Hacking Metroid Prime Trilogy refusing to boot on any games through any USB Loading, even with compatible HDD

[daddu3]

Been hammering away a long while now on getting Metroid Prime Trilogy to work on my Wii through USB Loader GX. There's varying amounts of info or help that I've tested which haven't still yielded me on booting any of the games, instead always booting me back on Wii Menu or in more rarer circumstances, hanging on a black screen.

So far I've done the following:

- Switched from flash drives to a HDD and adapter, which run pretty well on my Wii (Hitachi 2.5" HTS542516K9SA00 160GB - which seems pretty identical to HTS543216L9A300-label that was listed on USB Device Compability List on GBATemp Wiki)

- Installed proper CiOS (cIOS 249, base 56, v10 beta52 d2x-v10-beta52, rev 65535. Tried also one with "base 57".)

- Got a very working dump that passes checks on both Dolphin and Wii Backup Manager, can compare to two bad dumps I've found from more popular sites by googling.

- Split the game on two wbfs-files via Wii Backup Manager, also had "Remove Update Partition" off

- Put "Block IOS on Reload" to ON, which seems to work on good dumps but leaves me with black screen, bad dumps meanwhile boot me back on Wii Menu.

- Tried Alternate DOL loading, which generally gives same failing result to the above


I'm doubting it'd be due my HDD being faulty, as it hasn't shown problems loading other games pretty much instantly and without inherent flaws compared to my failing flash drive - so at the very least I might chalk this as my adapter not being suitable for making MPT boot to it's games? I'm using USB 3.0 to SATA 6 Gb/s converter by Delock. Dunno if that's a poor brand, do tell me.

But yeah, to any of you being able to boot into any games, what has worked?

 

[eyeliner]

Spoon fed, just for you:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/metroid-prime-trilogy-refuses-to-load-up-on-usb-loader-gx.565203/

 

[gZa]

If the above link doesn't help then I'd confirm it's not the HD firstly. Can you boot anything other Wii games using WiiFlow or CFG USB Loader?! Also when you finally do get it working you will still get a black screen reboot with Metroid Prime 3 unless you have Saves NAND Emulation set to OFF.

 

[Newhouse-Estates]

Have you tried Wii backup manager? Let it write WFBS to your drive then try it.

 

[daddu3]

Have you tried Wii backup manager? Let it write WFBS to your drive then try it.

Already using Wii Backup Manager for transferring games. Do you mean making a WBFS-partition and adding MPT there though?
The ISO I have gets converted to WBFS during transfer, though FAT32 cannot hold more than 4 GB at a time, so I have to split the file into two WBFS.

If the above link doesn't help then I'd confirm it's not the HD firstly. Can you boot anything other Wii games using WiiFlow or CFG USB Loader?!

Can boot on any other Wii-game I have without any problem through GX or CFG USB Loader. Wiiflow I don't know since I never have used it before.

Also when you finally do get it working you will still get a black screen reboot with Metroid Prime 3 unless you have Saves NAND Emulation set to OFF.

This actually made MP3 work now, thanks!!! However, MP1 and 2 still boot me back on Wii Menu.

Spoon fed, just for you:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/metroid-prime-trilogy-refuses-to-load-up-on-usb-loader-gx.565203/

Already gone through this thread few times months ago during my first attempts on making MPT work:

- Split the game on two wbfs-files via Wii Backup Manager, also had "Remove Update Partition" off

I had already compiled up most of the solutions I've attempted so far on the OP, most likely from various old threads on the same issue . Is that not enough to not be met with patronising replies like these anymore?

 

[Newhouse-Estates]

Already using Wii Backup Manager for transferring games. Do you mean making a WBFS-partition and adding MPT there though?
The ISO I have gets converted to WBFS during transfer, though FAT32 cannot hold more than 4 GB at a time, so I have to split the file into two WBFS.



Can boot on any other Wii-game I have without any problem through GX or CFG USB Loader. Wiiflow I don't know since I never have used it before.




This actually made MP3 work now, thanks!!! However, MP1 and 2 still boot me back on Wii Menu.




