Hacking Wiimmortality -The trick that makes full bricks fixable

Twinmold's M

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Alternate Method to Brick Fixing
Fix various types of bricks in 4 simple steps!​

If you have encountered a brick, and you do not have BootMii installed as Boot2, this is the guide for you.

If the brick was the result of a corrupt IOS, resulting in a less common type of full brick, you most likely will not be able to enter Recovery Mode, meaning this method will not work.

Most Wii un-bricking guides suggest that when a Wii system menu becomes bricked, and BootMii is not installed as boot2, there are only two ways to unbrick the Wii: either send it to Nintendo for repair, or install a drive chip and use SaveMiiFrii to boot a Wii Recovery disc ISO. But I successfully used a different method, in which I used to fix a banner bricked Wii system menu, where the system menu would not load at all (basically the equivalent of a full brick). This is a method I like to call "Wiimmortality" because it could potentially fix any type of brick as long as you can access Recovery Mode in only a few simple steps.

It is not guaranteed that this method will work, but only in rare cases will you not be able to access what this method requires.

All you need to use this method are these items:

Gamecube controller
SD card
Homebrew Loader (such as StackSmash, Twilight Hack, Indiana Pwns, etc.)

STEPS

1. Make sure your SD card is prepared to load a Homebrew installer. You will need to use the Hombrew Loader you used to originally install the Homebrew Channel on your Wii, so it is necessary to make sure that ALL files used to boot the Hombrew Loader that you have on your NAND are on your SD card. This includes boot.elf and a specific file placed in /private/wii/app/ or /private/wii/ that is also needed to boot the Homebrew Loader.

2. Enter Recovery Mode on your Wii. This can be done quite simply. Just plug a GC controller into port 4 and as you power on your Wii, repeatedly press all directions on the D-Pad (this does not require you to disassemble the controller by any means), and your Wii firmware should be displayed at the bottom right corner of the screen. This may take a few attempts to perform correctly, but it is not entirely difficult to do. It is possible, however, but rare, that you may not be able to access Recovery Mode depending on the type of brick.

3. Boot your Homebrew Loader. Simply insert the game that your Homebrew Loader requires and your SD card (make sure this is done after you enter Recovery Mode), and your Wii should launch the game. Now simply follow the instructions that correspond with your Homebrew Loader so that you can launch the Homebrew installer.

4. Undo the action that bricked your Wii. You have two options here: Go ahead and reinstall BootMii as boot2 to prevent other future bricks (if possible), or just choose exit from the Homebrew installer, and you will be returned to the Homebrew Channel. From here you can install Preloader/Priiloader if you cannot install BootMii as boot2 to prevent future bricks. Once you've done that, undo the action performed that caused your Wii to brick. For example, if you accidentally installed a corrupted WAD, you can now uninstall it. Or you can load BootMii (now from the Homebrew Channel, of course
smile.gif
) and enter the second options screen and choose the second icon, which can recover from the brick.

After all steps are completed, your Wii is officially unbricked!
 
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tueidj

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Twinmold's Mask said:
Simply insert the game that your Homebrew Loader requires and your SD card (make sure this is done after you enter Recovery Mode), and your Wii should launch the game.
Even if you are able to get into recovery mode (which is not the case with most full bricks), this step normally won't work.
 

giantpune

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Twinmold's Mask said:
... as long as you can access Recovery Mode...

lmao. do you have any idea how much stuff must go right in order for recovery mode to work? this method doesnt work for many of the common causes of bricks. and you say it can be used to fix a full brick. dont you consider a deleted system menu IOS a full brick?

i can repair any model of car, as long as the car is american made, from the 60s and 70s, and it has no major engine and transmission issues
 

JoostinOnline

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Last time I checked, the Diagnostic Disc Test will prevent you from booting a retail game, and you have to press all the d-pad buttons at once. You also need to have the exploit on your NAND, not your SD card.

Edit: The recovery menu can't even be accessed if you have a full brick.
 

Twinmold's M

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giantpune said:
Twinmold's Mask said:
... as long as you can access Recovery Mode...

lmao. do you have any idea how much stuff must go right in order for recovery mode to work? this method doesnt work for many of the common causes of bricks. and you say it can be used to fix a full brick. dont you consider a deleted system menu IOS a full brick?

i can repair any model of car, as long as the car is american made, from the 60s and 70s, and it has no major engine and transmission issues

All you have to do to access Recovery Mode is repeatedly press all buttons on the d-pad on a GC controller in port 4. It can be done in a matter of minutes.

