Hacking System updates on discs

[drewmg]

Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere, but I've noticed that the last 6 months or so, pretty much newer game every disc I've put into my Wii has told me that a system update was required to run it. Not sure why, since I have 4.3 already. I can get around it by just installing the game to a USB loader or running through Gecko...

But I'm curious what it would do if I told it to go ahead and run the update? Would it just reinstall 4.3, and clear out any homebrew I've installed?

 

[Disorarara]

It will remove your cIOSes, but probably not The Hombrew Channel. It's certainly not an update of any sort

 

[drewmg]

Related question, then - if I run an official update from Nintendo, even the disc-prompted ones which won't really put a new version of the system software... what is the risk that it will brick my console? I have cIOS installed, and Priiloader... that's about the most complicated of the stuff I have on there. Will the update simply remove it, or is there a risk of my system bricking during the update?

 

[Disorarara]

If you installed cIOSes the normal way and didn't use something like Darkcorp then your Wii will be completely fine, at most those will get removed but they didn't affect the system anyways. as for Priiloader, I assume that also doesn't affect the actual system files themselves and thus having it removed won't cause anything.

 

[drewmg]

Thanks! Good to know I'm not at too much risk. Was wondering if doing one of these disc-prompted updates might be a good way to prep my system for Wii U launch, to get rid of some of the homebrew I've put on there. I guess we'll know more soon.

 

[Disorarara]

I wouldn't worry too much about that, homebrew on the Wii is neat in that it runs in it's own little self-contained area and doesn't affect actual official software thus Nintendo has no way to detect if you're running homebrew or not. Made possible by the clever modular IOS system.