Corrupted WiiU Nand or not

[fadafwet]

These day we see many article about Wii U corrupted nand because of not being user for a long time
but in all these article they talk about an error message with specific numbers

In my case I don't have any of these error code, it just never load the wiiu menu
I has never been physically mod
I has never been softmod (only installed games with wup installer using the browser exploit) I don't know if this would be consider a softmod

I would like to know if there is a way for me to know if this is the same problem
if it is a hardware or software isssue. and what can I try to fix it

thank you

 

[SDIO]

Does the screen just stay black or does it freez during bootup? What exactly does it show, if it shows anything?

I think your best chance is UDPIH. If the Wii U gets far enough for that exploit to work, we can do a NAND Backup and analyze it and reinstall corrupted files.

 

[fadafwet]

It shows nintendo both on screen and gamepad then WiiU and it stays there forever
I have try UDPIH and I have no display just with garbage
Is it possible to do a nand backup from that tool ?
I wish I could make the display work with that tool

 

[SDIO]

What do you mean by garbage? Did you also try the recovery_menu_dc_init? Can you show a picture? Maybe also a picture where it hangs? I don't know of any boot phase where the Wii U shows Nintendo (but maybe my monitor is just to slow). I only know that the Gamepad shows Nintendo when it starts. But on the Gamepad this screen is internal to the Gamepad itself and not from the Wii U. After a while the Gamepad will show that it couldn't connect to the Wii U, when my Wii U was bricked. At least for me.

 

[V10lator]

I have try UDPIH and I have no display just with garbage

Do the following on that garbled screen: Press eject one time, then press power. Wait for around a minute and turn off the Wii U. Do you have a logs folder on your SD card now? If so zip and upload it for us to inspect.

 

[fadafwet]

I have try recovery_menu_dc_init and it did the same thing
You can look at this person post as it show the same white garbage on the screen
https://gbatemp.net/threads/udpih-usb-host-stack-exploit-recovery-menu.613369/page-30#post-10086825

yeah I think you are right the nintendo logo is only on the gamepad
I don't have the message "couldn't connect to the Wii U" just the song in a loop with tv and gamepad showing wiiu logo forever

yes I was able to get the logs any file you want me o upload there are lots of files and folders

 

[SDIO]

yeah, zip them and then upload them. The Wii U logo with the music means the Wii U gets pretty far in the boot process and your gamepad can already connect, hence you don't get the message that it couldn't connect.

Yes please zip the logs and upload it.

 

[fadafwet]

Here are the logs

If you can analyse them that would be great
thank you for the help

edit: Wrong logs Sorry

 

[V10lator]

FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:10, path:/usr/title/00050000/10144d00/content/System/Font/debug_font.gsh

 

[fadafwet]

thank you for sharing your findings

ok there is a corruption somewhere
is this mean this is a software issue and not a hardware one ?
Is there anything I can do to fix it in your opinion ?
I had a hard disk connected to the console with couple of games installed on it, can it be one of the games data that got corrupted of that drive, and the OS is referencing to it ?
If I can find which data/games it is and uninstall it maybe it could be fix,
but I cannot access wiiu menu at the moment so I cannot uninstall anything now

 

[SDIO]

I am not super falimiar with the logs, so maybe @V10lator can correct me if I am wrong and help me understand. I only see 18 logs, which means it didn't wrap around yet (it does after 99).

11.log has the most current date of 2021-05-06 21:10:56. 12.log starts again at 2012-10-16 19:33:44 which is before the launch and it also contains Data corruption errors. So I assume you removed the Battery, so the clock reset?
1.log 2013-11-23 02:22:50 logs diffrent and doesn't show data corruption. Also the Cafe OS SDK Version is newer in the 12.log than in the 1.log. So from that I assume the 18.log is the newest, even if it has a an older Date

What I see in all of the newer logs are these messages:

00:00:06:439: FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:11, path:(null)
00:00:06:450: FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:11, path:(null)
00:00:06:460: FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:11, path:(null)
00:00:06:504: FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:25, path:/usr/title/0005000e/10144d00/code/app.xml

The affected title there is Sports Club, which shouldn't be essential, and it seems the boot continues. Futher down I see again such an error:

00:00:26:830: FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:10, path:/usr/title/00050000/10144d00/content/System/Font/debug_font.gsh

And it seems to be looping with that error. Because I see it multiple times.
So from my understanding this could cause your Wii U to hang and we could try to fix it, by reinstalling that title.
But before you do anything, let's wait what @V10lator says to this.


