@@Tena01 I bought the console a year ago, knowing it was bricked, with 160-0101 or 160-0103 error. I checked when I bought it, that’s why I forgot which error was. After that, I kept the console for spares. I had to repopulate some components in order to start the console and apply this fix. I was so impatient, that I applied the fix directly, without waiting to see the actual error again. It was a 100% CBHC bricked console. Coldboot was pointing to a totally different title than normal Wii U Menu.
Here's to hoping that all bricked Wii U's are a software error and not actual NAND failure. And fixing just 30% of systems is a great start. Some success is still a success when it comes to keeping electronics out of e-waste.
@@pogman15 that'll take time to figure out I imagine. This is just the beginning of an investigation into what's going on. This could be fixing one of the failures caused by the culprit or it could be fixing the actual cause of failed NAND. We'll have to wait for more people and a larger sample size to truly know.
From what I've read (which isn't a lot) the error is being thrown out by Wii-u's that weren't updated. My Wii-U hasn't been played since the Switch came out (2017) and my Wii-U played everything I tried with no errors.
it really just seem s(so far), like the nand doesn't keep things as long as other nand flavors, so we're seeing bit rot. the nand itself is probably fine beyond that (barring proof its actually failing physically).
Unfortunately everyone told me mine was NAND corruption because of the way it died. I barely got to have my first Wii U for a year and I opened Super Mario Advance, a game downloaded from the eshop and previously played and beaten with no problems. It barely ran before everything crashed. So I reset the console, but after choosing a profile it crashed, as if the Wii U’s menu didn’t exist anymore. The next day, it froze immediately on the first screen with the logo. Now, after an attempt at unbricking it, it doesn’t even send anything to the TV. It’s just completely dead, no error codes at all ever showed up. I dont have a NAND backup for it so everyone told me it’s unrecoverable. I’m much more cautious with my new Wii U. Everything is stored on external storage, the system memory is blank in data management. And I have its NAND backed up.
The fact that this fix doesn't require opening the wii u is absolutely amazing. I have 3 wii u's, a white, black and zelda editions and I would hate for them to be dead. Doing the good lord's work again
What can also kill a lot of these is factory resetting these while using Cold Boot Haxchii. It works by changing the boot title to the DS one that Haxchii is injected into. When the system is reset or the title is deleted, that software gets removed but the boot title ID does not change, so the system is pointing to a file that doesn't exist. Tbh Nintendo could have prevented this by having the OS title ID be the default in the event an error like this occurs and refresh the boot title id when booting through that secondary check. Then the setting would essentially be in two places on the NAND and be way less likely to corrupt. But there'd be no reason through normal use besides NAND corruption why the title ID can change so they probably overlooked it. NAND hardware degradation can happen, but usually there's warning signs as parts of the OS are corrupted but not all of them. There's newer exploits that inject themselves into the health and safety app. The benefit of these is that that app does not get removed on system reset and cannot be removed by the user. And they're written such that if the needed files are not found on the SD card, it will just boot into the normal OS. It likely is possible to replace the NAND chip, but the problem is that the Wii U encrypted keys haven't been cracked, so it's impossible to create a "doner NAND" image. On the 360 you can extract those keys from a NAND dump, so as long as the NAND isn't completely fubarred, you can dump those keys and generate a fresh one easily. Even if it is fubarred, I believe you can still generate one but it's limited to offline. If you have a NAND dump from before the NAND hardware fails or software breaks you can flash it back to the Wii U though. Or solder an SD card in and use that.
I didn't know this, I began using the Haxchii exploit when the browser exploit got patched. I began using it and then just put my console away. If I were to factory reset the console how would I go about avoiding bricking it. I'm not sure if the Haxchii I use is the same one you're mentioning, I bought a game from the eshop and turned the application into Haxchii.
This is really cool and might be a Wii U life saver in general! While I may love the original Wii more than the Wii U, I still have a very soft spot for the WiiU and it still has some things over the Switch! It’s still very scary to think that not turning on a Wii U after a long time would brick it, but with methods like these, I’m starting to feel like these Wii Us will still be alive and kicking!
my WiiU was working perfectly about a year ago (playing Twilight Princess HD), and was planning to get back into Mario galaxy 2. When I went to turn on my WiiU yesterday, it would not power on at all (no power light). I tested the power adapter and it’s definitely working. My question is this, if my WiiU wont turn back on at all not matter what I do, is that a NAND failure? Meaning the WiiU is completely dead? I’m not getting the software error because it just won’t turn on at all. Please help?
@@cosettapessa6417 She’s gone! I had so many games that I downloaded! So many sacred game saves! All of it just gone! This is making me rethink gaming as a whole! No matter how good you take care of your things, they just break regardless. This may help me quit gaming period! Sadly! 😔
This amazing, I really hope this video gets out there to a bigger audience the world needs to see this. Even though my Wii U still worked after 4-5 years of not playing it, I'm going to purchase this in the event of it ever happening. Thank you.
@@janstrom3482 I hope so. It's just unfortunate this discovery came right around the corner from the shop closure, but its just in time to snag something at least.
Little advice for people who might have had the same problem as me with the wii u not displaying image and getting a black screen as soon as you plug into the Raspberry Pi. Good News (Maybe) there might be a way to still do it. The Wii U doesn't show it but you are actually in the menu! What you do is you click the right buttons in the right order (Remember to count your presses) and then turn the console off and it should work. thats what i did, hopefully this comment can help someone in the same situation as me
This. as long as the Wii U is showing a purple solid light, you're good. The guide from recovery_menu says it has a recovery_menu_dc_init, but it doesn't work sadly. You've to count via the menu.
