Hacking USB Loader GX Crashes my Wii Right After Launching any Game

dfstunt

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 25, 2024
Messages
6
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
34
Country
Greece
Hello everyone,

I bought a second-hand Japanese Wii recently and I followed the guide found here: wii[dot]hacks[dot]guide to mod it. Specifically, I've carefully followed these steps, as per the guide's "Ready?" section:

1. Choosing and using an exploit (REQUIRED) > chose Wilbrand
2. Installing the Homebrew Channel and BootMii (REQUIRED)
3. Making a NAND backup with BootMii (REQUIRED)
4. Installing Priiloader (REQUIRED)
6. Installing cIOS (RECOMMENDED)

I've also installed the GX USB Loader app, as per the guide found here: wii[dot]hacks[dot]guide/wii-loaders, in addition to the SysCheck ModMii Edition as per the guide found here: wii[dot]hacks[dot]guide/syscheck.

Speaking of SysCheck, here's the output:
SysCheck ME v2.5.0 by blackb0x JoostinOnline Double_A R2-D2199 and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: NTSC-J
System Menu 4.3J (v512)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 07.14.2008
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 95735141
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: Japan (1)
Boot2 v4
Found 66 titles.
Found 48 IOS on this console. 15 of them are stubs.

IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 256): Stub
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 5120): Stub
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Stub
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 6912): Stub
IOS80 (rev 6944): No Patches
IOS222 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS223 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS248[38] (rev 65535 Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access
IOS249[56] (rev 65535 Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 65535 Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS251[58] (rev 65535 Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 09/24/2024.

The problem I'm facing goes like this:

> Insert an SD card in the Wii SD slot.

Note: It's a 32GB SD card, formatted in FAT32, with all the apps installed according to the instructions of the aforementioned guides.

> Insert a USB stick in USB slot 0 of the Wii (the bottom one, as the Wii lies flat).

Note: It's a 64GB USB 3.0 drive, formatted in FAT32, with a "wbfs" folder and a single PAL-region game within, structured as instructed in the "Game Directory Structure" section of the guide found here wii.hacks.guide/wii-loaders. The game was added to the drive using WiiBaFu 2.0 on Linux and the resulting WBFS file runs fine on the Dolphin emulator.

> Turn on the Wii, select the Homebrew channel, select the GX USB Loader app, select the game from the list, select start.

> TV turns black, sometimes after displaying a few colored lines momentarily, and the Wii becomes unresponsive. Neither the power button nor the reset button work; the only way to interact with the Wii is to unplug it, plug it back in and turn it on.



I've tried resolving this issue by following some of the steps in the "USB-Loader GX Troubleshooting guide" found in the GBATemp forum. I've mainly followed the steps described under section "6. Games give only black screen, have issues or crashes". None of the fixes seem to work for me. I've also consulted other topics in the GBATemp forums focusing on the same or a similar issue. Most of them suggest that the cIOS installation might have been botched or that selecting a different IOS from the GX USB Loader app settings will resolve the issue. None of these seem to be the solution to my problem...

Some extra things I've tried:

- Tried another USB stick, 64GB USB 2.0 this time, once formatted in FAT32 and another in NTFS. [Same problem...]

- Tried creating a "wbfs" folder with the game in the SD card and configured the GX USB Loader app to run the games from there. [Same problem...]

- Tried yet another USB stick, 64GB USB 2.0 formatted in WBFS with a few games from another Wii that was modded back in 2015. [NEW problem: Games start normally and seem to play just fine. When attempting to exit, however, by pressing the Home button on the Wiimote and then selecting Wii Menu, the Wii crashes in the same fashion, i.e. TV goes black and you need to unplug the Wii and plug it back in.]

Note
: The USB drive in question was formatted in WBFS using whatever version of the Wii Backup File System Manager was available in 2015. The stick has been working flawlessly on that other Wii, which was modded pretty much in the same way as the one I recently got, albeit according to a much older guide with older versions of every app. If it makes any difference, in the case of the other Wii, it was possible to install BootMii as boot2. This wasn't the case with the current Wii.

It would be great if somebody could help me resolve this.

Thank you for your time!
 

dfstunt

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 25, 2024
Messages
6
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
34
Country
Greece
Thank you for taking an interest in my problem!

I've already consulted the "USB-Loader GX Troubleshooting guide", but none of the possible solutions seem to solve my particular problem.

I'm using version 3.0 r1281 of the USB Loader GX app.

When you say hard drive, I'm assuming you're referring to an actual HDD, not an SSD; correct? Would an HDD in an external hard drive enclosure with its own power source work? If so, I might be able to try that... Let me get back to you on that one.

