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.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I agree that it might be best to start from scratch since I don’t know what is and isn’t good. I do have a question though. Do I need to also include the SLC titles in the install, or is it unnecessary since that shouldn’t be affected?

 

[SDIO]

I think you already installed all of them, so I wouldn't do it again. In case something goes wrong you don't want to mess them up.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I just wanted to give a quick update. I decided to use wafel_destroy and then reformat the micro SD card to make sure it was totally wiped clean. I then use wafel_setup_mlc, but there was an error when trying to install the Health & Safety App. I then used wafel_destroy and wafel_setup_mlc together like I did previously, and I believe it wiped it clean as the subsequent wafel_setup_mlc seemed to work fine. I've attached some logs in case anyone wants to take a look. One is for my destroy attempt (with setup at the same time), one is the setup log written to the SD card, and the last one is the log from PuTTY when I did the install.

I didn't have a chance to try out the Wii U, but I plan on doing so tonight. I'll probably just have to go through the setup and Tiramisu installation again.

 

[SDIO]

Your install looks good. I would expect everything to work.

But I need to work on the wafel_destroy, to make it more reliable for the future.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I got around to trying the Wii U. Went through the initial setup and everything seems to be fine. It's not finicky like it was before, which to me is a sign that my solder joints are good. Tiramisu/Homebrew is quite finicky though and I'm not sure why. My only guess is that since I'm using a sort of cheap, no name SD card, the SD card might be at fault. I'm going to try a better card and see if that makes a difference.

Post automatically merged: Oct 7, 2023

Update: I swapped SD cards and I'm not sure if that made a difference, but I did end up getting Tiramisu to work. I was able to get into WiiUFtpServer, so at least for the time being, I'm back at where I was when I was trying to see if I salvage any save data. Going back almost 3 weeks now,

What ids have the users in the old dump?

I have two users in the old dump, which should be the correct amount (one is me and the other is my brother). It may be unneccesary, but I have attached a screenshot of the folders. Should I try placing those user folders into the appropriate location on my Wii U via FTP, or is there something else that needs to be done?

 

[SDIO]

No don't copy this folder, that is only the profile, but not the game saves. The game saves are in usr/save/00050000
There is a subfolder for every game and that has then subfolders for each user.

I would recommend you launch all the games first on both users, so they create new save data and then you copy the old save data over the new. First launching the game to create the savegame ensures that the quotas are set up correctly.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I’ll give that a shot. I guess what I was meaning to ask with the last post is if users could be transferred over. I’m not sure what exactly is stored in the user folders, but I would assume stuff like their Mii and settings, among other things.

 

[SDIO]

You should be able to copy the users over

 

[ChefVortivask]

Ok. My only worry was that if I brought over the two old users and got rid of the new user on the Wii U, there would be issues when I return to the menu.

 

[SDIO]

You would overwrite the users on the console, that should be fine. You can try one user, see if it works and then do the other

 

[ChefVortivask]

I actually came to the same plan. I'll do that and let you know how it goes. Worst case scenario, I have to rebuild the mlc again.

Post automatically merged: Oct 9, 2023

I guess I should have stated this earlier, but one of the users is probably my old account that had my Nintendo Network ID linked to it. I'm still going to give what we've said a try, but I'm wondering if something weird will happen if I have two users on the console that have the same Nintendo Network ID.

 

[SDIO]

I think there is no reason to restore a user which had a nnid linked. Shouldn't the NNID automatically restore your Mii and stuff?

Post automatically merged: Oct 10, 2023

Also you should make sure the users have the same IDs as before, else you would have a lot of renaming to do for the saves

 

[ChefVortivask]

I'm not sure how I'd know which ID is which, aside from memory and logic. I'm going to guess that my brother made his account first, so it'll be 1, and I'm 2.

Also you are correct in that it did restore my Mii.

I did the file transfer, so and after turning off the Wii U, both users are on there. I tried using some discs, but they didn’t show up on the menu. I turned the system off and then got a blinking red light which I think has something to do with the power supply or heat. I’m going to try again later.

