Hardware Weird Wii problem...

[ChaosTheorySD]

So I have a Wii with a broken DVD drive. I wanted to hack it and just run USB loaders, but someone decided it would be a good idea to upgrade it to 4.3. Since Smash Stack and Indy Pwns both require discs, I'm kinda SOL on that front.

Anyway, the Wii still booted up fine and everything but I decided to open it up and see what was going on in there. Disassembled it to the point of removing the DVD drive, but it didn't look like I was going to be able to do anything after all so I closed everything back up. Wii still turns on, but when I try to launch a channel one of two things will happen: 1) the screen will go black and the controller shuts off, requiring a hard reset or 2) I will get that "An error has occurred. Press the Eject Button, remove the Game Disc..." etc screen.

But now, here's the really weird thing. For shits and giggles, I tried booting without the DVD drive connected at all. Surprisingly, it actually works. I can launch the channels just fine, but it will eventually crash after a few minutes and I'm back at that "An error has occurred." screen.


Any ideas what's going on here?

 

[x_r3ap3r_x]

There are 2 cables that connect to the Disc drive to the motherboard, one being the white one which is power and the ribbon cable. the wii will run fine with out the power one but ill only run for a while if the ribbon cable is unplugged. try looking at the ribbon cable is securely connect to both the mother board and disc drive. Thats what it sounds like your problem is.

 

[ChaosTheorySD]

How can I tell if it's in all the way? When I was repairing my DS, the ribbon cable on that seemed to kinda slide into place. This one doesn't feel like it goes in very far.

 

[x_r3ap3r_x]

With the ribbon cable that plugs into the disc drive board you should open the broen flap and slide the ribbon cable in. It wont go in too far but you should only see about 1mm of black on the ribbon cable flap in closed. the same goes for the motherboard side but only about 1mm of black should be seen. Also make sure the ribbon cable connected to the disc sensor ( on top of disc drive ) in plugged in properly as i have seen strange effects when not in properly. ( disc errors, ejecting and sucking discs in randomly ) Also i another note make sure nothing is shorting out. eg. the white wires connected to the disc drive and rub against the shielding exposing the wires and shorting out.