Possible Mail Brick

[Jitters]

TLDR: How do I go about safely reinstalling my system menu on a 4.3u modded wii with what I believe is a mail brick?

4.3u Wii modded with Priiloader and bootmii as ios. I do have a nand backup as well. A few months ago my wii started giving me the "system files are corrupted" error right after the health screen. I've been able to hold + and - to bypass the error and enter in maintenance mode where everything worked fine. All I had installed was hbc with wiiflow and fceux and their forwarders. I've been trying to fix it now for a couple weeks and it's driving me crazy. I believe I've narrowed the problem down to the cdb.vff file that contains message board data. There is one entry in the message board from back in February and it's just a what you played today kind of message or whatever that is. Nothing since then. Here's what I've tried. Using a tutorial I found here on gbatemp I tried cleaning the message board with an app called fstools. The cdv.vff file should be about 20mb but every time the file that fstools copies to my sd card is only 384k. When I try to flash the new empty 20mb file back to the nand it will just give me an "fopen" error. I've made sure the meta file contains the correct access tags. It fails every time. When I browse to that file in wiixplorer, properties shows it's 20mb. When I try to copy, rename, delete, or do anything with that file it fails. I have the correct access permissions set for that too. I verified by renaming and copying a different file in the same directory. I've also tried doing a system memory format from the actual wii system settings thinking that would clear the message board. That also failed. It just hung at the formatting screen and after about an hour I finally just shut the wii off and started it back up. It did delete hbc and game saves but the message board entry from february is still there and the file still seems to be corrupted. I can't think of anything else to try so my next step is to just restore the system menu or do a nand restore. Problem with restoring the nand with bootmii is that it only aloud me to install bootmii as ios so in order to do a restore I think I need a gamecube controller to enter the konami code? Can I just somehow restore the system menu and would that possibly fix the problem? Really would appriciate any help from the experts. Thanks!

 

[XFlak]

Is the message by any chance on sd? Try removing the sd card and seeing if the msg disappears

You can use modmii's region change wizard to reinstall system files (even if not changing regions). But I don't think it will resolve you're issue

FYI if the problem also exists in your existing nand backup, you can make a virgin nand.bin using ohneschwanzenegger

 

[Jitters]

Is the message by any chance on sd? Try removing the sd card and seeing if the msg disappears

You can use modmii's region change wizard to reinstall system files (even if not changing regions). But I don't think it will resolve you're issue

FYI if the problem also exists in your existing nand backup, you can make a virgin nand.bin using ohneschwanzenegger

I will have to check but I have to think it’s not because I’ve messed with it with, without, and with a different sd card and the error is always there. However, I’m not 100% sure I’ve actually looked in the calendar at the date where the 1 remaining message is without the sd card. Are you saying the wii can store calendar entries on the sd card? I was not even aware of that.

 

[XFlak]

Yup, it's how the exploits letterbomb and wilbrand work

And I would expect messages saved to sd would be the only ones to survive a system format

 

[LoveCheese]

In another thread I saw someone talking about the same problem as yours. Many say that the Wii Fit/Plus game for some unknown reason causes that message to appear, no one knows why.
I also heard that if you have any Zelda games Twilight Princess also causes the message to appear. If you have a wii balance board unsync it from your console.

 

[Jitters]

Ok I checked and the message is still there without the sd card. It’s weird because I went back about 6 years month by month and it’s the only entry in the message board Calendar. It’s just today’s play history with how long wii sports was played that day.

As far as the suggestion about the wii fit game I also have come across threads discussing that game and the balance board. I’ve never had that game or a balance board, or any legend of Zelda games so that rules that out but thank you for the suggestion.

Post automatically merged: Apr 17, 2023

Also I forgot to mention. As far as restoring nand either from my backup or a fresh nand made by ohnaschwanzenegger, my Wii only has bootmii installed as iOS and not boot2 so it really won’t let me do it unless I go out and buy a GameCube controller just to input the Konami code. The threads I read always say if you can get to bootmii iOS or hbc etc you should be able to fix it without restoring and that is why it’s designed that way. Well I can’t seem to fix it so is there any way to just install a new system menu without restoring the entire nand and would that even solve the problem.

 

[XFlak]

Yes, I already explained how above, by using modmii's region change wizard, it will reinstall ALL region files, just choose the same region you are currently on if u don't want to actually change

Note I don't think this will actually solve anything

 

[Jitters]

Update: Fixed

Thought I'd share how I finally fixed this. After trying countless times to replace the corrupted cdb.vff file with a clean file using fstoolbox and wiixplorer only to have it fail every time, i finally tried again with wiiexplorer. This time I copied the blank file from my sd card and pasted to the directory where the file resides. Usually it would go up to 100% but then freeze with no option but to cancel. Instead of hitting cancel I just held the power button until the system turned off. My theory was either it would corrupt the file further and rebuild it itself upon reboot or the process actually worked but just wouldn't let me complete it and by hitting cancel I was undoing replacing the new file. Rebooted and loaded into the system menu with no problems. Checked the message board on Feb 20th where the one entry had been and voila it was gone. Loaded up Wiiflow to play a game. Played for a minute or so and exited to the system menu. Usually at this point I would get the "system files are corrupt" message as I'm assuming it's trying to write play history to the message board. But this time it returned with no problem and there was a new play history entry in the message board on the current date. Something it hasn't done for months. I played around with it a little more and it seems to be fixed. So it definitely was the cdb.vff file all along. It just must have been so corrupt that neither the wii or homebrew apps could read or replace it correctly.