So I've added chips to 4-5 Wii's and feel relatively comfortable with the entire process; so of course I volunteer to help a friend out with his. I installed a new WiiKey2 and then booted up Wii Sports to make sure everything still worked. Well shit, it sounded like weed wacker. I freaked out thinking I had inadvertently broken something. How silly I was to not have tested it before installing the chip.
Here's a video of the drive making noise
I've never heard any disc drive this loud, something mechanical is obviously wrong here.
Re-opening the drive and doing some detective work I deduced that the disc itself wasn't physically scratching anything, but rather something else was touching. It turns out it is the metal arm that clamps the disc. The metal clamp is fixed, and it sits inside a white piece of plastic which actually touches the disc, and therefore spins with the disc. Apparently the tolerances between the two were just off enough to cause scraping inside. Loosening the two screws that affix the metal piece gave it just enough play to quiet down the entire system. When I say "loosen" i mean 1/8 of a turn at a time, barely anything.
You don't need to remove the metal cage on top of the drive to access these screws. I removed it while I was investigating the source of the noise. If however you do decide to take it off, remember to push the spring loaded pins back in place before placing it down.
If you don't have them set back, they will come down on top of the disc, jamming it, and keeping it from spinning.
Here's a video of the drive, now adjusted, and spinning quietly
Hope this helps someone!
Here's a video of the drive making noise
I've never heard any disc drive this loud, something mechanical is obviously wrong here.
Re-opening the drive and doing some detective work I deduced that the disc itself wasn't physically scratching anything, but rather something else was touching. It turns out it is the metal arm that clamps the disc. The metal clamp is fixed, and it sits inside a white piece of plastic which actually touches the disc, and therefore spins with the disc. Apparently the tolerances between the two were just off enough to cause scraping inside. Loosening the two screws that affix the metal piece gave it just enough play to quiet down the entire system. When I say "loosen" i mean 1/8 of a turn at a time, barely anything.
You don't need to remove the metal cage on top of the drive to access these screws. I removed it while I was investigating the source of the noise. If however you do decide to take it off, remember to push the spring loaded pins back in place before placing it down.
If you don't have them set back, they will come down on top of the disc, jamming it, and keeping it from spinning.
Here's a video of the drive, now adjusted, and spinning quietly
Hope this helps someone!