Wii U Stuck on Logo

[ChefVortivask]

Hello everyone,

First time poster here. I decided to make this post since I am having issues with my Wii U. Currently, my Wii U will not boot up to the main menu. It stays stuck on the Wii U logo indefinitely.

There are a few things to note about my console. The console is the black 32 gb model. I believe it was bought during the 2012 holiday season (release) as we were expecting to play Pikmin 3 before it got delayed. The system has never been modded in any fashion. It was not the most heavily played console, and I can't even give a good estimate of when it was last used (at least more than 3 years).

I have already tried doing the UDPIH, however it does not seem to be working. When using the second recovery menu, I get a white screen with some blue lines (see attached image). I believe this is similar to what @fadafwet described in his post. I was able to get the logs from the system, which I have attached to this post. Any idea what the issue may be and how to fix it? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[SDIO]

I meant the syslogs dumped with the app or the recovery from the slc, so I can see your pas 160-0103 crashes

Post automatically merged: Sep 18, 2023

In the patch and boot log I can see that you have the setup mlc wafel still in it. You should remove that after the setup, so the setup doesn't run again. Also I see there that the mlc isn't coming online, so you have probably a Hardware problem there, meansing bad NAND-AID install, like bad solder joint or a short.

 

[ChefVortivask]

Am I able to run Homebrew apps if I get that error?

You are right about setup mlc wafel still being in there. I was being lazy and didn't take it out because I assumed that if it detected the card, the setup wouldn't run again because it was already formatted.

Setting that aside, I too noticed the mlc not coming online (I actually saw it as the SD card not being detected, but it's probably the same idea). Assuming the SD card isn't defective, I agree that the issue may lie in the NAND-AID. It could also explain why the Wii U was being finicky. I plan on reflowing every joint (using flux of course), including the joints for the card socket as those haven't been reflowed.

I also want to make it clear that although I wouldn't consider myself an expert on soldering, I wouldn't say I'm a noob either. I know I checked that card slot for continuity when I first soldered it to the NAND-AID. Maybe there's a flaky connection that needs to be fixed. I'll do reflowing first and then dump the logs to see if the issue is fixed.

Post automatically merged: Sep 18, 2023

I'll also check for shorts too since you did indicate that that could be an issue. Thankfully with the card adapter out of the way, it should make my job a lot easier.

 

[SDIO]

Am I able to run Homebrew apps if I get that error?

I assumed the problem is only intermittent.

You are right about setup mlc wafel still being in there. I was being lazy and didn't take it out because I assumed that if it detected the card, the setup wouldn't run again because it was already formatted.

No, it still installs everything, even if it is still installed.

Setting that aside, I too noticed the mlc not coming online (I actually saw it as the SD card not being detected, but it's probably the same idea).

Yes that's what I meant

Maybe there's a flaky connection that needs to be fixed. I'll do reflowing first and then dump the logs to see if the issue is fixed.

That's what I would assume, and then it's also hard to find with the multi meter, especially as pressing down the probe might connect it.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I guess you could say the problem is intermittent, but that error screen only showed up that one time. I took that as a sign that something was wrong (it also probably explains why sometimes patch and boot would work and sometimes it wouldn’t). I haven’t tried going through Homebrew since then out of an abundance of caution.

I really think it has to do with the card slot since those connections to the motherboard have been reflowed and checked. I’ll first reflow that and then maybe the motherboard connections. Again I feel confident in my soldering abilities, but maybe something came loose or wasn’t as solid as I thought.

 

[SDIO]

We see that the problem is the connection to the nand aid sd, so no need to dump the syslogs anymore.
Are you sure that the GND connection is good? Or maybe the SD slot got damaged by the heat.

 

[ChefVortivask]

GND has always been solid so I don’t think that’s an issue. As for heat and the card slot, I guess it’s a possibility, but I tried not heating up for long periods of time so that I could prevent the plastic components from melting. Is there any way to check that?

 

[SDIO]

Btw, I think the Problem is either with CLK, CMD, GND or 3V3 from what I can see in the minute log you posted. If the problem were only with one of the DAT lines I would expect to see the error later in the power up process of the card

 

[ChefVortivask]

That makes sense. I reflowed the pins a couple of days ago but haven't got around to testing it out. Is there any diagram out there showing the pinout of the card slot to the NAND-AID? Before I was just using the EVAL files to determine what the pins correlated to, but that consisted of a lot of tracing.

 

[V10lator]

Not the best image but there you go @ChefVortivask

Also some note from @SDIO:

1:1
2:8
3:7
4:2
5:3
6:5
From left to right.
First number is at the resistors, second at the slot.

(6:5 / CLK is missing on the image)

 

[ChefVortivask]

That will be a big help. Thank you @V10lator!

I would assume that if the pin isn't matched with a pad (say for example the forth pin from the left on the card slot), it's not connected to anything (at least for our purposes), which would mean no continuity to anything?

