Conversion's the solution, gonna spin it 'till I win it! (Error 101246)

This is a follow-up thread to a previous thread: [forum.wiibrew.org]

It is quite lengthy, and it might require reading the linked thread (though I've tried to re-explain this as clearly as I could here again). If you're not in the mood, just skip past the quote and read the questions. If you don't understand my situation, read from the beginning.


... My previous thread was quite old to be necroposting in it, and what I'm about to ask strays a bit from that topic. Nevertheless, it still has ties with it, reason enough why I linked at the beginning of this new thread.

Ok. Let's get down to business.

I was kinda dissapointed that nobody here was capable of explaining the nature of my friend's Wii's problem, and that nobody did seem to look into it. And it's been a little bit over a month and a half since he hasn't been able to play online. I did however promise in that thread's last post I was coming back with results after asking my friend if he wanted to delete the mentioned "weird" title. But I decided to have him halt in case anyone would give more insight on the matter, though nobody did. Anyways...
I remember a while back, while I was still doing research on the subject, I found a spanish forum that had a post with the same problem. He got the same error and everything, and was uncapable of repairing it, no matter what he tried.

It finally turns out he went ahead and started with "a clean slate", that is... he got a friend of his with a functional Wii to dump it's NAND, converted it using Betwiin, used bootmii to reinstall that healthy NAND into his Wii and... voilá! His Wii was finally able to connect to the internet.

This is my translation of his post with minor grammatical edits, which can be found near the end of the page in this link: [wii.scenebeta.com]
(If you find any problem with this link, please remove it. I merely place it here just to have a referenced, in case anyone else would like to read the rest of the thread).

Now, the featured translation:

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I can't believe it, after all this time and after all I tried to solve Error 101246, which would prevent me connecting to the internet and made the console take as much as a minute to load channels, took one minute to turn off using the Wiimote, etc.

Well, I finally solved it and I want to post what I did for anyone that can find it useful, though it must be only for cases as concrete as mine (as in, must be the exact same problem as his).

The first and essential requirement is to have bootmii installed as boot2.

Also, you must have a NAND backup of the impaired Wii, for it is from this NAND that we will extract the data required to make a compatible new NAND. Also required is a healthy NAND backup from a different conole with the same version of boot1 as the afflicted one.

We will be using betwiin which will allow us to use the NAND dump from a different Wii on our Wii.

Follow the instructions from betwiin 1.0 to convert the NAND, and install the generated NAND with bootmii.

Now our messed-up console is identical to the one that "lent" us it's NAND, though it gave me an error when attempting to access the System Settings and the Homebrew Channel. I had to reinstall the HBC, and with WAD manager I reinstalled in the following order: first IOS30, then System menu 3.4e, which was the one included in the borrowed NAND and we were done. A followup connection test gave us possible results, channels and games ran perfectly and everything was completely functional.

Now, I'll post the following questions which really are the one's I'd like answered:

1.- Seeing as though bootmii as boot2 is required, would it be impossible or dangerous to perform a NAND restore if my friend's Wii bootmii is installed as an IOS?

2.- How can I find out if my Wii's boot1 version is equal to my friend's Wii? I'll be the one donating my healthy NAND. (As a side note, his Wii is a bit older than mine, and he's currently on Sys Menu 4.1U, while I'm on Sys Menu 4.2U)

3.- If it's possible, would someone link me to a reliable guide on how to use Betwiin, or post with detail what I'm supposed to be doing? I haven't had much time lately to do research.

4.- The quoted post mentions having required to reinstall the Sys Menu using WAD manager, which I know is not something up for discussion... but what other method is there to reinstall the Sys Menu if my friend's Wii's settings error out? DOP-Mii would be out of the question right now (since as far as I know, requires the Wii connected to the internet).

5.- And finally... would it be wise to even follow that quoted post? My NAND backup would come prepped beforehand with Priiloader and bootmii as an IOS, but should the restore be succesful... would they even work? Or would the restore brick and send everything to hell?

In any event, if anyone knows or finds a way to fix Error 101246 WITHOUT going to such lengths as converting NANDs and restoring them while possibly killing something, let us know.

Any help is appreciated.

