Update: I created a video showing the full installation process of a NAND-AID. It has further details of the installation process with commentary explaining what I am doing.
 

This guide is intended to help anyone who wants to install a NAND-AID to fix their Wii U. If you have used this guide and found something confusing, or have a request/recommendation to make it better please make a post and let me know.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL A NAND-AID I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU USE THE RECOVERY MENU TO INSTALL ISFShax TO THE WII U CONSOLE. THE GUIDE FOR IT IS HERE AND WAS WRITTEN BY SDIO. THE METHOD YOU WANT TO USE IS THE UDPIH TO LAUNCH INTO MINUTE MENU. THE REASON FOR THIS IS THAT NOT ONLY WILL YOU END UP NEEDING THIS ANYHOW, BUT HAVING IT INSTALLED BEFORE YOU START THE NAND-AID INSTALLATION GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO RECOVER FROM ANY MISTAKES YOU COULD MAKE. IT CAN BE REMOVED AFTER YOU INSTALL A NAND-AID AND FULLY SETUP THE WII U CONSOLE.

The components you will need to complete a NAND-AID repair:

• NAND-AID
• Micro SD Card Slot
• 10UF Ceramic Capacitor
• 28 Gauge Enamel wire or similiar
• Micro SD Card that is same size as your Wii U eMMC (I Recommend Samsung Pro Endurance)

The Tools/supplies you will need to complete this repair:

• Microscope
• Soldering Iron
• Solder & Solder Wick
• Flux
• Screw Driver with tri-wing/phillips heads to disassemble Wii U
• Tweezers to hold components (Wire/10UF Capacitor)
• Optional: Q-Tips/Cotton Swabs & Isopropyl Alcohol to cleanup flux

Some knowledge you will need to complete this repair:

• Your soldering iron needs to be around 700-850 degrees otherwise you are going to struggle with this. The reason why it has to be so hot is because soldering iron tips are small and the amount of heat that will actually transfer to heat up the solder is less than what you think it is. Additionally PCB/Surround components are great at soaking up heat and thus lowering the temperature. Further more solder that is more tin based or "lead free" requires a higher temperature to melt and is more difficult to work with, this is the stuff used in the Wii U.
• Understanding that adding fresh solder to solder joints is sometimes required. The reason for this is some older solder doesn't melt easily and if it is primarily tin based like on the Wii U console it can be difficult to get flowing even with flux. So if you have used flux and it refuses to flow, add fresh solder. Remember you can always remove the solder with solder wick.
• Flux is your friend. Without it, solder WILL NOT FLOW. I cannot stress this enough. I have seen many repair attempts over the years and the biggest single mistake I have seen is that people do not use flux or do this type of "dry soldering". It simply doesn't work PERIOD. Those claiming otherwise either like to struggle ALOT or are liars. Buy flux and use it generously. It will make your soldering so much easier.

There are sellers on eBay selling NAND-AID. The original NAND-AID I used for this guide can be purchased in the USA/Canada on eBay. The links are below. The European seller has the redesign version 4. This guide can still be used to install that. The differences are the ground hole is larger for easier soldering and there is a ground leg you can use instead if you want to solder the SD Card Slot into place first. 

If you are in the USA: Click Here
If you are in Canada: Click Here
If you are in Spain: Click Here
If you are in Germany/Europe: Click Here
I will try to maintain these links as long as they are available. Last updated/checked 11/27/2024


There are a several steps that need to be done to accomplish this repair and they have to be done in the correct order otherwise you will not be able to get to certain areas to solder. Example: You cannot solder the SD Card Slot on the NAND-AID before soldering the NAND-AID to the ground pad on the Wii U board, because the SD Card Slot will cover the ground pad on the NAND-AID, making it impossible to solder.

The following is a list in the correct order that needs to be done. Don't be intimidated by this, while it looks like many steps, they are very simple and easily accomplished.
 

• The Wii U must be almost completely disassembled.
• If there is a decoupling capacitor on your Wii U PCB it must be removed. This step may be optional as not all Wii U have this capacitor
• Use an X-acto Knife to cut the trace at R26 near the eMMC, this disables the eMMC
• NAND-AID Must be soldered into place using ground pad
• NAND-AID Data connections need to be soldered to resistors on Wii U board
• SD Card Slot must be soldered to the NAND-AID (ONLY AFTER YOU INSTALL NAND-AID TO GROUND PAD)
• Solder Capacitor (10UF Ceramic Capacitor) to NAND-AID
• 3V Wire must be soldered to NAND-AID & System board
• Solder the DSB pad to short the eMMC

Before we get started, lets take a look at a picture to get an idea of where this stuff is going to go on the Wii U board. The picture is color coded with the text below. Click Here if you need an even larger picture

Orange box is where you need to cut the R26 trace to disable the eMMC. Use an X-acto knife to cut this. Do not cut through the entire board. You only need to cut the trace between the 2 solder points. Use a multi-meter to test for continuity. If you have none, then you successfully cut the trace.