Recovery Mode can be accessed if a full brick is the result of a corrupt system menu (I actually loaded Recovery Mode on a Wii with a corrupted system menu). I guess I didn't consider full bricks caused by a corrupt IOS.
 

JoostinOnline

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Twinmold's Mask said:
Recovery Mode can be accessed if a full brick is the result of a corrupt system menu (I actually loaded Recovery Mode on a Wii with a corrupted system menu). I guess I didn't consider full bricks caused by a corrupt IOS.
You are thinking of a banner brick, not a full brick.

By the way, you realize that is giantpune you are "correcting"? Lol!
 

Twinmold's M

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JoostinOnline said:
You are thinking of a banner brick, not a full brick.

Actually, full bricks generally occur when the system menu refuses to boot for any reason. In this case, your NAND is not damaged, but it is impossible to boot the Wii system menu. This means you certainly can access Recovery Mode. Evidence here.

QUOTE(JoostinOnline @ May 23 2011, 11:52 PM) By the way, you realize that is giantpune you are "correcting"? Lol!

Nevertheless, if you attempt to access Recovery Mode simply by repeatedly pressing all buttons on the GC D-pad, rather than disassembling the controller, it will work flawlessly
wink.gif
. While disassembling the controller works, it is not an effective method because it is much more time consuming than the method I mentioned above.
 

giantpune

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what im saying is that you are advertising this as some way to "Fix most full bricks, banner bricks, or almost any other type of brick".

the system menu must be bootable for the recovery mode to work. this is a really huge requirement, and rules out a large percentage of situations.
try using this to fix a wii with the priibricker-ahbprot-brick, waninkoko-4.0-safe-updater-brick, dumbass-deleted-the-system-menu-brick, or downgrade-the-system-menu-and-have-it-use-a-stub-ios-brick.
 

mauifrog

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Recovery menu will not load any game that is not patched to autoboot, or the "Diag Disc Check" is patched out of the system menu with priiloader or similar. So anyone that can boot a game from the recovery menu should have priiloader installed and working, unless they used starpatch.

My point is, on 99.9% of wiis that are bricked without priiloader, they can't boot anything from the recovery menu without first installing a modchip or have dip patched system ios. Also all game exploits excepts Smash Stack must be installed to the nand, which can't be done from the recovery menu on 4.X+ wiis.

If your interested in what can be done from the recovery menu, read THIS THREAD. It details all know methods.

One last thing, any brick that can be fixed via software is a "Semi-Brick" in my opinion. An brick the can not be fix without nand programming = Full brick
 

WiiPower

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giantpune said:
what im saying is that you are advertising this as some way to "Fix most full bricks, banner bricks, or almost any other type of brick".

the system menu must be bootable for the recovery mode to work. this is a really huge requirement, and rules out a large percentage of situations.
try using this to fix a wii with the priibricker-ahbprot-brick, waninkoko-4.0-safe-updater-brick, dumbass-deleted-the-system-menu-brick, or downgrade-the-system-menu-and-have-it-use-a-stub-ios-brick.

And on top of it, you need the savegame for the games with savegame exploits installed on nand. And i think SSBB can't be booted from there at all. Did i miss something?

Anyways, to me a full brick means a boot2, system menu or IOS problem. A big problem that prevents any of those 3 to be executed at all. So a corrupted boot2, system menu deleted, system menu IOS deleted, system menu IOS is a stub and system menu IOS is one of the IOS that can't be used on your wii(3.x IOS on "new Wii). That's a full brick to me, and it can only be fixed with BootMii boot2 and/or flashing BootMii boot2 on the nand chip with a nand programmer.
 

mauifrog

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SSBB-pal can be booted from RM on NTSC-u/PAL wiis
SSBB-kor can be booted from RM on NTSC-k wiis
NTSC-j wiis can not boot SSBB from RM. Actually SSBB-pal will boot on NTSC-j, but the jap language gives a black screen, same with ssbb-kor.
 

WiiUBricker

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Who gets a brick these days anyway? Wad and system tools have security checks and bricks are well documented. Any lazy noobs shouldnt mod theirs Wii anyway.
 

ciris

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Bladexdsl said:
this guide is about as useful as aluminum tits!
rofl.gif

Love this reply, it put a smile on my face. As you guys can see, the op is a noob, even though he could very well be considered one by post count alone, or join date (op joined yesterday) but more so for not completely understanding what a full brick is. The Youngling needs to read more.
 

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