Phew... that's pretty risky man, but it might be worth a try given your friend's current condition.

Those look like questions to Marcan, Bushing or Dhewg (I don't think even mods here have enough in-depth knowledge of it) but as it is very unlikely they will show up around, I will try to give you my most honest answer on each.

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1.- Seeing as though bootmii as boot2 is required, would it be impossible or dangerous to perform a NAND restore if my friend's Wii bootmii is installed as an IOS?

BootMii as an IOS is indeed capable of restoring NAND backups, but is HIGHLY RISKY and I will tell you why. As you long restoring a NAND is a long process that may take several minutes to finish. If something goes wrong while you are restoring it from boot2, well, even though your NAND would be totally messed up, you would still be able to bootmii in boot2 and start the restore process again. However, if you are restoring a NAND with BootMii IOS and something happens, you will end up with a fully screwed up NAND with no way of running bootmii again to attempt another restore. This would be result in a full brick. Due to this high risk, when you attempt to restore a NAND from bootmii IOS it will prompt you to enter the KONAMI code to confirm you are sure you want to proceed. If some day you really try to do this, I would recommend to buy a UPS no-break to prevent the process to be interrupted by an electricity shortage!

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2.- How can I find out if my Wii's boot1 version is equal to my friend's Wii? I'll be the one donating my healthy NAND. (As a side note, his Wii is a bit older than mine, and he's currently on Sys Menu 4.1U, while I'm on Sys Menu 4.2U)

I have no idea. I am guessing it only means that you make sure both Wii's have an exploitable boot1 so you can have bootmii installed as boot2 on both Wiis. I don't know if there is a way to check the 'version' of the boot1.

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3.- If it's possible, would someone link me to a reliable guide on how to use Betwiin, or post with detail what I'm supposed to be doing? I haven't had much time lately to do research.

Have never used it... Arikado might know how to use it well.

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4.- The quoted post mentions having required to reinstall the Sys Menu using WAD manager, which I know is not something up for discussion... but what other method is there to reinstall the Sys Menu if my friend's Wii's settings error out? DOP-Mii would be out of the question right now (since as far as I know, requires the Wii connected to the internet).

Well you could install the SysMenu on your Wii using DOP-Mii and it will store the downloaded files in your SD. When you install it using DOP-Mii on another Wii, it will read the files from cache instead of downloading them. I have made that with IOSes and the Shop Channel to install them on Wii's with no internet connection. I believe it should work too for installing SysMenu.

However, I believe discussing how to install the SysMenu via a WAD file is allowed here. You can use NUS Downloader to download all the required files, pack them in a WAD and use a WAD installer to install them on the Wii.

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5.- And finally... would it be wise to even follow that quoted post? My NAND backup would come prepped beforehand with Priiloader and bootmii as an IOS, but should the restore be succesful... would they even work? Or would the restore brick and send everything to hell?

Hmm, I would suggest to make a backup of your current NAND (which will not be the same you will be handing out to your friend), then uninstall as much as you can (i.e. WiiWare, VC games, savegames, HBC, priiloader, custom channels, etc) if possible formatting your Wii, and then create another backup, which is the one you will try to restore in your friend's Wii. Afterwards, restore to your Wii the first backup you made.

I really hope I had been of any help here.

1) Somewhat dangerous. It is probably more dangerous than most other things you might do (update or manually install a system menu for example). Though I couldn't tell you how much more dangerous it would be. Bootmii almost always succeeds at restoring a NAND backup (I have never heard of a single situation where it failed), and it does verify that the backup was restored correctly. Therefore, restoring a working NAND backup from the same wii with Bootmii/IOS is not especially dangerous (though it should still be a last resort).

However, when you convert the NAND backup from another wii, there is much more opportunity for error. Perhaps the NAND backup will not be converted correctly. Even if it is, if you wii has a bad block at a critical location (a block storing the system menu or its IOS on the NAND dump from the donor wii), failure is certain. Add to this several other (unlikely) possibilities for failure (power outage, NAND dump data corruption, or possible unknown software bug, for example), and you may want to reconsider. Overall, the odds are in your favor, but I couldn't say how much.

