What's "brickwall"?

I keep hearing that doing various things can "brickwall" the Wii. It sounds like a really BAD thing. But what is it? How does it happen? And how can I avoid it?

Sorry for asking, but I'm kinda a noob at this stuff.

To brick your Wii would be to render it unusable. There's also "semi-bricking" which renders your Wii unusable but is fixable. The most common causes of bricking are messing with the Wii's internal flash memory (NAND) and playing around with the system menu banners.

Generally speaking, most homebrew is safe to use on your Wii. The only risk is when you start packing custom banners into wads or playing around with stuff that's way out of your league. HackMii has a lot of stuff on bricking, a very interesting read.

Bricking only happens if you change something a bootloader or the System Menu needs to boot.

For 99% of homebrew, this can never happen. Only homebrew that deliberately messes with such things has a chance to do this, and those homebrew usually have warnings on them.

A semi-brick is when your System Menu's region does not match your console's pre-defined region. This is fairly simple to fix, though.

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tona
Bricking only happens if you change something a bootloader or the System Menu needs to boot.

For 99% of homebrew, this can never happen. Only homebrew that deliberately messes with such things has a chance to do this, and those homebrew usually have warnings on them.

A semi-brick is when your System Menu's region does not match your console's pre-defined region. This is fairly simple to fix, though.

Then how do I make my Wii play Japanese version games? Is it possible to "trick" my console into thinking that it really IS a Japanese version Wii (not just swapping the system menu region)? How about something that changes the Wii's region in EVERY setting that has a region as part of the settings (not just the system menu region)? Is there any homebrew Wii software that works just as good as the Freeloader software on the Gamecube?

And isn't a "banner" just a graphic that appears during bootup? So why would a corrupt graphic kill the whole system?

And one last question if I change part of the region settings (not all of them match) and that results in a semi-brick, can I still play that Japanese version game (even if no longer American version games) that I changed the region setting in the first place, because I was trying to play in a Japanese region game? And if I can't play ANY games as a result of the semi-brick, the term "semi" indicates it is fixable, so how would I fix it?

There are homebrew applications that will let you play Wii games that aren't from your console's region, without actually changing the region of your console.

As the System Menu is starting, it runs through loading each item's banner. A bad banner can cause this process to halt, stopping the System Menu from loading.

It's a short page, but I suggest you read [www.wiibrew.org]. It explains that semi-bricks can be repaired with special discs, though I think you need a modchip to use them.

Is there ANY way to remove a "semi-brick" from your Wii WITHOUT a modchip?

This one guy said that he had a program that if it didn't work correctly the worst it could do was "cause a semi-brick". He said it in a way that sounded like he thought that was no big problem. Well I was thinking if it requires a modchip to fix, then it is a VERY BIG problem, because I'm ONLY going to use softmods (I won't ruin my Wii by soldering to the main board). Do you know ANY way that your can boot your system with a softmod installed through Twilight hack or Homebrew channel, and boot it in such a way that I could remove a semi-brick, WITHOUT a modchip.

Looks like I got my facts wrong :) Read this:

[hackmii.com]

I've seen a lot of talk on GBA-Temp about semi bricks, I guess I just got confused. I completely forgot about the HackMii post explaining bricks.

It sounds like it can happen by loading a system menu from the wrong region. But whatever region disk I have it will install the system menu for that region. I already have Gecko OS so I should be able to boot a Japanese version game in my American version Wii. But if I do, it will probably try to install the wrong version of the system menu, thus giving me a bricked or semi-bricked console. So how do I play a game from a different region WITHOUT corrupting my system?

ANY HELP PLEASE! And I want to know because I'm downloading a torrent for the Japanese version of Smash Bros Brawl, and I'm going to burn it to a DVD and try to boot it with Gecko OS. And don't worry, I don't pirate. I already LEGALLY bought a copy of the American version of the game. I just want the other as a backup, and to test my Gecko OS, and I think that some of the graphics are cooler in the Japanese version.

how to not get your wii bricked. stay away of wanninikos downgrader or anything he dose except save game extractor/installer

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moronicron
how to not get your wii bricked. stay away of wanninikos downgrader or anything he dose except save game extractor/installer

There's plenty of ways to brick your Wii without touching anything by Waninkoko. Just being "by Waninkoko" does not make anything more likely to brick. What's more, most of Waninkoko's stuff couldn't brick your Wii if you wanted it to.