My WiiU is showing a glowing screen and I was able to count and dump the OTP and SEEPROM. I *think* I reset the Coldboot Title but after hard resetting, the WiiU is still stuck on the WiiU logo... Any thoughts?
A note on pricing: $9 shipped is probably a good deal if all you're buying is a Pico, but if you've got other electronics to include in a larger order, the unit cost from official retailers is $4 ($5 for the version with presoldered headers).
I have a strong suspicion that 95% of these issues are soft-locks, not a true brick. Most people wouldn't even know how to report a problem, so everything just gets lumped - and everyone... the users, media, re-tweeters ... all just want attention.
hi Jong! I reset the wii u following a successful modification with Tiramisu. Unfortunately, when I restart it always sends me back to the application installation screen and it is blocked there. Does this system solve this problem? Thank you
Massive respect for you Voultar. Nobody seemed to be looking into this, and you show the interest of not only diagnose, but help and prevent the issue from happening. You got a subscriber from this, and thanks again
It has been known for a while that this is bitrot on low quality hynix chips. Idk why Voultar is pretending that this is a new fix. There's even homebrew for the Nintendo switch that does the same thing.
@@SockyNoob Is it better to have it plugged in? I'm not sure if I should keep it plugged in or not. Isn't the chance of bricking the console higher if it's constantly on standby (red light)?
@@17th_Colossus doesnt matter either way. At first, people were thinking it was an issue with the console not being used but after further research and data provided, its actually a nand chip issue which means using it or not is going to cause the corruption either way. Any Wii U that uses Hynix nand chips will fail while the other 2 nand chip providers, Toshiba and Samsung, have not shown any corruptions so far. If you want to know which nand chip you have, you either have to open the console and look at the chip or use homebrew
Bro thank you so much for this! So today I’m getting my Wii U to work again but I heard about the Wii U can get bricked if you haven’t used in a long time and you can’t do anything about it so I started to hyperventilate. I looked everywhere for a solution to it then I found your video. Without you I couldn’t endure the fact that my Wii U got bricked and now I know the solution. I can’t explain how I feel right now but all I can’t saw from my heart is you’re just a hero that everybody asked for in their life!
Honestly, thanks for your contribution! This will in no doubt help MANY users when this inevitably happens to a console. I don't have this issue however this will be the video I recommend to people who face this issue. Thanks!
Way to go Voultar! It's always great to have an extra tool in the shed when we need it. How about those folks that haven't experienced the issue yet? In your opinion, is it a matter of "when" not "if"? Is it advisable to install cfw and create a backup NAND so it's possible to recover save data? Looking forward to seeing other videos by you as folks learn more about this problem.
@@bloeckmoep There are great videos on TH-cam with the whole process of getting Tiramisu on your Wii U - from there, you can easily backup your NAND and all other internal memory (it's actually part of the installer). Just look for "homebrew Wii U".
Coldboot Haxchi stopped working for me after the 5.5.6 update, so i tried reinstalling and ended up soft- bricking my Wii U. I didn't have a Pico but I did recently pick up a V1 switch for modding Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Ran the switch fork of UDPIH and was able to recover my Wii U! This video is a must for those delving into Wii U homebrew. Shout out to those who made this possible!
Wow, I knew people would start finding solutions sooner or later, but you found one that’s much simpler than I imagined it could be! This video is definitely worth keeping on a bookmark. My WiiU hasn’t shown any signs of critical errors like this, but considering it freezes sometimes when playing games, I’ll wanna keep this fix on hand. And it’s a relief to know that this fix exists now even if my WiiU seems to be overall okay enough, so thank you for sharing this solution!
Love it when people just copy paste each others "articles" in stead actually talking to someone who has anyone knowledge on the matter. Also makes it really fun searching the net for info on it when the SEO is geared to be like "Yo dawg would you like to read the same thing again?"
Would love to see an update in the future too if we can figure out the cause of these error codes as well, not just the solutions. I'm glad there's a way to remedy them for now (thank you btw), but I'm also still curious for science as to what might be the reason.
GOD I hope an SDHC bracket gets made. That sounds like it could lead to all sorts of crazy things! Though first we'd need to crack the firmware encryption, and since the system didn't get much traction there also isn't much incentive...
This worked for me (with a few other action items - see below for more info)! Thank you so, so, so much Voultar! I'm sending you a ton of virtual good vibes for all of your help. Your tutorial was straightforward and easy to follow. I really, really appricaite it! First off - I was getting the 106-0103 error (not the 106-0101 error) on a non-modded Wii U. I only got the error when I tried to load a game. The game would start to load, then suddenly the 0103 error popup would appear. Everything else seemed to work fine (I got the home screen and could navigate to system settings, etc.). I completed all of Voultar's task list in the video. Launched a game, and still got the error. I read in the comments that this happened to someone else, and they needed to update to the newest software patch for their Wii U. I did that - but it didn't fix it. I googled the 0103 error, and the Nintendo website indicated to delete update data for the game in question. When you go into settings, there is a data management area where you can delete the update information for each game. There is also a separate piece of save data for each game, but you don't have to delete that. I went through and deleted every game's update data. Then for shiggles - I re-did all of Voultar's task list again (I wasn't sure if it needed it again after the software patch update). I then loaded the game and NO 0103 ERROR!!! I hope this helps someone else going through this. Thank you again Voultar!!! Good luck everyone! PS - the only thing I didn't see (I could have missed it) in Voultar's info, was the cable used for the pico (the pico item was completely new to me). I believe it was called a USB to USB micro A adaptor.
@@Voultar Try to keep us updated on the NAND corruption, I don't know if that's the reason my console won't update to the latest system version, but it has really killed my enjoyment of the console. Also, from my own findings, the Switch also uses NAND, so doesn't that mean it too is susceptible to the memory corruption due to 'not being used often enough'? Sorry to barge into an unrelated comment, but I really want answers to this problem, because it really is a crime that it seems to be affecting all Wii U owners.