 

[SDIO]

Blinking red can also mean the disc drive cable is installed the wrong was around

 

[ChefVortivask]

I'm thinking it might be that. I'll double check how the ribbon cable is installed, but I don't think it's backwards because I had that issue months ago and I fixed it. I never took out the ribbon cable since then so it should be fine. I think the issue is the connection to the motherboard probably wasn't that good, hence why discs weren't being read. On top of that, the disc drive also wasn't acting normally. It didn't make the normal sounds it should upon startup (I think it checks for a disc three times?), also when I ejected the discs, it sounded like it was doing the ejection for far longer than it should have. I know ribbon cables can sometimes be picky and if they're not seated just right, you can get weird results.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I tried the disc drive and although it sounded right, I wasn't getting any output to my TV or Gamepad. I tried disconnecting the drive, but that didn't fix the issue. I tried de_Fuse and I was getting errors with Patch & Boot (big surprise). I decided to try testing the voltage since the wire is so close to the ribbon cable connector, and I figured that if anything went wrong, it would be that wire disconnecting. Voltage looked fine, and then Patch & Boot sort of worked, but I'm getting errors. I've attached a log to show that.

Obviously it looks like that connection to the NAND-AID is flaky at best and I plan on reflowing it for what seems like the third time now. I've never had so many issues with flaky connections as I have with this project. Even when I had a cheap soldering iron my joints were always solid, so I have no idea what's going on. I'll chalk this one up to me perhaps nudging that wire and slightly breaking the connection, but anyways I'm wondering if the SD card got corrupted and needs to be rebuilt again.

Something interesting also happened that has never happened before. The last two times I went to turn off the Wii U, everything was fine, but then the Wii U seemed to turn itself back on with an orange light. I have no idea what caused it, nor do I know if it's an issue or not, but I thought it was worth mentioning . I've attached a log for that as well.

 

[SDIO]

I don't see a problem with the MLC, so don't touch the NAND-AID. I only see that it complains about the missing disc drive.
You can disable the Disc Drive in the SATA SEEPROM settings in the Backup and Restore Menu in minute. Set it to None for now and see if that makes your console boot again.

The orange blinking mit minute just means that the minute boot1 wasn't ablte to load minute (fw.img) from the SD

 

[ChefVortivask]

I can give that a try, but that still leaves the question of why I got different results after I tested for voltage. I do feel like that’s significant, especially given the fact that I couldn’t get any output even with the disc drive properly connected.

Post automatically merged: Oct 13, 2023

I should also point out that although I did not show the logs from before I did the voltage test, I did look through them and did not see the mlc (SD card) detected. Obviously in the log I showed after the test, it’s detected, but it really seems to me that the test fixed a loose connection.

 

[SDIO]

The NAND AID gets the 3V3 from the same source as the disc drive. If you shorted something there the MLC also wouldn't come up.

 

[ChefVortivask]

I think I understand what you’re saying. If the disc drive wasn’t connected properly, it could cause a short, resulting in the mlc not showing up. That makes sense, but the only issue is that I disconnected the disc drive before doing anything with de_Fuse. If it were the case that an improper connection was causing a short, I would think it wouldn’t be an issue with the disc drive disconnected.

Perhaps the errors are somewhat random and by coincidence, once I tested for voltage, I just got lucky and the mlc started showing up?

For testing purposes, I’ll disable the drive to make sure the mlc is ok.

Post automatically merged: Oct 14, 2023

Ok so I did some tests and have attached some logs. The first log is the first log of Patch & Boot after selecting none for SEEPROM. I then tried "default" after that, and then tried "none" again. Right now I have it on "default" and it's giving me the same results as when I set SEEPROM to "none". Right now I'm thinking all connections are fine, but I don't know how to explain what I'm seeing. Perhaps the disc drive being attached improperly caused some sort of glitch?