You say that the only way to unbrick a "semi-bricked" console is to use a mod chip to load a disk with unbricking software. But aren't there OTHER ways to do that? Like burn your "unbricking" disk, but with the right copyprotection code so that your Wii "thinks" that it is an official Nintendo disk? I HATE to use chips, because unlike softmods (which can kill only your OS), a modchip can kill the whole console (by frying the circuits) if ONLY 1 wire is attached wrong.

Nope. The whole point of the security system that modchips exist to defeat is that consumer-grade equipment can't make a disc identical to Nintendo's pressed discs, so the drive can tell it's burned and reject it. Since the system is bricked, you can't run a softmod, so you need a modchip.

The only possible alternatives, if you can still boot games, are:
1) If you have the hacked Zelda save file already installed, you can boot a legit copy of Zelda and use it to launch a program to unbrick.
2) Find an exploit in a game that doesn't require save file hacking.

If you can't even get into the menu to boot a game, and you didn't install Starfall, then the only thing you can do is use SaveMii to boot a recovery disc, and if you have System Menu 3.3, it will have to be one of Nintendo's recovery discs. Either way it will have to be burned, because you're certainly not going to get a legit copy of one.

If you're afraid of botching a modchip install, get someone else to do it. It's still going to be cheaper than replacing the system.

[edit] My bad, there is one other possibility: if you have a game with a system menu update newer than the one you have, you can use SaveMii to install the update, which will repair the system.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2008 07:52AM by HyperHacker.

Do you know of ANY computer DVD/CD burner drive (and associated software) that can burn a PERFECTLY identical disk to the professionally pressed ones? I mean a computer DVD/CD burner that can even burn an EXACT copy of everything on the disk ESPECIALLY Nintendo's copy protection code, so that it would trick the machine into actually running the disk WITHOUT a mod chip. I'd like this because I want to run some homebrew stuff from a disk (not SD card), but I want NO modchip, and NO softmod. So I need to know if there is ANY DVD/CD burner drive and software that would work with it that would allow the ripping and burning of the special code that Nintendo uses to make the system ONLY run official disks. That way I could rip the code from an official disk then burn the code (along with some homebrew software) onto a disk, and the Wii would recognise the special code (that had been ripped from the other disk) and that would cause the Wii to actually recognise the disk and "think" that it was official, and then it would boot the homebrew software on the disk. And that way I would need NO modchip, and NO softmod.

No, you cannot burn an identical copy, you can only press one, and pressing machines cost thousands of dollars. The discs have a small ring around the inside in which data is physically carved into the disc surface as a series of raised bumps and pits. A burner can't replicate this.

Anyway, when I say softmod I mean a program that lets you play copied official discs without a modchip. You don't need that for homebrew. You need the DVD library, which is also what a softmod would need, but it isn't one itself.

(I'm assuming the Wii discs use the same protection as Gamecube; given the modchips work the same way, I think it's a safe bet.)

I thought that copyprotection on disks was done through "garbage data" on the subtracks. Usually subtracks contain the track number for an audio CD, but on game disks they contain pseudo random data generated that with an algorithm that the console will recognise. To replicate the disk you will ONLY need to discover the algorithm, and have a burner that is capable of burning arbitrary data onto the subtracks. Cheap burners can only burn onto the regular data tracks, but some of the more expensive ones can ALSO burn onto the subtracks. With the right software and right burner drive, making an identical copy of the copyprotection data (needed to boot a disk containing a home brew game) should be possible. I just am looking for info on where I can get such a burner drive, and where I can get the software designed to perform this operation.

No, it doesn't work that way. Hint: If you don't understand how something really works, you're not going to be the first person to do it. (So, if you really want to do it, start reading.)