Hacking Wii Randomly Freezing...Trying to Troubleshoot

[LoserExtraordinaire]

Hi, my Wii started freezing up a year after installing the HBC and cIOS for using USB Loader GX so I was trying to narrow down on what could be causing it.

I modified my Wii haphazardly by following YouTube tutorials (before coming here) so I'm pretty sure I installed unnecessary cIOS, but it doesn't seem like that would cause the freezing.

I have suspicions about the freezing being connected to boot2 because I used to have PriiLoader on boot2. Once the freezing started happening, I installed BootMii on boot2 so I could restore the NAND I backed up, but after that installation the Wii seemed fine...until now. It's showing the same progression as before where the freezing becomes more frequent.

Now I'm thinking of restoring my Wii to point in time BEFORE having BootMii as boot2. Will this work?
I read up that boot2 is part of the NAND (http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Hardware/NAND) so I'm guessing I can't restore using that NAND dump.

If you need to see any SysChecks or need any other information to help me out, please let me know.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[XFlak]

Restoring a nand dump will never remove bootmii installed as boot2

 

[LoserExtraordinaire]

Restoring a nand dump will never remove bootmii installed as boot2

Thank you very much for the reply, that was the only uncertainty stopping me from doing the restoration.

I don't want to celebrate too early, but I've left it running for a while and it seems to be working fine now.

Thanks again.

 

[XFlak]

You're very welcome!

Edit: and if u ever want to update old mods, or mod a new wii from scratch, use ModMii (by yours truly), it's the preferred method and a stickied thread in these forums

 

[LoserExtraordinaire]

You're very welcome!

Edit: and if u ever want to update old mods, or mod a new wii from scratch, use ModMii (by yours truly), it's the preferred method and a stickied thread in these forums

Hi, sorry to bother you again...I celebrated too early.

I didn't want to immediately come back here asking questions so I used ModMii to re-hack my Wii and Google'd stuff since it was still freezing after ModMii.

The biggest issues are:
1.) I have to press the power button at least twice and with certain timing to MAYBE boot up successfully.
2.) Even if I boot with a BootMii SD inserted, the Wii ignores it and goes to the system menu.

With each NAND restoration, the Wii acts normal for some amount of time then starts freezing. Each time, it gets to the point where I have the issues above and pressing the power button only once makes it freeze on a black screen that is, I'm guessing, in between the process of completely booting.

I got desperate and used ohneschwanzenegger and I get the whole disclaimer deal with using it only if I can verify the contents of the NANDs created by it, but I used it anyways.

This is the part that makes me feel really stupid...I used it to create a NAND dump, but I didn't get a system menu on it.
I already used that NAND dump on my Wii and it was booting into BootMii fine, but then it froze in BootMii with the same progression.
Now I don't have a system menu and my Wii isn't going to BootMii even with the SD inserted.

Is there any way I can access BootMii besides using my SD or going through Homebrew? Like a way to manually boot into it?
Or is it time for me to just give up on it?

 

[XFlak]

Were you unable to consistently boot up even without an SD card inserted?

Are you able to access bootmii installed as boot2 if u use a different SD card? Preferably one that's not SDHC?


Sounds like u have bootmii installed as boot2 but it sometimes fails to load bootmii upon launch under the same circumstances as when it works. If this is the case, I think this might be hardware failure. @Cyan or @GreyWolf either of you have a different opinion?

 

[LoserExtraordinaire]

Yes, I've been unable to consistently boot without the SD inserted. I noticed when I leave the Wii unplugged for a while, like for the night while I sleep, then plug it back in and try booting there's more of a chance of successfully booting.

I had switched from using an SDHC to an SD for BootMii since I've read that SD is recommended.

The Wii is from 2007-ish, so it's pretty old.
I've been trying to see if I can restore it since it was a birthday gift from my fam and I'm really sentimental about that kind of thing.
But I'm not gonna cry over it if it's beyond my ability to repair (or rather follow guides from you lovely people). I wouldn't know how to handle hardware issues.

 

[ry755]

Don't try to remove BootMii from boot2. That could just cause more problems, plus you wouldn't be able to restore your NAND if something went wrong.

