STUPID!!! STUPID!!! STUPID!!! Now I feel terrible...

A friend of mine brought his brother's black Wii to me to install HBC. I installed HBC using Bannerbomb v2 and installed IOS58. I then re-installed HBC to work under IOS58. Added some homebrew apps such as MPlayer_ce, Pimp My Wii, Wad Installer, Hexen.

Then I got stupid. Very stupid.

Stupid mistake 1 - I did not take a backup on the NAND using Bootmii, which obviously on a black Wii would only install as an IOS (was done) anyway.

Stupid mistake 2 - Then I proceeded to update certain IOS's that PimpMyWii suggested I update. However - and here's where I was really stupid - I wasn't concentrating on what IOS's I was installing and before I knew it I had installed stub IOS 51.

BRICK!!!

Questions that need to be answered before folks here can help me:

What happens when your Wii boots up? (How far it gets, does the wiimote work, does the system freeze, go black, etc.)
Black screen, green light, nothing more. Possibly means I can use Savemii...

What Version of the System Menu is installed on the Wii?
*Groan*. System Menu PAL 4.2E. If Savemii is to work, then I will need to update to Sysmenu 4.3E. Luckily I had HBC running on IOS58 in the end.

Is the Homebrew Channel or the Twilight Hack installed on the system?
Yes, HBC v 1.0.8 and Bannerbomb v2

Does your Wii have a Drivechip?
No! Wish it did!

Have you been able to boot homebrew in any way?
No. Stops dead at switch on, only the green light shows and a beautiful black screen.

Did you have Priiloader installed?
No.

Can anyone help? Yeah, yeah I know what I SHOULD have done, and I concur I was a dummy, just need to know can I fix it. I believe Metroid M PAL (E) has come out with update to v4.3. Would this work using the Gamecube controller hack or the Savemii hack?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2010 04:49PM by J_Man.

First, and this should be stressed alot more: PimpMyWii is one of the worst apps out there. I sincerely don't know who told you to use it, and what he promised it would do. It does serve a purpose, but it's not an app that should be used by the inexperienced (even I don't know how to use it, and given that I've had no problems thus far that required it, I don't care about ever learning how to use it).

Back to the topic at hand... theoretically, you COULD fix your Wii with a system update. All PimpMyWii did (as far as I know anyways) was replace every IOS you had with void IOS (??? someone clarify this), which were v0.0 and basically... dont do anything. Given that every other normal IOS has higher version numbers, updating through Other M should do the trick.

You should try and see if you can get into Maintenance Mode, like you said, by pressing all 4 directions in a GC controller connected in socket 4. If you do get to a screen with your current system menu version in one of the corners, then you're most likely good to go. You'd have to insert Other M, and let 'er rip... no actual progress of the update will be shown though, and you'll have to wait a while for it complete by itself.

This is, as far as my experience goes, the only way to get out of this nasty mess. You should also wait a bit more and see if the rest of the regulars concur with my method before pressing on(I'd think so, but I might have missed a point or two).

Good luck. Oh, and if you do recover... fer god sakes, do a NAND backup immediately and proceed to install Priiloader.

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Magil
First, and this should be stressed alot more: PimpMyWii is one of the worst apps out there. I sincerely don't know who told you to use it, and what he promised it would do. It does serve a purpose, but it's not an app that should be used by the inexperienced (even I don't know how to use it, and given that I've had no problems thus far that required it, I don't care about ever learning how to use it).

You're right there, it is a crudely named and programmed app, and should be avoided in favour of much cleaner apps like dop-Mii

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Back to the topic at hand... theoretically, you COULD fix your Wii with a system update. All PimpMyWii did (as far as I know anyways) was replace every IOS you had with void IOS (??? someone clarify this), which were v0.0 and basically... dont do anything. Given that every other normal IOS has higher version numbers, updating through Other M should do the trick.

what makes you think it makes the version numbers 0? That would be pointless. If anything, it'd max them out so they won't be overwritten by an update

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You should try and see if you can get into Maintenance Mode, like you said, by pressing all 4 directions in a GC controller connected in socket 4. If you do get to a screen with your current system menu version in one of the corners, then you're most likely good to go. You'd have to insert Other M, and let 'er rip... no actual progress of the update will be shown though, and you'll have to wait a while for it complete by itself.

