Wii Troubleshooting

Brick Recovery

If you find that your Wii won’t boot up, either from a dodgy app or from a mistake softmodding, don’t think that it’s only good for being a brick.  Here are some troubleshooting guides to try that you won’t find in the Nintendo Wii manual.

 

Maintenace Mode

If you can get to the health warning screen, press and hold the + and – button, then press A.  This will take you to the maintenance mode where you be prompted by a message saying that the Message Board is unavailable.  Your channels will also be missing and certain options in the settings menu will not work.  However, this can be used to uninstall bad channels or even format the Wii’s memory.

SaveMii / SaveMiiFrii

These two methods allow access to the recovery mode built into the Wii console.  SaveMii is a purpose made dongle that fits into the Gamecube memory card slot, whereas SaveMiiFrii does the same thing with a Gamecube controller – the controller plugs into the 4th port and all 4 directions on the D-pad need to be pressed at the same time, requiring either the controller casing to be removed or a clamp put on the D-pad itself.  If successful, you should see the System Menu version in the bottom right hand corner.

This mode can install an update from a legit disc inserted into the drive but only if the update is newer than the System Menu on the console (currently useless if you are on SM 4.3) – it takes a bit of time so be patient!

You can also run an autoboot disc from this mode, hence you can make an autoboot disc of Super Smash Bros Brawl and run the SmashStack exploit to access homebrew and repair the console – using Wad manager to install missing IOS/remove bad wads or AnyRegion Changer to reinstall the System Menu, for example.
To make an autoboot disc, you must patch an iso using Wii BootMe and have a modchip installed to read the dvd-r (and if using the StackSmash exploit you also need to alter the folder name of the smashstack file on the SD card from RSBP to OSBP, as well as a dvd-r DL for the game itself).

Bluetooth / Wi-Fi modules

A black screen and non-booting Wii can also be symptomatic of a faulty bluetooth module, as is being unable to pair a Wii remote. If replacing that doesn’t work, the wi-fi module could also be at fault. To replace these you must disassemble the Wii completely, down to the main motherboard – if you find that the bluetooth module has simply unclipped itself from it’s connector, you can push down on the metal plate after removing the dvd drive to push it back in place (be a little gentle!).

BootMii

Of course, if you have a softmodded Wii and have had the foresight to install BootMii (as boot2) then you already have brick protection installed. You can simply boot into it from an SD card and restore a backed up nand, if you have one, or start the HBC and run the required homebrew app.

 

If all else fails, buy a new one!