2) Bootmii can tell you your wii's boot1 version.

3) I recommend that you use Simple NAND Converter. It will be much easier.

4) I did not read that post, but I see no reason why this would be necessary. Though, if you do need to reinstall a system menu, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a WAD installer to do it.

5) It is likely to work (again, I don't have time to read that post right now), but it is risky enough that I would advise against it.

It would be easier and probably safer to use Comex's NAND formatter instead. Of course, there is still some risk, but I would guess that the risk is lower. Because some builds of the formatter may not work correctly, be sure to test whichever build you intend to use on a wii with Bootmii/boot2 before using it on the wii you are trying to fix.

In any case, make a NAND backup before doing anything. That way, you have a way to recover in case of failure (yes, this will require a hardware NAND programmer, but it is better than nothing).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2010 06:38PM by jbc007.

Did your friend bother disabling all preloader hacks as suggested in the other thread? The "mystery" title has nothing to do with his problem.

I totally forgot to mention that. I dunno why I didn't post about it immediately. Well...

Every time he formatted through the System Settings, all of his hacks were instantly disabled. Bear in mind he's using Priiloader though (hacks are the same for both, I think... but I thought it was worth notig the diefference). This was checked twice, by reenabling the hacks, formatting again and checking. And even while disabled, the same error would continue to appear. Therefore, Priiloader hacks are clearly NOT the cause of this error.

Anyways... I tried PMing Marcan in IRC, not that any one of you told me to do so. He answered and said he didn't know anything, and even while I showed intent on explain my findings to fill in the blanks, he showed absolutely no interest in the subject. I don't like bothering people who rather not be bothered, so I left him a link here if ever he wanted to at least read about it and left. Oh well...

I'll be delivering my full report on this problem to my friend. Depending on what he decides to do, he'll either go for it and venture in what probably is a brick-bound journey, or we'll just have to keep looking, or just resign to letting the Wii stay in this cumbersome state



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2010 05:40AM by Magil.

I forgot about Priiloader. There have been cases where it caused problems even when all system menu patches were disabled. Try uninstalling it. If that doesn't fix it, either live with it or use Comex's NAND Formatter (or convert a NAND dump with Betwiin if you want, though again, I advise against it).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2010 06:21AM by jbc007.

Just a heads-up... Uninstalling Priiloader didn't do the trick. My friend has finally decided, after much debate, to restore his older NAND backup. I've already told him repeatedly the risks implied with going through with such procedure, and he's accepted it. Somewhat. Not much. He's actually as nervous as I am, or perhaps even more. At one point, he did go about restoring a NAND in a panic after bricking once, and it did succesfully restore.

I wouldn't be able to tell him to use Comex's NAND formatter, because as I've said already far to many times, he has bootmii as an IOS. At any rate, and as some of you might have already guessed by several of my other threads, I'm planning on buying an infectus some time in the next month or so to start fiddling with the Wii's internals. If anything were to go wrong today with his NAND restoration (God forbid), he'd still have a relatively small chance of recovering from a potential brick. Most of you would think it's insignificant, but... it's the best we could aspire to.

He was supposed to attempt a restore sometime today, but I haven't seen him on MSN. So hopefully tonight I'll be able to post the results, if any. If it fails, I'll try my hand at restoring his Wii with an infectus but this time converting my NAND for him to use.

Thank you for all your help.

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Magil
I wouldn't be able to tell him to use Comex's NAND formatter, because as I've said already far to many times, he has bootmii as an IOS.

Aside from the risk involved, which I mentioned already, I don't see how that matters at all.

Anyway, if the NAND backup came from the same wii, there is not too much to worry about. It will probably work fine.

I thought that if I wiped the NAND with bootmii as an IOS, I would have absolutely no access to bootmii since it would get wiped out along with the rest of the NAND. And, supposing that the formatter ignored bootmii... it would kill everything else, like Priiloader, which would be the only way to access bootmii.

Or am I interpreting something wrong?

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Magil
I thought that if I wiped the NAND with bootmii as an IOS, I would have absolutely no access to bootmii since it would get wiped out along with the rest of the NAND.

