Hacking USB Loading when you don't have a Wii DVD Drive

[kiwibonga]

I was running this little operation on craigslist, installing Wii modchips for 20 bucks... One day, some guy came in with one of those wiis that has epoxy on the drive chip... Long story short, I had to give the guy my Wii's DVD drive.

So my Wii is now driveless... I've got HBC 1.0.6 on it, installed cIOS38rev17... I can run USB Loader GX and CFG USB Loader just fine, they detect my WBFS-formatted drive, they can see the game list, and even play the disc channel sound.

The problem is when I try to run a game, I get a black screen for about 30 seconds, and then a standard disc read error message appears (Error occured. Eject the disc and reset your wii or whatever).

What I'm wondering is whether the absence of a DVD drive could be causing the issue? I can't think of anything else...

Could anyone help me troubleshoot this?

Thanks!

 

[lufeig]

yes, the wii has to detect the dvd drive board connected.

get an used dvd board -- it does not have to be 100% working -- connect it, be happy.

 

[Krestent]

Just use the epoxied drive from the customer's Wii...

 

[kiwibonga]

Thanks for your replies.

Well, part of the "long story short" is that the drive isn't receiving power at all anymore... When I couldn't soften the epoxy with paint thinner, I basically went at it with a soldering iron... I was careful, but apparently not careful enough; no apparent damage, it just doesn't seem to be getting juice, and I don't know what I could have shorted or destroyed...

So I guess I have no choice but to find a new board, as lufeig suggested...

Is there any documentation on why the DVD drive has to be in the Wii? i.e. is it something that can't be circumvented in software?

 

[kiwibonga]

I just got a new board on ebay... $16 incl. shipping from hong kong... So I made a $4 profit on that mod, heh

EDIT: Received it today! It works!