Hacking USB Loader GX (vWii) stopped working

[RareKirby]

My usb loader GX works now but from time to time it freezes on ''initializing usb device'' and I always have to disconnect and connect for it see my games. Any reason why it does this?

 

[Cyan]

Thanks, I'm working with Wii Backup Manager now. I set my HDD for FAT32 – I assume thats the best format?
Also, what is this Sneek format?

FAT32 is best for ALL consoles (wii, PS3, PS2, DS, 3DS, Xbox, gamecube, etc. etc.)
most homebrew are coded for FAT32, and not all of them are compatible with NTFS or other format.
It's always best to keep FAT32 for hacking. It will allows you to use the same device without the need to reformat it to another format.

Sneek (which ALSO require FAT32) is a way to emulate the Wii memory on an external device (it redirects the NAND chipset access to SD or USB as if it was the original location of the memory). as a result :
- you can't brick your real NAND memory in case you install bad wads or delete system files, etc., because it only happens on a copy of the memory.
- You have more memory size (up to 2TB instead of 528MB) to install games.
- The "sneek format" you see in the manager is a way to extract the game's ISO to get the files and folders copied to your HDD. Sneek can also "emulate" the disc drive by redirecting the access to a folder, and the console read the folder content as if it was the disc. (instead of using an ISO it uses extracted file system)

My usb loader GX works now but from time to time it freezes on ''initializing usb device'' and I always have to disconnect and connect for it see my games. Any reason why it does this?

no reason that it's "from time to time".
I still don't know what that issue is, I'll take a look with the HDD bought specifically to debug that issue and post my progress here.
No specific day I'll do it, I work on the loader when I find time and enough courage

 

[DarthMingus]

Hi Cyan,

I wanted to let you know that I updated my setup and it works great – both Wii Backup Manager and USB Loader GX.

Thank you again for the guidance!!

 

[street]

I had the failed to initinize error i fixed it by running flow then quitting it and running usb gx

 

[Cyan]

yes, initializing the drive using another program works too.
HBC can do it too :
- Put all homebrew to SD.
- press Home button in HBC and set homebrew to USB (it will init the drive and find nothing)
- press home button and go back to list SD card, now you can run USBGX.

 

[zektor]

Howdy! I am having the same exact issue with USBLoaderGX and a new WD My Passport Ultra 2TB 3.0 drive. I am using a Wiiu (vWii) obviously, and using d2x-v10-beta53-alt cIOS and r1260 version of the application. I came from a 500GB Seagate drive previously that worked fine with the loader. Both drives were/are powered by a USB y-cable (I am not using them at the same time....the 500GB has been retired)

While testing the new drive after receiving it yesterday I encountered the freeze at the usb init screen. Next, I tried WiiXplorer just to see if I can view the drive. It read it fine (it is formatted NTFS btw because it is strictly for games and I hate splitting things due to FAT32's 4GB file size limitation). After leaving WiiXplorer and running USBLoaderGX it sees the drive and I can launch a game.

If I reboot however and do not launch WiiXplorer first, USBLoaderGX will freeze. So, WiiXplorer is spinning up the drive and allowing USBLoaderGX to see it afterward. CFG seemed to have the same issue. WiiFlow has none of these issues at all and spins up the drive and plays games every time.

I did not update the firmware on this drive which I realize might fix *my* problem, but the ultimate goal is the fix the loader's problem Hopefully some of what I shared can give some more insight as to what is happening here.


EDIT: And looking at the previous posts I see that this has already been confirmed. That's what I get for skimming through Anyhow, I am willing to test different versions and do what I can to help this great loader work again for people.

 

[emuman100]

My usb loader GX works now but from time to time it freezes on ''initializing usb device'' and I always have to disconnect and connect for it see my games. Any reason why it does this?