EDIT: ok he was faster...

 

[fadafwet]

yes I remove the battery from the gamepad and put it back in a couple of days ago (before getting the logs) because I read that it might help with the problem
So Wii Sports Club is the corrupted one here
I hope there is a way that I can remove the corrupted game

thank you for your input and analysis

 

[SDIO]

thank you for sharing your findings

ok there is a corruption somewhere
is this mean this is a software issue and not a hardware one ?

Could be either one. Maybe the Wii U was powerd of in the wrong moment or the eMMC degraded. It would be good to know which model of eMMC you have.

Is there anything I can do to fix it in your opinion?

Yes we could either try to reinstall the title or delete the broken file

I had a hard disk connected to the console with couple of games installed on it, can it be one of the games data that got corrupted of that drive, and the OS is referencing to it ?

From the error message you can see the corruption is on the mlc, so it has nothing to do with the hard disk, but you should disconnect it anyway, just in case.

If I can find which data/games it is and uninstall it maybe it could be fix

Its Wii Sports Club

but I cannot access wiiu menu at the moment so I cannot uninstall anything now

I don't see an uninstall option in the recovery menu (afaik) , but if we exhausted everything else, we could add an option to that.
The other option would be to Download Sports Club from the NUS and install it via the WUP Installer.

Can you try to dump the OTP (just in case). It's the same procedure as dumping the logs, you just have to press eject two times instead of one.
You don't need to upload the OTP, but you would need it in case the problem gets worse to the point that UDPHI is no longer working.

Post automatically merged: Mar 11, 2023

I am not talking about the battery in the gamepad but the CR2032 in the console itself. It is responsible for keeping the time.

Post automatically merged: Mar 11, 2023

Was Sports Club a game you installed with the WUP installer? Do you still have the WUP lying around?

 

[V10lator]

Could be either one. Maybe the Wii U was powerd of in the wrong moment or the eMMC degraded.

I guess it was powered off in the wrong moment cause AFAIK hardware defects look different. I'm also not that familiar with the logs through. Maybe @GaryOderNichts is able to help us?

For the log order you're right: 18.log should be the latest, even if the date says otherwise. To make sure let me look into the meta.bin which contains the last log number... it contains 0x00000012 which is 18. So yea, 18.log is the latest.

I would also try to reinstall Wii Sports Club but doing that blindly from the recovery menu might be a bit tricky and I've never done that, so can't help here. In the worst case the log might also be completely unrelated and what we see here is a softlock which doesn't produce a log file. As there's no CFW on the console we also can't try to grab a live log though.

 

[fadafwet]

I think I upload the wrong log, I am sorry
I did so much test for this that I took the wrong folder
I will regenerated them and reupload them
truly sorry about that

I just regenerate the logs 5 minutes ago and the ones attach to this message are the proper ones
sorry about the previous upload as they were other logs

how long does it take to do OTP because I must do it blindly since i do not see anything on the screen

 

[SDIO]

OTP should be fast, just a few seconds. Wait a minute and you are safe.
BTW how comfortable are you with soldering?

I would find it also very helpful if the recovery menu had an option to do a full NAND dump. Maybe I find the motivation to add it myself...

 

[fadafwet]

Ok so I was able to dump these files on the sd card blindly
otp.bin
seeprom.bin

but they are only 1 Kb each
if you could take a look at the 2nd log (goodlogs.zip) that I uploaded that would be great
as they are the good ones for the console I am having the issue on

I found this line in the file 60
00:00:05:423: FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:25, path:/sys/title/0005001b/1006c000/code/app.xml

and 1006c000 seem to be for this (ref http://wiiubrew.org/wiki/Title_database)
Contains titleIDs of unreleased eShop demo titles? Possibly not unreleased as this file is loaded by MARIOKART 8 Campaign Soft (purpose of software and file loading unknown).

