Wii U Black Screen

[szeater]

Trying to troubleshoot my Wii U not booting correctly. Console is new to me, was working, tried a factory reset, it eventually froze and after many hours power cycled as per Nintendo Support articles. The console now has no display out.

In terms of what happens now when I try to turn it on:

• Without any disc in the drive, the drive seems to 'initialise' twice (i.e. one long spin, followed by a short spin, then a 3-4 second gap and repeat)
• No display out via HDMI or AV
• Gamepad shows a screen instructing me to turn on the Wii U and the TV (I guess it has become 'unpaired')

I had a Pi Zero on hand, so I tried to get the UDPIH up on that, but I'm struggling to get it to work. I'm not sure if this is down to timing (not sure what to aim for given the lack of display out), the Hub I am using (so that I can continue to have network access whilst also plugging into the Wii U), or if the Wii U is bricked beyond the point of UDPIH working.

Logs don't seem to show anything on the Pi Zero side, no matter how many times I attempt UDPIH:

I've tried lots of searching to see if I could resolve it myself, but I seem to have hit a brick wall, so I'd appreciate any pointers.

 

[SDIO]

Does the Wii U even turn the power on the USB port on?
You have to look for the LED turning purple, if it turns purple, udpih works.
If you have no Screen output there might be a very short window where UDPIH works. But it's likely that it won't work at all, because it is crashing too early.

Your case sounds like a bad eMMC. So you can either defuse and then use MLC2SD or redNAND an rebuild a fresh MLC there or you could also try to dump the eMMC in hardware (using an SD card reader) and then either erase it and write the image back or write the image to a 32GB sd card and use that. (MLC2SD makes that easier). That might get the console boot far enough so you can use UDPIH to install ISFShax and don't need to defuse.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/ultimat...reset-black-screen-after-stuck-update.642339/

 

[szeater]

Thanks for the reply, and for all your hardwork in this community in general!

It does look like the Wii U provides power to the USB Port during the boot process (around 2-3 seconds after the first set of disc initialisation). Should I use this as a 'guide' on when I should plug in the Pi Zero for UDPIH? To clarify, I plugged in a USB drive I have that lights up, and it lights up for a few seconds 2-3 seconds after the first disc initialisation.

I am considering popping into a local electronics store and picking up a Pico if there is any merit in using that over the Pi Zero.

Regarding the MLC2SD process, am I correct in understanding that the aim there would be to read the existing eMMC to an img file, correct any errors, and then rewrite it to the eMMC?

 

[SDIO]

The pico likely won't help you with UDPIH. If it works with the Pico it should also work with the zero. Only the the timing would be a little different because the pico needs a moment to start up after being plugged in.
But you would need the Pico for defuse.

Regarding the MLC2SD process, am I correct in understanding that the aim there would be to read the existing eMMC to an img file, correct any errors, and then rewrite it to the eMMC?

You wouldn't correct the errors. By erasing and rewriting the the image or by writing it to an SD, you prevent it from reporting ECC errors, so it can hopefully boot further.

 

[szeater]

I'm going to pick up a Pico today and just give that a shot with UDPIH, but assuming that doesn't work, am I correct in my understanding that installing an MLC2D interposer, and then wiring that up into an SD card adapter of some kind will allow me to dump/reflash the existing eMMC without any requirement of getting into UDPIH? Or will I need to go the defuse route ultimately. Apologies if these questions seem simple/stupid!

 

[SDIO]

You don't need the pico for dumping the eMMC. But you need an SD reader and make an adapter out of an micro SD adapter. It you use the second sdio port on the GPIOS of the zero. But it is not guaranteed to work.
Also a USB 3 card readers usually don't work.
If it doesn't work, you still need to defuse.