Hacking Wii Disk Loaders Issues and Answers :

[dkelley]

yea, maybe this is pushing the off-topic-nes a bit too far, but I bought some uber-cheap verbatims at some generic store like shoppers drug mart (I'm in BC, Canada)... I wondered why they were so cheap compared to veratims I've bought at electronics stores in the past.

Result: absolute crap. These are obviously made by some other company and verbatim screwed up by selling them under their own brand name. dvd-r 16X and they burn at 5-6X in my drive typically and not a single one out of 4 I tried would work in my wii, my cheap memorex and fujis (And generics!) work fine and older good verbatims work fine.

So even then you can't always trust a brand name - as someone inferred above, all the manufacturers' discs aren't made by that manufacturer, you get random different quality and makes within one brand all the time. but you definitely get a better quality-to-numberofdiscs ratio with those big names mentioned in a previous post (verbatim, fuji, sony(ish) and so on).

just thought that was a mildly interesting anecdote.

Cheers

 

[dkelley]

hey taz, worth asking here since I read somewhere along the way about issues with backup loader wads bricking wiis. Are the wads I just downloaded from your sig in this thread ok? not going to brick my wii? (edit: I should clarify, I know you're totally kewl and trustworthy, but after reading all of the stuff like "don't use third party image-based wads" and how many people got messed up wiis from it, now I'm cautious - which isn't my usual frame of mind at all).

I've been looking for a way to force-ntsc by default so my wife can actually run the wii LoL, but I don't want to do anything to mess things up (it's been working great with the homebrew channel loader and manually configuring force ntsc every time.

I don't bother with the disc channel rebooter unless I want to see what game disc is in the wii and am too lazy to get up and eject it myself to look at what I wrote heh heh).

 

[noobwarrior7]

tazs wads are fine, it's more common that people make their own brick'er wad, than you finding one on here, but it does happen...are you starfalled

 

[Pyrofyr]

Since it's from newegg and they have a return policy I should be fine, right?

I'll still look around, but that's 13 bucks as opposed to 25. I get what you're saying, but that is indeed a huge price jump. :/

 

[noobwarrior7]

best site for specific info:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia

 

[djtaz]

hey taz, worth asking here since I read somewhere along the way about issues with backup loader wads bricking wiis. Are the wads I just downloaded from your sig in this thread ok? not going to brick my wii? (edit: I should clarify, I know you're totally kewl and trustworthy, but after reading all of the stuff like "don't use third party image-based wads" and how many people got messed up wiis from it, now I'm cautious - which isn't my usual frame of mind at all).

Yeah all the wads in the zip are safe and have been tested.
Your right to be cautious because i was asked to make a WAD channel at one stage (and i had already done a few). I used the exact same steps as i had before and it bricked 3 wii's on people. Now i had posted it was untested as i wasnt near my own wii at the time - but it was also confirmed to work by the guy who asked me - it seems it later froze up and bricked his wii as well.


Anyway - all ones in the zip are fine - and theres a thread about Gamma Channels if you use search with a load more on it - some nice ones - all safe as well.

 

[Pyrofyr]

Thanks for that link noobwarrior7,

According to it, I should be A-Ok :]

 

[noobwarrior7]

its a great site, tons and tons of anecdotal info (in this case, anecdotal being the only kind we're privy to) compiled into statistics and nice on-topic comments.

took me a while to figure out what "cake-box" meant though, maybe I'm just slow.

 

[Pyrofyr]

You're not alone there, it's implied logic really.

I'm probably gonna just scope out deals and buy 2 packs of those or something. Since I was reading that DVD-/+RW don't work as good with the Wii as much as DVD-/+R do :[

I was hoping to be able to re-use them a few times in case they messed up, considering it's a dollar a DVD, which isn't really a big deal at all (going from 50 bucks), but if it takes a few tries because of faulty information in a torrent or something, then I have to redo it. D:

 

[dkelley]

thx Taz and Noob... much appreciated.