 

[SDIO]

OK 60.log is the most recent, according to the date and the meta.bin.
And now I think we have a problematic eMMC

00:00:07:938: mmc_core card err: idx=3, lba=55231488, blks=1024, xfer=0x1, ret=0x00200b40
00:00:07:975: mmc_core card err: idx=3, lba=55231488, blks=1024, xfer=0x1, ret=0x00200b40
00:00:07:976: mdblk: err=-131099, mid=0x90, prv=0x5c, pnm=[HYNIX ]
00:00:08:040: [WD]>>>> Linkup msg from Net
00:00:08:049: wlc_mlme_join_cmd called with Command 0x3 Length 0x21
00:00:08:373: FSA: ### MEDIA ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-2228230, cmd:11, path:(null)
00:00:08:373: failed to read file /vol/storage_mlc01/sys/title/0005001b/10042400/content/CafeCn.ttf, err -196673
00;00;08;254: ***LoadShared - WaitLoadComplete(0,8388608) failed with error -196673 on file "CafeCn.ttf".

Media errors, mmc_core card error and its a Hynix... When did you by the console? It's a 32GB model right?

The broken title there is 0005001b-10042400 which is a System Data Archive Title with the name of Fonts.

If @V10lator agrees that this indeed is an hardware error then you need to do the Hardmod anyway, at leas for the mlc if you want to fix this problem permanently.

From my perspective we have tree possible routes (but in any case you should get the otp.bin and make relly sure you don't loose it):
1. do the hard mod on the mlc and get an image (or better multiple) that way. Then we fix the broken font file in the mlc and write it to an SD card, which you then solder to the same cables from the hardmod, to replace the bad eMMC with it. If you are very comfortable with the soldering iron, I would also suggest to do the Hardmod on the SLC and get an Image of that. Because if we do anything bad to the MLC and need to go back to an older Image, we would also need to restore the SLC.
2. We just install the WUP for the broken title. Maybe it fixes the problem (temporarily), maybe it gets worse.
3. We change the Cold Boot Title to the Internet Browser, maybe the browser can start and through the browser exploit we could do a full NAND Dump, run FTPiiU everywhere etc. But I would like to first try that on my console, where I have the hardmod in case it doesn't work.

We could also combine 3. with one to first get an backup through software and then we fix the Hardware.

 

[V10lator]

If @V10lator agrees that this indeed is an hardware error

Yes, looks like this to me. I would suggest grabbing a NAND dump now (question is just how), then try to reinstall 0005001b10042400. Reinstalling this might bring the console into a booting state again but this probably won't last long (there where users doing this in the past but as NAND is hardware damaged, well...).

 

[SDIO]

1kb is the right size. The otp.bin only holds a few encryption keys. But these keys are essential if we want to fix the mlc through the hardmod, so take care of it and don't lose it. Maybe put it in the cloud somewhere.

And the forth route would be to add a full NAND Backup option to the recovery menu, but that would require more work from my side and quite some time and testing with a working wii u, where I can see the screen.

Post automatically merged: Mar 11, 2023

Yes fixing the title is only a temporary solution, but it might allow us to do a nand dump through the usual way.
There is an issue for adding a NAND Dumper option to the recovery menu: https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/recovery_menu/issues/8 we should all give this issue an upvote and maybe Gary will implement it.
I will look into that to see how much of an effort it would be to implement that function. It should be straight forward, but I don't want to promise too much at this point.

But I think @fadafwet has to decide if he can do the soldering. https://wiiubrew.org/wiki/Hardware/EMMC_NAND
Here you can see how I replaced my eMMC with an SD-Card: https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-i-fixed-160-0103-system-memory-error.626448/
The best thing would be to replace it with another eMMC chip, but thats a lot harder and more expensive and the sdcard works just fine.

Do you have a raspberry pi? (the real one, not the pico) It could become handy for the Hardmod