I have purchased an "untested" Wii U on eBay to try and fix, and this is how it´s going:
Video output is OK, but the console is stuck on the initial loading screen with the Wii U logo.
I left it on for a couple hours to see if an error pops up, but nothing happened.
As this was not my console, I don´t know anything about the history of this WiiU or what made it fail.
I read in forums that this problem is usually caused by a failing nand.
My next move was to try to get the recovery menu.
I flashed a Pico with UDPIH v2 (https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/udpih/releases/download/v2/udpih.uf2)
I formatted a 64GB SD card to Fat32, and put the latest recovery_menu on it´s root.
I tried Gary's v0.5 (https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/recovery_menu/releases/download/v0.5/recovery_menu) and v0.5.0-3 mlctools (https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/recovery_menu/releases/download/v0.5.0-3/recovery_menu)
So here´s my first problem:
I have tried both menus plugging in the Pico at different timings; right after disc drive initialization, one or more seconds later, immediatly after I see the Wii U logo, and even a few seconds after it.
This produced only 2 different scenarios:
- Before Wii U logo: No display, purple LED
- After Logo: Display stuck in logo, purple LED.
I know in all scenarios, both versions of the recovery menu were working, because of the purple light, and because I managed to blindly navigate the menu and dump otp, seeprom, logs, mlc_checker and slc_checker.
I found a few of this errors in the logs, which I believe confirm a bad nand:
FSA: ### DATA CORRUPTION ERROR ###, dev:mlc01, err:-1245211, cmd:11, path:(null)
So my next step was to try and dump the SLC and MLC, but it doesn´t seem to be working well.
The process starts ok, the LED indicator turns solid orange during SLC dump.
It takes a really long time to complete, but finally, the LED starts blinking blue/orange indicating it started dumping the MLC.
The MLC dump is expected to be much slower (Tzirf´s video says up to 6 hours!) so I left it dumping overnight, went to work, and checked again after dinner. After over 30 hours, the LED was still blinking blue/orange.
I decided to check what was going on, so I shut down the console and went to check the card on my PC. In those 30 hours, it only dumped 3 out of the 13 parts of the MLC.
Now I don´t know how to proceed. I have a NAND-AID available, but will I be able to use it without an MLC? I might leave the console dumping for the whole weekend, but I´m not sure if it´s worth it, as I don´t care to wipe all the data from the console, but I also don´t know if it´s possible to fix the Wii U without it.
And more: I don't know if I'll be able to see any video output during the process... so should I even try?
I would absolutely love to read some opinions/suggestions from you guys, as this is the first Wii U I ever touched and I´m very likely to be missing something.
Have you tried installing ISFShax? I had a couple consoles that wouldn't display the recovery menu, but upon installing ISFShax they displayed just fine. There is no harm installing this, and I would recommend it because it basically gives you a way to fix 90% of the problems you can run into. Additionally you are going to use it anyhow with the NAND-AID. The guide for this can be found here (https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-set-up-isfshax.642258/)
Additionally to answer some of your questions, no you do not need an MLC dump to use a NAND-AID. In fact most of the time its not used during the rebuilding process. I have fixed over 20 of these consoles and I believe 14 of them even though I did dump the MLC I didn't use when rebuilding. The reason for this is the data on the console just didn't matter and much of the time due to corruption you will spend hours rebuilding/fixing the corrupt data just to get the console to work. It is much easier to start with a fresh installation with no corrupt data and it is my recommendation that you go this route instead, especially since you purchased the console on eBay.
Thanks a lot Tzirf!
I just read the post and it even has a blind guide for when there's no display. I completely missed that tool during research.
I will try this next week and post updates.
Cheers!
Quote from: jmgatti on Jun 13, 2024, 03:50 PMThanks a lot Tzirf!
I just read the post and it even has a blind guide for when there's no display. I completely missed that tool during research.
I will try this next week and post updates.
Cheers!
You are welcome. Good luck with your repair!
A reason why you could be interested in the Data on the console would be eShop purchases form the previous owner. So it might be worth to use wupserver to at least save the old account.
With ISRFShax you could also setup a redNAND and use that to access original MLC.
