Hacking Homebrew USB Loader GX is massively slow (+ other problems) after data transfer

[FrankBlack22]

Ok, so I have no idea if there's anything to do or if I just need to reinstall USB Loader GX or if my Micro SD card is doomed.

About 3 months ago, I had a Wii fully setup with GX and some Gamecube and Wii games on an SD card. Everything was working fantastically, it was all nice and smooth. I borrowed it to my brother so he could play stuff during his internship far away from home. He got back to me with a screenshot of GX getting stuck on the "Getting File List" screen. I eventually learned that somehow the Lock slid on the card was set to the "lock" position preventing read/write access.

However, I am stupid and did not think of that being the cause at first. Instead, sparring you the details (but do ask if you're curious), my attempts at figuring out the issue lead me to formatting my SD card... twice.

So twice I backed up my data to an external SSD, formatted the card, then copied my data back on the card. Note that in theory, the data itself should be unaltered. I had not tempered with it whatsoever since 3 months back.

The result is that now GX opens up and is functional, but is INSANELY slow. Anytime I press a filter, a button or a game, it can take upwards to several minutes for the expected action to take effect. During that time, I'm still free to move the cursor and interact with the other buttons. It can take several seconds for boxarts to load, and there's instances were they don't even load at all. Some animated banners work, others show a black banner, and at least one of them crashed GX. Lastly, there's some visual bugs with the buttons down left and right. It seems to be loading the buttons from the vanilla theme instead of the custom theme I put.

Craziest part is, the games work just fine ! All the ones I've tested work as expected once they're booted.

So what do you guys think? Do I need to reinstall GX ? Or is there some corrupted cache that I could erase perhaps?

 

[jeannotte]

Hello,

SD card formatted in FAT32?

Please post a syscheck report ==>
https://gbatemp.net/threads/posting-a-system-check.300279/

Reinstall the latest version of GX on your SD card to see if that resolves the problem.

or see here ==>
https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx-troubleshooting-guide.617564/

 

[FrankBlack22]

Hello,

SD card formatted in FAT32?

Please post a syscheck report ==>
https://gbatemp.net/threads/posting-a-system-check.300279/

Reinstall the latest version of GX on your SD card to see if that resolves the problem.

or see here ==>
https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx-troubleshooting-guide.617564/

Hello !

Yep, it's in FAT32.

This is worst than I thought. I downloaded the latest usb loader gx build as you suggested. First, I tried simply adding and replacing the contents of the release (language/, boot.dol, icon.png, meta.xml and wiitdb.xml) without touching the caches, configs, lists etc. The result was a slightly different looking GX that still has all the issues listed above.

Next, I erased all the files that weren't included in the release (except for the theme folder) in order to have a "clean" installation. Removed files include :

Spoiler

cache/, cache_bnr/, covers/, GameList.txt, GameTimestamps.txt, GXGameCategories.xml, GXGameSettings.cfg, GXGameStatistics.cfg, GXGlobal.cfg, TitlesCache.bin

Now, GX remains stuck on the "loading resources" screen...

This is frustrating. I vagely remember having the "stuck on loading resources" bug in the past, but this setup should be in a "pickup and play" state. I highly doubt that updating GX and erasing configs and caches would bring back this problem so something else should be wrong ?

Here's the SysCheck as requested. I should probably note that I actually had to run it twice, as it didn't save a csv on my root the first time. In the mean time, I'll check that last link you suggested.

Spoiler

SysCheck ME v2.5.0 by blackb0x JoostinOnline Double_A R2-D2199 and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v513)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 05.26.2006
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x11
Console ID: 35619001
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: Canada (18)
Boot2 v4
Found 144 titles.
Found 50 IOS on this console. 9 of them are stubs.

IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): Trucha Bug
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): Trucha Bug
IOS13 (rev 1032): Trucha Bug
IOS14 (rev 1032): Trucha Bug
IOS15 (rev 1032): Trucha Bug
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): Trucha Bug
IOS20 (rev 256): Stub
IOS21 (rev 1039): Trucha Bug
IOS22 (rev 1294): Trucha Bug
IOS28 (rev 1807): Trucha Bug
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): Trucha Bug
IOS33 (rev 3608): Trucha Bug
IOS34 (rev 3608): Trucha Bug
IOS35 (rev 3608): Trucha Bug
IOS36 (rev 3608): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access
IOS37 (rev 5663): Trucha Bug
IOS38 (rev 4124): Trucha Bug
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): Trucha Bug
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): Trucha Bug
IOS55 (rev 5663): Trucha Bug
IOS56 (rev 5662): Trucha Bug
IOS57 (rev 5919): Trucha Bug
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Trucha Bug
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): Trucha Bug
IOS70 (rev 6912): Trucha Bug
IOS80 (rev 6944): Trucha Bug
IOS202[60] (rev 65535 Info: Hermes-v55.1): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS222[38] (rev 65535 Info: Hermes-v55.1): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS223[37] (rev 65535 Info: Hermes-v55.1): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS224[57] (rev 65535 Info: Hermes-v55.1): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
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 08/29/2025.

 

[blackb0x]

Assuming you're using Windows, you could try this...

1. Backup your data from the SD card.
2. Input the following into command prompt/terminal.

diskpart
list disk
select disk X (change X to the disk number for your SD card)
clean
convert mbr
create partition primary
format fs=exfat quick
assign
exit

3. Load up Wii Backup Manager, select Tools and format the SD card to FAT32 with the cluster size set to 32K.
4. Restore the loader and a few games.
5. Test things.
6. Restore everything else if things seem to be back to normal.

If things are still slow then I'd recommend using H2testw and CrystalDiskMark to verify that the drive is error free and shows decent read and write speeds.

 

[jeannotte]

given your syscheck report, install the latest version of CIOSd2x ===>
https://wii.hacks.guide/cios.html?tab=cios-for-wii/family-edition

 

[FrankBlack22]

Firstly, sorry for the late response, I was bedridden the past few days.

Short answer, I seem to have fixed the issue.

First I tried the 6 steps proposed by blackb0x. At step 5, I had only restored the apps folder, and like 3-4 Gamecube and Wii games. Everything was working all fine and smooth.

So, then I tried bringing back everything else, and it became slow again, though not as slow as before. So I tried removing everything except the apps folder and ALL of the Gamecube and Wii games. It was fast again. So I tried to simply add back all of the remaining root folders one by one until one of them breaks my setup, but it never happened.

So now everything works just fine through no specific action of my own. I'm glad, but also a little frustrated since I'm afraid this thread won't really be useful for anyone in the future. Thanks to of you regardless !