Hacking New Wii with LU39 serial but v3.4u

[Fathead666]

My wife got a Wii for Christmas from her mom. It was purchased last week from Best Buy in the USA. The serial number starts with LU39 and according to the Wii Drive Database there's a 75 percent chance it has one of the D3 drives in it that won't boot backup discs. I'm confused though because it came out of the box as a 3.4u. I don't know much about Wii's and this is the first time I've ever owned or played one, but seeing as how the current version is 4.2, wouldn't that mean this one was manufactured quite awhile ago? How long ago was it when Wii's were on 3.4?

Based on what I've learned so far, I can still play Wii games through USB, but the real bummer is that I wanted to be able to play Gamecube backups. As far as I know, you can only play Gamecube backups from a disc and not USB. Plus I'd have to buy an external drive for the Wii and since I mostly wanted to play Gamecube games anyway, it looks like I might just have to hang up the whole idea of modding for now.

So what do you more experienced Wii modders think? Am I looking at a D3 drive over here or what?

Thanks in advance.


EDIT - I did some more looking around and I'm thinking that there might be a possibility that this is a refurbished Wii? That would explain the high possibility of a D3 drive but old software version?

 

[Robj1969]

have a look at the following post about running dvdr games from an external usb dvd drive....this may work with NGC games.....

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=193391

 

[nabster92]

Easiest way to find out would be to just softmod it and find out if a disc plays. The new drives don't do anything to stop hacking, they just don't read the discs. So if you do everything properly and it still doesn't read burnt discs then you probably have a new drive in which case you can look into the external drive thing above.

Worst case scenario you will at least still be able to use homebrew apps and install VC/Wiiware wad's and such.

 

[giantpune]

lu39 is really old. so unless you got a wii that is refurbished with a new drive, i guess no. i got a lu60 from ninty that plays dvdr just fine.

 

[Toughschmidt]

LU39's are the new ones. They don't go in numerical order. Likely it cannot play DVD-R's because it probably has the newer drive. You cannot play Gamecube backups from a USB drive. The Wii cannot use any non-Gamecube Wii hardware while playing Gamecube games or backups, including the USB ports, SD slot, and Wiimotes, which is why there is no Gamecube USB loader as of yet.

 

[bazamuffin]

Have a look here, might be of help http://www.wiidrives.com/list

 

[thesund0g]

My wife got a Wii for Christmas from her mom. It was purchased last week from Best Buy in the USA. The serial number starts with LU39 and according to the Wii Drive Database there's a 75 percent chance it has one of the D3 drives in it that won't boot backup discs. I'm confused though because it came out of the box as a 3.4u. I don't know much about Wii's and this is the first time I've ever owned or played one, but seeing as how the current version is 4.2, wouldn't that mean this one was manufactured quite awhile ago? How long ago was it when Wii's were on 3.4?

Yay, you actually did research.

Based on what I've learned so far, I can still play Wii games through USB, but the real bummer is that I wanted to be able to play Gamecube backups. As far as I know, you can only play Gamecube backups from a disc and not USB. Plus I'd have to buy an external drive for the Wii and since I mostly wanted to play Gamecube games anyway, it looks like I might just have to hang up the whole idea of modding for now.

There is an interesting chip/loader integrated thingy called the Wode that you may want to look into; it supposedly works with GC games. I think there is a SunKey that has some kind of onboard flash/USB as well. Not as pretty, but cheaper.

QUOTE(Fathead666 @ Dec 26 2009, 01:25 AM)

So what do you more experienced Wii modders think? Am I looking at a D3 drive over here or what?

Try running this with BannerBomb: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=137639&st=0
This should tell you something.

There should be a way to call on the Wii's manufacture date, any suggestions?

 

[tbgtbg]

have a look at the following post about running dvdr games from an external usb dvd drive....this may work with NGC games.....[/url]

Not unless I've massively misunderstood the problem with playing GC games off USB hard drives. The USB ports are disabled when the Wii is in GC mode, making it no more possible to use a USB DVD drive than it is to run them off a USB HDD. I could be wrong, I'm no expert, but that's what I've gathered from reading threads around here.