So I might get some unexpected goodies from this account?
That´s awesome because: Quick Update: I left the extraction running for the whole weekend, and it actually finished extracting all 13 parts!
That is progress. The more corrupt the NAND is the longer is will take to copy the MLC. Did you end up getting ISFShax installed?
It was a really busy week. Tonight I managed to blindly install ISFShax and now, with the SD card in the front, it always boots to Minute with (finally) video output!
The process was a bit different than the guides, as the encrypted fw.img was not working for me, but I just used the non encrypted one for the installation and all went well.
For the sake of simplicity, I decided to do a clean install and NOT to restore the old MLC. This is the first time I ever touch one of this systems and I just want to see it running now... maybe for a next one!
Now I will disassemble the console and hopefully tomorrow I´ll be soldering the NAND-AID.
Posting an update soon!!
Quote from: jmgatti on Jun 21, 2024, 05:59 PMIt was a really busy week. Tonight I managed to blindly install ISFShax and now, with the SD card in the front, it always boots to Minute with (finally) video output!
The process was a bit different than the guides, as the encrypted fw.img was not working for me, but I just used the non encrypted one for the installation and all went well.
For the sake of simplicity, I decided to do a clean install and NOT to restore the old MLC. This is the first time I ever touch one of this systems and I just want to see it running now... maybe for a next one!
Now I will disassemble the console and hopefully tomorrow I´ll be soldering the NAND-AID.
Posting an update soon!!
Excellent job! You can adjust it so instead of booting into Minute it goes directly into the Wii U menu. Of course you can simple remove it after rebuilding the MLC. Keep us posted on your progress.
Weekend update:
It was NOT easy, but I soldered the NAND-AID. I used the big pads to test continuity and diode readings and some measurements with an SD card inserted to make sure I get a reading from every pin of the SD card.
I´m not sure what the readings should be, but I´m getting something out of every test point and there are no shorts between them.
My NAND-AID version is a bit different than yours. It takes ground connection from a nearby capacitor (C13) but everything else is the same.
Then I put the console back together just enough to test and nothing blew up :)
So then I put a 64GB SD card, formatted in NTFS on the NAND-AID and tried to 'Erase MLC' and 'Delete scfm.img'. Both failed.
Just for the sake of it, I tried 'Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc)' but it also fails.
I´m again 100% certain that I missed a step somewhere or did something wrong. I believe it´s fine, but is there a list of measurements I can test to see if the NAND-AID is correctly soldered?
I´ll leave screenshots of the 3 failing steps just to see if anyone here can identify the problem from them.
Sounds like you are using V10lator version of the NAND-AID. Any of the 3 that I have seen will work. The only difference between them is the ground soldering location and I may be wrong about this but I believe SDIO created one that moved the 3V connector to avoid shorting on the metal shield.
You need to rebuild the MLC. Are you following the guide for that? You have to start by downloading the MLC system titles for your region from NUS by using the MLCRestorerdownloader and then you copy the 52 titles to the SD card THAT GETS PLUGGED INTO THE FRONT OF THE CONSOLE.
The full guide for rebuilding the MLC is here (https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-upgrading-rebuilding-wii-u-internal-memory-mlc.636309/)
I think the most confusing part for first timers is that during the rebuild process you DO NOT SEE ANYTHING on screen. You have to look at the LED on the console to know if its working or not.
That being said lets get back to erasing the MLC. The formatting happens during the wafel_setup part of rebuilding the MLC. So I assume you formatted the SD Card in a PC??? Since you mention NTFS and the Wii U doesn't use this file system.
It looks like if I am reading the picture correctly, that the SD Card is detected in the console. I do not see where the Erase MLC failed in a picture. Did it tell you Erase MLC failed?
I would double check to make sure the SD card you are using is setup correctly. If you are missing 1 file this won't work, if the directory tree isn't correct on the SD Card it won't work either. Also to clarify I am referring to the SD Card that you plug into the front of the console and not the one in the NAND-AID.
Edit: There are logs written to the SD Card during the MLC erase step. Grab the log file and post it. Also what make and model SD card are you using in the NAND-AID?
I think I´m having problems understanding what to do with each of the SD cards.