Thanks Voultar. The headlines gave me anxiety but your reassuring video has given me hope that I at least have something to try if my system does go down. Thanks for coming at this like an engineer and bringing a potential solution to light instead of just sensationalizing
This makes me feel so much better. Back in February I booted up my wiiu for the first time in years and found this memory issue. I even took it to a repair shop in San Antonio and they couldn't fix it. I had to buy a new used console. :(
This is HUGE! Thank you so much to you and Robed Repairs for making these videos talking about this fix! My friend had his Wii U brick a year or so ago and ended up getting the internals replaced with a working Wii U from a local retro store we frequent. His Wii U was sitting on display in his room for 4-5 years and when he went to use it, it wouldn't load and gave one of the common error messages in this problem. Now that there seems to be a fix I may pick up one of those Raspberry Pi Pico's moving forward. I want to be able to keep my Wii U for many years to come and archive my games and DLC. My Wii U thankfully hasn't had this issue yet, but this gives me high hopes that it's fixable! Mine's modded with Tiramisu so thankfully I have lots of options to back up my physical discs and save data if I ever have to add them back on. I hope this gets lots of publicity!
I have a working Wii U, a NAND backup and a spare Raspberry Pico, so I'm all set in case my Wii U decides to become a brick. I hope someone with a bricked Wii U tries this method, and in case of failure, sends you the console for you to check it out. Better yet, a modded Wii U with a NAND backup :-D
The actual reason behind the NAND Corruption is cause some Wii Us were built using Hynix NAND Chips, which degrade faster than other Wii Us made with Samsung or Toshiba. So some Wii Us are unfortunately built with lower quality chips that die faster than others. Its just unfortunate luck with the Manufacturing. It is possible to see which NAND Chip brand you have by either opening up the Wii U itself and carefully taking it apart a bit, or by running some kinda Homebrew App that can give you the Specs of your System
You are the first I find that shows step by step what to to. I am now in the process of making a recovery package for my Wii-Us. I have two out that are working fine, but several that has been boxed up for years. What a legend. Thanks for this. A new subscriber has arrived.
These is the definition of “hero without a cape” given that the Wii U was not a great selling console, even if the issue is a small amount may seem significant, for me 5/5 of an issue on this scenario is a total W, thanks for caring about this and bringing a solution, even if it does not help 100% of the people, is not 0, great work!
Samples are interesting. I also got 6 WiiU recently - sold as not working. Two only had their outputs set to analog or hdmi and the seller didn’t know any better. Two only had a parental soft lock that has an easy workarounds with a webform challenge response. However! Two units had the 160-1400 drive error, and that was a much more interesting to fix (micro soldering) if you can find one of those units to fix its quite ‘fun’
@@MidiMusic do you hear the drive spin when you start it after a few seconds? Did you try on both HDMI and Analog outputs? The console could be set to either and the other one will be black
@@plgDavid i tried analog (yuv, rca) and hdmi cables (3 different) on a tv/computer screen... I have a no connexion message and no display signal at the same time...
A video I'm absolutely thankful for. As someone who's spent thousands, yes thousands of dollars on this console's VC and retail games, I was a bit worried about this issue catching up with me. I really appreciate people like you, thank you for this. The Wii U in the living room now boots to the main menu and stays there! 😁
Fantastic video bud. It's so crazy that how the big TH-camrs with tons of resources tons of followers tons of support Can't figure out these solutions or use their massive piles of money to actually do something about it. Especially those big channels that tote themselves as "tech experts" more like click bait experts who regurgitate current news but offer no solution. Thank you so much for what you chose to do out of your own pocket using your own free time to help the community. It's greatly appreciated. Please keep up the good work.
Please do keep in mind that most people view almost 100k subscribers as a large number. He clearly deserves many more subscribers, but very few channels (relatively speaking) have more than 1000 subscribers, let alone close to 100000.
I fired up my Wii U tonight to take one last look at the eShop and mine bricked. :( I’ll have to give this a try once the Pi I ordered arrives. Thank you for the video.
I somehow managed to trigger this error on my Wii U by just spam pressing one of the user icons on startup one time. The whole system froze and this error popped up. Great thing it can now be fixed most likely!
I jailbroke my Wii U like 3 years ago but bricked it by accident and I really love that console so I decided to try this method and now my Wii U is up and running again ! Thank you so much
I've got arduinos and ESPs that I use for hobby projects and automation, but the couple of Raspberry Pi Picos that I have are more like swiss army knifes. Picos are some of the most useful and versatile tools in the toolbox.
YES! It worked! Thank you so much! The issue I faced at first was the U would shut down after I plugged in the USB cable. I'd used a 64gb SD that I formatted in 32bit. Apparently it didn't like that so I tried again with a 32gb and SUCCESS! A huge thanks to you for the video and the creator of the software used! One more Wii U saved from the parts bin!
Hey voultar, I tried this on a Wii u with "deleting all content" error but had no luck. Any chance you'd trade one of those repaired ones for my BRICKED one?? I was able to dump nand but I have no clue how to restore it. That being said, the nand I dumped is probably corrupted anyways
I have one that when you try create a profile it gets a soft brick. Would that be a Nand issue? There's no way to boot it to main menu as it asks to create a profile first
Thank you for broadcasting this simple and inexpensive fix for these units! I had no idea this was available. I was dreading the thought of having to replace my NAND in the future.
