Hardware What's the best modchip for the Wii?

[sofakng]

What's currently the best modchip for the Wii? (for playing backups)

Are there any that don't require any soldering? (I do have some soldering experience, but I'd prefer to play it safe and not have to worry about it)

 

[FAST6191]

I pasted an early version of the every console modding guide into the following thread and hopefully it should provide a good start:
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?t=5338

However it is a bit outdated as things are moving quite quickly.
So chipset and other interesting things:
chipset:
3 known d2a, d2b and d2c. The first two appeared early on and only the very first chips will have a problem. D2c is recent (last two months they have become more common) and to my knowledge they have no working chip (there is supposedly one in the works).

cut pins: all chips currently rely on three pins (other connections are for power and such) to do the deed. some consoles ship with the pins cut which means either aligning a "ribbon" and sorting it (fairly high level in my opinion), cutting/etching down and going on chip (hard but it works) or conductive "ink" where you add your own traces.

If soldering is a problem I would not really suggest making a homebrew chip, buying one is fine though.

Solderless: some people (myself included) have toyed with the idea but nothing as yet has come. There is "quicksolder" though where you essentially dribble solder and form connections, a nasty method if ever I saw one and would suggest you do not do it.

Wii backups: nowadays one should be as good as the next. Some have inbuilt region patching but when it is a 5 second patch to the ISO who cares.

GC backups: audiofix is the main issue here which bothers some games (makes them crash or not function). What works depends on who you speak to really. Wiid, cyclowiz and Wiininja seem to be the ones here. There is a standalone app (list of games affected included) here:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=52676&hl=

So the big chips at present:

wiikey: originally the favourite of the lot. Fallen out of favour lately owing to bad support and sketchy audiofix. Clones are damn cheap though and if you need a quick one it should serve you well.

cyclowiz, Wiid and wiininja: the current favourite (subject to change in 4 hours time), the underdog and the original respectively. They all work and all work well. Can be a bit expensive though ($30 versus the homebrew/clone cost of $10 or under)

Edit: I suppose I had better add the others I know of

duowii:
http://www.duomodchip.com/english/main.htm
Can't say I know too much. Whether this is a bad thing or just that one voice in a crowd scenario is happening I do not know. Good history with team omega though.

Wiikit:
http://www.wiikit.info/
Wiikey clone plus some wires if you do not have any around (or at the shop).

Xecuter Wiip v2
Supposed to be launching soon, very good history with this team as well. They also do some homebrew chip sales apparently.
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=52669&st=30

homebrew, I am about 3 weeks out of the loop here which means I might as well know nothing.
Support forums (as well as other major wii chip related sites) are the key:
Chiip
http://chiip.descrambler.de/index.php/Main_Page
OpenWii (I believe these are the only one with a DVD upgrade at present).
http://openwii.org/wiki/OpenWii_Wiki
WiiFree
http://psx-scene.com/forums/wiifree/
Wiip
http://www.tcniso.net/Nav/Wiip/
yaosm
http://psx-scene.com/forums/yaosm/

 

[sofakng]

Thanks for the excellent information!

Are the d2a, d2b, and d2c the models of the Wii drive chip? How can I find out which one I have so I don't order the wrong mod chip?

After looking at the pins on the Wii that need to be solder to, I'm pretty confident I can do it. They do not look anywhere near as bad the PS2 or XBOX. (the pins on the Wii look pretty well spaced apart with very little chance of "joining" pins together)

A lot of people seem to be recommending the homebrew chips which sounds good to me. I'm a software developer so I'm sure I can figure out how to program the chip, etc... (espicially with the help from the Wiki)

So if I said I'm confident about programming a homebrew chip, would you say they are best option?

OpenWii sounds really nice with the DVD upgrade. Are there ANY disadvantages to it? I'd like to play Wii backups and GameCube backups...

Thanks for your help!

