Hacking Death of a Wii?

[wafflemetal]

Hello everyone!

I really need a light here if anyone can help.

Well, I bought a bricked Wii in the hope of fixing it. Originally it had no NAND backup, no bootmi as boot2 or ios, no priiloader, no modchip.

When booted, It showed the "system files are corrupted" distorted message, but it was able to sync bluetooth and I could access recovery menu via savemiifrii. This way I checked that it was updated to 4.3U and it was also able to run most (game) discs from the recovery menu even without a modchip.

So I tried a lot of methods to run MMM or something else with what I had... Bluebomb paired but was unable to "bomb", unbrick discs and wad discs were all unable to load, game discs would mostly work but I couldn't run patched SSBB-PAL - so it killed most via-game unbrick methods (unfortunately I didn't had the chance to try the savegame flood one).

So after a lot of research and more money spent in blank DVD's than in the Wii itself, I came across this "dop ios fix downgrade disc", and even without a modchip I thought "why not?". I was running out of options anyway.

Well, I fucked it up obviously. I knew downgrading was a bad idea from the start so shame on me. The disc was loaded from the recovery menu, the version indicator vanished from the screen and after a while it showed the "system files are corruped" message, but this time it wasn't distorted. So, I rebooted the console and since then all i have is a black screen and I can't access recovery mode anymore.

At that time I just gave up and decided to sell the parts, but than I discovered that a friend of mine have a wii with a modchiped drive (too late I guess). After some tests (and more blank DVD's), I identified the modchip as a "WiiTop" (it's described as 'Not a Wasabi clone'). I was unable to enter the thing's menu or find a menu disc, but it was already set to autoboot anyways. It fully boots backups (except SSBB) without entering the disc channel.

I put the modded drive on my Wii but it was unable to load anything. Just the black screen. From what I've read, it will not load anything if the IOS and/or SysMenu are missing or corrupted, so that's problably what happened when I used the downgrade disc and if that's the problem the thing is dead.

But since I have this modded drive in hands still, I was wondering if there's maybe still some hope to fix this Wii!? Maybe?? I couldn't find anything so posting here is my last shot.

If you're wondering "why so much trouble to get this trash working?", it's because they're not that cheap down here in Brazil.

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text!

 

[KokoseiJ]

Hello everyone!

I really need a light here if anyone can help.

Well, I bought a bricked Wii in the hope of fixing it. Originally it had no NAND backup, no bootmi as boot2 or ios, no priiloader, no modchip.

When booted, It showed the "system files are corrupted" distorted message, but it was able to sync bluetooth and I could access recovery menu via savemiifrii. This way I checked that it was updated to 4.3U and it was also able to run most (game) discs from the recovery menu even without a modchip.

So I tried a lot of methods to run MMM or something else with what I had... Bluebomb paired but was unable to "bomb", unbrick discs and wad discs were all unable to load, game discs would mostly work but I couldn't run patched SSBB-PAL - so it killed most via-game unbrick methods (unfortunately I didn't had the chance to try the savegame flood one).

So after a lot of research and more money spent in blank DVD's than in the Wii itself, I came across this "dop ios fix downgrade disc", and even without a modchip I thought "why not?". I was running out of options anyway.

Well, I fucked it up obviously. I knew downgrading was a bad idea from the start so shame on me. The disc was loaded from the recovery menu, the version indicator vanished from the screen and after a while it showed the "system files are corruped" message, but this time it wasn't distorted. So, I rebooted the console and since then all i have is a black screen and I can't access recovery mode anymore.

At that time I just gave up and decided to sell the parts, but than I discovered that a friend of mine have a wii with a modchiped drive (too late I guess). After some tests (and more blank DVD's), I identified the modchip as a "WiiTop" (it's described as 'Not a Wasabi clone'). I was unable to enter the thing's menu or find a menu disc, but it was already set to autoboot anyways. It fully boots backups (except SSBB) without entering the disc channel.

I put the modded drive on my Wii but it was unable to load anything. Just the black screen. From what I've read, it will not load anything if the IOS and/or SysMenu are missing or corrupted, so that's problably what happened when I used the downgrade disc and if that's the problem the thing is dead.

But since I have this modded drive in hands still, I was wondering if there's maybe still some hope to fix this Wii!? Maybe?? I couldn't find anything so posting here is my last shot.

If you're wondering "why so much trouble to get this trash working?", it's because they're not that cheap down here in Brazil.

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text!

I feel you man, I'm in the same boat except I already have a working one- but I really want my childhood wii to get back its life. Wiis aren't cheap in here either.