I had the 0103 error message whenever I attempted to load anything. My Wii U would boot up into the menu and I could browse my games, but the system insisted it needed an update. Whether I tried to update or simply launch a game without applying the update, I would encounter the error. I followed the steps in this video and, thankfully, my system works again. The system update was actually able to complete, and my games now launch just fine. Thank you so much for this guide!
Big props for figuring this out! So this is sorta like a factory reset, right? Does any data previously present on the system, such as downloaded games or miis, become lost?
Unfortunately, this method did not work for me. I was able to dump the OTP and SEEPROM though, as well as system logs if those would be of any use to you. It seems like my system might actually have nand/emmc corruption. Something to note, while I was getting the 160-0103 error, the disc drive would always initialize twice. After setting the coldboot title and rebooting, it only initialized once, then still booted into the error. Not sure if that matters, but might be worth mentioning.
Sorry Dylan. You most likely have a failing eMMC and this unfortunately will not repair a faulty NAND. But sit tight, there's still hope as this is currently being developed.
Another youtuber at Robed Repair had done this too. In his video he didn't say of his system was jail broke no not. But it is good to know that you don't have to jail break the console just to repair the chip. Also the error code is related to a chip on the under side of the motherboard that stores boot data, save games, and downloaded games.
My Wii U still boots up and runs games, but the error code appears in some system apps like the Mii maker. If I were to reset the system, I would not be able to get past the setup process, essentially bricking my Wii U. I'll also point out that some of my virrual console titles also crashed to that error code screen, and after reinstalling them they worked fine again. I would really like to know what could be done for a console that exhibits the symptoms mine does, since most of the sorrounding discussion is focused on Wii Us that can't boot.
It will sound risky (it is) but you could try by letting you wiiu brick with the reset system process and then try to recover it with the PICO Pi payload. OR you could try modding you wiiU and see if you can reinstall WiiU system applications individually without having to factory reset the console. (Since you said that VC titles with that error were fixed by just reinstalling them)
In theory if you have the dying NAND hardware issue your console is screwed up no matter what you do, but if it's only the corrupted software problem the PICO PI recovery should work.
Don't have a bricked WiiU yet, mine is homebrewed so I have a backup of the NAND but I'll go ahead and pick this up because I do a lot of repairs for people so this is perfect!! Great work and awesome video!! 🤘🤘
I haven't had this problem with my Wii U yet. I love the console. As a kid growing with the normal wii, this was the best upgrade that Nintendo could have given to the wii to extend its life into new generations imo. The only reasons it flopped was due to poor marketing and third parties not being able to program well with the gamepad. I love this console since it represents that growth from the wii to the wii u and most of memories and progress of most of my chilhood games. I wouldn't like to think how would I feel about the console becoming a brick because of a minor bug/manufacturing error. With all of this I want to say thank you for giving the community a solution to the problem.
I’ve tried this method already as I saw it in another video but it does not work. The Wii U does not boot up the recovery menu, and I know I’ve done every step correctly. In my case, my Wii U displays nothing on the tv screen and the gamepad refuses to connect to the Wii U when I try to enter the Wii U home menu, but it turns on the console just fine. I also do not get an error code at all as the only message I get is that the gamepad can not connect to the console. I’ve tried replacing the CR2032 battery as well but that didn’t fix it either. I tried using the Wii Composite/Component port as well just to make sure it wasn’t the HDMI port that was dead but I was still getting the same results. I have no clue what is wrong with my Wii U.
Good thing my Wii U still works as my previous use was July 2019. When I realized what was happening when I first saw it on facebook, I end up hooking up my Wii U and charging the gamepad and once I turn on my Wii U, it still works and updated to the latest version.
So what if there is no Wii U video output? Presumably it’s the same issue but I wouldn’t be able to use the pico because I can’t see the software menu.
@@pokmonx so apparently you can still do this without video output but you are literally doing it blind. Also, there’s a chance that it won’t even boot into the recovery menu.
@freestyla101 i bought a wii u for $20 today and I can get it to power on but nothing on the tv. I have purchased a charger for the handheld because it came without it and it's dead so maybe that's why there's nothing coming up? I have no experience with wii u so I'm just trying everything I can for now lol
@@pokmonx it’s one of two things. Either there is an internal issue or the video output was set to analog which is the cable with the three plugs red yellow white. I’d try that first, you can use one from the Wii if you have it.
I'll try this on my extra bricked Wii U. It has been sitting for two years disassembled because I know it can be fixed, but I couldn't find a good tutorial to un-brick it.
I figured something like this was going on because spawnwave pointed out that this was not a new problem it was something that was happing with wii u's during their warranty period and the fix was send it back to Nintendo. Now it is possible that Nintendo was going through the trouble of replacing the emmc but that sounds like a lot of work I get the feeling that if this was something that Nintendo was doing probably very quickly they would be releasing a revision of the console. Nintendo reflashing the system image makes far more sense to me.
My Wii u won't even turn on, it's completely dead. My daughter is pretty disappointed, of course nintendo won't fix them anymore. Lord Voultar do you fix Wii u?
This is unrelated to recent reports of dying Wii Us. This **won't** magically fix your defect NAND. Udpih is an awesome tool and let's you fix "CBHC bricks" (and similar (mostly) user-caused bricks), but can't do anything about NANDs dying at hardware level. From the data the homebrew community is collecting, there is also no indication that not using a Wii U for a long time is causing it. The data suggest it's mostly NANDs from HYNIX which are dying
@@maschell How is the title misleading? Neither the title nor thumbnail mention anything about corrupted NANDs and I made special care in the video to explain that this will not fix Wii U systems with corrupted NANDS. Are you sure you watched the video? There's a forum with a sample size of maybe 40 consoles that have been affected by a NAND corruption, this is a very small dataset and I am willing to believe that many people with 160-0101 or 160-0103 error messages don't have problems that are recoverable other than a failing eMMC.
