Hardware Modchip FAQ

[Slowking]

I've looked around this forum for a few weeks now and a lot of poeple here don't know that much about Wii Modchips. So I'll try to make a little FAQ, which I hope will help them. I don't know how good it will turn out, but I believe it's better than nothing and maybe it will become something one can simply link to when asked. So let's begin


Part 1: Deciding on a Modchip

1. What modchip should I get?
Well it depends. There are different revisions of the Wiis DVD-drive on which the modchips are installed. Specifically the drive-controller has changed a lot, which is the small controller on which (or near which) the modchips are installed. You will see it in any modchip diagram. Here are a few pictures of it: http://www.wiidrives.com/formhelp#controller
The following revisions exist: D2A, DMS, D2B, D2C, D2C2 and D2E. It is written on the controller itself which one it is, so you won't know for sure until you open up your Wii. But you can guess which it is by going to www.wiidrives.com and checking your Wiis serial number there.
If you have a D2A, DMS or D2B with uncut legs proceed to point 2. Otherwise, if you have a D2B with cut legs, D2C, D2C2 or D2E proceed to point 3.
There are very rare cases where the legs of the drive-controller are covered in Epoxy (black glue). In this case refer to point 4.


2. I have a D2A, DMS or uncut D2B drive. What modchip should I get?
The answer to this question is pretty easy: YAOSM. YAOSM is a great chip, it's the best for those drives and it's open source, which ensures that you'll get an update should one be needed. (unlike wiikey for which the support was dropped moths ago)
Some people will argue, that this PIC-based chip is much smaller than others based on ATmega8s, like the wiikey or OpenWii. Well you have heard it often enough and it was never true, but in this case it is: Size doesn't matter. On the recommended PIC-chip YAOSM has _lots_ of space left. I could get more technical, but I don't want to confuse anyone more than neccesary.

Furthermore YAOSM has the best disc-detection of all the chips for these drives. It is better than the one of wiikey and far better than the one of OpenWii, which is just crappy. I know this statement will attract a lot of flame, but I know what I'm talking about.
I've been around since the first Wii chip came out and have myself been through Chiip, OpenWii, Wiikey and YAOSM, not to mention the contless threads I've read. To get OpenWii to run you'll probably have to tweak the hell out of your Wiis laser which will shorten it's life span. Ofcourse you could be one of the lucky ones for which OpenWii just works but are you willing to bet your money on it?
Ok enough of OpenWii.

Why not Wiikey? I mean everybody is talking about it, right?
Well popularity isn't allways a sign of quality. I was originally going to tell you an example from history but all I come up with are pretty disgusting, so I'll just skip that part.

In short the disc detection is worse than YAOSMs, there are a few bugs in the latest firmware (mainly regardings the GC audiofix) and support was dropped a long time ago (and even before it was dropped it was shitty).

Let's get away from the chips you shouldn't get and back to the one you should.

A nice thing about YAOSM is that you can build and program it yourself for about 3-4$ including the parts for the programmer. All the details can be found here: http://wiinewz.com/forums/yaosm/
If you are not that good with electronics you can buy it preflashed, for example from eurasia.
In case you want a solderless solution you can get a Free-Clip and flash YAOSM on it. The only place I know of that sells them is dealextreme ($25) and sadly I don't know a place that sells them preprogramed, so you'll have to do it yourself. But on the bright side, it's a pretty easy process and all the parts needed are includet in the package you buy (no soldering needed, just a PC with a COM-port to flash it).

The best thing about this chip is, that it is Open Source and so will allways get updates if needed. Even if Bell (the creator of YAOSM) stops working on it, everyone who can code can pick it up and make updates.
Some people will tell you that YAOSM isn't updateable via DVD. That isn't true. Since version 3.0 YAOSM stores it's drivecode in the EEPROM-area of the PIC-chip, which is fully updateable, via DVD. Only the code that patches this drivecode to the drivecontroller is stored in the non-DVD-updateable part. Thing is, since YAOSM can allready patch D2A, DMS and D2B drive-controllers, this part of the chip will never, ever need updates, so you are golden. The part that may need updates in the future, due to new Nintendo protection or whatever, can be updatet via DVD. Just the part that won't need updates ever can't.

