Hacking Unbrick a Wii?

[mrfraser89]

I just bought myself a Wii (already have one but this one is to play around with a bit more), haven't seen the unit yet. Anyhow, the description I have of the brick is that it has (or HAD) a modchip installed - a Wasabi chip.

The brick occurred when the user 'applied some software to the Wii'. I'm trying to find some more details as to what he has done, but until then that's the best I can go off. I don't know if it turns on/lights etc.

What would be my best approach to getting this thing to work somehow?

 

[bazamuffin]

Until you know if it switches on or has a valid sysmenu/ios, then its a shot in the dark. Could be easily sorted, could be completely fucked

 

[Hells Guardian]

If it does power on at this point the best option is to have an infectious on standby. Until you know more about it you can't hope to fix it.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Unfortunately, speculating isn't going to help much. Once you have it in hand let us know what happens when you power it on and if you are able to get the the recovery mode using the savemiifrii trick.

Infectus will only be helpful if the wii has a vulnerable boot1 since the owner is most likely not providing you with a nand backup.

 

[Nobunaga]

Get a new Wii.
Like me.
Then be more careful and install priloader :l

 

[Hells Guardian]

actually if you have an infectous you can flash a new system menu IOS into the dump. think about this. as long as the IOS will load you can just replace it with a bootmii clone for recovery purposes. at least that should work. I found that reloading bootmii IOS in any app loads the bootmii menu so ideally if you replace the system menu IOS with a bootmii IOS clone then you should be able to boot into bootmii menu by turning the wii on. mind you you wont be able to install system menu that uses that IOS because it wont load but thats not my point......



Edit nevermind you would need the system keys.......

 

[DeadlyFoez]

actually if you have an infectous you can flash a new system menu IOS into the dump. think about this. as long as the IOS will load you can just replace it with a bootmii clone for recovery purposes. at least that should work. I found that reloading bootmii IOS in any app loads the bootmii menu so ideally if you replace the system menu IOS with a bootmii IOS clone then you should be able to boot into bootmii menu by turning the wii on. mind you you wont be able to install system menu that uses that IOS because it wont load but thats not my point......

That is not possible without the keys..... and if the wii is bricked then how are you going to get the keys? If you have a way of running apps then the wii is not bricked to the point where you'd need to use an infectus.

Think about it.

 

[Hells Guardian]

yeah my bad I forgot that the keys are needed.


Wait if you need the keys to do that then how the heck would an infectous chip be able to install a fakesigned boot2 without the key?

 

[techboy]

yeah my bad I forgot that the keys are needed.


Wait if you need the keys to do that then how the heck would an infectous chip be able to install a fakesigned boot2 without the key?

Boot2 is in an area of the NAND that is not encrypted with the console NAND key.

 

[Hells Guardian]

Ok I get it now.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

This is why us repair people (the very few that exist) answer the questions about things and unacknowledgeable ppl should not try to answer things.

BTW. IDK if you own one or not, but it is 'Infectus', not 'Infectuos'.

We know about the keys and we don't have some hypothetical ideas. We know whats going on. No offense, but please don't speak about what you truly don't know about bc it can confuse other users. We don't need to be reminded about the keys.

I have repaired well over 200+ wii's. If I say something about wii repairs then that is the fact about it. No noob could ever come up with a 'genius' idea that has not already been thought of.

 

[jesquinas]

One question DeadlyFoez: the NAND key is stored in the OTP area inside the Starlet ARM core,isnit?
Isnt possible to read this area for extracting the key?
The common key is the OTP area too but marcan and bushing got it,can you explain like they got the common key?
Is a question that I always have wanted to know.

Thx in advance.

 

[Taleweaver]

The brick occurred when the user 'applied some software to the Wii'.

Ah...I see you've met the so-called "end user".

Anyhow...I don't know where you got that description, but "brick" is actually the term for a wii that doesn't boot anymore. No matter if it had hardware installed on it or not. If you're very lucky, you may get it to work by holding reset while booting the wii (meaning the user forgot he had preloader/priiloader on his wii), or insert an SD card with the files for bootmii on it (meaning the user forgot he had bootmii as boot2). But honestly...I agree with Deadlyfoez. If you could unbrick just any wii - especially without technical details - it wouldn't be an issue. But it is. And a severe one.

Come back with more info, please.

 

[M1r0]

If it's an old wii, the users been too afraid to update, a savemii my work for some bricks. -- but don't trust me on it, just making a suggestion wait for someone more experienced to confirm.

 

[techboy]

If it's an old wii, the users been too afraid to update, a savemii my work for some bricks. -- but don't trust me on it, just making a suggestion wait for someone more experienced to confirm.

You can use a gamecube controller (in port 4, with all the D-pad arrows held down at once) in place of a savemii. A functioning SM and SM IOS is needed for the recovery mode to work, so if the SM was uninstalled or its IOS stubbed, it won't work.

Also, the recovery menu is still useful even on an updated console, but is easier to make use of on older wiis. On stock 3.2 and older, one can install a modchip and use homebrew DVDs to run tools and fix the system.

On new stock firmwares (where the trucha bug has been fixed), homebrew DVDs won't work. There are other methods that can be used though, such as stuffing the NAND with saves to get to data management and copy a game exploit, then running the game and launching homebrew from the exploit.

 

[mauifrog]

If it's an old wii, the users been too afraid to update, a savemii my work for some bricks. -- but don't trust me on it, just making a suggestion wait for someone more experienced to confirm.

You can use a gamecube controller (in port 4, with all the D-pad arrows held down at once) in place of a savemii. A functioning SM and SM IOS is needed for the recovery mode to work, so if the SM was uninstalled or its IOS stubbed, it won't work.

Also, the recovery menu is still useful even on an updated console, but is easier to make use of on older wiis. On stock 3.2 and older, one can install a modchip and use homebrew DVDs to run tools and fix the system.

On new stock firmwares (where the trucha bug has been fixed), homebrew DVDs won't work. There are other methods that can be used though, such as stuffing the NAND with saves to get to data management and copy a game exploit, then running the game and launching homebrew from the exploit.

Any wii with a working recovery menu is fixable with smash stack -pal.

-This thread is stupid.

 

[techboy]

Any wii with a working recovery menu is fixable with smash stack -pal.

Does Smash Stack PAL work on a USA console? Last I checked, USA brawl won't autoboot, and PAL version would be out of region...

As for this wii, the OP is in Australia, so it's probably PAL...

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Even with a NTSC wii on 4.3, you can still get a PAL SSBB to boot using the mario kart pwns method, but I'm pretty sure it would require using a WODE.