I bought a Wii U from Ebay that was modded previously without me knowing. I factory reset the wii and ended up with the 0101 code. This let me fix it! Thank you very much.
You kinda lost me at the end.....like yeah people are trying to spread the word of what is going on and you calling them that. Yeah, I get it some idiots do it for the click or whatever (the last time I check youtube is about getting views) but others were spreading the word to see if someone had a solution.
@@CAHSR2020 exactly one of my bruh told me that his talking about someone else, but still like bruh chill thanks for the fix.... but like fam that's not the way to talk about other people's videos on the subject.
It’s weirdly tone-deaf and inappropriate. People are going to report on this stuff without having perfect knowledge of the situation or the technical skills to come up with their own fix. There are no negative consequences to reporting on this because no one who got this error tossed their Wii U in the river. Instead they are almost certainly waiting for word on a possible solution.
I have a Wii U that must have its memory/NAND corrupted, because the way it died was really weird and with no error codes. It was not modded at all. Before I knew about the fragile memory, I was fine opening games I downloaded from the eshop on the system memory. One day I opened Super Mario Advance, a game previously played and beaten with no issues, after barely a year of owning my first Wii U (I wish things went better with such a good console I was only experiencing for the first time). The game froze seconds after starting, so I reset the console. I thought it was a harmless, silly error because when I was little, my Wii froze like that one time during New Super Mario Bros. Wii’s first boss fight. The same Wii over a decade old is alive and well. But on my Wii U’s profile screen, selecting a profile always crashed it. It was like the Wii U’s menu didn’t exist anymore. The next day, it wouldn’t load past the Wii U logo screen at the start, just froze immediately (I have video of this on my channel). No error codes at all. Now, after an attempt at unbricking from what I was told, the console doesn’t even send anything to the TV. It’s completely dead, like nothing exists on it. Well… I still have it. Not sure anyone would be interested in it since everyone tells me it’s completely unrecoverable without a NAND backup, but it’s certainly useless for me to keep around. I think of what happened as the crash of death. If there’s even the smallest chance of it being recoverable though, I would LOVE to see my first Wii U be brought back to life! Especially with how devastating it was for it to just die like that. My first consoles are always so special to me, and it was sad seeing the unbricking solution fail… That was my first time ever losing a console, and I learned from that awful experience. Luckily Nintendo transferred my NNID so I got my games and dlc back. But now all save data and downloads are on external storage. The system memory is blank in data management, and I’m too scared to put anything on it. I have the NAND backed up, and I’m being as careful as possible. I love my Wii U so much and really don’t want to lose another.
Great fix. The only thing that saddens me is that Nintendo couldn't be arsed to release details surrounding this issue in better detail to make figuring this stuff out easier.
Yeah, or offer repairs at a cost. Never in my life have I heard of a console that fails or develops memory issues just because you don't play it for a few years. Mine's never been idle for more than 3 since I bought it, and it has since last year's update developed an issue where it refuses to perform it, freezes routinely at 99%, thus preventing me from playing online, accessing the e-shop, or update any games that need it. I'm out the ability to play Mario Kart 8 because I was mistakenly led to believe that the game was responsible for the update failure, so I went from not being able to play it online, to not being able to play it at all. Like you said, Nintendo couldn't give 2 shits about it, and that is damn depressing, doesn't make one want to continue doing business with them, that's for sure, I'm sure as hell not. If I were them, I'd look at this happening as an unacceptable failure on my part as a company, and offer at least a means of righting the wrong, even if it as the cost of the customer, at least give them an option other than 'accepting' an inevitable failure.
@@wicky7591 Could you link the video? I'm questioning where this happened, because Nintendo of America is adamantly refusing to offer any help or solutions to me, even when I say I'm willing to pay for repairs.
Wow such a simple fix, I've got a couple of Wii-U's that are working just fine and to be honest I haven't seen many that are sold as faulty but this is good to know about. It would be good to know why they end up with these errors in the first place though, and once fixed using this method what are the chances it will happen again? Great video either way, thanks.
Just unbricked a WiiU with this method! Very useful video. Nice and easy! Thank you!
Which code did you had? I have 160-0103 and did all the process and still see the damn code lol
@@Tena01 I bought the console a year ago, knowing it was bricked, with 160-0101 or 160-0103 error. I checked when I bought it, that’s why I forgot which error was. After that, I kept the console for spares. I had to repopulate some components in order to start the console and apply this fix. I was so impatient, that I applied the fix directly, without waiting to see the actual error again. It was a 100% CBHC bricked console. Coldboot was pointing to a totally different title than normal Wii U Menu.
@@flashgordon8554 how is that error created? Was it a mod?
This can be used to get a discount on a Wii U
@@Tena01 Me too. Darn
Here's to hoping that all bricked Wii U's are a software error and not actual NAND failure. And fixing just 30% of systems is a great start. Some success is still a success when it comes to keeping electronics out of e-waste.
i'm wondering if this is a long term fix or just restoring it until the cause for the software error code reoccurs.
@@pogman15 that'll take time to figure out I imagine. This is just the beginning of an investigation into what's going on. This could be fixing one of the failures caused by the culprit or it could be fixing the actual cause of failed NAND. We'll have to wait for more people and a larger sample size to truly know.
From what I've read (which isn't a lot) the error is being thrown out by Wii-u's that weren't updated.
My Wii-U hasn't been played since the Switch came out (2017) and my Wii-U played everything I tried with no errors.
it really just seem s(so far), like the nand doesn't keep things as long as other nand flavors, so we're seeing bit rot. the nand itself is probably fine beyond that (barring proof its actually failing physically).