That's not Maintenance Mode, which is a completely different, and in this case useless, thing.

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This is, as far as my experience goes, the only way to get out of this nasty mess. You should also wait a bit more and see if the rest of the regulars concur with my method before pressing on(I'd think so, but I might have missed a point or two).

Good luck. Oh, and if you do recover... fer god sakes, do a NAND backup immediately and proceed to install Priiloader.

I do advise install Priiloader if you get it fixed.

Anyway, a stubbed IOS51 would do NO damage to the Wii, and it'd still work fine, so that is clearly not the issue here. If in fact you stubbed the System Menu IOS (i.e. IOS70 on 4.2), then you have a full brick and there is no way to recover from it, even with a hardware NAND programmer (no NAND dump or keys dump means no recovery). If the app tried to reinstall SM and failed, same situation. But try SaveMii/SaveMiiFrii anyway, in case it's something else.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2010 10:17PM by SifJar.

Guys, thanks for the reply. Just to update - I used PimpMyWii to identify certain IOS's that needed updating, that's all. I didn't use it to do the updating - I had most of those items on my SD card. In fact I can't update via PimpMyWii. For some unknown reason I can't access NUS from my Wii even though I can download everything else using HB and access the net using Internet Channel. Since I'm not into regular updating of my Wii, I haven't been too peturbed about this. I am quite aware of the dangers of the program and have not installed all its recommendations on my own Wii. I would rather use DopMii, but the version I have cannot update offline. There's another lesson - use the most up to date homebrew you can when tinkering around.

I sure as hell hope it wasn't IOS70 I stubbed. Can't think why I would have though, unless it was one of the stubs on the card that I missed like IOS51.

All in all I probably only updated about 6 IOSes using WadManager.

Just a question - IOS70 is the Sysmenu 4.2's IOS. From what I understand, Sysmenu 4.3 uses IOS80. Surely if you use SaveMii/Frii with Metroid Other M it should in theory work because it's now using a different base IOS for the sysmenu?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2010 04:56PM by J_Man.

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J_Man
Just a question - IOS70 is the Sysmenu 4.2's IOS. From what I understand, Sysmenu 4.3 uses IOS80. Surely if you use SaveMii/Frii with Metroid Other M it should in theory work because it's now using a different base IOS for the sysmenu?

No, if you have system menu 4.2, the system menu will require IOS 70. The rescue (SaveMii) menu is a feature of the system menu, so it requires that the system menu's IOS is intact. This IOS can not be changed without installing a different system menu, and since the rescue menu must run for you to be able to update to 4.3 with a game, there is nothing you can do if IOS 70 is not functional.

Try SaveMii/SaveMiiFrii anyway, just in case the problem is caused by something else. If it works, update from a game with 4.3. If it does not work, there is no way to fix your wii.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2010 06:30PM by jbc007.

The guy has taken the Wii back to the shop. I don't know what the result will be. I see from the SD I used that IOS70 stub was indeed there. Chances are then that I did stub IOS70 which means I can't fix the problem.

Well, at least I won't make the mistake again. Still, I was stupid to do so in the first place.

Just as a question - if I did have Priiloader installed and I had stubbed IOS70 but had a Bootmii backup NAND, how would this have helped me? I don't think it would.

It would not have helped in this case, but with some bricks it would help to have Priiloader, so you could launch homebrew and attempt to recover.

If you had a NAND backup, you could have flashed it to the NAND with a hardware NAND programmer. On older wiis, the NAND backup is not necessary (though it is easier if you have one), since Bootmii/Boot2 can be manually installed with the NAND programmer, but, of course, this is not an option in your case.