What I did:
I kept the same files I used for installing and booting into ISFShax + the 52 titles for the MLC. Also added the wafel_setup_mlc.ipx, all in it´s corresponding folders (leaving a screenshot of the SD card structure)
I used this SD card (https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B07YGZQ4H8?psc=1) completely empty for the NAND-AID. I tried both NTFS and FAT32 formats.
And that´s it.
I´ve put the SD card in the NAND-AID, the other one with everything in the front, and booted into Minute.
Went straight to Erase MLC.
This just keeps printing "setting due to timeout". No clue what it means. After 30 minutes I shut down the console.
Then I tried Delete scfm.img, but it just prints "Delete failed: -1".
Just to try, I went ahead and ran Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc) but it just goes to "mping to IOS" and sits there. The optical drive makes the initialization noise at this point, and eject button now ejects discs. I assume that means the wafel software just tried to boot, but failed. Also the display doesn´t go off and the front LED remains purple.
I checked both SD cards after all of this and got no logs anywhere.
I´ll keep saying this: This is the first time I ever even touch one of this consoles and I´m absolutely positive that I´m doing something wrong. There´s a LOT of info in the forums and I think I´m getting lost between the posts and the comment section.
I don´t understand if I´m supposed to do something with the internal SD card, change some files in the front SD card or both.
I feel I´m close, but not quite there yet. I´ll keep digging into the forums and see if I get any new clues.
@jmgatti No reason to dig through the forums. We can figure this out together. Its okay if you made a mistake. Trust me I made plenty of mistakes on my first console and it took me a while to figure it all out. No shame there, heck I still make mistakes and I am up to 27 repaired Wii U now.
Lets figure out where things are going wrong. So lets start at the beginning. The format of the SD Card in the NAND-AID isn't important. The reason for this is because the wafel_setup formats it correctly for the Wii U.
When you first turn the console on just before the minute menu loads you will see a wall of text that shows up for just a second. During this bootup process it shows if the SD Card is detected in the NAND-AID. I think we should first confirm that it is before we try anything else because if the SD Card is not being detected then we have to fix that problem before you can rebuild the MLC. I will get a picture of what to look for and post it . As for your SD Card (that plugs into the front of the Wii U) I have confirmed you have the directories and files setup correctly. So we are good on that front
Well, the thing goes SUPER fast, so I had to film it with the phone and print the exact frame.
Not sure if this is what you asked for, but I find it curious that it gives the same message from when I try to run the Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc)
Lets check the SD Card in the NAND-AID first before we end up chasing a ghost here. I had a bad SD Card in one of the consoles I worked on and it caused me to go down a rabbit hole for a few hours before I figured out the SD Card was the problem.
You can use h2testw (https://h2testw.org/), which is a free utility to test and verify SD Cards are working. I would recommend doing this first so we can rule out a problematic SD Card. Just to clarify I am talking about testing the SD Card inserted into the NAND-AID. If the tests confirm the card is good, please format to FAT32 before putting it back into the NAND-AID
Here is the picture for the SD Card Mounting when its working. As for that error interrupt, status=00400900 I don't believe this matters, although SDIO would have to comment on what that specifically means. If memory serves me correctly I saw this on all of the consoles and they all worked after the NAND-AID.
I believe the important part is "mounting SD Card... and then it shows a wall of text and goes into the minute menu.
Here are the pictures so you can reference yours. I just took these from a working console that has ISFShax installed. SDCardMounting.JPGtextwall.JPG
Test went OK.
The SD card is brand new, but you never know... lol
Formatted the thing again in FAT32 using guiformat and is back in the NAND-AID.
I checked for shorts again between the pins and for continuity/resistance from solder points to test pads. Nothing suspicious found.
Can one of the files in the front SD card be wrong?
I´m not great at soldering, but I think the nand-aid is ok.
Excellent. That rules out a defective SD Card for the NAND-AID.
It is possible that a file on the front SD Card could be corrupt. Wafel_Setup is required to erase the MLC. If you suspect the files on the SD Card are corrupt, download another copy of it and copy it over and try it again. If it continues not to function, then we need to verify the NAND-AID is installed properly.