Unfortunately everyone told me mine was NAND corruption because of the way it died. I barely got to have my first Wii U for a year and I opened Super Mario Advance, a game downloaded from the eshop and previously played and beaten with no problems. It barely ran before everything crashed. So I reset the console, but after choosing a profile it crashed, as if the Wii U’s menu didn’t exist anymore. The next day, it froze immediately on the first screen with the logo. Now, after an attempt at unbricking it, it doesn’t even send anything to the TV. It’s just completely dead, no error codes at all ever showed up. I dont have a NAND backup for it so everyone told me it’s unrecoverable.
I’m much more cautious with my new Wii U. Everything is stored on external storage, the system memory is blank in data management. And I have its NAND backed up.
You're a hero to the retro community Voultar. Thank you for tackling this issue for all of us.
Oh man, Wii U actually is almost officially retro...
GaryOderNichts is the one who created the tool
@@Arkid77777 another process has arrived to unbricking wii us unable to fix by this its mod chip based using pico search de fuse mod chip by shiny
Gary actually made this .... :v
@@RidgeRacerIt's not really that retro for me, especially because it has games that are very popular nowadays on Switch.
The fact that this fix doesn't require opening the wii u is absolutely amazing. I have 3 wii u's, a white, black and zelda editions and I would hate for them to be dead. Doing the good lord's work again
What can also kill a lot of these is factory resetting these while using Cold Boot Haxchii. It works by changing the boot title to the DS one that Haxchii is injected into. When the system is reset or the title is deleted, that software gets removed but the boot title ID does not change, so the system is pointing to a file that doesn't exist.
Tbh Nintendo could have prevented this by having the OS title ID be the default in the event an error like this occurs and refresh the boot title id when booting through that secondary check. Then the setting would essentially be in two places on the NAND and be way less likely to corrupt. But there'd be no reason through normal use besides NAND corruption why the title ID can change so they probably overlooked it.
NAND hardware degradation can happen, but usually there's warning signs as parts of the OS are corrupted but not all of them.
There's newer exploits that inject themselves into the health and safety app. The benefit of these is that that app does not get removed on system reset and cannot be removed by the user. And they're written such that if the needed files are not found on the SD card, it will just boot into the normal OS.
It likely is possible to replace the NAND chip, but the problem is that the Wii U encrypted keys haven't been cracked, so it's impossible to create a "doner NAND" image. On the 360 you can extract those keys from a NAND dump, so as long as the NAND isn't completely fubarred, you can dump those keys and generate a fresh one easily. Even if it is fubarred, I believe you can still generate one but it's limited to offline.
If you have a NAND dump from before the NAND hardware fails or software breaks you can flash it back to the Wii U though. Or solder an SD card in and use that.
I didn't know this, I began using the Haxchii exploit when the browser exploit got patched. I began using it and then just put my console away. If I were to factory reset the console how would I go about avoiding bricking it. I'm not sure if the Haxchii I use is the same one you're mentioning, I bought a game from the eshop and turned the application into Haxchii.
how do you flash it back to the wii u nowadays, everything I found about it seems out of date
🤓
@@Bushdid-eh9lb normal haxchi wont do anything to the coldboot title so ur fine
@@thechugg4372 2023 年 3 月 24 日午後 4 時
This is really cool and might be a Wii U life saver in general! While I may love the original Wii more than the Wii U, I still have a very soft spot for the WiiU and it still has some things over the Switch! It’s still very scary to think that not turning on a Wii U after a long time would brick it, but with methods like these, I’m starting to feel like these Wii Us will still be alive and kicking!
my WiiU was working perfectly about a year ago (playing Twilight Princess HD), and was planning to get back into Mario galaxy 2. When I went to turn on my WiiU yesterday, it would not power on at all (no power light). I tested the power adapter and it’s definitely working. My question is this, if my WiiU wont turn back on at all not matter what I do, is that a NAND failure? Meaning the WiiU is completely dead? I’m not getting the software error because it just won’t turn on at all. Please help?
@@choompskeedarlecker2825 any update 😢
@@cosettapessa6417 She’s gone! I had so many games that I downloaded! So many sacred game saves! All of it just gone! This is making me rethink gaming as a whole! No matter how good you take care of your things, they just break regardless. This may help me quit gaming period! Sadly! 😔
@@choompskeedarlecker2825 so sad. I'm so lucky. Day one still kicking
@@choompskeedarlecker2825 THIS is part of the downfall of digital gaming. all those downloaded games are lost to the ether.
This amazing, I really hope this video gets out there to a bigger audience the world needs to see this.
Even though my Wii U still worked after 4-5 years of not playing it, I'm going to purchase this in the event of it ever happening.
Thank you.
HUGE ANIME BREASTS
I bet that Spawn Wave dude (or similar) is going to pick up on this as soon as there is no switch pro or zelda rumor to cover...
@@janstrom3482 I hope so. It's just unfortunate this discovery came right around the corner from the shop closure, but its just in time to snag something at least.
just keep trying to turn it on every month or so and you should be okay for now
Little advice for people who might have had the same problem as me with the wii u not displaying image and getting a black screen as soon as you plug into the Raspberry Pi. Good News (Maybe) there might be a way to still do it. The Wii U doesn't show it but you are actually in the menu! What you do is you click the right buttons in the right order (Remember to count your presses) and then turn the console off and it should work. thats what i did, hopefully this comment can help someone in the same situation as me
This. as long as the Wii U is showing a purple solid light, you're good. The guide from recovery_menu says it has a recovery_menu_dc_init, but it doesn't work sadly. You've to count via the menu.