I have the same issue. I'm positive it's a power issue. I replug it to reinitialize it and it works. Even with a double USB cable, it's still not getting enough power. I use a laptop hard drive with USB enclosure. When it does not get enough power, it makes a beeping noise almost and won't spin up. I have noticed that this power issue seems to disappear for me when there is no SD card inserted, so I play my Wii games on my HDD without any SD card in.

 

[Cyan]

zektor :
I think launching WiixPlorer helped, because it uses IOS58 to init the drive.
You can do the same thing by setting USBLoaderGX to use IOS58 in the settings.

 

[zektor]

Interesting! I will try it and see what happens. I suspect this is the root of the issue people are experiencing. If so, can I suggest maybe either changing USBLoaderGX's default USB init IOS to 58 *or* maybe adding an option that allows the end user to select the IOS to use prior to usb initialization? The way it is now it just immediately tries to init the drive on the default setting without asking questions and causes that hard freeze that makes me have to pull the plug...which makes me cringe

BTW, since I am not home to check, what IOS is USBLoaderGX using to attempt to init the drive? Looking at a SysCheck I have on hand here I see the only IOS that is patched for USB 2.0 support is 58 on my vWii. The others have no patches (well, 249, 250, and 251 do of course)

 

[brienj]

Sometimes using old tech works the best. I am using a SimpleTECH external enclosure with a 500GB HDD. I've had this thing for YEARS. I also swap my old drives in and out of it all the time, from 200GB up to 2TB, and it has never failed me. I wanted to bring it up, because I've never had issues with USB LoaderGX r1260 detecting it. I would bet that the majority of people with issues have an unpowered drive that is also USB 3.0. Honestly, for Wii backups, you don't need any more than USB 2.0, that is just a waste, and buying a fancy USB 3.0 model with no external power is overkill for Wii backups, IMO. I also use UStealth, and I can play all my backups, both Wii and Gamecube with no problems. Also, unless you have EVERY Wii game ever made, anything more than 500 GB is also overkill. I currently have 151 Wii games and a handful of Gamecube games on this drive, and it's only about half full.

Here is an old review of it -
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2265102,00.asp

You can also find them on Amazon, the 250GB version, but a new one costs way more than they should, I think because they are such an old product.
http://www.amazon.com/SimpleTech-SimpleDrive-SP-U35-250-Pininfarina/dp/B000NF8X9C

There are a few used ones for kind of cheap, so if you want a HDD that will work for sure and are low on cash, maybe somebody might want to look into this brand. You can easily open them up and swap out and use another SATA drive, I've even plugged a laptop drive into it with no problems, other than the case isn't really made for them, and you have to support it with something underneath it.

 

[zektor]

I wouldn't use that personally because it is old, large, ugly and it needs a power brick to function. But that is just my opinion/taste. I use a nice little sleek wallet sized WD 3.0 2TB drive that is not suffering from power draw and not having some compatibility issue with the WiiU. It is simply that it requires IOS58 to init the drive. WiiXplorer does this and so does WiiFlow. WiiFlow works like a champ with hundreds of games on the drive as a matter of fact. It is just the way USBLoaderGX is attempting to initialize the drive. It has been confirmed by launching an older version that used IOS58 (r1218) and confirmed even further due to the fact that when you launch a homebrew that uses IOS58 to spin up the drive first and then run r1260 it works. So no, the answer is not to scour for used old hardware but to fix USBLoaderGX so it will work out of the box with modern hardware (hard drives).

 

[brienj]

I wouldn't use that personally because it is old, large, ugly and it needs a power brick to function. But that is just my opinion/taste. I use a nice little sleek wallet sized WD 3.0 2TB drive that is not suffering from power draw and not having some compatibility issue with the WiiU. It is simply that it requires IOS58 to init the drive. WiiXplorer does this and so does WiiFlow. WiiFlow works like a champ with hundreds of games on the drive as a matter of fact. It is just the way USBLoaderGX is attempting to initialize the drive. It has been confirmed by launching an older version that used IOS58 (r1218) and confirmed even further due to the fact that when you launch a homebrew that uses IOS58 to spin up the drive first and then run r1260 it works. So no, the answer is not to scour for used old hardware but to fix USBLoaderGX so it will work out of the box with modern hardware (hard drives).

