Hacking Wii Project - NO DVD drive present - not loading from USB

[MateiRusnac]

Hello everyone,

I found a wii on the side of the street that looked a little bashed up, probably been sitting out for 2 - 3 days. I thought i could fix it, so i picked it up (the person also threw out all possible accessories including a controller and all the cables)
I got home, cracked it open and found a mess inside.

I took out everything and was left with just the motherboard. I noticed a few inductors were falling off and some were lost. I bought what was needed and soldered everything back on.
I noticed the DVD drive was destroyed and had no chance of actually reading a disc (I threw it out). The Wifi module was also damaged and was not working; however i bought a 5$ USB-Ethernet adapter (init brand) and internet is working fine.

The Wii now is just the motherboard with all the cables attached. (i also kept the Fan at the back)

THE WII BOOTED NORMALLY!!!.

I moved on to the next step which was to softmod my wii since i have no DVD drive to read any discs.

Wii 4.3U

I followed a Youtube tutorial and got HBC on my home screen. (Letterbomb)
I restored the Trucha bug with ios 236
I upgraded the CIOS with dx2 to V8
I installed 3 different loaders.

I then borrowed a HDD full of games from a friend that was using it as his primary Wii HDD.

I tried loading the HDD with Gx loader,

Wiiflow, USB loader.
All worked fine.

My games loaded and i can browse through them; however this is where my problem begins.

As soon as i try to launch a backup the screen turns black (sometimes the wiimote shuts off) and after about 1-2 min i get an error saying "Error, please eject disc and power off your Wii..."

I looked everywhere for a solution. Nothing will work. I tried about 5 different tutorials all have not been able to boot up the game past the Loader stage.

Does the wii do a firmware check on the DVD drive before loading the game from the HDD? Does it get tricked into thinking its reading an original game?

I could not find a broken wii or a dvd drive in my area; however i did find a DVD drive motherboard... if that is my problem a DVD motherboard should suffice, correct?


Thanks

 

[PsyBlade]

afaik the drive board is required

 

[MateiRusnac]

so just the motherboard of the DVD would work? I dont need the rest of the hardware parts from the DvD drive.

im going to buy one tomorrow from a local shop.

 

[PsyBlade]

afaik yes
but wait for 2nd opinnion before spending money

couldnt you use the old board?

 

[tmv_josue]

Afaik too the drive board is required for the UsbLoaders to work.
Even according to I know, can not enter in the official channels without it.

 

[DarkMatterCore]

Use NEEK+DI. It is able to load games in FST (extracted) format from an USB storage device, and it doesn't really need a DVD drive to be present in the console in order to work.

Just give it a try, I don't think you'll regret it. Of course, it is always a lot better to just buy a new drive, but you could give this some use in the meantime.

Even according to I know, can not enter in the official channels without it.

Yes, you're right. Only the HBC and custom-made channels work (and some VC injects, too).

 

[shortz1994]

you do need the main drive board. not the drive. i have mine set up with my hdd inside my wii, without the drive,just the main drive board. or if you had a wode, that is a drive emulator an also works, so you don't need the drive. with out it. you'll get nothing, but the main menu. nothing will work. vc/wiiware games all use the "drive board" to read like it's a disc.(every thing from big n works like this.). so just get a drive board, plug it in with the ribbons ( their are two of them(small ribbon, an med ribbon.), an two boards, one small that sits in front of the big one.) though i think the small one controlls the drive it self. but i have both of them an my hdd. in the wii case. an it works great. never had a problem out of it. just make sure you have a long usb cord, that way you can always plug it in to computer when needed, an not half to take the wii apart. or use ftpii file sharing, then you can load the stuff to the hdd online.

 

[MateiRusnac]

WOW thanks everyone for the replies.

In the meantime i bought a broken dvd drive that powers on and can eject a disc but not read it. (if i insert a game disc into the drive, i get an error telling me to eject the disc and power off the wii)

I tried the loaders again and...
Same Problem.

Shortz1994 how are you getting it to work?