 

[FAST6191]

Without opening it up you can by serial numbers but that is rough guide at best. There are threads dotted in these forums and others, alas I forgot to grab either the info or links so I am afraid I will have to send you off to do some fishing (this section and the wii - hacking section should start you off and give links to other places of interest). Broadly speaking if you got your wii in march or before you should be good.

Compared to the PS2 and xbox it does not rate in my book.

Homebrew chip, if you can tell me what a parallel port is and can use command line then you know more than you need really in that case.

I am afraid I will have to defer to others here, ATMega with openwii seems to be the flavour of the hour.

OpenWii, if I am not mistaken it does not inject code like other chips so audiofix is non existent on chip and may be damn hard to implement.

 

[sofakng]

What do you mean that the "audiofix" is nonexistant?

Do you mean the audio problem does exist and probably won't be fixed?

On their website it says they have 100% GC compatibility...

 

[FAST6191]

I could try and go into it but this thread does it better than I could:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=52252

It seems I was mistaken with yaosm/wiifree but the wiki seems to indicate a lack or audiofix at present:
http://openwii.org/wiki/Old_Firmware_Page

In short because of the way the chips works it is damn hard to implement, compatibility means it boots most likely.

 

[sofakng]

It looks like you're right and then OpenWii doesn't have the audio fix.

Honestly, I don't see any advantage to getting the OpenWii over the Wiid or Wiininja Deluxe (the two that seem to be the most popular). Is there something I'm missing?

Also, I've tried searching for "d2a* d2b*" and "d2a d2b*" but can't find any threads (or web sites) with information on how to find your Wii drive chip version.

 

[test84]

whats the best for cut leg-wise? i mean its would be good even if u get cut leg?

 

[dsbomb]

At the moment, the Wiki is down, but it has a pretty good list of serial ranges for the various types of chips. It is a rough estimate, not set in stone. The only sure way to tell is to look at the chips on the drive. One near where you solder the wires to will have the D2A (or B, or C) printed on it.

Basically, if you bought your Wii from launch to January it's likely a D2A. if you bought it January to about May, it's likely D2B. If you bought it in the last month or so, it could be a C (unable to chip) or one with the legs of the IC cut (difficult, but not impossible).

 

[sofakng]

I just got mine today and it was on a shipment from last night so I'm guessing this is a brand spankin' new one.

I'm really, really, really hoping I don't have a "C" model. My primary reason for buying the Wii was because of mod chip availability...

What exactly does "cut IC legs" mean anyways? (any pictures of the difference between normal and cut legs?)

 

[FAST6191]

courtesy of http://www.atvgc.com/
Source
http://www.hacken.cc/bbs/viewthread.php?ti...ge=1#pid1668552

 

[sofakng]

You have to solder onto that chip? I thought the places you had to solder onto were "points" (eg. not the legs of a chip)

This still seems strange though, because if the IC legs were cut wouldn't they not be connected to a main board (eg. wouldn't function at all)

 

[FAST6191]

Normal chips you install by soldering to the board either by wire or my least favourite concept "quicksolder", from the cyclowiz install guide:

However if you screw up you have to solder to the pins (or replace the pads with conductive ink).

These pins were then cut for some newer consoles (making the pads: which if memory serves are a "secret" serial port nigh on useless), it does not stop it just makes it much harder.

 

[Hooya]

You have to solder onto that chip? I thought the places you had to solder onto were "points" (eg. not the legs of a chip)

This still seems strange though, because if the IC legs were cut wouldn't they not be connected to a main board (eg. wouldn't function at all)

You are correct, if the legs of the chip are cut the points on the board don't go to anything and therefore are useless unless:
You cut away the plastic on the chip itself, exposing some metal to solder to and either:
1) directly solder to those points
or
2) rebuild the legs from those points and use the pads on the board as normal.

Like Fast said, it's not impossible, just much more difficult.

 

[sofakng]

That does look pretty darn hard to repair...

I've posted a new thread in the Wii Hacking forum, but I might as well ask here:

Are there any mod chip installers who are willing to install a chip into a d2b with cut legs?