Did you use a Microscope to inspect the joints? Can you post a high resolution picture of the NAND-AID?
Just to double check some other things. The most often forgot steps are the 3V wire, DSB pad and cutting the R26 trace to disable the original eMMC. If those steps have all be double checked and are fine then the next thing to do is to double check the data connections from the NAND-AID to the Wii U board. As outlined in the blue box in this picture
(https://www.tzirf.com/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=138;image)
I missed bridging the DSB!!
Sadly, after putting a beautiful blob of solder on it, there was nothing different. (I had so much hope!)
After the failure, I went back to the soldering station, re-flowed and re-checked every connection.
Everything seemed to be physically fine, but still had the same problems in Minute.
I took the opportunity to take some pictures with my incredibly amazing 10€ microscope.
My soldering job is not as pretty as yours, but I promise it´s all solid!!
While at it, I checked for continuity from all the tiny resistors and the cut trace to the pads and SD reader legs.
Again, good continuity and no shorts.
To be certain there was a connection to the resistors, I put the multi-meter lead ni the non soldered end of the resistors. They have very low resistance and that ensures me the soldered part has a good connection.
If we reached the end of the line, I think my next step is to remove the SD card reader from the NAND-AID and replace it. I don´t have a replacement right now, but I´m sure I´ll find a parts store somewhere in Paris.
The ground pads on the SD Card Slot in the picture look like there is no solder on them. I cannot tell if this is accurate or not due to the picture. Please make sure they are soldered in place, or at least 3 of them are. If you put your multimeter in continuity mode and touch the ground pad on the SD Card Slot and put the other lead on the Wii U Ground point you should get a beep. If you do not then its not connected to ground and the SD Card Slot isn't going to work.
See picture I have marked the ground pads with a black box.
all.jpg
Yeah, I didn´t use a lot of solder on them, but all 4 legs are soldered on and I´m getting a good ground connection to the slot.
I can add a bit more, but the connection is there.
We need to summon SDIO. He has more knowledge than I do as hes the one who did alot of work to make the NAND-AID Possible. I am likely overlooking something here and he would probably notice right away.
I don't think replacing the SD Card Slot without being able to test/validate that is the problem is the way to go. Honestly I am not convinced that is the issue. I would think the problem would likely be elsewhere considering the console turns on and boots into the minute menu and the problem only shows up when attempting to rebuild the MLC.
That being said I believe if no eMMC or SD Card in this circumstance is detected the Wii U wouldn't post at all. I was trying to find the documentation for this, but for some reason I cannot find it.
Edit: I sent SDIO a PM and asked him if he would be able to take a look.
Are you able to boot into the recovery menu? I am curious what the system information page would show and if it would detect the SD Card. That would be a great way to verify that it atleast is detected and showing up.
QuoteI believe if no eMMC or SD Card in this circumstance is detected the Wii U wouldn't post at all
This gave me an idea.
Removed the SD card from the NAND-AID and power on the console.
It booted to Minute and it gives the same errors/timeouts than before.
I think this might be it. Maybe there´s a bent pin inside the card reader or something?
There´s no possible angle to inspect it while it´s on.
I should have done it before soldering...
Quote from: tzirf on Jun 25, 2024, 05:32 PMAre you able to boot into the recovery menu? I am curious what the system information page would show and if it would detect the SD Card. That would be a great way to verify that it atleast is detected and showing up.
As soon as I turn on the console it boots into Minute.
Is there an option somewhere to go back to Recovery?
Or do I have to change something in the frontal SD card?
I think ISFShax would have to be uninstalled in order to boot into recovery menu. DON'T DO THIS THOUGH. Leave it there until the MLC is rebuilt. I think we narrowed down the problem to the SD Card Slot. I am just looking over some things to see if you can test and verify this, so you don't waste time replacing it.
No matter how I look at it, there has to be a bad solder joint someplace. It is the only explanation. I would triple check all the solder joints and makes sure you are testing with your multimeter from the correct location. I would think the issue is either the data connections from NAND-AID to the Wii U or the SD Card Slot. Unless there was physical damage to the SD Card Slot I doubt there is anything wrong with it. I would expect the issue to be a bad solder job on one of the pins.