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This step may be optional depending on the Wii U you are working on. Not all Wii U consoles have this capacitor on them as Nintendo removed it from the design as some point during manufacturing. If you do not have this capacitor on the board you can skip this step and move on to the next. For those who do have it I have created a video showing how to remove this using a soldering iron.

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Red Box is the ground pad, where the NAND-AID will be soldered to first. This grounds the NAND-AID as well as holds it in place. It will take some heat to get the solder flowing, so don't be alarmed if you have to hold your soldering iron on this location for 30-45 seconds. I recommend you add some flux to the solder already on the pad and a small amount of new solder to get the old solder flowing before placing the NAND-AID over it and attempting to solder it in place

These are the data connections that need to be soldered to the NAND-AID

Now that you have this information, Lets begin by placing the NAND-AID in place and soldering it to the ground pad. It should look like this when you are done. Yellow box shows where you solder the ground pad. Make sure the NAND-AID is on the ground pad and that its lining up with the resistors for the data connections. Blue box are the data connections.



Lets solder the Data connections. You will need a microscope to do this work or if you are really good a magnifying glass might work. I am not that good so I used a microscope. I recommend testing for continuity on all the resistors with a multi-meter to verify the solder connected the NAND-AID to each resistor. Again resistors are outlined in a blue box. The orange box is the R26 trace that you should have cut with an X-acto knife. This also needs to be soldered. YOU NEED TO SOLDER THE NAND-AID TO THE WII U BOARD AT R26 AFTER CUTTING THE TRACE. BE SURE NOT TO USE TOO MUCH SOLDER OTHERWISE YOU COULD BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THE NAND-AID, THUS UNDOING THE CUT YOU MADE HERE.


Making progress here! Lets get the SD Card Slot soldered in place. The first thing you will want to do is tin the gold pads before you attempt to solder the SD Card Slot down.

The following picture has the area outlines in Brown boxes. These are the areas you want to tin ahead of time. For those who may not know, tinning is putting a thin layer of solder on the pads. You can do this by adding flux, then using your soldering iron to melt the solder and add it to the pad. You don't want huge blobs of solder. Just barely cover the surface. This will make it much easier to solder the SD Card in place. Additionally we are going to tin the 2 pads in front of the SD Card Slot, outlined in a purple box, where the small ceramic capacitor will go. This is easier to tin now rather than after the SD Card Slot has been soldered in place.



Once you tin the pads it should look like this:

Now we can solder the SD Card Slot into place.


WARNING: If you heat the SD Card Slot too much with your soldering iron the plastic inside will melt/deform which may cause the card slot not to function properly. It is designed in a way that you should be able to melt a small amount of solder to your iron and transfer it quickly to the points on the SD card slot that need to be soldered. Remember flux is your friend, flux helps solder flow!! If you are having trouble getting the solder to "stick" or "flow" where you want it, add some flux.

Place the SD Card slot in place, there is 2 locating pin that will sit in 2 holes on the NAND-AID. You want to start with the 3 outside pads marked in a yellow box in the picture below.These hold the SD Card slot in place. The 4th one near the Capacitor at C13 (Marked in Red Box) can be done last or not at all. Its a very tight space and if you don't have a very fine tip soldering iron you will either damage the capacitor or get solder where you don't want it, so I recommend you skip this one if you aren't confident you can add some solder without damaging something. You also need to add solder to each of the 9 pins for the SD Card Slot(marked in a pink box).


Once you solder the SD Card Slot in place it should now look like this:


Congrats making it this far! You are almost done with the soldering. All that is left are the 3V wire, the DSB Pad and the Ceramic Capacitor. I have outlined where they have to be soldered with the following color coding.

Red box is where the capacitor needs to be soldered Capacitor should be 10uf and each end of the capacitor must be soldered to its corresponding pad. There is no positive/negative side of a capacitor so you don't have to worry about proper orientation.
Pink box is where the DSB Pad is located and needs a blob of solder to short it. Literally put a blob of solder and connect the 2 pads. 
Yellow box is where you have to connect a wire. This is the 3V Wire Notice that the NAND-AID is marked 3V, the other end of the wire needs to be soldered to the leg of component R10 on the Wii U board(See Picture Below, Yellow Arrow is the leg you want to solder the wire to). You will want to use 28 Gauge Wire for this. It can be any kind of wire. I personally find enamel copper wire to be easiest to work with. 

When its done it should look like this:


CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the NAND-AID installation and you can now rebuild the MLC of your console. You can find the tutorial created by SDIO on how to do that here. You have 2 options, you can either write the image you should have created before following this install guide or you can rebuild the MLC from scratch. 

Some final prep before installing the micro SD card and getting the system put back together, while not required its certainly recommended. Use some isopropyl alcohol 90% or higher and clean the NAND-AID/Surrounding area. I prefer using 99.9% but sometimes this isn't available so anything 90% or higher will work. You can use a super soft tooth brush and/or Q-tips/cotton swabs to do this. Don't worry about soaking the area with the isopropyl alcohol, it will evaporate with some air flow. If you are worried stick a fan on the board for a few minutes.

If you made it this far and have any suggestions or comments feel free to make a post.

saved for future revisions