Wii U Bricked? Unsure what to do next!

[SPJ]

Hi everyone,

I could really use some help here from someone with a much better understanding of what's going on. I checked the other threads and unsure which part might be the issue as I think I screwed up something along the way!

Basically I hadn't had this machine on for a while, it's Wii U 32GB PAL with 5.5.1 E, on boot it was getting error 160-0103

I managed to get a Raspberry Pi PICO and was able to get into the recovery_menu without much problems, however for a while I couldn't get into the Minute menu. After much trial and error trying different boot1.img and fw.img from various threads I somehow managed to get a working one that allowed me to display the Minute menu on my TV and I could navigate and do various things. I had already dumped the seeprom and otp using the menu and I was able to get all the region files for the MLC and SLC and have them saved.

I also managed to get ISFShax installed and was able to boot straight to Minute on boot of the Wii U with the SD card inserted, which was great. So while there I then tried to Format redNAND and Erase MLC, then I think I tried Restore redNAND MLC but nothing was working as the guides explained.

When I select "Select Patch (sd) and Boot ios redNAND" it looks like it's doing something on screen but then stops at line "Jumping to IOS... GO GO GO" and the LED just stayed solid Purple!

This is where I screwed up, I was wondering if ISFShax was causing an issue so I think I uninstalled it, and now I can't get into teh Minute menu. I have also now lost the image to the screen for both the recovery_menu, although I know this works as I can Blindly use it, but if I try to load Boot1.img it looks like it switches over as the machine resets and the LED goes Purple, but I try blindly trying any of the options like even dumping and none work! I also now have to use the PICO just to get the recovery menu to load (I don't see it, it's just a mess on the screen, like a pixelated mess).

So my question is what to do now? What exactly is needed on the sd card, which has the partitions that I setup when following the redNAND guide, so I have one named HOMEBREW which was for all the stuff to get recovery menu etc, I also had the wafel_install folder here with the MLC/SLC titles in the folder which was recovered from my OTP dump as far as I recall. The other Partition is MLC which has nothing in it

Appreciate any help and sorry if there's info on similar in another thread I may have missed.

 

[SDIO]

So while there I then tried to Format redNAND and Erase MLC, then I think I tried Restore redNAND MLC but nothing was working as the guides explained.

No guide tells you to do this...

This is where I screwed up, I was wondering if ISFShax was causing an issue so I think I uninstalled it, and now I can't get into teh Minute menu. I have also now lost the image to the screen for both the recovery_menu,

Yes, you erased the MLC and uninstalled the thing that wa sloading minute and allowed you to do anything.

So my question is what to do now?

Now you first need to get ISFShax back. For that you now need to use Paid the Beak

 

[SPJ]

No guide tells you to do this...


Yes, you erased the MLC and uninstalled the thing that wa sloading minute and allowed you to do anything.


Now you first need to get ISFShax back. For that you now need to use Paid the Beak

Appreciate you getting back to me, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do any of that, but guess I will have to sort out out, it just looked a bit fiddly with the Y lead thing, but I have a PICO and soldering gear, just need to have a proper read and follow as best I can, or does someone sell the the little jig, I couldn't see any on Ebay?

Post automatically merged: Jan 19, 2026

Now you first need to get ISFShax back. For that you now need to use Paid the Beak

Quick question, PTB or DeFuse? Just wondering if I'm messing around which would you recommend? I essentially just want to get the WiiU back to factory reset, like it was when I got it, or is this not really doable now?

Also I've saved the otp.bin and seeprom.bin dumped files and got a copy of my wafel_install with both the MLC and SLC files

 

[SDIO]

PTB is much easier than defuse

 

[SPJ]

PTB is much easier than defuse

I setup PTB using a PICO and managed to get the Minute menu to load.

Next, I made sure to install ISFShax and now it auto-boots on start-up to the Minute menu. Phewww!!!

I created the wafel_install folder on the SD and put all the MLC/SLC files back onto the card with the iOS plugin and ran the "Select Patch (sd) and Boot IOS (slc)" menu option, it went through teh process with the blue flashing LED, so I left that until it completed and then ran "Select Patch (sd) and Boot IOS (slc)" again and it then rebooted the Wii U and now I’m back to, what I assume is stock firmware, as the Wii U booted up and I went through the initial setup.