Yes, I can´t find anything else to go on with.
It´s 2am and I´m half dead now. Tomorrow I´ll re-check the solder joints. I´m 100% certain that the NAND-AID PCB is correctly soldered. I think I might have damaged the slot while soldering the pins (I hate plastic parts).
Just in case I ordered 10 replacement card slots for a grand total of 3€ that will be arriving in about a week.
I hope I don´t destroy all of them! lol
Thanks again for all your guidance.
I´ll post something as soon as I get some new results!
Quote from: jmgatti on Jun 25, 2024, 06:53 PMYes, I can´t find anything else to go on with.
It´s 2am and I´m half dead now. Tomorrow I´ll re-check the solder joints. I´m 100% certain that the NAND-AID PCB is correctly soldered. I think I might have damaged the slot while soldering the pins (I hate plastic parts).
Just in case I ordered 10 replacement card slots for a grand total of 3€ that will be arriving in about a week.
I hope I don´t destroy all of them! lol
Thanks again for all your guidance.
I´ll post something as soon as I get some new results!
Sounds good. The trick to protecting plastic parts during soldering is use plenty of flux where you want the solder to flow, also make sure your soldering iron is hot enough. The idea is to quickly heat what you want the solder and get it to flow using plenty of flux and then remove the soldering iron from the component. Most plastic used on surface mount components and PCB can withstand 100C. If you touch it with a soldering iron its obviously going to melt. However most of the heat is absorbed and transferred by the metal surrounding plastic components which protects them. I run my soldering iron at 850 Degrees. I don't know what iron you have, but better irons make soldering easier because you can control the temperature and also change out tips. For example large tips make soldering large ground points that absorb a ton of heat much easier. On the other hand smaller tips are better for micro soldering, because you can concentrate the heat on the component you wish to solder and not accidentally touch something else in the process. Either way, don't give up! The more you solder the easier it becomes and the better you will be at it.
Quick update:
I was able to see in the installer that the card WAS being detected (card size 60kk), but timed out.
So I re-checked the pins in the NAND-AID SD card slot and found that PIN 2 was solid, but the leg looked to be further back than the others.
Without DAT3, I read that the card will only be able to operate in 1-bit data transfer mode.
Maybe this is causing the issue??
So I removed the slot and... yeah. The PIN was bad.
Waiting for the replacements now and hoping a good slot will fix it!!
(https://www.tzirf.com/dlattach/?attach=596;image)
Nice job finding the the problem with the SD Card Slot!!!
Happy update!
The micro SD card reader replacements arrived and I soldered a new one to the NAND-AID.
This time, Erase MLC worked!
Strangely, Delete scfm.img didn´t work at all. It just gave a single line message of failure.
I decided to ignore that and went ahead to Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc) and to my surprise, it actually worked this time! (kinda. The LED started blinking orange at some point before being still)
I removed the front SD card, turned on the console, Wii-U logo (excitement!) and... Error code 160-0101.
This means I need to change the region to the correct one on my Wii-U, but for that, I need to boot into recovery_menu which I can´t do anymore.
Should I uninstall ISFShax to boot into recovery_menu or is there some way to change regions in Minute?
I´m currently reading how to uninstall. It looks simple, but I really don´t want to screw up anything else now
EDIT:
I just thought of a method that worked to boot recovery_menu!
- Keep the front SD card out.
- Start the console.
- Wait for first disc drive noise to push the SD card in.
- Wait for second disc drive noise to plug in the pico.
BAM! You´re in !
Buuuuut, when I try to Set Coldboot Title to EUR, I get an error message:
Error! Make sure the title is installed correctly.
I guess the MLCRestorerDownloader gave me the wrong titles.
Maybe because coldboot was already wrong when I dumped the otp.bin ?
It´s very likely that I changed it by accident while navigating blindly through the menus at the start of the project
EDIT 2:
Checked the MLC downloader output and the titles are there, so it´s probably a problem from the rebuild process.
I might try to do all of it again
Quote from: jmgatti on Jul 03, 2024, 01:43 PMThe micro SD card reader replacements arrived and I soldered a new one to the NAND-AID.