The USB stick is plugged into port 0 of the Wii. I tried the other one a moment ago, for good measure, and the USB Loader GX app doesn't recognize the USB stick at all.
 

dfstunt

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 25, 2024
Messages
6
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
34
Country
Greece
*Imitating Professor Farnsworth's voice* Good news, everyone!

So, the issue was the game language in addition to the video mode. Switching the game language to 'English' and forcing the 'PAL50' video mode from the USB Loader GX app's global settings did the trick! The game is running just fine now.

I'm assuming this is because, when left in its default state, a Japanese Wii expects to run games in Japanese and in NTSC-J video mode. So, if you have a PAL-region game, an American game, and a Japanese game in your USB stick, attempting to run the first two without changing the appropriate USB Loader GX app settings won't work, whereas the Japanese game should run just fine.

Maybe somebody can add this information to the "USB-Loader GX Troubleshooting guide", assuming my assumption is correct.

Btw, after the issue was resolved, I ran into that other issue I mentioned before. That is, pressing the Home button on the Wiimote and then selecting Wii Menu caused my Wii to crash to a black screen again. To fix this, I changed the 'Return to' setting to... something else. The option I picked was in Japanese, so I couldn't really say what the proper setting is, but the default definitely didn't work.

Hope this helps someone in the future. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: XFlak and jeannotte

Sypherone

Gaming Ninja
Member
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
1,704
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
3,263
Country
Germany
So, the issue was the game language in addition to the video mode. Switching the game language to 'English' and forcing the 'PAL50' video mode from the USB Loader GX app's global settings did the trick! The game is running just fine now.

I'm assuming this is because, when left in its default state, a Japanese Wii expects to run games in Japanese and in NTSC-J video mode. So, if you have a PAL-region game, an American game, and a Japanese game in your USB stick, attempting to run the first two without changing the appropriate USB Loader GX app settings won't work, whereas the Japanese game should run just fine.

Maybe somebody can add this information to the "USB-Loader GX Troubleshooting guide", assuming my assumption is correct.
Hmmm.. 🤔
(Quote from USBLGX Troubleshooting Guide)
Out-of-region games :
  • On out-of-region games on your (v)Wii with black screen force the game specific video mode (NTSC/PAL).
    • GC games with Nintendont :
      • Start the game -> settings -> game settings -> "Nintendont" Videomodus -> choose the game`s video mode to force
      • Additionaly the "Progressiv Patch" or "PAL50 Patch" can be tryed.
    • Wii games :
      • Start the game -> settings -> game settings -> Videomodus -> Choose the games´s video mode to force.

Other :
  • In the global Loader settings (Symbol with gears) or individual game settings (when game starts) :
    • Verify you didn`t set the videomode to force the wrong video format, it can result to unsyncron audio/video in cutscenes.

Additional Info: Wii video modes
  • The different regional versions of the Wii are capable of using this video modes :
    • PAL Wii (Europa, Australia, South Africa) : 576i/50Hz, 576p/50Hz, 480i/60Hz, 480p/60Hz
    • NTSC Wii (USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan) : 480i/60Hz, 480p/60Hz
    • Info : 576/480 = vertical lines, i=interlaced, p=progressive (full picture), Hz=frequency
  • Games are mainly designed with the video mode of the specific region, NTSC -> progressive and PAL -> interlaced.
Maybe you can verify seperatly, by using the correct correspondending video-mode of the game. But setting the language of your tryed "out of region" game back to console standard Japanese (possible not supported language of the game). And this also will result in black screen/crashes.

I will edit it to be more specific.
 

dfstunt

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 25, 2024
Messages
6
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
34
Country
Greece
Maybe you can verify seperatly, by using the correct correspondending video-mode of the game. But setting the language of your tryed "out of region" game back to console standard Japanese (possible not supported language of the game). And this also will result in black screen/crashes.
If I understand correctly, you are suggesting that I try changing the video mode setting only, without changing the language setting. If so, I've already done that, and the Wii kept crashing. So, in my particular case, it was necessary to change both these settings, i.e. video mode AND language.
 

Sypherone

Gaming Ninja
Member
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
1,704
Trophies
2
Age
45
XP
3,263
Country
Germany
Thanks for your support.

I have edit it to be more specifally to exclude those failer.
Wii games :
  • Start the game -> settings -> game settings -> Videomodus -> Choose the games´s video mode to force (PAL50, PAL60, NTSC, ..).
  • Additionaly set the region or supported language by the game. The game may not support the standard language of the Console (E.g. NTSC-U game misses Japanese on NTSC-J Console).
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    realtimesave @ realtimesave: I have a 2tb nvme with 667gb free, filled with games