Is my Wii Bricked, and how did it happen?

So I go get my wii out of my room, it wasn't hooked up at all, I bring it to my cousins to play my game data, so it'd just been sitting in a gym bag for like a week.

I plug it in, and before I change the video of my TV, eject a previous gamecube disc that was in there to put in my newly bought Other M.

I then change the TV/video to the proper setting, to see a black screen. I try turning the wii on and off, and the screen flashes, like it usually will, but nothing apears. The wii can only be shut off via hard reset.

1. Is this wii bricked?
2. How did it brick, I haven't used homebrew in months, the wii wasn't connected to the internet, and my cousin's wii has the same applications as me, and his wii is fine.
3. Can somebody point me towards an un-bricking method I can use without seeing a screen at all?

Thanks for the help, I'm pretty pissed, I don't know what possibly could have happened.

EDIT: Probably should mention some specifics.

System Menu 4.3u
Cannot access homebrew, don't have any sort of preloader or bootmii or whatever (thought this wouldn't happen to me, of course)

EDIT: Is there at least some way to salvage my data? Please, if anyone knows anything.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2010 02:04AM by bigmac909.

This black screen you mentioned... is it accompanied by a lack of sound as well? Try pressing A and listen if you actually hear the usual click and then the system menu bgm. You might just have an incorrect video setting on either your TV or your Wii that might need to get fixed (wouldn't know how though, since I personally don't care that much for the myriad of different cables that supposedly enhance video quality and whatnot).

If you're not getting any sound at all... this might just be a full brick, and given that you had neither bootmii installed as boot2 or Priiloader/Preloader, there's pretty much nothing else you can do.

You could always troubleshoot using this small but very useful diagram: [savemii.net] Be wary it's NOT a real step by step in depth solution, but rather it guides you in a concise way to determine what kind of problem you might be experiencing. Hoping that your best possibility might be requiring only to replace a physical component like your wifi or bluetooth device.

I might be missing something, so if someone more experienced finds something lacking, then go ahead and fill in the blanks.

Thank you for a response. And no, there is no sound at all, and my wiimote won't connect, because the wii was last used at my cousin's house, using his wiimote. So I would have to sync it for one of my wiimotes to work. And if there really is no soulution, that's just a shame i guess, I don't know what could have bricked it And I did try using that diagram, but I get sent to branch D, of which the first test is to use the dongle they're trying to sell.

Is there no way to install priiloader or something from the internet, onto my SD card, like most homebrew applications? Or is it just a lot more complicated?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2010 02:20AM by bigmac909.

You can't just put stuff on your SD card and have it run, you'd need something already installed. You can try the SaveMii method without buying the dongle if you have a Gamecube controller you can disassemble (or a DDR mat).
Plug the GC control to the 4th player port and hold ALL 4 directional buttons (hence why you'd need to open it or use a DDR mat).
Power on the Wii. If it displays a System Menu version then it can be fixed. If not then it may be a hardware component that has been broken.
So let's say that it shows 3.2x or whatever your region is. What you would do is, while on the recovery screen (that shows up with the "SaveMiiFrii" as it is called) insert a game disc with an update higher than what it is currently on. I believe Metroid has at least 4.2. Once inserted, the Wii will run the update from the disc. The screen will not change. Once the update is complete, the 3.2 (or whatever) will have changed to 4.2 (or 4.3 or whatever update was on the disc). Reboot and play your Wii.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2010 03:00AM by bg4545.

So even if i managed to hit all 4 directions at once, and the wii was savable, I'm on 4.3u, so I would have to wait for a game with a 4.4 update on it?

And just to clarify, there's NO WAY I can retrieve any save data?

Thanks for all of the help, by the way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2010 02:51AM by bigmac909.

Quote
bigmac909
So even if i managed to hit all 4 directions at once, and the wii was savable, I'm on 4.3u, so I would have to wait for a game with a 4.4 update on it?

And just to clarify, there's NO WAY I can retrieve any save data?

Thanks for all of the help, by the way.

Oops didn't see that.. I thought you hadn't used your Wii for a while...... Anyways, yes you'd have to wait for a higher update and your save data should still be there if you are able to fix it with the SaveMiiFrii method.

Thanks again for all the help, you've given me a little hope. I'll shut up for now until I try that.

Are you sure that it is connected to your TV properly? Assuming it is connected properly, you likely have a full brick. If SaveMii/SaveMiiFrii does not work, my guess is that your NAND was formatted. If this is the case, you could send it to Nintendo, as they will not be able to detect that you have homebrew. It is possible that they will fix it for free, especially if you sound like you have no idea what happened when you talk to them. Your other option is to use a hardware NAND programmer to restore a NAND backup (if you have one), or manually install Bootmii/boot2 (if your wii is old enough).