One strange thing though, when I was going through the initial setup the Wii U drive activated but unsure if this was normal, it didn't seems to do anything and I continued on to creating the Mii.

Is there anything else I need to do at this stage? Or is that essentially the machine fixed? I would like to update the Wii U to the latest firmware so it's got all updates it should, is this possible with the consoles normal update options or is it something I have to do using the Minute menu?

I assume I also need to set it to auto boot to the Wii U instead of Minute on power on? What's the best process for this, or does it always need the SD now? I'm planning to sell on the console so I'd rather not have it need anything like that if possible.

Cheers

 

[SDIO]

You can just da the update via the system settings. But if you also included the SLC titles, then it is already up to date. Make sure you don't accidentally block the updates with aroma.

For configuring autboot you find the instructions in the isfshax guide.
You are not using redNAND right now. You can't sell it like that. it still has a bad eMMC that will go bad again in the future.

 

[SPJ]

You can just da the update via the system settings. But if you also included the SLC titles, then it is already up to date. Make sure you don't accidentally block the updates with aroma.

For configuring autboot you find the instructions in the isfshax guide.
You are not using redNAND right now. You can't sell it like that. it still has a bad eMMC that will go bad again in the future.

Yeah I included the SLC and as you say it does look like it's on 5.5.5 E now!

Curiously, if I boot the `Wii u without the SD, the LED goes Purple and then the console boots totally fine, straight to the Wii Menu, I even tested playing a Wii U game (ZombiU) and all worked without issue. Internet is connected etc. I haven't setup a NNID yet as I was just wanting to test it all worked. IS it working and loading straight to the Wii U menu without SD because I did the "Select Patch (sd) and Boot IOS (slc)" or have I got a strange setup and it's doing something extra? I didn't have any minute.ini for instance so it's not like I set that to autoboot.

Could it be that everything's OK with the machine, I just got unlucky as I hadn't used it for ages? I took a anew Dump of everything after I knew the console was working, otp.bin / seeprom.bin / SLC.RAW the crash logs just in case.

I know you said "You can't sell it like that. it still has a bad eMMC that will go bad again in the future" so would redNAND be the safest option. Of course I would mention either way if I update or not so the buyer knew.

Post automatically merged: Jan 20, 2026

Sorry @SDIO to pester you, I'm thinking I might do the Aroma CFW but is my WiiU classed as Unmodified now or does having the ISFShax exploit means it's modified? It's just that the guides all say to do on an UNMODIFIED WiiU. However, you mentioned redNAND so I'm wondering if this is a better option as I have a 128GB SD to use, it's currently formatted with 32GB FAT32 and the rest is exFAT partition named MLC so should I be using this?]

I was going to use this guys guide on yourtube as it's pretty well done:

Once again thanks for your time and patience

 

[SDIO]

Curiously, if I boot the `Wii u without the SD, the LED goes Purple and then the console boots totally fine, straight to the Wii Menu, I even tested playing a Wii U game (ZombiU) and all worked without issue. Internet is connected etc. I haven't setup a NNID yet as I was just wanting to test it all worked. IS it working and loading straight to the Wii U menu without SD because I did the "Select Patch (sd) and Boot IOS (slc)" or have I got a strange setup and it's doing something extra? I didn't have any minute.ini for instance so it's not like I set that to autoboot.

That works how it is designed. If there is no minute to load, it will boot in a fallback mode without any plugins and only minimal patches to tolerate ISFShax.
It works for now since you rebuild the MLC clean. So everything on it is recently written and didn't have the time yet to decay again. But with enough time it will corrupt again.

I know you said "You can't sell it like that. it still has a bad eMMC that will go bad again in the future" so would redNAND be the safest option. Of course I would mention either way if I update or not so the buyer knew.

tbha I wouldn't feel comfortable selling it either way. Since with redNAND it has the mod preinstalled, the buyer might not understand and with just rebuilding the eMMC it will fail again in the future. The only way I would feel comfortable selling it would be to replace the eMMC in hardware, either by soldering a new eMMC or by using MLC2SD with a high endurance SD. But that that point it's hardly worth the effort at the price the console sells at. Maybe you could sell it as a plus if you sell it as a special with 64GB internal memory...

The ISFShax guide has Instructions on how to add Aroma if you keep ISFShax installed.