My WiiU is showing a glowing screen and I was able to count and dump the OTP and SEEPROM. I *think* I reset the Coldboot Title but after hard resetting, the WiiU is still stuck on the WiiU logo...
Any thoughts?
At what point do I eject the pico out of the wiiu? The guy in this video cut the screen
Hey my Wii U just shows a black screen at all times.
@@geraldsaved try to do what i said in the comment. other than that i cannot help you sorry
A note on pricing: $9 shipped is probably a good deal if all you're buying is a Pico, but if you've got other electronics to include in a larger order, the unit cost from official retailers is $4 ($5 for the version with presoldered headers).
I'll be checking my Wii U. I hope to never come across this issue, but if I do, I'll know what to do next. Thanks Voultar.
I have a strong suspicion that 95% of these issues are soft-locks, not a true brick. Most people wouldn't even know how to report a problem, so everything just gets lumped - and everyone... the users, media, re-tweeters ... all just want attention.
Me, too.
It’s still bullshit that should go away when I turn the system on and off
@@Voultar hey can you make about ways that the backyard wrestling games can be good
hi Jong! I reset the wii u following a successful modification with Tiramisu. Unfortunately, when I restart it always sends me back to the application installation screen and it is blocked there. Does this system solve this problem? Thank you
Massive respect for you Voultar. Nobody seemed to be looking into this, and you show the interest of not only diagnose, but help and prevent the issue from happening.
You got a subscriber from this, and thanks again
It has been known for a while that this is bitrot on low quality hynix chips. Idk why Voultar is pretending that this is a new fix.
There's even homebrew for the Nintendo switch that does the same thing.
It's so insane to learn about this news and then watch it slowly rise up in the videogame community and now seeing hackers finding a solution.
Thank god there's a fix for this, although my Wii Us aren't bricked yet, this video is so helpful.
Let's all thank Voultar for this.
I'm keeping mine plugged in just in case. Might mod it just so I have more reason to turn it on.
@@SockyNoob Is it better to have it plugged in? I'm not sure if I should keep it plugged in or not. Isn't the chance of bricking the console higher if it's constantly on standby (red light)?
@@17th_Colossus doesnt matter either way. At first, people were thinking it was an issue with the console not being used but after further research and data provided, its actually a nand chip issue which means using it or not is going to cause the corruption either way. Any Wii U that uses Hynix nand chips will fail while the other 2 nand chip providers, Toshiba and Samsung, have not shown any corruptions so far. If you want to know which nand chip you have, you either have to open the console and look at the chip or use homebrew
@@ryanpowers8973 which homebrew can I use to see what nand chip I have?
@@Senya_3358 the homebrew mdinfo should tell you what specific chip you have. Good luck and i hope you have a good chip!
Thank you for taking the time to make this video. This gives hope to anyone who has a bricked Wii U sitting around.
Bro thank you so much for this! So today I’m getting my Wii U to work again but I heard about the Wii U can get bricked if you haven’t used in a long time and you can’t do anything about it so I started to hyperventilate. I looked everywhere for a solution to it then I found your video. Without you I couldn’t endure the fact that my Wii U got bricked and now I know the solution. I can’t explain how I feel right now but all I can’t saw from my heart is you’re just a hero that everybody asked for in their life!
A man of the people. When we needed him the most, he answered the call!
Honestly, thanks for your contribution! This will in no doubt help MANY users when this inevitably happens to a console. I don't have this issue however this will be the video I recommend to people who face this issue. Thanks!
Way to go Voultar! It's always great to have an extra tool in the shed when we need it. How about those folks that haven't experienced the issue yet? In your opinion, is it a matter of "when" not "if"? Is it advisable to install cfw and create a backup NAND so it's possible to recover save data? Looking forward to seeing other videos by you as folks learn more about this problem.
Yes, absolutely. NAND backup as soon as you can!
@@Voultar : How to? Ofw eu wii u owner here. Would like to have backups of nand, emmc and would like to do the internal sd card mod. Video maybe?
@@bloeckmoep There are great videos on TH-cam with the whole process of getting Tiramisu on your Wii U - from there, you can easily backup your NAND and all other internal memory (it's actually part of the installer). Just look for "homebrew Wii U".
@@Voultar I thought there wasn’t a good way to restore the NAND though? I’m really nervous, I’ve had mine plugged in since this news wave hit.
Coldboot Haxchi stopped working for me after the 5.5.6 update, so i tried reinstalling and ended up soft- bricking my Wii U. I didn't have a Pico but I did recently pick up a V1 switch for modding Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Ran the switch fork of UDPIH and was able to recover my Wii U! This video is a must for those delving into Wii U homebrew. Shout out to those who made this possible!
Wow, I knew people would start finding solutions sooner or later, but you found one that’s much simpler than I imagined it could be! This video is definitely worth keeping on a bookmark. My WiiU hasn’t shown any signs of critical errors like this, but considering it freezes sometimes when playing games, I’ll wanna keep this fix on hand. And it’s a relief to know that this fix exists now even if my WiiU seems to be overall okay enough, so thank you for sharing this solution!
Excellent work as always! Glad we have such smart people and great tools in the community!
Thanks man for calling out these fake ass TH-camrs trying to scare people to get clicks.
Love it when people just copy paste each others "articles" in stead actually talking to someone who has anyone knowledge on the matter.
Also makes it really fun searching the net for info on it when the SEO is geared to be like "Yo dawg would you like to read the same thing again?"
worked like a breeze! amazing thank God we have people like you, not those toxic journalists and youtubers making scandals not solutions
Would love to see an update in the future too if we can figure out the cause of these error codes as well, not just the solutions. I'm glad there's a way to remedy them for now (thank you btw), but I'm also still curious for science as to what might be the reason.
Me, too! I hope to continue to work on this.