My wii is pretty old, so any details on that manual installation would be great.

My biggest concern: My VC games. If I get nintendo to give me a new wii, will they give me the VC games back? They were all on my SD card, and I don't think the SD card VC games are compatible with different Wiis, are they?

Nintendo will transfer your WW/VC games if they repair your wii (if your wii is damaged to the point that Nintendo will not be able to determine you have homebrew, they will not be able to recover your game saves, however). I'm not sure whether you would be able to redownload them if you repair it yourself, however (this is assuming your NAND was formatted, which it may not have been). You should verify that SaveMii/SaveMiiFrii does not work before you send it to Nintendo, because they will find out you have homebrew and refuse to repair your wii if it does work.

Ok. ONE LAST question. How do I know if the savemiifrii worked? Can I tell before the part where I need an un-updatable disc, so that I can try it now, and not have to wait untill a new update comes out, in case it's a full brick and I would have to send it to nintendo anyways?

If you perform it correctly and the wii is properly connected to your TV, 4.3U will appear in the bottom right of the screen. Remember that if you use a GC controller, you must disassemble it and remove something from under the D-pad before you can press all four buttons.

Ok thanks. I'm working on getting a triwing screwdriver, so I'm anxious to see what happens in this lose/lose situation. I don't really know If I prefer my VC games or game data, but probably the game data.

As an alternative, somemone mentioned manually installing bootmii. I did some research, and my wii is old enough, but there are no guides on how to install it from the computer (without the wii). Is it possible to make bootmii the boot2 without the usage of my wii at all?



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2010 12:15AM by bigmac909.

To manually install Bootmii, you will need a Hardware NAND programmer (you will want to use a Infectus). You will have to get NAND dump from another wii with the same boot1 and same or greater boot2 revisions as your wii (almost certainly boot1b and boot2 v4). Use the hardware NAND programmer to flash the boot2 blocks from this NAND dump to your wii's NAND.

At this point, Bootmii will run when you start your wii. Fixing it after installing Bootmii is trivial; however, if your NAND was formatted, your game saves and WW/VC games are gone. I don't know if you will be able to redownload your WW/VC games, but there is certainly no way you will be able to recover your game saves. Of course, if your NAND was not formatted, restoring your data is possible.

There is no way to know if your NAND was formatted until you install Bootmii. However, if SaveMii does not work, the NAND likely was formatted.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2010 01:07AM by jbc007.

Wow. Thanks for the detailed response. I should be able to do my own research from here on out (though I'll probably be back). I'll most likely report back after I try savemiifrii (waiting for triwing in the mail). I really do appreciate the timely responses and detailed information. Words cannot express.

I have the same problem, but I do have bootmii installed. It is outputting data through USB Gecko, but nothing shows up on video. Can I assume the video chip is shot? Is there any way to wipe the NAND (including boot2) by running a special boot program?

If your video were broken, you wouldn't get a black screen. The Wii wouldn't output any video at all (assuming you had to tune to a special " video channel" in your TV with a blue background, if your Wii's video was broken, you would keep seeing the blue screen even if your Wii was on).

On the other hand, why do you want to wipe out your NAND? I'm assuming right now yours is a video problem, and formatting your NAND would not fix it at all.

What I'd like you to specify is if you can get BootMii to load or anything else (Priiloader, or HBC through Priiloader).

Of course, by black screen, I meant no video output. My screen is black with no video input. I want to format the NAND so that I can send it in for repairs and not have it rejected for homebrew. As I said, BootMii loads and outputs debug info through USB Gecko.

So I tried savemiifrii, and it didn't work. One last thing I'm going to try is to do savemiifrii on my cousins wii. If I'm doing the process correctly, will the system menu version still appear for a working wii?

Quote
jbc007
If SaveMii/SaveMiiFrii does not work, my guess is that your NAND was formatted. If this is the case, you could send it to Nintendo, as they will not be able to detect that you have homebrew. It is possible that they will fix it for free, especially if you sound like you have no idea what happened when you talk to them. Your other option is to use a hardware NAND programmer to restore a NAND backup (if you have one), or manually install Bootmii/boot2 (if your wii is old enough).

That would be basically the answer to your question. Though you might not be pressing the D-Pad correctly. If your cousin's Wii is working fine, then said screen with his/her system menu version should appear.