OK, so I'm inheriting a Wii soon from someone. It's 2 years old so I assume it has the easy to mod chipset. Likely going with WiiKey or D2Pro (I'll open it up to be sure before I order). All I really care to do with it is play backups. Bricking is the only gray area I'm seeing on forums. As far as I can tell, to avoid bricking it, the only thing I have to do is run any iso I'm not 100% sure of through BrickBlocker or RegionFrii before burning? Or is that not accurate? Also, can it be hooked up online or does that give update/brick issues too? OK, past the basic questions, most of the chips say they run stealthy or have a disable option. Is the chip ever what affects brick issues? The WiiKey is 6 wire I think I remember... one power, one ground, and 4 data. Would there ever be a benefit to running the data lines through a tri-state buffer IC so that it could be essentially disconnected at the touch of a button when it could cause a problem? That wouldn't add any real difficulty to the install and would cost under a dollar for the IC and switch. That way the chip could be disconnected for an online update... if that matters. Thanks for any info.
The issue that get some people is updating the Wii with another regions update code. So don't update a Euro Wii with USA code, etc. You don't need to scrub any disk if you're sure of the disk. If a disk prompts you for an update - select "no" to the update, quit game, and make sure your Wii is up-to-date via the online update. If you put it in again and it prompts to update again then throw away the game as it's probably another region. But if you want to play out of region games - yeah, do what you said.
You can also use a tool to remove the update, and then burn it. I've forgotten the name, but i'm sure it's somewhere here on GBAtemp for download.
Unless you're 100% sure that you're source is from the same region as you (i.e PAL or NTSC), run the ISO through "brick blocker" (google it.. home page shows straight up) Once it's been brick blocked, which only takes a minute, you're 99% safe. To be 100% safe, like already been said, throw away anything asking you to update. ironlung
