New Japanese Wii Motherboard Blocks Modchips

[Opium]

New Japanese Wii Motherboard Blocks Modchips

New Motherboard, Three Pins Removed

A new Wii motherboard has shown up in Japan which blocks current modchips. The revised motherboard has three pins removed from one of the chips which renders modchips useless. There have been several reports of these motherboards appearing, however they are limited to only Japan for the time being.

Wii NTSC-J cut pins, you can't MOD it any more



It is a latest news from a shop in 188. The latest lots of Wii NTSC-J can't be modded. Why? It's because 3-pins are physically cut from a surface-mounted IC. There are still some Wii NTSC-J unaffected in 188 and Golden, but price will go up soon once this news spreads out and everyone is struggling to be the last one to have it. So hurry if you have not gotten one yourself yet. Of course, if you only play legitimate games, then it doesn't bother you anyway.



Luckily, Wii NTSC-U is not affected yet.

If you're interested in modchips it might be wise to pick up a Wii now rather than later.

Source

 

[chillyp]

I saw this coming when the first modchips were released. It wasn't going to take long for Nintendo to stop people from using the service pins from manufacturing to mod their Wiis. I was surprised that they haven't attempted to release firmware which detects them.

 

[FAST6191]

Interesting development, wonder if it is just pins moved or whether you will have to etch down and solder on chip (which is about as fun as it sounds).

 

[chillyp]

Interesting development, wonder if it is just pins moved or whether you will have to etch down and solder on chip (which is about as fun as it sounds).

Looks like the pins have been sliced off the IC completely, judging by the soldering they probably did it just after programming it with initial firmware. Wouldn't this potentially make it harder to service bricked Wiis? I suppose Nintendo has weighed that up against the cost of losing software sales.

 

[Da Foxx]

As I already own a Wii thats has a modchip installed this doesn't bother me right now. I just hope they find a way around this new mother board in case of something.

 

[thegame07]

Looks like the pins have been sliced off the IC completely, judging by the soldering they probably did it just after programming it with initial firmware. Wouldn't this potentially make it harder to service bricked Wiis? I suppose Nintendo has weighed that up against the cost of losing software sales.

everything gets cracked

nintendo are just making teams like wiikey more money. The people who make modchips will be rubbing thier hands together because they will just make more money if they come up with a new modchip first... Nintendo will still lose.

 

[Da Foxx]

Looks like the pins have been sliced off the IC completely, judging by the soldering they probably did it just after programming it with initial firmware. Wouldn't this potentially make it harder to service bricked Wiis? I suppose Nintendo has weighed that up against the cost of losing software sales.

everything gets cracked

nintendo are just making teams like wiikey more money. The people who make modchips will be rubbing thier hands together because they will just make more money if they come up with a new modchip first... Nintendo will still lose.

Yep. All they are doing is buying them selfs time.

 

[shtonkalot]

Finally some picture confirmation.
Maybe they can still be soldered to? It's not clear in the picture whether they are sheared off flush and still have the 'points' available to solder to.

 

[leetdude_007]

Interesting turn of events. I will be watching for the next couple of years before I get the Wii... possibly even the PS3... gasp! (hey, I have to fold my proteins)

 

[Teun]

Hmm, how long untill somebody gives us a new modchip?

 

[shtonkalot]

Hmm, how long untill somebody gives us a new modchip?

I guess that's the big question. Hopefully we will see some progress on a proper modchip for the Wii that will allow homebrew code to be run.

 

[kaoken]

cant you just re attach the pins?

 

[Gestahl]

Is there something worth playing on Wii anyway?

 

[Tomobobo]

Is there something worth playing on Wii anyway?

Strikers. And Gamecube.

 

[Muskusrat]

Might have to get me a PAL Wii soon then, always wanted one but was waiting for a Wii with DVD playback or at least untill better modchip where released. O well we just wait and see what happens, there is bount to be a new modchip for the Wii anyway since there is a 'large' market for it I hope.

 

[Harsky]

Out of curiousity, what is 188 and Golden anyways?

 

[cory1492]

Bah, I fixed such a cut IC in a radio shack calculator when I was 14, using a woodburning iron no less. I more recently did the language/firmware mod on a epoxy bumped R4... makes it harder to mod, but far from impossible, since they still leave the internal legs and plenty of room to get at the manually cut off connections.

kaoken: not quite so simply unless they were really sloppy in cutting them, you have to have something to re-attach them to first. You risk the chip "making" space to attach to if they left none, though with the right tools what is left in that picture I could solder to if I had to (wouldn't be very sturdy or reliable though).

* in all honesty, it looks like a stop-gap until a board redesign *

 

[Harsky]

Bah, I fixed such a cut IC in a radio shack calculator when I was 14, using a woodburning iron no less. I more recently did the language/firmware mod on a epoxy bumped R4... makes it harder to mod, but far from impossible, since they still leave the internal legs and plenty of room to get at the manually cut off connections.

kaoken: not quite so simply unless they were really sloppy in cutting them, you have to have something to re-attach them to first. You risk the chip "making" space to attach to if they left none, though with the right tools what is left in that picture I could solder to if I had to (wouldn't be very sturdy or reliable though).

* in all honesty, it looks like a stop-gap until a board redesign *

Strange. What is this mod you can perform on an epoxy bump on the R4 that you are talking about? I bought an R4 from Hong Kong and I noticed it was also just a blob of the black stuff but this was before the PCB revision and I could still mod it.

 

[nephdj]

Looks like the pins have been sliced off the IC completely, judging by the soldering they probably did it just after programming it with initial firmware. Wouldn't this potentially make it harder to service bricked Wiis? I suppose Nintendo has weighed that up against the cost of losing software sales.

everything gets cracked

nintendo are just making teams like wiikey more money. The people who make modchips will be rubbing thier hands together because they will just make more money if they come up with a new modchip first... Nintendo will still lose.

Nintendo is stopping the mod chip people from going into a mass production, mod chip people proberly only make as much as they can sell, Because they know of revision
If nintendo didnt revise, they could be making unlimited ammount of chips at a fraction of the price and make a huge profit (proberly many times more then now)

 

[adgloride]

Heard about this yesturday on the board. Great to see a picture though. Looks like it might be a good idea to buy a few wiis, then chip them. Wait 6 months to make sure all the wiis have the new mobo, then charge loads for a chipped wii.