Hacking USB LOADER GX 3 - Wii games suddenly stop working

Thales Miguel

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Hello.
I've just installed the homebrew channel and the USB Loader GX 3 on my Wii U.
I got 2 games on my SAMSUNG External HD to test it... I've got Fire Emblem and Kirby Dream Land.

On the second stage of the Fire Emblem game, when I try to engage battle, the game just freezes on a black screen... Nothing works and I have to take the Wii U out of the wire.
For the Kirby game, it freezes the same way (black screen) but it looks more random... The game stops when enterring a stage or a door.

For what I can see, it freezes when some loading is needed.
Have anyone else experienced the same thing?
Anyway to fix it?

Thanks in advance!
 

obcd

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It sound like the famous spindown issue.
Some harddrives (specially 3.5 inch smaller ones) shut down the drive motor when they are not used for a period of time.
If that is happening and you try to access the drive again, it needs a couple of seconds to spin up it's platters.
The wii(u) game expects it to respond faster, so you get some timeout issues. I have no idea if that issue got fixed in the latest cios versions by accessing the drive at regular times, avoiding it to go into spindown.
You might hear it if you carefully listen to the harddrive.
 
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unaxtzero

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If it is indeed a spindown issue, which would actually make perfect sense, please post the model of your Hard Drive Thales so that we can look it up and see if there is a firmware patch that can be performed to turn off the spindown that the hard drive ships with.

Some hard drives with enclosures are friendly enough for you to be able to apply a patch that will turn off features the hard drive comes with. Unfortunately not all of these hard drives are capable of this. Usually the problem with being able to patch out spindown occurs due to problems with interfacing with the hard drive via the USB enclosure it ships with, it can be extremely frustrating.

Please reply with the model of the external hard drive you are using, preferably the model number. I will see if I can find anything useful for you.

Of course, this is assuming that is actually what the problem is.

You can try a different cIOS and see if it helps at all. If you are using cIOS beta53-alt, try beta52. If you are on beta52, try beta53-alt.

Also try specifying the cIOS to load in your loader. Usually this is going to be 249, if you followed the standard guides.

Additionally, for the vWii, use your usb hard drive in the back of the Wii U.
If you have another hard drive for the Wii U, use the front ports for that.
This is more of a counter-measure to solve any problems you would encounter in the future.

Just to note: beta52 is more compatible with odd loader scenarios and older hard drives but you are limited to only one usb hard drive in vWii Mode. beta53 allows for multiple hard drives as well as support for newer Wii U controllers.

Also, and no one ever thinks of this, make sure you are using a quality usb Y-cable for vWii Mode. I don't mean quality as in go out and buy something with gold plated tips or whatever. I mean just make sure the cable isn't frayed at all, no cuts, exposed wires, usb plug joints extremely bent and exposing shielding underneath... If your USB plugs have broken joints with exposed shielding, get another Y cable. The cable will still work fine as long as the shielding underneath is ok, but if you don't fix this now then you will end up with more problems later. I rarely encounter people with USB cables like this though, but can't hurt to bring it up.
 
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Cyan

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revision 1180 is old. it works, but doesn't have latest features and gamecube supports.

I suggest you update to 1231.
If using the internal update menu doesn't update to 1231 then you probably are using the full channel instead of the forwarder channel.
The full channel has a fixed version installed inside your Wii, while a forwarder doesn't have any version installed.
the forwarder is launching the loader located on your SD or USB, and it can be updated easilly by replacing one file (boot.dol file in apps/usbloader_gx/ folder)
 

Thales Miguel

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Thank you guys!
I did every thing you said but nothing changed... The thing about the HDD turning out just made so much sense to me! But my problem was on another item.
Turns out it was my SD Card.
Just got a new one and everything works like a charm now!
 
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