I know most people start post's off like this and often get told to use the search funtion. But seeing how friendly you guys are, I thought I would kick it off and see what reponse I get.
I'm new to the Wii scene however not to console modding. To give you some background I'm fairly adept with upgrading the firmwares on Xbox 360's along with fixing various hardware faults and have done other generation consoles in the past.
I purchased a brand new retail Wii at the weekend along with a few games. I'm looking at installing either a Modchip or a softmod and was hoping I could lean on you guys for some guidence (I don't mind doing hours of research but with your help it's nice to be pointed in the right direction)
I'm looking to achieve functionality to run backup of my originals. The potential to play DivX movies would be a 'nice to have'. The potential to run freeware emulated games.
So could you tell me:
- What are most people running. Softmod's or Modchips?
- Is there any advantages [one over the other]?
- There are a huge array of hardware modchips and I looked into the Cyclone, but I notice most people talk about D2S? Could you advise the most popular? (I don't mind using my soldering iron)
- If Softmod is the way to go, could you point me in the right direction?
- Are updates and online play safe once modded? (e.g. Xbox 360 requires Stealth checked games, but never 100% safe)
- What are most people running. Softmod's or Modchips? I am sure most people are using softmod now with one of the many USB loaders.
- Is there any advantages [one over the other]? Modchips work with any wii and of course require you to burn dvd's. softmods could be removed by future updates from Nintendo
- There are a huge array of hardware modchips and I looked into the Cyclone, but I notice most people talk about D2S? Could you advise the most popular? (I don't mind using my soldering iron) It all depends which version Wii you have. You would need to open your console and look at the chips to find out if you have a DMS, D2A, D2B, D2C etc. Most people are using softmod now though..
- If Softmod is the way to go, could you point me in the right direction? You first need to look at your serial number and see which Wii you have. Some have different rules as to what you can do with them. Post the first characters and 3 numbers from your serial number (something like LEH104) and we can go from there. Also we will need to know which system menu you have, you can see this at the top right of the wii settings menu, something like 4.1E.
- Are updates and online play safe once modded? (e.g. Xbox 360 requires Stealth checked games, but never 100% safe) Yes they are safe. Currently there is nothing to detect a modded console.
Well I'm happy to post my results. I say happy because I have no idea whether it is ready to be 'hacked'... so I'm happy until I find out otherwise
Wii menu is version 3.4E
Serial number starts LEH249
I'll jump around the forum now and start doing my research. If you could let me know your thoughts also, that would be fantastic.
Thanks for your support!
Hmmm... So I've just been looking around at the softmods and weighing up the pro's and cons.
It sounds like modchips are pretty straightforward going i.e. once installed, no need to worry
- Is it true with softmods, it dramatically slows down the drive speed?
- I understand the failure / brick rate on softmods is quite high compared to modchips (or is this only people who cant follow instructions?)
- Does softmod allow transparent booting of backup games (e.g backups load like originals)
The wii is mainly for my daughter and a family entertainment console. If I was soley using it I wouldn't mind tinkering here and there, however I need it to be as simple and as reliable as possible for my little girl.
Thanks once again, it is appreciated
(BTW Is my menu / serial ok for softmodding anyway?)
Yeah bricking is mainly for people that do not follow instructions properly or update their Wii using discs, this can actually happen more to people using out of region discs on their consoles with modchips and the only way to block these are with softmodding.
Softmod is best if you can use a HDD to load to the games from. This would probably suit you best aswell as you can use parental control passwords on games and it also means your daughter will not have to handle dvds. Simply click to load the USB loader then select the game she wants to play, pretty easy really and you can pickup a nice WD passport for the price of a Wii game or a modchip. I have no idea about drive speed with burnt DVDs as this is not really a suitable option for softmodders as you can tell. What I will say is that load times are faster when loading from a HDD and some games (HOTD overkill comes to mind) actually play better than the original.
Your Wii seems fine to go ahead and softmod. Here are the first steps you should follow if you want to go ahead and do this:
Use bannerbomb to load the hackmii installer and install bootmii, DVDX and the homebrew channel:
Once you have done this, you should run a backup of your Wii system memory to make sure if anything goes wrong with setting it up for USB, you can always roll back and you are safe from bricks.
Once you have your backup you can go ahead and update the Wii to 4.1 and install cIOS rev14 and a USB Loader:
Let me warn you that you should NEVER update your console using a Wii game or via an official Nintendo update. This could render your softmods and maybe even your modchip useless (if Nintendo decide to block modchips).
You will now need WBFS manager to format the HDD to WBFS and to install your backups to your Wii:
Firstly allow me to thank you for your last detailed reply and advice. Secondly I must apologise for not replying sooner, I've been out of the country on a IT related Project (crazy that I mess around with various complex technologies, however I'm seeking advice for modding a console... just goes to show everyday is a school day and that I can't know everything!)
Anyway, I'm ready to get my daughter's wii modded for Xmas.
I notice there's x2 versions of Banner Bomb availiable and a new System menu (4.2) Would you reccomend going to Banner Bomb v2 and System menu 4.2?
Also is there any particular reason people tend to go for a WD Passport drive or will any external HDD work ?
Thanks for your continued support guys! I'm upto stage 3 of Retroheads 'mini-tutorial'
I've not took the plunge and upgraded to 4.1 for two reasons.
The first being: After I copied the firemware.dol file to my SD card and used Bootmii to read it. It advised that it wasn't a valid file. So I cound't update. Would you know why?
The Second I've been doing some digging around and I've read that if I downgrade to 3.2, there's a way I can play Burnt Backups from the main Disc Channel. Is this correct? Can it be done with 4.1? I don't think I will get my hands on a WD Passport until after Christmas now, but I want the simplest method of playing my disk backups. Can you also suggest what application I will need to load into HBC to do this?