 

[V10lator]

say for example the forth pin from the left on the card slot

That should be 3.3 V, so a bad example.
6. pin is GND.
9. pin is not used / floating.

//EDIT: So a list of all pins, from left to right:
1 = D2
2 = D3
3 = CM
4 = 3.3 V
5 = CLK
6 = GND
7 = D0
8 = D1
9 = Not connected
... This was quick&dirty, so hopefully I didn't do any mistake.

 

[ChefVortivask]

Thank you. I'll check continuity before trying de_Fuse again.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I reflowed the pins for the card slot and I think everything is fine, but I wanted to post the log from patch and boot just to make sure. I'm getting this iosPanic at the end that I don't think I ever got before, so I don't know what that's about. The only thing that concerns me is that I don't see the attached volume to mlc01.

 

[SDIO]

No MLC, there is something wrong with the soldering.

Check the connections and check for shorts.
Also make sure to check that the 3V3 is soldered good

Post automatically merged: Sep 23, 2023

Did you get MLC errors in minute?

 

[ChefVortivask]

I had already checked for shorts, but went and checked again and could not find any shorts. 3V3 seemed to be good since it gave continuity, but not to the test pad on the back. Not sure if it's supposed to, but I went ahead and resoldered the wire to the leg of that component on the board (not sure what it is, a regulator perhaps). Either way, my tests are now showing the mlc as detected. I've attached two logs which do show different results, but in both, the card is detected. I've tried three times and the third try gave the same result as the first try.

Also had my brother in his room tell me the gamepad came on so I think that's a good sign.

 

[SDIO]

Horray we have the mlc again:

00:00:01:167: MCP: FSA volume on device /dev/mlc01 (wfs) attached @ uptime 1.167 s.

And yeah the Game Pad doesn't come one without the mlc.

The second one crashed with MEDIA errors. So maybe the connection is still flaky:

00:00:04:921: mdblk: err=-131090, mid=0x03, prv=0x87, pnm=[SH64G80]
00:00:04:923: FSA: ### MEDIA ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-2228230, cmd:10, path:/usr/save/system/act/uuid.dat
00:00:04:926: ACT: [WARN] file open error occured. (-196673)
0xFFE43EF0:   0xFFE43F00    0xFFF129A0 +0x0
0xFFE43F00:   0x00000000    0xFFF01FCC +0x0
00;00;04;582: KiCblRegisterBlocks() completed with status 0:-4.
00:00:04:940: mdblk: err=-131090, mid=0x03, prv=0x87, pnm=[SH64G80]
00:00:04:942: FSA: ### MEDIA ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-2228230, cmd:10, path:/usr/save/system/act/common.dat
00:00:04:946: ACT: [WARN] file open error occured. (-196673)
00:00:04:959: mdblk: err=-131090, mid=0x03, prv=0x87, pnm=[SH64G80]
00:00:04:962: FSA: ### MEDIA ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-2228230, cmd:10, path:/usr/save/system/act/uuid.dat.tmp
00:00:04:965: ACT: [WARN] file open error occured. (-196673)
00:00:04:978: mdblk: err=-131090, mid=0x03, prv=0x87, pnm=[SH64G80]
00:00:04:980: FSA: ### MEDIA ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-2228230, cmd:27, path:/usr/save/system/act
00:00:05:007: mdblk: err=-131090, mid=0x03, prv=0x87, pnm=[SH64G80]
00:00:05:009: FSA: ### MEDIA ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-2228230, cmd:25, path:/sys/title/00050030/1001a10a/code/app.xml
00:00:05:024: mdblk: err=-131090, mid=0x03, prv=0x87, pnm=[SH64G80]
00:00:05:026: FSA: ### MEDIA ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-2228230, cmd:25, path:/sys/title/00050030/1006d10a/code/app.xml

Can you show a Picture of the soldering and where you get the 3V3? The component is btw a transistor, uses to gate the 3V3 for the DIsc drive

 

[ChefVortivask]

I’ve attached two pictures of the connection. Let me know if you need a picture from a different angle or something.

 

[SDIO]

Can you show where you cut the CLK line?

Also the MEDIA errors we see in the logs seem to be reported by the host controller and not the card itself. The -131090 is CMD_TIMEOUT_ERROR (thanks @gary). This is the same error I get, when I remove the card from the running console

 

[ChefVortivask]

It was a bit hard to focus, but here it is. Also just so it’s clear, the trace is almost certainly cut since there is no continuity between the two sides.

 

[SDIO]

can you measure from every resistor (the side you didn't solder to) to the corrosponding pin on the SD slot in resistance mode and see if any one of them has a higher resistance? For CLK you could try to find the VIA on the other side of the board an measure from there. You should measure 0Ohm for that.
Also use tweezers to poke each of the SD slot pins to make sure they don't move and are really soldered.

Just in case you can also use the Multimeter to check the 3V3 (against GND in DC mode) when the console is on to see if the power supply for the SD is good.