community of knowledgeable minds are coming together to figure out your problem and trying to narrow it down. Since you have already have had 3 solid pages dedicated to your issue then please don't mind the few knowledgeable people doing side chat that is STILL RELATED to your issue. Either way, Labatrynth or OP, you are still the same person with the same issue. It's just easier to not have to look back and reference your name and just know that YOU are the Original Poster.

QUOTE(Streamlinehd @ Mar 20 2011, 12:37 AM) I currently have over 30 wiis in my possession and have repaired more than 300 of them in the past 2-years. In every situation I've tested with the drive removed, the channels don't function and you can't USB load. I have 3 Wiis opened ATM which I just removed all the drives from and this proves true on all of them. I've never had a wii that functions fine with the drive detached.

That does not mean that ANY of us is wrong, it just means that we need to investigate this more.

I will say this 100 times more, look at the ppl who have modded their wii and completely removed the dvd drive and their stuff is still working. Maybe you guys can argue with me about it, but can you honestly argue it when more than one person has been able to prove the same thing.

Like I said, there are many different variables in this situation that could cause it to work for me and not work for other people, including board revision, Hollywood revision, IOS versions, and SM version. Unless you all collaboration everything that we have to figure this out then there is no point in this guessing game.

 

[mauifrog]

@Labatryth
OP is not an insult, it means the "Original Poster". OP denotes YOU as the thread starter, giving your voice and issues the focus of the thread. It is not meant as an insult, being OP is like being king of the thread. These can go on for many pages, and at times the original topic can be lost. Referring to the OP is a simple way to keep the focus of the thread on topic with the "Original Poster"

 

[Streamlinehd]

I was just backing up what mauifrog said as I can more than verify his claim. What he has described is an accurate description of what I've experienced on many different Wii's. I'm not saying it's impossible for everything to work fine without a drive but I've never witnessed it.

I'm all for getting to the bottom of this. I have plenty of Wiis to hopefully touch on all the variables and all of my current stock are disc read errors so I have to remove the drives at one point or another anyway. I will keep a log with all the above factors and results.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

I currently have over 30 wiis in my possession and have repaired more than 300 of them in the past 2-years. In every situation I've tested with the drive removed, the channels don't function and you can't USB load. I have 3 Wiis opened ATM which I just removed all the drives from and this proves true on all of them. I've never had a wii that functions fine with the drive detached.
QUOTE(Streamlinehd @ Mar 20 2011, 01:23 AM) I was just backing up what mauifrog said as I can more than verify his claim. What he has described is an accurate description of what I've experienced on many different Wii's. I'm not saying it's impossible for everything to work fine without a drive but I've never witnessed it.

I'm all for getting to the bottom of this. I have plenty of Wiis to hopefully touch on all the variables and all of my current stock are disc read errors so I have to remove the drives at one point or another anyway. I will keep a log with all the above factors and results.

Ok man, from what you have said it sounds like that you have purposely tested all 300 wii's for this exact issue...especially before this idea of an issue has ever been mentioned or arised. Personally, that sounds like a complete cop-out to me. I HIGHLY doubt that you have tested each of those 300 wii's for this exact issue without anyone questioning it in the past. If you have then please tell of the board revisions, hollywood revisions, SM version, and syscheck of all those wii's. Since you remember them all so well and have tested them all so well for this issue then you must have logs or proof to back it up.

Guess what, it IS IN FACT working for my kids wii. Doubt it as you will, but it is certainly working. How can you argue with proof. What, do you all need more proof and have me post a video of me disassembling this wii and then show it running with EVERYTHING working before you ppl quit trying to call me out. Like seriously, wtf?!?!?!?! Either your experience is wrong or my things that I have installed do not have what all of those other 300 wii's had installed. There is no BS here.

I am done with this situation at this point. Either try it all out on your own with every board revision, every SM, every SM IOS, and whatever else....or just accept that I am telling you the truth. I am not troll that is known for purposely lying to ppl.

This is now getting rather pitiful. I have to argue and try to prove what I see in front of my own face. seriously, wtf?

 

[OverjoY]

I have to agree with Deadly on this. I toke out the drive of my brothers Wii and it does work.. I can give him a call to ask if it's still working if you guys want to know, but he never complained to me it wasn't working.

 

[Bad_Ad84]

Personally my experience is the same as streamline and mauifrog. I have to connect a drive for anything to work correctly.

It is also a step in the wii fault finding process when using a savemii - therefore a known issue.

When loading applications via homebrew channel, it seems to try to look for the dvd drive - ive had MMM or dopmii load a few times, but it takes much longer to load than usual... maybe a time out on trying to find the drive.

If you do the same via cboot2 (with no dvd drive) it works fine, which suggests to me its something to do with the system menu (and therefore deadlys working and ours not could be due to a difference there). All wiis I work on end up with 4.1 (which is the same as mauifrog).


just my 2 cents, Ive repaired hundreds of wiis and even ended up buying a wiikey fusion to avoid this issue while i have them apart.


And on a side note, uninstalling bootmii does not remove it completely when virginising it, to be completely stock you would need to reprogram the bootblocks with a programmer.

 

[Streamlinehd]

Ok man, from what you have said it sounds like that you have purposely tested all 300 wii's for this exact issue...especially before this idea of an issue has ever been mentioned or arised.
I've known of this issue for quite some time now so it's not something that has just arised. I wasn't trying to make it sound like I tested 300 Wiis for this exact issue, my intent was to give myself credibility for my following statement.

QUOTE(DeadlyFoez @ Mar 20 2011, 02:33 AM) Either your experience is wrong or my things that I have installed do not have what all of those other 300 wii's had installed.

I am done with this situation at this point. Either try it all out on your own with every board revision, every SM, every SM IOS, and whatever else....or just accept that I am telling you the truth. I am not troll that is known for purposely lying to ppl.

My experience is not wrong and I'm not saying you're making this up or calling you a lier. You're the one who jumped the gun and said what mauifrog said is absolutely untrue and I'm telling you you're wrong about that. I'm just helping to verify the situation as I've already explained in my previous post. I have to agree with mauifrog on this and say that the OP does indeed have a drive issue.

I just tested these consoles (LU318798750, LU740755673, LU525194109, LU116229319) from SM 3.2U - 4.3U and they all give the mentioned symptoms with the drive removed. I'm not going to test all IOS/cIOS combinations as I don't have the time to waste on that. I would say in conclusion to this matter that when someone displays the OP's issue, the drive is likely the cause of the problem. I'm done with this as well, I've already contributed enough of my time to it and I don't want to argue with you as that was not my intention. If I happen to come across a unit that works fine with the drive removed I'll post back but as of right now I have four Wiis that don't work properly without a drive. We can go back and forth all we want but those are the facts.

Just so you know I'm not full of crap...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKJwki1FLig[/youtube]