Hardware Possibly bricked Wii- I have a few questions

[mgdog]

Hi guys, I'd appreciate anyone's opinions on this, I have searched for answers but not really found anything:

I have a launch-day bought UK Wii which was fitted with a WiiKey when they first came out (by a professional). I've installed Homebrew Channel, BootMii etc quite a while ago. It was working fine last week and I haven't done anything that could risk bricking it in a few months, only used it for gameplay- so I'm guessing this is some kind of mechanical failure.

Now all of a sudden it will show the BootMii boot screen, allow me to navigate the BootMii menus etc, but as soon as you try to launch the Wii from BootMii I get a blank screen, the Wii's green light stays on but I just get nothing, no response. I've tried restoring from a NAND backup which was all I could think to try and this had no effect. I've also tried substituting video cables, removing all usb devices, memory cards etc. I'm guessing it's broken in a way that could only be fixed by Nintendo support, which won't be possible for obvious reasons. So I have a few questions:

1. Any idea why it's broken or if this might be easy to fix? - long shot but it's worth a try. I've found this flowchart on how to diagnose your bricked Wii but I don't think this really applies to my situation as I have a mechanical/electronic failure rather than software damage from failed hacking attempts.

2. If the answer to this is no, is there any (easy) way I can at least restore years worth of savegame data and legitimately bought WiiWare games?

3. If I have to buy a new Wii I'd ideally like one which can play GameCube/optical disc backups. I'd have to track down a pre-2010 Wii on eBay or in a second-hand shop by somehow checking the serial number before I buy. I'd really rather just buy a new one. This gave me an idea: can I just replace a new Wii's optical drive with the one from my broken Wii? Assuming the reason it's broken has nothing to do with the optical drive, it should hopefully be a straight switch. I still have my triwing screwdriver and I remember it was pretty easy to get the drive out when it was chipped so this could be dead easy. Am I right here or am I going to run into problems with compatibility trying to replace the drive in a brand new Wii with one from launch day??


Any advice much appreciated

 

[Fudge]

Try launching the HBC from BootMii and reinstall your System Menu.

 

[mgdog]

I can't get past BootMii - I can navigate the BootMii menus but as soon as I try to launch either Homebrew Channel or Wii home screen it all goes black...

 

[Fudge]

Can you boot into recovery mode? You can do this by either buying a SaveMii or holding all four directions on a GameCube D-pad at once while the Wii is booting. If so, then load WAD Manager from a burned disc and reinstall the System Menu.

 

[mgdog]

Can you boot into recovery mode? You can do this by either buying a SaveMii or holding all four directions on a GameCube D-pad at once while the Wii is booting. If so, then load WAD Manager from a burned disc and reinstall the System Menu.

Okay well thanks for the tip- I tried the GameCube D-pad thing. It's kinda tricky as pressing the D-pad buttons triggers the BootMii menu to navigate left and right and cancels the little 3-2-1 countdown to booting into the Wii. I've tried pressing them down the moment the countdown finishes but basically as soon as this happens the screen just goes black and I get a "no video input" message from my TV, so I don't think this will work. I'm pretty reluctant to buy a SaveMii as it's pretty possible that it's broken in a way that the SaveMii won't be able to fix...

 

[JoostinOnline]

Can you boot into recovery mode? You can do this by either buying a SaveMii or holding all four directions on a GameCube D-pad at once while the Wii is booting. If so, then load WAD Manager from a burned disc and reinstall the System Menu.

Okay well thanks for the tip- I tried the GameCube D-pad thing. It's kinda tricky as pressing the D-pad buttons triggers the BootMii menu to navigate left and right and cancels the little 3-2-1 countdown to booting into the Wii. I've tried pressing them down the moment the countdown finishes but basically as soon as this happens the screen just goes black and I get a "no video input" message from my TV, so I don't think this will work. I'm pretty reluctant to buy a SaveMii as it's pretty possible that it's broken in a way that the SaveMii won't be able to fix...

The hackmii installer has a file called bootmini.elf. Put it in the root of your SD card, launch bootmii, choose the third option (the SD card one), and load bootmini.elf. Reinstall the HBC and then try and load it from bootmii again.

 

[mgdog]

Can you boot into recovery mode? You can do this by either buying a SaveMii or holding all four directions on a GameCube D-pad at once while the Wii is booting. If so, then load WAD Manager from a burned disc and reinstall the System Menu.

Okay well thanks for the tip- I tried the GameCube D-pad thing. It's kinda tricky as pressing the D-pad buttons triggers the BootMii menu to navigate left and right and cancels the little 3-2-1 countdown to booting into the Wii. I've tried pressing them down the moment the countdown finishes but basically as soon as this happens the screen just goes black and I get a "no video input" message from my TV, so I don't think this will work. I'm pretty reluctant to buy a SaveMii as it's pretty possible that it's broken in a way that the SaveMii won't be able to fix...

The hackmii installer has a file called bootmini.elf. Put it in the root of your SD card, launch bootmii, choose the third option (the SD card one), and load bootmini.elf. Reinstall the HBC and then try and load it from bootmii again.

There was no file called bootmini.elf on my SD card and I don't have the original BootMii installer package that I used so I downloaded a fresh one and used the bootmini.elf from that- don't know if it was the same version as I have installed or if that matters. Basically when I try to load bootmini.elf from the SD card it does nothing for a few seconds then throws me back to the initial BootMii screen

Edit: I've checked and the version I downloaded just now was 0.8, the same version as was installed on the Wii.

 

[PsyBlade]

Can you boot into recovery mode? You can do this by either buying a SaveMii or holding all four directions on a GameCube D-pad at once while the Wii is booting. If so, then load WAD Manager from a burned disc and reinstall the System Menu.

Okay well thanks for the tip- I tried the GameCube D-pad thing. It's kinda tricky as pressing the D-pad buttons triggers the BootMii menu to navigate left and right and cancels the little 3-2-1 countdown to booting into the Wii. I've tried pressing them down the moment the countdown finishes but basically as soon as this happens the screen just goes black and I get a "no video input" message from my TV, so I don't think this will work. I'm pretty reluctant to buy a SaveMii as it's pretty possible that it's broken in a way that the SaveMii won't be able to fix...

no SD -> no bootmii menu

 

[mgdog]

Does anyone have an answer to question 2 or 3- or especially: can I buy a new Wii and easily replace the optical drive with the one in my broken Wii, allowing the new Wii to play backup discs?

 

[JoostinOnline]

Does anyone have an answer to question 2 or 3- or especially: can I buy a new Wii and easily replace the optical drive with the one in my broken Wii, allowing the new Wii to play backup discs?

Yes, but only if the drive isn't broken.

That isn't a good plan, or even a plan b. It's more like plan q. We still have no idea what is wrong with it, so it's not a good idea to spend money on a new Wii right now.