I even have a SanDisk 32GB flash drive, that's USB 2.0, that works as well, if anyone is worried about it looking sleek. It's USB 2.0 and small, so doesn't even require a Y adapter and is the easiest to use, it just doesn't hold a lot of games on it. The main point is that USB 2.0 is probably the best option for use for Wii/Gamecube and simply letting people know, maybe those with less cash and are looking for a drive to buy, that they don't need to go out and buy a HDD with 3.0. I understand that it's great for him to fix the program to work with some of the newer drives, I am just letting people that may read this thread know they can always get a "cheaper" drive and it will most likely work. I'm glad I kept this old dinosaur of a drive for all these years, as it works perfectly for storing Wii games and I can use all my newer drives on my computer or other devices.

 

[zektor]

I get it, but when you say that "USB 2.0 is the best option for Wii/Gamecube" you are hinting to people that do not know that USB 3.0 will either have problems or not work...and that is absolutely not the case. USB 3.0 drives work fine (work great actually) with the Wii U. It is only this loader and CFG that are having issues with their default usb init of the drives and they can be fixed. WiiFlow works fine with no setting adjustments at all. USB Y-cables are very easy to come by and some people may already have one in their stash of cables in the attic (I did) and is certainly a nicer solution than having a powered drive that has a brick consuming another outlet. Again, just my personal preference and opinion.

It is nice to be able to buy a new drive with a lot of life left to it and a lot of space and have it work. The WD 3.0 2TB & Y-Cable absolutely works great with the Wii U and I would recommend it. You can also use the WD software that comes with it to turn off the sleep timer which is great and necessary. Some drives will not allow that to happen and I have used drives in the past from other manufacturers that would go to sleep in-game...which is not good obviously. Yep, WD drives are fantastic. As for the monetary aspect, the 2TB drive was $89. That's pretty cheap.

 

[brienj]

I get it, but when you say that "USB 2.0 is the best option for Wii/Gamecube" you are hinting to people that do not know that USB 3.0 will either have problems or not work...and that is absolutely not the case. USB 3.0 drives work fine (work great actually) with the Wii U. It is only this loader and CFG that are having issues with their default usb init of the drives and they can be fixed. WiiFlow works fine with no setting adjustments at all. USB Y-cables are very easy to come by and some people may already have one in their stash of cables in the attic (I did) and is certainly a nicer solution than having a powered drive that has a brick consuming another outlet. Again, just my personal preference and opinion.

It is nice to be able to buy a new drive with a lot of life left to it and a lot of space and have it work. The WD 3.0 2TB & Y-Cable absolutely works great with the Wii U and I would recommend it. You can also use the WD software that comes with it to turn off the sleep timer which is great and necessary. Some drives will not allow that to happen and I have used drives in the past from other manufacturers that would go to sleep in-game...which is not good obviously. Yep, WD drives are fantastic.

Yes, you are right, the "Wii U" works well with USB 3.0, I was in no way implying that a 3.0 drive would not work on a "Wii U" or have issues with a "Wii U". The "Wii U" OS actually can use a USB 3.0. If you are storing "Wii U" games on a HDD, a USB 3.0 is the best option, not debating that at all.

 

[zektor]

Yes, you are right, the "Wii U" works well with USB 3.0, I was in no way implying that a 3.0 drive would not work on a "Wii U" or have issues with a "Wii U". The "Wii U" OS actually can use a USB 3.0. If you are storing "Wii U" games on a HDD, a USB 3.0 is the best option, not debating that at all.