Right, that is why there is a degree of risk. Incidentally, that happens when you restore a NAND backup with Bootmii/IOS as well. Therefore, this applies just as much to restoring a NAND backup with Bootmii/IOS as it does to running Comex's NAND Formatter with Bootmii/IOS.

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Magil
And, supposing that the formatter ignored bootmii... it would kill everything else, like Priiloader, which would be the only way to access bootmii.

Absolutely everything on the NAND file system is deleted by a format, Bootmii/IOS included.

Keep in mind that Bootmii/IOS provides absolutely no brick protection. If something critical fails, no matter what it is, Bootmii/IOS will not be accessible.

So in light of this evidence, which would one would you recommend me most? I told my friend to proceed with restoring his NAND, but he's hesitating. He already knows the risks, but he fears the worst. Not that I blame him or anything.

Though it's not my Wii, I'm personally interested in finding out how to use Comex's. How does it work? Other than formatting, heh. I mean... does it also install the most vital IOS? Or does it offer the functionality to install IOS offline by downloading them first using NUSD?

Somehow I have a bit more confidence this will help alot more than restoring an old backup. Thanks in advance.

If the NAND backup came from the same wii, and you absolutely know that it works, restore it. This is probably safest. However, if there is any question as to whether the NAND backup works, use Comex's NAND formatter.

Comex's NAND formatter formats the NAND and then installs any WADs in the wad folder. It is as simple as that. It has sometimes been known to fail, which is why restoring a working NAND backup may be safer. However, this is usually with particular builds of it, and it may also depend on the WADs being installed, so you should be able to almost nullify this risk. If you choose to use it, find a build of it and setup the SD card with the necessary WADs. Now, test it on a wii with Bootmii/boot2. If something is going to fail, it probably will fail on this wii, which you can easily unbrick with a NAND restore. If it works, it is probably relatively safe to use on the wii you are attempting to repair.

Regarding restoring an old NAND backup... it seems that it was quite defective after all. As I recall saying in that the first thread that started it all (the one were I explained his brick), in the panic of the moment, he attempted restoring the same NAND we were about to restore this time around. And back then it failed (not the restore process, but it repairing the brick).

He remembers having created that backup immediately after installing HBC the first time, so it should have been 100% clean and reliable. Yet, as he said, that time he bricked and tried restoring did not solve his issue.

I do not know the entire details of why it didn't work, or if it gave him an error of any kind before/during/after trying to restore. If there's something I'm missing here that might be relevant to this, tell me and I'll ask him.
He asked me to test that NAND on SNEEK, but I haven't prepped my Wii to run it and I still haven't the time to do so. I dunno if this is out of line, but if anyone already has SNEEK set up, would you be able to test my friend's NAND out just for the sake of knowing if it works or not?

In any event, I'd like to know how to use Comex's NAND formatter. If it were possible, I'd like a small yet detailed step by step on how to use it. I already tried looking up a guide elsewhere, but many were inconclusive and seemed a bit unreliable. And also a link to a known stable release if it's not much asking. My friend's Wii is on Sys Menu 4.1U. If there's any other detail I might be missing that's important, again, let me know.

Ultimately, we want to try starting with a clean slate. Which means I'd rather have him format and get rid of anything corrupt producing that dreaded Error.

SNEEK is unsupported here. As for Comex's NAND Formatter, usage is very easy. To keep things simple, use NUS Downloader to download IOS 60 v6174, system menu 4.1U, and the NTSC-U region select. Have it pack these into WADs, and place them in a folder called wad on the root of the SD card. Finally, go to the SD card section in Bootmii and have it launch the formatter. It is that simple.

I will not provide a download link, since I have never used Comex's NAND Formatter myself and I can't guarantee whether any given build will work properly. Besides, it only takes a few seconds of googleing to find one. As I said before, be certain to test this on a wii with Bootmii/boot2 first. That way, you can verify for yourself that it works. This is the best possible way to minimize the risk.

I know SNEEK is unsupported. I was merely asking that, if anyone here had already installed it, would like to help simply verifying the integrity of it. I care not at all for the backup play features. But if still this is a no-no, well... I will go with the NAND formatter. I was gonna do it anyways.

Thanks anyways.