Hacking Wii or GC - Black Screen

[f3286385]

Modded my nephew's Wii this past week...

Installed cIOSes like so:
cIOS 249 base 56 v10 beta52
cIOS 250 base 57 v10 beta52
cIOS 251 base 58 v10 beta52

I noticed something quirky while working on it - after booting about 5 games, just to try them out, I got a black screen. At first, I thought it was the game, but then I noticed all the previous games I booted successfully started black screening as well. After that one quirk, all games would black screen from USB Loader GX. I tried a different USB drive, but got the same results.

I slept on it and started over. I reformatted the USB drive, I got Nintendont up to date, USB Loader GX up to date, and I even reinstalled cIOSes - this time using a trusted guide I finally found that I've used a couple times in the past with the following guidelines
cIOS 249 base 56 v10 beta53-alt
cIOS 250 base 57 v10 beta52

I tested all 10 or so games installed. They all work. I don't play them, but I let them load and go for a few seconds to a couple minutes just to confirm they are in working order. I feel satisfied that the weird issue was gone.

I get the Wii to him and he's so excited. He calls needing help syncing a new Wiimote. I have it automatically booting USB Loader GX through an installed forwarder in Priiloader and it won't sync a Wiimote from the auto booted USB Loader GX, so I have him press the home button and choose Wii Menu. He gets a black screen. Tried again, same results a second time. Walk him through loading Priiloader and going to system menu from there. It works. He syncs Wiimote. All games black screen again.

I don't know if cIOS 251 base 58 v10 beta52 has anything to do with it, but it's out of the ordinary from my experience... could that be related?
Why is it working, then stop working?... twice??

Unfortunately, I don't have it with me as it's at his house. I know I'll get it back, but I wanted to start this thread now to possibly get some ideas before I get it back.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Cyan]

this time using a trusted guide I finally found that I've used a couple times in the past with the following guidelines
cIOS 249 base 56 v10 beta53-alt

The guide you followed wasn't trusty enough. Don't use d2x v10 r53, it's the worse (after cIOS rev20)
Your initial cIOS setup was good. Please, reinstall 249 with d2x r52 base56.


Having a cIOs installed does not create issue if you don't actually LOAD that cIOS in memory.
the wii can only have one IOS loaded in memory at a time (by default, slot 249), so having d2x base 58 in slot 251 has no effect at all. it could be empty, or anything installed there, as long as you don't tell the loader to actively use slot 251 INSTEAD of 249, then the slot 251 will never be used or conflicting with your other setup.


You found how to sync the wiimote, so it's fine.
I don't know why you get black screens. is it a HDD or a flash drive ? (we have a LOOOT of people this month using Flash instead of HDD, and they all have the same compatibility problem).
just getting sure you are not using a flash drive, because it could be the issue.

The problem is only for gamecube games? (as you mentioned nintendont)
for info, nintendont use IOS58 (not a cIOS at all)
if there's a problem at "second time" game launch, it's necessarily due to something done the first time.
the only changes are :
in USBGX : game count, message board update. (I don't think of any other thing)
in nintendont : memory card (created the first time you launched the game)

there's no other added/modified file to the HDD or the settings, so there's no reason it doesn't work anymore.
the only other reason could be : corrupted game/memory card/partition/HDD if you sutdown the console manually without letting the time to nintendont to save the game's to memory card file. (it could corrupt your files and drive!)

 

[f3286385]

Thanks for the reply!

OK, I will reinstall 249 with d2x r52 base56. I just had that other set up successfully on a couple of other Wiis that have been going fine for years just from my personal experience. Just lucky, I guess.

It is a flash drive, BUT what I'm not understanding is it was working consistently then stopped working consistently... then after a few modifications it worked consistently then stopped consistently. After it stopped working consistently, I even tried a HDD, but after it started black screening consistently, the HDD did make no difference. **actually, maybe that's a coincidence - I just tested the HDD on another Wii and it black screened as well... maybe it IS the flash drive/HDD I was using.

My issue is with both Wii and GC games. They worked consistently - then after a moment in time, they quit working consistently - twice. So that could potentially be the flash drive getting corrupted somewhere, right?

The first time around, I remember loading a GC game and letting it sit on the black screen for a while. Other GC games loaded successfully before it, but this one would not load. Is it possible that when I forced it off, that's when it the drive potentially corrupted? I cannot say for sure that's what my nephew did, but I would say the odds are possible that's the same exact scenario. I could ask, but I doubt he would know exactly what game started it.

Either way, I need to get a good known HDD to rule this out. At first, I was hoping that wasn't it, but I can't know for sure until I get one to test. Any suggestions on a current, low capacity (low cost) drive? I guess I could search Amazon ratings, but I figured I'd ask here as well.

 

[f3286385]

Wait, but what about not being able to make it to the Wii Menu without black screen? Still something that could be USB related?

 

[Skeagle]

Either way, I need to get a good known HDD to rule this out. At first, I was hoping that wasn't it, but I can't know for sure until I get one to test. Any suggestions on a current, low capacity (low cost) drive? I guess I could search Amazon ratings, but I figured I'd ask here as well.

I personally use this drive and it works fine with no issues. There are some other recommended hdd's too on the compatibility page.

 

[Cyan]

Wait, but what about not being able to make it to the Wii Menu without black screen? Still something that could be USB related?

You mean, powering your console just ends on a black screen ?

it looks like a hardware failure, maybe a graphic card issue.
You never noticed red dots on screen ?
Disable WiiConnect24 (it's not used anymore by Nintendo, and it keeps your CPU powered without having the Fan powered, which heat and break the GPU)

 

[f3286385]

Apologies for not being clearer. From within USB Loader GX, if I choose to go to the Wii Menu, it will black screen. I am convinced it is USB related. I switched the flash drive out this weekend with a hard drive and it will go to the Wii Menu properly now. I have not thoroughly tested the HDD, but it is somewhat working as expected, which is more than what was happening a few days ago.

I did notice once, upon boot, it hung on the blue drive LED staying lit and nothing booted... but I wrote that off as a fluke as it has never happened again. It was when BootMii should have loaded, but never did. Is that a known error?

 

[Cyan]

I don't remember reading about this issue with bootmii.
I know bootmii@boot2 flash the LED twice quickly if the armboot.bin is not found or SD not inserted. but I don't remember any freeze at this step.


Do you have Priiloader installed too ?
maybe "exit to wii menu" is having issue because of priiloader. I really don't know the cause. It could be IOS related, or like you said USB (though USB is not init at menu boot), maybe USB not de-initializing correctly (and it black screen while you are sill in the loader.

I don't think I can help more here.