Already gone through this thread few times months ago during my first attempts on making MPT work:



I had already compiled up most of the solutions I've attempted so far on the OP, most likely from various old threads on the same issue . Is that not enough to not be met with patronising replies like these anymore?

Yeah looks like the iso or game files themselves aren't the issue, Try using other usb loaders, usually im able to get one of the many working. Also i think the USB needs to be plugged into a certain slot but you prolly already knew that. Try putting the game on a usb flash drive (8-16 gig) and see if it works or a dvd to check that it's not the iso to be sure.

 

[godreborn]

try disabling nand emulation if it's enabled. I think the first two games are on the first layer, and the third is on the second. I had a problem with a black screen only with metroid prime 3, and nand emulation was the reason. some games, like skyward sword, do not like it.

 

[daddu3]

Try putting the game on a usb flash drive (8-16 gig) and see if it works or a dvd to check that it's not the iso to be sure.

I've used flash drives before, though it's been long advised to not use them as they tend to wear out easily from writing constantly data between the storage and Wii and IiRC not performing too well with dual-layer games (though I had Brawl work still anyway). On that note the flash drive I've been using had been long getting slow and faulty, so I moved my backups on the HDD lately which performs much faster.

try disabling nand emulation if it's enabled. I think the first two games are on the first layer, and the third is on the second. I had a problem with a black screen only with metroid prime 3, and nand emulation was the reason. some games, like skyward sword, do not like it.

Seeing how Prime 3 seemed to work after disabling NAND Emulation but other two don't, perhaps the issue underlies somewhere there? Like, splitting games on two WBFS-files would result on the first layer not working properly?

 

[godreborn]

I don't know. the first two worked for me before doing that. maybe something happened with wii backup manager. it sounds like your cios are good.

 

[daddu3]

I don't know. the first two worked for me before doing that. maybe something happened with wii backup manager. it sounds like your cios are good.

Hmm. Can you show me what settings you used on Wii Backup Manager when transferring MPT on your backup storage? Like WBFS split style or like?

 

[godreborn]

Hmm. Can you show me what settings you used on Wii Backup Manager when transferring MPT on your backup storage? Like WBFS split style or like?

Think it was 4gb.

 

[godreborn]

I could give you the md5, should be the same as when I had issues with 3, I hex compared them and they were the same.

 

[daddu3]

Think it was 4gb.

Been using this size as well...

I could give you the md5, should be the same as when I had issues with 3, I hex compared them and they were the same.

That'd be very helpful, please do.

 

[godreborn]

R3ME01.wbfs: 87310F9DBEA5F39FADFF68964E0C7AA3
R3ME01.wbf1: 0C0A7F0D29A885F3CF9FD689DFB58EB5

 

[daddu3]

View attachment 290142
View attachment 290143
R3ME01.wbfs: 87310F9DBEA5F39FADFF68964E0C7AA3
R3ME01.wbf1: 0C0A7F0D29A885F3CF9FD689DFB58EB5

Mine's almost same, except CRC32 on my first WBFS-file looks to be different (AFA967C9).

Could you check your hash for the full game?

 

[godreborn]

I don't have the full game. I could merge them, but if those two are different, the end result will be different. are you using a split game or the full wbfs on ntfs or something?

 

[daddu3]

I don't have the full game. I could merge them, but if those two are different, the end result will be different. are you using a split game or the full wbfs on ntfs or something?

My copy's a full ISO that I split to two files through Wii Backup Manager - so essentially split files.

 

[daddu3]

Just discovered the actual issue behind all this after remembering an older issue I had dealt long ago: apparently using NTSC-version of MPT won't allow me to play the GCN-titles on my PAL Wii, something I had also observed with NTSC-version of Pikmin 1 & 2's New Play!-editions.

Usually I don't tend to get PAL-versions of these games for Wii so I guess this flew under my radar.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

I did comment with some help regarding a Syscheck and the USBLoaderGX config file, but I accidentally posted it on that other topic. lol. Glad you figured it out.