Everything else there is to know can be found in the official YAOSM FAQ: http://wiinewz.com/forums/yaosm/67369-yaos...read-first.html


3. I have a cut-leg D2B, D2C, D2C2 or D2E. What modchip should I get?
Well this is going to be a lot shorter: It doesn't really matter. All the chips for these drives are and do basically the same.
Chips that I know are good and can recommend are: Wasabi, D2Sun, Wiikey2/D2Lite. Those are all original chips (no clones) that work great. None of these works better than the other so it doesn't really matter which one you get.
I really can't comment on the other ones, except that I wouldn't recommend the D2Pro anymore. As it probably won't be supported anymore, now that the team has moved on to wiikey2. However, this is no reason for existing D2Pro users to panic. Your chip will probably continue working forever.
If you want a solderless solution, just get one of these chips presoldered to a corresponding wii-clip. They are availible from many locations and resellers.


4. My drivechips legs are covered in Epoxy (black glue). What should I do?
Well sucks to be you right now. A lot of the points needed to install a modchip are covered up, so you can't solder to them or get a wii-clip on there. The only way to install a modchip on these drives is to remove the epoxy, which can only be done by a Pro. So grab your drive and send it in to get chipped. To know which chip you should let the modder put in there, refer to point 3.



Part 2: Other questions

1. So I've got -insert modchip name here- in my wii. Now what?
Throw in a game or a backup and play it.

(For some modchips you have to insert a game that has the same region of your Wii to set the modchips region first, for example YAOSM, D2Pro, Wiikey2. You'll probably find it on your modchips website if it is necessary, but it can't hurt in any case

)


2. How can I back up my games?
There are special LG-drives for your PC and a tool from Waninkoko with which you can back up your games. To learn more about them use the board search.

Other ways to obtain a backup are illegal and therefore won't be discussed here. If you can't google for them, get of the internet.

3. So I just backed up a game. Burn it to disc, and pop it in the wii and it'll play it?
Yep pretty much. But don't use a crappy Laptop burner to burn the game, update your burners firmware and use good media, like Ritek, Verabtim or Taiyo Yuden


4. I hear wii scrubber, trucha signer, brick blocker, regionfrii, what are these? Should I use them?
No. This tools aren't really current (except turcha signer, but you only need it if you are a Pro and then you wouldn't need this FAQ

). If you want to play imports or backups of imports on your Wii just use GeckoOS (use google).


6. Can I still play my bought wii games after I installed a modchip?
Yep, just like before.



Well I hope this pretty short FAQ helped a few people...
Questions, critic? - All welcome.

 

[Midna]

Oh, poo. I did d2pro a while ago because it's all my installer offered for d2b aside from wiikey. I was very inexperienced.

 

[OmniSlash2o6]

I just wouldn't get a D2Pro anymore. It's from the same team as the wiikey2 and this team has a history of abandoning it's old chips.

Omg

...I just baught a D2Pro(should be coming this week) I should of gotten the D2LITE or Wiikey2

.

 

[Slowking]

Relax. It will work in your drive and will work with all your backups and probably won't need any updates ever. I just mentioned it for new adopters to be on the safe side and since there are other alternatives out there.

 

[Framework43]

I perfer the open-source choice. I even ordered a Free-Clip

Why do you Recommend Open-Source chips? They are So cheap so I would expect the more expensive ones to be better.

Open-Source chips are better because
1) You can make them yourself
2)You can get them solderless via a Free-Chip for only $25 HERE
3) Support for it will NEVER die because It is open source and can be modified by anyone. If bell(developer of YAOSM) was to cancel his updates, someone could just pick up the project :]

 

[Trulen]

As a mod-chip dummy, I have some questions that would probably help people if answered.


1. So I've got -insert modchip name here- in my wii. Now what?
2. So I just download a game, burn it to disc, and pop it in the wii and it'll play it?
3. I hear wii scrubber, trucha signer, brick blocker, regionfrii, what are these? Should I use them?
4. WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD G---.... green pony backgrounds?
5. With the Free Clip, do you also have to buy the Wii Key or such? Or is it the complete package from deal extreme?
6. Can I still play my bought wii games?




