Hardware So if I buy a Wii now..

[Icarus]

... I won't be able to install a chip ? I'm not getting this, people are talking about the first gen and second gen wiis etc. What's the difference ? Am I too late to buy a Wii ? =/

Because I was planning to get one when SSBB or Super Mario Galaxy comes out. Wii doesn't have too many good games right now and I don't have enough money xD

Since I made a thread, I want to ask a question. What exactly Wiikey can do that CycloWiz can't ? I don't see what's the different between those two. I know that both are upgradeable but Wiikey claims that it's the only upgradable chip right now. It's just very confusing

 

[ziddey]

Basically, first wii's came with dms chip. Then d2a. Both these were supported by the first gen chips. Then came d2b. Initially, it was unsupported, but chips quickly picked it up.

More recently (late may or so), wii's shipped with 3 legs on the ic clipped off. For less experienced soldering folks like myself, this made the job 10000x harder. I can solder on a wiikey in under 5 minutes at slowest. I've only modded one wii, but it took me hours to restore the legs. I used a bunch of different approaches, and if I had to do it again could probably do it much quicker, but there's still a bit of luck involved for me at the moment, especially with my level of experience and tools.

Even more recently, the trace on the pcb for one of the points has been completely removed, causing you to need to solder directly onto the leg of the ic. This really isn't that big a deal at all compared to restoring the cut legs, but it's still new. And this doesn't affect all chips, since they don't all make use of this point.

In other parts of the world, there's sightings of a new d2c chip that thus far has not been able to be modded, and the fear is that it'll eventually make its way into the states.

So, if you're currently looking for a wii, you'll most likely have a fair bit of work to do. As for later on, it's unclear at the moment.

That said, if you have the first few digits of the serial number, we can help identify what type of wii it most likely is.

For instance, in the us, serials commonly start with lu3 or lu5. The next few digits are fairly important. It looks like most models with 13 for instance have all the legs intact, and modding takes 5 minutes. Real straight forward.

15 seems to be mixed, with some having the 3 legs cut. 17 has legs cut for sure. Then, even newer ones starting with 2 seem to have 3 cut legs as well as a missing trace. Most likely, these two digits (after the lu3/lu5) represent week codes.

Hope this helps.

 

[Icarus]

Thanks for the long and descriptive reply. I really appraciate it..

It seems like it's a luck issue I guess. Wii is sold out in most stores. I guess I'll have to order it online somehow and I can't really check the serial numbers if I do. I still can't decide what to do. One part of me tells me to wait until a better chip comes out, and then buy a Wii. But the other one tells me to buy one ASAP because it might be impossible to install a chip in the future, who knows.

Besides, I'm not going to do the soldering anyway. I have no soldering experience so I'll probably have someone else to do it for me. *sigh* It's really complicated.

 

[Strag0]

Another option you have is to swap out Wiis or the DVD Drives with someone who has a launch or older system. I plan on doing this if the one I get happens to have cut legs or D2C chip. I don't want to go through the hassle of repairing legs.

 

[philco1]

Personally w/ the Wii modding scene blowing up these days ... I expect that in 1 years time someone will create a HD boot method and most modders will play Wii games off of a USB HD ... but thats only my theory. So the question is ... can you wait one year or not? Well, lots of great games are coming out for the Wii right now aka. Galaxy, Metroid, Brawl, Kart but after these are released I think that the Wii fad will die down and Nintendo will go stale. Nintendo seems to want to make $$ on their hardware and not their software and I believe that this is a dangerous move. The Wii is just a glorified gaming system which has a bit better capability than the PS2 and it looks like a Mac. While I enjoy seeing their new ideas and I believe that they have potential, Nintendo is screwing over their hard core gamers and the gaming market with these new BS games like WiiFit and other crap.

 

[lanleague]

Well, as you're only interested in two games, why don't you just save yourself the trouble and buy them. You'll still have your warranty that way, too.

 

[Icarus]

I'm not buying the console just for 2 games, trust me. I want to play lots of other stuff too but I think it's better to wait for them. My DS is good enough for me right now.

 

[Strag0]

Personally w/ the Wii modding scene blowing up these days ... I expect that in 1 years time someone will create a HD boot method and most modders will play Wii games off of a USB HD ... but thats only my theory. So the question is ... can you wait one year or not? Well, lots of great games are coming out for the Wii right now aka. Galaxy, Metroid, Brawl, Kart but after these are released I think that the Wii fad will die down and Nintendo will go stale. Nintendo seems to want to make $$ on their hardware and not their software and I believe that this is a dangerous move. The Wii is just a glorified gaming system which has a bit better capability than the PS2 and it looks like a Mac. While I enjoy seeing their new ideas and I believe that they have potential, Nintendo is screwing over their hard core gamers and the gaming market with these new BS games like WiiFit and other crap.

Personally, I see a working D2C chip coming out before this happens. =D

 

[aardvarks]

why not buy a premodded wii. ive got four wii's d2b clipped legs modded with wiikeys for grabs. that way you will know the work

 

[philco1]

Personally w/ the Wii modding scene blowing up these days ... I expect that in 1 years time someone will create a HD boot method and most modders will play Wii games off of a USB HD ... but thats only my theory. So the question is ... can you wait one year or not? Well, lots of great games are coming out for the Wii right now aka. Galaxy, Metroid, Brawl, Kart but after these are released I think that the Wii fad will die down and Nintendo will go stale. Nintendo seems to want to make $$ on their hardware and not their software and I believe that this is a dangerous move. The Wii is just a glorified gaming system which has a bit better capability than the PS2 and it looks like a Mac. While I enjoy seeing their new ideas and I believe that they have potential, Nintendo is screwing over their hard core gamers and the gaming market with these new BS games like WiiFit and other crap.


Personally, I see a working D2C chip coming out before this happens. =D

I agree, I see a working D2C chip within the next 3 months but who wants to install chips anyways when later on it may be possible to run games from an external HD. Personally I think that these hackers need to work on a method of writing Wii Disks as only LG burners are capable of ripping them.

 

[ziddey]

I wouldn't mind modding d2c, assuming it's like the pictures posted, where the legs aren't cut.

 

[Hooya]

The issue with the D2C chip is that they might have totally closed the door on us using the method we've been using to communicate with the chip. If they effectively remove the serial port, there is NO WAY to use a drive modchip with D2C in the current manner we do. The chips will have to be much more complicated, likely replacing the GC2 chip all together.

 

[Icarus]

why not buy a premodded wii. ive got four wii's d2b clipped legs modded with wiikeys for grabs. that way you will know the workÂ

Well, usually premodded stuff are really expensive, but I would like to check if you know a good US retailer =]