Right now it's not really a problem because I can just patch the games. But I'm afraid of not being able to update the chip in the future.
I don't know if it happened on wing island, but some pal/japanese games I inserted keeps spinning (icon says it is) and then I select the channel and then it asks to update my wii, I let it update and then the game shows up. Certain games need certain updates. And also, they should sticky this information so not everyone asks the same question:
Whenever you insert the wiikey configuration disc, the standard display is the region free setting being OFF, no matter if it's actually on or not. It's a software interface that controls a dip switch if you want to think of it that way. Even if you select on now and save, ur wiikey already had the option as on and it'll just update itself to be on yet again.
I still find it weird that the system dosn't recognize the NTSC-J games unless they are patched, the setup disk says
Saving Setting.... DONE
I still havn't heard back from Wiikey.cn, I hope they e-mail me back soon and confirm that its a bad chip. I cant understand how the chip is defective if it boots up all NTSCU disks but not NTSCJ, it shouldn't work at all if it was damaged. /sigh
Can anyone confirm if, they set their region OFF, then insert a (J) game. Does it just spin and finally give a read error, or does it actually state that the disc is for the wrong region.
Are you all using version 1.1 of the setup disc? I had no problems updating with 1.1
I would go back and check continuity on the 'upgrade' point on the Wiikey. I think that would be point '3' on the Wiikey Installation Guide. Check it from the DVD board to the Wiikey, check it from the point on the Wiikey to the leg of the Wiikey chip, and from the leg of the Wiikey chip to the DVD board.
I don't know about the others, but I installed mine via quicksolder. I don't think there's a continuity problem because there's one big gob of solder over the three regions you mentioned (Yes, I did a really ugly job, so the problem could very well be due to a poor install...)
One other theory: maybe it's not getting enough power to rewrite the chip so it's never updating but it has enough power to enable basic functionality of the chip? I don't know if the update software can actually read back the info to confirm that it's been updated, or if it just says 'DONE' when it's finished sending the info. Maybe you can ask the WiiKey team about that before you return it.