I'm sure that it'd help anyone new to the wii modchip scene would be wondering these questions, including myself.

 

[Slowking]

I'll include the questions apart from question 2, because really if you jut read my text at the top of this page you can answer it yourself.

 

[Trulen]

Here's two new questions, this time concerning gamecube.


1. Can the wii run gamecube backups off of a modchip?

2. Does it have to be the mini DVD type deals, or can it be just a regular DVD?

 

[mverason]

Great thread Slowking. I came across this thread while you were responding to another post.

I too had switched from Wiikey to YAOSM. In the beginning I had a WiiKey, although it was quite unfortunate that it had failed on me. While I had the Wiikey, -although this may not happen to everyone, a vast population were affected- I ran into 001 errors & not to mention I also had quite a bit of occurance in running the Wiikey recovery disc. Perhaps I may have had a bad Wiikey -but I had a professional modder mod it for me, so I knew it wasn't the soldering job. I had asked myself if I was going to purchase another Wiikey or go with the cheaper solution, a YAOSM. At the end, I decided to go with YAOSM, and all the errors above were alleviated.

Thank You Bell!

 

[Framework43]

Here's two new questions, this time concerning gamecube.


1. Can the wii run gamecube backups off of a modchip?
Yes
2. Does it have to be the mini DVD type deals, or can it be just a regular DVD?
You can burn both Wii backups and Gamecube Backups on a regular DVD, regular dvds can have a multiple number of gamecube games

 

[Satangel]

And you can prolly only play GC games with a GC controller?

 

[Nathan-NL]

That would be rather logical

Edit: Sorry, I am using the internet from my neighbors

 

[mysticwaterfall]

I really can't comment on the other ones, except that I wouldn't recommend the D2Pro anymore. As it probably won't be supported anymore, now that the team has moved on to wiikey2. However, this is no reason for existing D2Pro users to panic. Your chip will probably continue working forever.

Overall, I think this a great guide, but I wanted to point out that they just released an update for the d2pro (adds wii update blocking) so they are still supporting it.

 

[Slowking]

Yeah cool. That's an update they can port in about 3 seconds from their D2Pro-chip. The eject issues are still not fixed though and they fixed those in the Wiikey2 two weeks ago...

 

[OzModChips]

wouldn't recommend the D2Pro anymore. As it probably won't be supported anymore, now that the team has moved on to wiikey2.

As you can probably see by now, you are dead wrong
Your guesses are not facts.

D2pro coder, and wiikey 2 coder are the same
so they will both be supported

as you can see by the d2pro update blocked bought out today
and the 6 wire d2pros that will be be up on their website in a couple of days

D2pro and Wiikey 2 are some of the few modchips that have proben to be DVD upgradable, which means if nintendo pulls another SuperMario Galaxy trick, the team has the tools to rls an update very quickly.

On the other hand, you are reccomending chips that have better disc detection? you want a modchip maker to add code that allows shitty quality discs to work? That is adding code that will allow you laser to burn out faster, hardly a feature you want to have.
YAOSM got an update for the SGM issue after over a month...and wiikey/cyclowiz got it within 3 or 4 days

 

[fflakes]

Hi, I already have a modchip for my wii (d2pro9, no issues) but I'm looking at solutions for a new wii my friend got. I've a question that may be good for this faq as well (which is well done may I add).

Any benefits for hard modchip vs soft backup loader solutions now? Seems like the gamma works for most games? I couldn't find a thread with comparisons.

Thanks.

 

[junk_man32]

solder your games to it to load it, then burn ur wii and burn

 

[mysticwaterfall]

Any benefits for hard modchip vs soft backup loader solutions now? Seems like the gamma works for most games? I couldn't find a thread with comparisons.

Thanks.

Gamma is a lot better, but a bunch of games still just don't work at all or work poorly. It's great if you can't afford a chip o don't want to open your Wii. Otherwise, just get a chip.