So the type of a brick you had in the first place is called "Banner brick", caused by installing an invalid banner. This could be fixed by *somehow* booting in to the WAD manager and delete the invalid channel.

But, since you managed to do something and it broke something, It's now most likely on a full brick, or maybe IOS corruption. Since you don't have access to recovery mode, It's most likely that your system menu has gone wrong.

So you've mentioned that you tried to run patched SSBB-PAL on 4.3U console. but 4.3U should only accept NTSC softwares- Have you tried NTSC version of it? Every version of SSBB has a smash stack exploit so It wkn't be a problem.

There's a leaked version of Official Wii Backup Disk used in their A/S service, which will factory-reset your Wii and hopefully fix the system. This doesn't work after 4.0, but since you downgraded the wii You could give a shot.

Also, there's an image called "Universal Unbrick Disk v4", kinda hard to find but it exists somewhere. Since you have a modchip installed, You should definitely try it.

This is all I have, since I don't have a modchip I couldn't really go any further. Hope you could restore that Wii and enjoy this wonderful console. Call me if you need any help.

Also, I wasn't able to boot any burnt discs with my Wii, even with DMS drive. Mind to share what you exactly did?

Thanks, and best regards!

 

[XFlak]

This may not be particularly helpful, but it's all I can think of to contribute to a potential solution.

It sounds like your wii is old, if so, it may have a vulnerable boot1 allowing u to install bootmii as boot2. If capable, you can manually install bootmii as boot2 using an infectus modchip... I'm not sure if you can easily get your hands on one, or if it would be more expensive than just replacing the wii, but it might be an option. Perhaps Google for a bootmii @ boot2 compatibility list to see if your unit even has a vulnerable boot1 before making any kind of investment in an infectus

 

[wafflemetal]

Hey KokoseiJ and XFlak! Thanks for the replies.

And thanks for your other posts in GBAtemp aswell, since I've seen some stuff by both of you that helped me earlier. I even remember reading the thread about your childhood Wii, Koko!

So you've mentioned that you tried to run patched SSBB-PAL on 4.3U console. but 4.3U should only accept NTSC softwares- Have you tried NTSC version of it? Every version of SSBB has a smash stack exploit so It wkn't be a problem.

It was the PAL into NTSC patched version for MarioKart-PWNS method! I didn't tried the NTSC one unfortunately Guess that could maybe worked now that you say that the NTSC version has the same exploit :/

There's a leaked version of Official Wii Backup Disk used in their A/S service, which will factory-reset your Wii and hopefully fix the system. This doesn't work after 4.0, but since you downgraded the wii You could give a shot.

Are you talking about the "pink fish" one? I tried that without the modchip via recovery menu and with the modchip after the "second brick". Couldn't run it neither way Also tried the Universal Unbrick discs, both v2 and v4, no success. Other discs I've tried are "any title deleter disc", "last chance unbrick disc" and the recently leaked original wii setup disc (which I had no hope that would work at all but at this stage everything is worth a try, right?)

This is all I have, since I don't have a modchip I couldn't really go any further. Hope you could restore that Wii and enjoy this wonderful console. Call me if you need any help.

Thank you a lot, really! If I get it to work somehow I'll let you guys know here.

Also, I wasn't able to boot any burnt discs with my Wii, even with DMS drive. Mind to share what you exactly did?

I managed to run Mario Kart, Castlevania Judgement, Sonic and the Black Knight and Netflix, all burnt. I just used this little BootMe.exe thing via command prompt to make the images auto-bootable. Command line is "BootMe.exe filename.iso -a". There's another software that makes the same thing (forgot the name), but it haven't worked for me. That's all, really. Let me know if you want me to send you the thing if you don't find it online. A lot of broken links, I got it from a blog package.

It sounds like your wii is old, if so, it may have a vulnerable boot1 allowing u to install bootmii as boot2. If capable, you can manually install bootmii as boot2 using an infectus modchip... I'm not sure if you can easily get your hands on one, or if it would be more expensive than just replacing the wii, but it might be an option. Perhaps Google for a bootmii @ boot2 compatibility list to see if your unit even has a vulnerable boot1 before making any kind of investment in an infectus

Yeah I've read about infectus, XFlak! But they're not available around here Apparently there's a way of using an arduino to flash program but it's slow (something like 1 week just for reading the NAND), plus it requires a slot thing for the nand that, well, costs more than another bricked Wii. I will look after its' boot2 compability tho, just in case Thanks a lot for the help.