Here is a Syscheck of what i have done to the wii so far.

sysCheck v2.1.0b13 by Double_A and R2-D2199
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).
Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v513)
Priilaoder installed
Homebrew Channel 1.0.0 running on IOS58
Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 133726101
Boot2 v4
Found 72 titles.
Found 55 IOS on this console. 6 of them are stub.
IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug  ES Identify  Flash Access  NAND Access
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug  ES Identify  NAND Access
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 3867): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5406): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5406): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS80 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS90 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS202[60] (rev 65535  Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS222[38] (rev 4  Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug  ES Identify  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS223[75] (rev 4  Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug  ES Identify  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS224[57] (rev 65535  Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS236[36] (rev 65535  Info: rev 3351): Trucha Bug  ES Identify  NAND Access
IOS245[37] (rev 21008  Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS246[38] (rev 21008  Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug  ES Identify  NAND Access
IOS247[53] (rev 21008  Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS248[55] (rev 21008  Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS249[56] (rev 21008  Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 21008  Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS251[58] (rev 21008  Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug  NAND Access  USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 2012/08/25.

Also Pablo, the NEEK+DI method. Is it just another way to dump the games on the HDD but in a different format... one that will not do a drive check ?

THank you again.

 

[tmv_josue]

Also Pablo, the NEEK+DI method. Is it just another way to dump the games on the HDD but in a different format... one that will not do a drive check ?

Neek2o can load games in .wbfs file format:
http://gbatemp.net/topic/313314-neek2o/

 

[DarkMatterCore]

Also Pablo, the NEEK+DI method. Is it just another way to dump the games on the HDD but in a different format... one that will not do a drive check ?

Not really. NEEK+DI emulates the NAND flash memory and the Drive Interface (DI), which essentially includes the DVD hardware. The "drive check" is still present, but since the drive board is being emulated, you will not get any errors. It also can load problematic games like NSMBWii.

I had this problem a long time ago. That's why I know this method actually works.

If you want to load games in *.WBFS format while using NEEK+DI, follow the link tmv_josue gave you earlier; Neek2o it's a modification of the original NEEK.

 

[shortz1994]

Shortz1994 how are you getting it to work?

when you have the drive in hand. remove the screws holding the boards to the drive. you'll see some small wire connect to the board.( they will be in the back, one red an one black. two sets on each side.) if you have soldering skills, remove those wires from the board, one set controls the motor for the tray, an one control the motor an lens assembly. plug the "main" ribbon back in( will be the bigger ribbon)
once you have all that done, wrap the main boards in bubble wrap or cut some Styrofoam to give it some cushion. get your 2.5 hard drive if in a case remove it, if in a incloser do the same, all you need to keep is the plug/an the board on the hdd. (were you connect the usb cord to the hdd then to computer). keep a little space between the hdd an main board.( don't want shit over heating.).. route the usb cord so one end come out the back.( the end you'll plug into port 0/port 1 what ever they call it , i just say bottom port). test the set up before putting things back together, an if all went well you'll be in buisness.( made a mistake putting things back together, then had to turn around an take apart, thats a pain in the ass.) if you need more help there is a post in this forum some were. just do a search for it. that is what i followed when doing mine.

 

[MateiRusnac]

Shortz1994... i'm talking 20 steps back. I'm at the stage when the usb loader wont even load the games with or without DVD drive... i posted a syscheck above.

Also is there a comprehensive guide on how to install the Neek2o.

I read on a forum that postloader is an alternative... i tried that got it to the point where i load a game from the USB, but im having the same problem. I do see that the main loader is still Wiiflow(or i can change it to my other installed USB loaders) so im guessing its not using neek to load.

 

[shortz1994]

you asked what i did to get my wii to work with out my dvd drive.
i didn't do any thing different then what i told you in my above post. if the wii will not boot a game from hdd, through a loader, with the drive in or out, or if you do it the way i did.
then it could be a hardware or file set up issue. you did say that this wii was trashed when you found it. so who ever trashed it, could have messed up the mother board, or the plastic clip that hold the ribbon to the mother board.( not as so bad as not to get some use out of it, but bad enough to were it will not do anything short of playing a game..
an from what i under stand on how neek20 works, you'll still need a working drive/driver board. to get it to run .( re routes the routine through the drive the to the hdd.) from my understanding but could be wrong, it's worth a shot. just look in the hacking thread, for mod mii an use that to get a working neek2o set up. it will download a guide to help you out to set things up.
http://gbatemp.net/topic/149299-tutorial-internal-hard-drive-mod-for-wii-high-bandwidth/
this is what i followed when i did mine.

 

[MateiRusnac]

FINAL UPDATE:

I bought a working used DVD drive and still no luck. I turned the Wii off a couple of times while I was trying other things, and suddenly the DVD drive started spinning the disc.

Everything works
I tried loading from the DVD drive itself and from USB.

Thanks a lot for your help guys. This was my first time working with a Wii, never had one before and i learned a lot.

River Wii FTW.