This time, Erase MLC worked!
Strangely, Delete scfm.img didn´t work at all. It just gave a single line message of failure.
I decided to ignore that and went ahead to Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc) and to my surprise, it actually worked this time! (kinda. The LED started blinking orange at some point before being still)
I removed the front SD card, turned on the console, Wii-U logo (excitement!) and... Error code 160-0101.
This means I need to change the region to the correct one on my Wii-U, but for that, I need to boot into recovery_menu which I can´t do anymore.
Should I uninstall ISFShax to boot into recovery_menu or is there some way to change regions in Minute?
I´m currently reading how to uninstall. It looks simple, but I really don´t want to screw up anything else now
Did you make sure you downloaded the EUR MLC/SLC titles from the MLCRestorerDownloader? Are you positive that you followed the rebuilding the MLC guide correctly?
The correct steps are as follows:
1. Make sure wafel_setup_mlc.ipx is on the SD Card in the following directory: wiiu/ios_plugins.
2. Select patch sd and boot IOS slc in the minute menu to start the setup of the the MLC. During this setup you won't see anything on screen but the front power LED will be blinking. Blue = everything is great. Orange = there is an error but it was able to continue and red is something fatal happened. Its okay to have an orange light as long as it continues to blink.
3. The LED light will become static (stop blinking) when it is finished. Power off the console.
4. Delete wafel_setup_mlc.ipx from the SD Card in the front of the console. Then insert it back into the Wii U
5. Boot the console and select patch sd and boot IOS slc again. This should launch into the Wii U menu if everything worked.
Also, there is a log file written to the SD card called wafel_setup_mlc.log attach it to the post so we can see what happen
DO NOT REMOVE ISFXhax FROM THE CONSOLE. I cannot stress this enough. There is no reason to remove it until you have rebuilt the MLC and setup the Wii U console and verified it is working. Since I don't know where the problem lies removing it could leave you in position where the only course to recover is using defuse which isn't fun at all and considerable more difficult.
Also this is just a guess but I suspect you are getting error code 160-0101 because system files are missing and the Wii U cannot start because of it. It likely has nothing to do with Set Coldboot Title.
That being said did you verify the region of the console? The sticker on the underside of the Wii U denotes the region. Lets makes sure its Europe.
UPDATE: On a side note I can duplicate your problem with a console I have that doesn't have a NAND-AID installed but has a failing eMMC. I am curious if your console is detecting the SD Card you are using in the NAND-AID. You can view this by going back into the recovery menu and looking at system information. It should list the eMMC as unknown with the size. The unknown part is normal and can be ignored.
I did a few edits to my previous comment.
In a nutshell, the error 160-0101 was because of missing files.
I tried changing the zone to USA and JAP and getting the same error.
So I redumped otp and redownloaded the titles both for MLC and SLC.
When I tried to copy them to my front SD card, I saw a corrupted folder name in it.
After some tinkering, I realized the old SD card was giving up.
So I got a different one, plugged it in, rebuilt MLC (this time finished in blue) and SUCCESS!!!
Thank you for all your help man!
I´ll keep lurking in the forums and try to do the same for others now :D
Quote from: jmgatti on Jul 03, 2024, 06:28 PMI did a few edits to my previous comment.
In a nutshell, the error 160-0101 was because of missing files.
I tried changing the zone to USA and JAP and getting the same error.
So I redumped otp and redownloaded the titles both for MLC and SLC.
When I tried to copy them to my front SD card, I saw a corrupted folder name in it.
After some tinkering, I realized the old SD card was giving up.
So I got a different one, plugged it in, rebuilt MLC (this time finished in blue) and SUCCESS!!!
Thank you for all your help man!
I´ll keep lurking in the forums and try to do the same for others now :D
Excellent Job. ;) I was going to suggest either the original eMMC is still connected or the SD Card being used is bad. Nice work, now the next Wii U you repair will be even easier because you know where things can go wrong. Once you get the console setup and you verify its working, you can remove ISFShax. If you have any other questions let me know.
Also as a final step you can verify the console has no corrupt data by using the "Check MLC" function in the recovery menu.