Since a lot of people are bricking their Wii consoles by not knowing what damage uninstalling the wrong stuff, I thought I'd put this up here.
Q: What IOS should I delete in the case of a banner brick?
A:None. Banner bricks are the cause of badly made channels. If you have the Twilight Hack installed (on 3.3 or older), you can try SaveMiiFrii to boot up WAD Manager, or if you installed Starfall you can autoboot disks with Y on the GC controller if you have one. Else, you're in trouble.
Q: I'm removing Softmii/MiiWii/CIOSCORP. Do I remove the IOSes I installed?
A: Absolutely not. If you use MiiWii, the provided uninstaller should work. Else, find the original WADs for the IOSes (Google is your friend) and then install them with WAD Manager. It should be safe to uninstall Custom IOS, but if you have doubts about it, don't.
Q: Are there any cases I should remove an IOS in?
A: None that I can think of, unless you actually want to brick your Wii, in which case, have a party. If you can correct me, leave a reply here. Thanks.
Q: What happens if I remove an IOS by accident?
A: I honestly don't believe you can do it " by accident" (you can do it without knowing the consequences), but that's not what I'm here to talk about.
If you do remove an IOS:
You will be unable to run any software that runs on it. This means homebrew (run through any method, be it HBC, WAD or Twilight Hack), WiiWare, VC games, Disk games and backups.
Particular IOSes are very bad ideas to remove. For example:
-------------------------------
IOS: 30
What's Affected:
System Menu 3.2 & 3.3 U/E/J(/K?)
Homebrew Channel (on most systems running beta8 or later)
Result:
On System Menu, full brick (Unrecoverable)
On Affected Homebrew Channels, return to Wii Menu on Launch from menu, freeze on launch from Preloader
-------------------------------
IOS: 31
What's Affected:
Wii Shop Channel on 3.2 & 3.3 U/E/J(/K?)
Result:
Return to Menu on Launch
------------------------------
IOS: 50
What's Affected:
System Menu 3.4(U, E, J)
Result:
Full brick (UNRECOVERABLE)
-------------------------------
IOS: 51
What's Affected:
Wii Shop Channel on 3.4 (U, E, J)
Result:
Return to Menu on Launch
--------------------------------
IOS: 52
What's Affected:
System Menu 3.4K
Result:
Full brick (UNRECOVERABLE)
--------------------------------
IOS: 60
What's Affected:
System Menu 4.0U/E/J
Result:
Full brick (UNRECOVERABLE)
--------------------------
IOS: 61
What's Affected:
Wii Shop Channel on 4.0U/E/J
Result:
Return to Menu on Launch
-------------------------------
Note System Menu bricks marked UNRECOVERABLE aren't if you have knowledge of the NAND workings, your NAND key, and an Infectus, but I'm going to assume that isn't true if you're reading this
That's all I'm aware of right now, if anyone would like to add to this list, feel free to add something on here. Please make sure it's important though, and not just "Game (X) won't work if you remove IOS(Y)!"
I'll try to answer any IOS questions I'm asked, but I'm by no means an expert.
Thanks to SanGor for reminding me that Preloader relies on the System Menu IOS. Can't believe I forgot that
Q: What IOS should I delete in the case of a banner brick?
A:None. Banner bricks are the cause of badly made channels. If you have the Twilight Hack installed (on 3.3 or older), you can try SaveMiiFrii to boot up WAD Manager, or if you installed Starfall you can autoboot disks with Y on the GC controller if you have one. Else, you're in trouble.
Q: I'm removing Softmii/MiiWii/CIOSCORP. Do I remove the IOSes I installed?
A: Absolutely not. If you use MiiWii, the provided uninstaller should work. Else, find the original WADs for the IOSes (Google is your friend) and then install them with WAD Manager. It should be safe to uninstall Custom IOS, but if you have doubts about it, don't.
Q: Are there any cases I should remove an IOS in?
A: None that I can think of, unless you actually want to brick your Wii, in which case, have a party. If you can correct me, leave a reply here. Thanks.
Q: What happens if I remove an IOS by accident?
A: I honestly don't believe you can do it " by accident" (you can do it without knowing the consequences), but that's not what I'm here to talk about.
If you do remove an IOS:
You will be unable to run any software that runs on it. This means homebrew (run through any method, be it HBC, WAD or Twilight Hack), WiiWare, VC games, Disk games and backups.
Particular IOSes are very bad ideas to remove. For example:
-------------------------------
IOS: 30
What's Affected:
System Menu 3.2 & 3.3 U/E/J(/K?)
Homebrew Channel (on most systems running beta8 or later)
Result:
On System Menu, full brick (Unrecoverable)
On Affected Homebrew Channels, return to Wii Menu on Launch from menu, freeze on launch from Preloader
-------------------------------
IOS: 31
What's Affected:
Wii Shop Channel on 3.2 & 3.3 U/E/J(/K?)
Result:
Return to Menu on Launch
------------------------------
IOS: 50
What's Affected:
System Menu 3.4(U, E, J)
Result:
Full brick (UNRECOVERABLE)
-------------------------------
IOS: 51
What's Affected:
Wii Shop Channel on 3.4 (U, E, J)
Result:
Return to Menu on Launch
--------------------------------
IOS: 52
What's Affected:
System Menu 3.4K
Result:
Full brick (UNRECOVERABLE)
--------------------------------
IOS: 60
What's Affected:
System Menu 4.0U/E/J
Result:
Full brick (UNRECOVERABLE)
--------------------------
IOS: 61
What's Affected:
Wii Shop Channel on 4.0U/E/J
Result:
Return to Menu on Launch
-------------------------------
Note System Menu bricks marked UNRECOVERABLE aren't if you have knowledge of the NAND workings, your NAND key, and an Infectus, but I'm going to assume that isn't true if you're reading this
That's all I'm aware of right now, if anyone would like to add to this list, feel free to add something on here. Please make sure it's important though, and not just "Game (X) won't work if you remove IOS(Y)!"
I'll try to answer any IOS questions I'm asked, but I'm by no means an expert.
Thanks to SanGor for reminding me that Preloader relies on the System Menu IOS. Can't believe I forgot that