Hacking Hardware Wii RVL-001 Sound but No Signal on Video

[MrArcade]

I have been out of the wii scene for several years. I hacked several wiis years ago. I am currently setting a wii up for my daughter and am trying to get back up to speed.

I still have several wiis that I picked up at garage sales etc. I am going through them. One of them is a very nice looking red RVL-001 that I remember buying untested, console only, at a garage sale. I bought it cheap figuring at least I can swap into the red case if the wii is bad. I assumed it was since they only had the console for sale with nothing else, they likely kept that suff for their replacment wii.

This wii will power on and off with the power button. I can sync a wiimote and turn the wii on and off with the wiimote. The tv shows "No Signal". I am connecting with a composite cable (Red/White/Yellow). I have tested several different wiis and all hardware and cables work with them.

While powered on I press the A button and then I can hear the main screen background sound.

I wanted to try to change the video setting in case it was set for component cable. I tried turning on without the av cable plugged into the wii, then plug it in after boot, still No Signal.

I hooked up a working wii and figured out how to get to the video output setting by feeling the tactile feedback felt when going over a clickable icon.

When I tried to do this on the No SIgnal wii I never get any tactile feedback. I turned up the volume and realized I could hear the clicks as I went over the icons. I tried changing the video output by sound but am not sure I succeeded.

I believe the bluetooth module must be plugged in because the wiimote connects and can power on/off the wii.

I can't test wifi, but what I have read says the wii won't boot if the wifi is unplugged, so guessing it is plugged in.

I tried holding Reset while powering on to get into priiloader if present, still boots to regular menu background sound.

I read about a repair where the 1.8v was not present which feeds video output:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/transfer-broken-wii-content-to-another-wii.604111/

Is there anything else I can/should try before disassembling to check the 1.8v?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

MrArcade

 

[Exidous]

You could test with a component video output cable. Consider that each of the three colors carries picture signal over an RCA cord, so you can even plug one of them into the yellow RCA video input you've been using, if your display lacks component in. The cords themselves are less than $10 from third party manufacturers now.

I may be more skittish than you about cracking hardware, and that's why I'd consider this first.

 

[JuanMena]

It seems to be bad capacitors.

If it were the Bluetooth Module, it simply wouldn't boot.
If it were the WiFi Board, same, wouldn't boot.

It also can't be a signal issue since you said other Wiis works with the same component cables, so that's ruled out too.

The only thing I can think off about go causing black screens are bad capacitors (6 surface mounted caps near the AV input) or some kind of brick.

In order to rule out if it's a brick, try accessing PriiLoader by holding RESET while turning on your console.
It should boot to PriiLoader, which should be visible regardless (unless bad caps) and if you're still can't access PriiLoader then definitely it's bad capacitors.

 

[MrArcade]

In order to rule out if it's a brick, try accessing PriiLoader by holding RESET while turning on your console.
It should boot to PriiLoader, which should be visible regardless (unless bad caps) and if you're still can't access PriiLoader then definitely it's bad capacitors.

As I started in the original post, I tried that.

About the bad caps, does this lead to no 1.8v?

 

[Shgofc]

As I started in the original post, I tried that.

About the bad caps, does this lead to no 1.8v?

no its just a case of really bad capacitors because normally the wii dims with bad capacitors but if they're bad enough no image should be displayed try turning on your wii and then waiting a lot if you get some image even if its very dark means the capacitors are working but they're just in a really bad condition but if your wii dont show any image after a long time it probally means the capacitors are dead it could be the image chip but its very unlikely try replacing the capacitors just dont forget to twist them off instead of desoldering