First things first, I will say I have found a workaround for this highly specific issue, but I wanted to post about it here for posterity. The issue itself was that the Gamecube Microphone was consistently crashing when attempting to play any game when I brought the Wii over to a friends house, but would work without issue in my own setup. I went through a bunch of steps trying to get to the bottom of it, thinking it was a weird power issue perhaps, or that the mic itself was damaged and causing problems.
I discovered that having my USB Ethernet adapter unplugged would always cause the games to crash, while having it plugged in would keep things working as expected. The Ethernet had to be plugged into a powered router at least, though it did not actually need an internet connection. Strangely enough, this issue was non-existent when using a different modified Wii system I had laying around.
Eventually, I tried changing the first Wii's internet settings to a wireless connection, then without the Ethernet adapter, tested the games, and everything works as it should. The wireless connection itself does not actually need to work; its currently set to connect to a wireless network that no longer exists, but just having it set to a wired connection while having the USB Ethernet adapter unplugged seemed to be causing this issue. I have no idea why this might be the case, and why it only matters when the Gamecube Mic is thrown into the mix.
So that's how I discovered this weird issue, and have hopefully solved it after about a month of on-again off-again troubleshooting. Mario Party 7 would consistently crash in the first 2 minutes of sitting on the menu screen before, but has been going for a bit over an hour now, so I'm fairly certain I figured it out. For reference, I use the Ethernet adapter to maintain a steady connection to the Phantasy Star Online fan servers, but its not much trouble to just change the Wii settings as needed.
As a quick note, this was all done by plugging the mic in after the game had booted. I know Nintendont does not like the mic being there when you boot the game up, but that was not a part of this issue.
I discovered that having my USB Ethernet adapter unplugged would always cause the games to crash, while having it plugged in would keep things working as expected. The Ethernet had to be plugged into a powered router at least, though it did not actually need an internet connection. Strangely enough, this issue was non-existent when using a different modified Wii system I had laying around.
Eventually, I tried changing the first Wii's internet settings to a wireless connection, then without the Ethernet adapter, tested the games, and everything works as it should. The wireless connection itself does not actually need to work; its currently set to connect to a wireless network that no longer exists, but just having it set to a wired connection while having the USB Ethernet adapter unplugged seemed to be causing this issue. I have no idea why this might be the case, and why it only matters when the Gamecube Mic is thrown into the mix.
So that's how I discovered this weird issue, and have hopefully solved it after about a month of on-again off-again troubleshooting. Mario Party 7 would consistently crash in the first 2 minutes of sitting on the menu screen before, but has been going for a bit over an hour now, so I'm fairly certain I figured it out. For reference, I use the Ethernet adapter to maintain a steady connection to the Phantasy Star Online fan servers, but its not much trouble to just change the Wii settings as needed.
As a quick note, this was all done by plugging the mic in after the game had booted. I know Nintendont does not like the mic being there when you boot the game up, but that was not a part of this issue.