 

[Cyan]

it could be a faulty SD card port.
when bootmii doesn't launch, do you notice two quick flash of the Wii LED in the disc port?

if you have bootmii@boot2 and no SD, it should flash twice quickly, meaning it didn't find the SD card, or the bootmii/armboot.bin file on it.
If you have it, and there's no flash at all without the SD inserted, it means the console doesn't even manage to reach boot2 in the boot sequence (boot0 > boot1 > bootmii@boot2> SD's armboot.bin or system menu)

I don't remember on which step the Disc drive and the Bluetooth modules are initialized.
it's probably done at IOS loading, right? boot2 is responsible for the IOS loading and launching the system menu ?
when using bootmii I don't know if the IOS is loaded before launching armboot.bin, I suppose it's not as it's using Mini (ARM with no IOS at all)

so, just tell us about the flashing LED for now, we will see based on your answer.

 

[LoserExtraordinaire]

--- My Wii at its worst (power button needs to be pressed multiple times to MAYBE boot up) ---
With my Wii at its worst, pressing the power button once with or without the SD inserted makes the LED flash once then it hangs on a subtly flashing black screen; the disk drive doesn't make the noise it's supposed to make on boot-up.

Pressing the power button in succession with or without the SD inserted makes the LED flash multiple times then I have to press it again with a certain timing to get it to make the disk drive sound and maybe boot up completely, but I don't have a system menu currently so now even if I manage to boot up successfully there's just a black screen waiting for me.
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This morning, after leaving my Wii unplugged, it seemed like it was booting properly --> pressed power once, LED flashed once then twice quickly with disk drive noise, WITHOUT SD inserted.

I was able to access BootMii through my SD --> pressed power once, LED flashed once with disk drive noise, then BootMii showed up.
It froze when I tried to use RestoreMii with the new NAND I created with ohneschwanzenegger.

Now it's in its worst state again so I'm leaving it unplugged to try again later, but this is different from the previous NAND restorations. I wasn't ever able to boot straight into BootMii once my Wii reached its worst state.

 

[Cyan]

it crashes even while it's writing nand ? like if the NAND chipset was disconnected, or losing CPU commands to do the necessary steps.

I don't know what the problem is, sorry.
looks like hardware failure, maybe the button, or the chipset, so it's not even detecting boot0 from the Bootrom in the CPU.
I don't know if it can be fixed or not, maybe reflow the chipset is needed, or it's just dead at this state if it's another electronic element which has fried.

for hardware issue, we usually have @DeadlyFoez coming to rescue the console, but not sure he knows what's wrong here. it might be fixable, but you need to send it to him so he checks everything.
for fun and knowledge it's maybe possible, if you just want a working console it's easier to get a new one.

 

[LoserExtraordinaire]

it crashes even while it's writing nand ? like if the NAND chipset was disconnected, or losing CPU commands to do the necessary steps.

I apologize, I may have miscommunicated this point; it wasn't writing the NAND yet, it was at the point where it detected BootMii on boot2 and said "ok to proceed" then compared the current NAND to the one on the SD. It froze during that process.

It's never frozen once it reached the actual restoration process when it goes through all the green blocks.

 

[Cyan]

I never restored a NAND so I thought it wrote it directly, I didn't know it did a comparison first (probably to check bad blocs to prevent writing to new bad blocs which weren't on old dump?)
the fact is it did crash/freeze when accessing and verifying the NAND too. maybe that's just a NAND issue, and you could switch it with a new one, but I don't know enough about this process. maybe just a reflow is enough (re-solder the chipset, if heat and time broke some solders).

at this point, I don't think the problem is the SD, as you also have issue without SD card. just powering the console is a problem, and the NAND is accessed very early at boot, before SD. common reported issue with and without the SD is the NAND.

 

[GreyWolf]

It actually sounds like your NAND might be failing. If you're able to get to BootMii again try making another backup of it and see what it shows for block issues.

 

[XFlak]

Sounds like u have bootmii installed as boot2 but it sometimes fails to load bootmii upon launch under the same circumstances as when it works. If this is the case, I think this might be hardware failure. @Cyan or @GreyWolf either of you have a different opinion?

Just wanna say... CALLED IT! lol jk

Seriously though thanks for your input guys, more heads are better than 1, and there's power in consensus!

 

[Cyan]

sometime I'm not sure either, and it's always nice to have more confirmation, or even correction.

 

[LoserExtraordinaire]

It actually sounds like your NAND might be failing. If you're able to get to BootMii again try making another backup of it and see what it shows for block issues.

Will do. I will try to make another backup, hope it doesn't freeze on me, and I'll report back once I'm able to do so.