Noob, no I'm not starfalled... even though I'm pretty experienced in homebrewing my wii etc I've never found enough deep information or a very helpful forum thread about starfall to feel confident installing it. The one time I had it's installer on my sd card and started it up there were enough warnings that I became chicken and cancelled the install.

I've searched but have gotten a little lost I'm afraid, if you could direct me to a helpful link about starfall, it's requirements and versions, downloads and what it actually does then I'd really appreciate it.

I can't afford to brick my baby! and my wife would kill me

EDIT: PS, if you don't have time/info about it then no worries not begging ya, but I'm definitely interested but having bad luck getting reliable info about starfall.

 

[djtaz]

I think emperorofcanada has all the files required , but you will have to PM him for the link - he should be able to explain a bit more if you need info on it.

 

[noobwarrior7]

thx Taz and Noob... much appreciated.

Noob, no I'm not starfalled... even though I'm pretty experienced in homebrewing my wii etc I've never found enough deep information or a very helpful forum thread about starfall to feel confident installing it. The one time I had it's installer on my sd card and started it up there were enough warnings that I became chicken and cancelled the install.

I've searched but have gotten a little lost I'm afraid, if you could direct me to a helpful link about starfall, it's requirements and versions, downloads and what it actually does then I'd really appreciate it.

I can't afford to brick my baby! and my wife would kill me

EDIT: PS, if you don't have time/info about it then no worries not begging ya, but I'm definitely interested but having bad luck getting reliable info about starfall.

a look at my sig will instantly tell you the most important thing about starfall (a few words away from "only chipless" ;-) youll see)

as for how/what/where....if you're on 3.2, just run it and install all patches (except GC region free gave me some trouble)

if you need more info, theres two tutorials in the "Essential Guides" Sticky.


reasoning: starfall is the only way to autoboot a retail disc (aka not burnt) and therefore the only way to unbrick without a chip.

 

[stevenrushing]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone had tracked down another way to install the cios rather than the prepackaged cios installer that won't install on my system... Also since my system is so jacked up to begin with, I was wondering if starfalling it might be a path towards getting it back to a more standard install, getting all the extras I have put into it out...

 

[noobwarrior7]

my pack offers an alternative to an installer.

 

[dkelley]

Noob, no I'm not starfalled... .

a look at my sig will instantly tell you the most important thing about starfall (a few words away from "only chipless" ;-) youll see)

as for how/what/where....if you're on 3.2, just run it and install all patches (except GC region free gave me some trouble)

if you need more info, theres two tutorials in the "Essential Guides" Sticky.


reasoning: starfall is the only way to autoboot a retail disc (aka not burnt) and therefore the only way to unbrick without a chip.

thanks Noob, good info. I need to downgrade to 3.2 to use starfall then eh? I found a thread that suggests it's ok to downgrade to 3.2 and go for the starfall install, I guess I might as well do that.

Cheers

 

[djtaz]

yeah noobs system is excellent and safe for future use as well.
He's the man

 

[PEJAY1]

GREAT WORK DJTAZ MANY THANKS
I HAVE INSTALLED WIIGATORS V0.3 BETA BACKUP LOADER
BUT MANY GAMES ARE IN BLACK AND WHITE,IS THERE SOME SETTINGS I SHOULD CHANGE
HOW DO I TELL IF MY WII IS PAL OR NSTC
PLEZ HELP MANY THANKS AGAIN

 

[djtaz]

If your in Europe its PAL
If your in the US its NTSC-U
if your in japan its NTSC-J

if the games that are in black and white are NTSC and your in a PAL region , try using one of the FORCE PAL options by pressing either 1 or B when the channel is loading , and going to the configs menu and changing it in there.

 

[roids]

no error 361 yet??????????????

 

[djtaz]

One of the lads posted a fix here - though i think its for 324 and not 361

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=120069