Well, that is what this thread is about. Using the 3.0 drive, connected to a Wii U, using vWii. Does the drive work well on a regular Wii? Not sure, but I am betting it will. But since this is about Wii U and vWii usage, it works great using it for Wii/Gamecube games and launching them in the vWii mode of the Wii U.


On a semi off topic, you said you have swapped in drives up to 2TB in this SimpleTech enclosure. But the enclosure is IDE and I never saw a 2TB IDE drive. Are you using a IDE to SATA adapter with it? Or do you have a 2TB drive that is IDE? If so, what is the model and how much did that cost?

 

[brienj]

Well, that is what this thread is about. Using the 3.0 drive, connected to a Wii U, using vWii. Does the drive work well on a regular Wii? Not sure, but I am betting it will. But since this is about Wii U and vWii usage, it works great using it for Wii games and launching them in the vWii.


On a semi off topic, you said you have swapped in drives up to 2TB in this SimpleTech enclosure. But the enclosure is IDE and I never saw a 2TB IDE drive. Are you using a IDE to SATA adapter with it? Or do you have a 2TB drive that is IDE? If so, what is the model and how much did that cost?

The model I have has SATA connectors, not IDE. I've even used 2.5" drives in it. I can take it apart and take pictures if you'd like to see.

I am having problems reading a model number on it, the sticker is so old, it's hard to read. The barcode on it has 08136060600312666, I think. I can't even scan it with my barcode reader.

The only other number is a BOM No.: 96300-41001-013 which is for the power supply to use.

 

[zektor]

The model I have has SATA connectors, not IDE. I've even used 2.5" drives in it. I can take it apart and take pictures if you'd like to see.

No worries, I believe you. I was just going off of some of the reviews I had read on it in which people found WD IDE drives in them. Apparently they made two versions if yours is sata.

 

[brienj]

No worries, I believe you. I was just going off of some of the reviews I had read on it in which people found WD IDE drives in them. Apparently they made two versions if yours is sata.

The first models probably were IDE.

I already took a picture, so may as well post a link, and yes, the x360 is on it, because it used to be an old Xbox 360 external drive, and I had it marked to keep track of all of the different HDDs I have.
http://1drv.ms/1SY6zjw

 

[shadoom]

Does USB Loader GX support SNEEK from here (http://www.hacksden.com/showthread.php/8119-Compiling-a-vWii-compatible-version-of-SNEEK) on vWii?
with Neek2o and SNEEK i just get a blackscreen. I had them working on a regular Wii though.

 

[zektor]

OK. Problem has been resolved. Editing the meta.xml and removing the lines to allow arguments and changing the IOS from 250 to 58 did the trick. Upon launch it immediately inits the drive and detects the 2TB 3.0 WD NTFS formatted drive Quite fast as well I must say...I am pretty impressed.

Now I just need to find out how to have USBLoaderGX parse subfolders in the wbfs folder. In the folder I have subfolders #-Z with the corresponding game titles in each lettered folder (ie: all "A" games in the "A" folder and so on). WiiFlow is able to parse the folders without any setting change, but it seems USBLoaderGX will not...and only sees games if they are in the wbfs folder exclusively. Admittedly I have not dug around looking for this answer and will probably do that tonight, but it would be much appreciated if anyone can throw me a bone and let me know what needs to be done to allow this to happen.

I am just glad the latest version works fine after the setting change. Easy fix but still would be cool to have a GUI option to select IOS58 on first launch.


EDIT: Reading another thread regarding the subfolders it appears the folders must have GAMEID as well which is not possible because each letter folder has many games inside of it. Ugh. Ok, not a big deal I guess. Time to move my games out of the #-Z folders unless anyone knows of a way to scan normal named subfolders for games.

Edit 2: Just launched a bunch of games and everything works smooth as butter. Really nice loader....haven't used it in years but it has grown up bigtime. Thank you for it! Looks like the problem is completely solved. Anyone having issues with freezing on the vWii needs to edit that meta.xml like I said and it should work out fine for you.