GOD I hope an SDHC bracket gets made. That sounds like it could lead to all sorts of crazy things!
Though first we'd need to crack the firmware encryption, and since the system didn't get much traction there also isn't much incentive...
This worked for me (with a few other action items - see below for more info)! Thank you so, so, so much Voultar! I'm sending you a ton of virtual good vibes for all of your help. Your tutorial was straightforward and easy to follow. I really, really appricaite it!
First off - I was getting the 106-0103 error (not the 106-0101 error) on a non-modded Wii U. I only got the error when I tried to load a game. The game would start to load, then suddenly the 0103 error popup would appear. Everything else seemed to work fine (I got the home screen and could navigate to system settings, etc.).
I completed all of Voultar's task list in the video. Launched a game, and still got the error. I read in the comments that this happened to someone else, and they needed to update to the newest software patch for their Wii U. I did that - but it didn't fix it. I googled the 0103 error, and the Nintendo website indicated to delete update data for the game in question. When you go into settings, there is a data management area where you can delete the update information for each game. There is also a separate piece of save data for each game, but you don't have to delete that. I went through and deleted every game's update data. Then for shiggles - I re-did all of Voultar's task list again (I wasn't sure if it needed it again after the software patch update). I then loaded the game and NO 0103 ERROR!!!
I hope this helps someone else going through this. Thank you again Voultar!!! Good luck everyone!
PS - the only thing I didn't see (I could have missed it) in Voultar's info, was the cable used for the pico (the pico item was completely new to me). I believe it was called a USB to USB micro A adaptor.
I have waited on a fix for 5 years, THANK you,I hope I can finally fix this.
I hope this fixes your problem! If you have true NAND corruption, it may not do the trick. I'm still investigating that!
@@Voultar Try to keep us updated on the NAND corruption, I don't know if that's the reason my console won't update to the latest system version, but it has really killed my enjoyment of the console. Also, from my own findings, the Switch also uses NAND, so doesn't that mean it too is susceptible to the memory corruption due to 'not being used often enough'?
Sorry to barge into an unrelated comment, but I really want answers to this problem, because it really is a crime that it seems to be affecting all Wii U owners.
I guess the rest of us with still working WiiU's... plug it in at least once a month for about a day.
@@commanderb7291The amount gets used doesn't reduce the chance of a nand failure, although it has a way lower chance then the wiiu and Wii.
Thanks Voultar. The headlines gave me anxiety but your reassuring video has given me hope that I at least have something to try if my system does go down. Thanks for coming at this like an engineer and bringing a potential solution to light instead of just sensationalizing
Fantastic work sir. My Wii U is still operating, but now I know what to do if I get those errors. Thank you
This makes me feel so much better. Back in February I booted up my wiiu for the first time in years and found this memory issue. I even took it to a repair shop in San Antonio and they couldn't fix it. I had to buy a new used console. :(
For those who love the Wii U and support the physical sancity of horses, you are a true hero.
This is HUGE! Thank you so much to you and Robed Repairs for making these videos talking about this fix! My friend had his Wii U brick a year or so ago and ended up getting the internals replaced with a working Wii U from a local retro store we frequent. His Wii U was sitting on display in his room for 4-5 years and when he went to use it, it wouldn't load and gave one of the common error messages in this problem. Now that there seems to be a fix I may pick up one of those Raspberry Pi Pico's moving forward. I want to be able to keep my Wii U for many years to come and archive my games and DLC. My Wii U thankfully hasn't had this issue yet, but this gives me high hopes that it's fixable! Mine's modded with Tiramisu so thankfully I have lots of options to back up my physical discs and save data if I ever have to add them back on. I hope this gets lots of publicity!
I have a working Wii U, a NAND backup and a spare Raspberry Pico, so I'm all set in case my Wii U decides to become a brick.
I hope someone with a bricked Wii U tries this method, and in case of failure, sends you the console for you to check it out. Better yet, a modded Wii U with a NAND backup :-D
I don't own a Wii u but I have a lot of friends who do, and are also not tech savvy so this is very useful! Thank you!
That's 5 Wii U's saved by you and many more by others. Great information you've shared.
The actual reason behind the NAND Corruption is cause some Wii Us were built using Hynix NAND Chips, which degrade faster than other Wii Us made with Samsung or Toshiba. So some Wii Us are unfortunately built with lower quality chips that die faster than others. Its just unfortunate luck with the Manufacturing. It is possible to see which NAND Chip brand you have by either opening up the Wii U itself and carefully taking it apart a bit, or by running some kinda Homebrew App that can give you the Specs of your System
You are the first I find that shows step by step what to to. I am now in the process of making a recovery package for my Wii-Us. I have two out that are working fine, but several that has been boxed up for years. What a legend. Thanks for this. A new subscriber has arrived.
Mister Nand Failure never hangs around
When he hears this Mighty sound.
"Here I come to save the day!"
That means that Voultar is on the way.
Thanks for doing a real investigation on this.
These is the definition of “hero without a cape” given that the Wii U was not a great selling console, even if the issue is a small amount may seem significant, for me 5/5 of an issue on this scenario is a total W, thanks for caring about this and bringing a solution, even if it does not help 100% of the people, is not 0, great work!
Samples are interesting. I also got 6 WiiU recently - sold as not working. Two only had their outputs set to analog or hdmi and the seller didn’t know any better. Two only had a parental soft lock that has an easy workarounds with a webform challenge response. However! Two units had the 160-1400 drive error, and that was a much more interesting to fix (micro soldering) if you can find one of those units to fix its quite ‘fun’
My WiiU is on black screen (and I have a no connexion message on the mablet), is it an output error ? Do you know how to fix it ? 😢
My WiiU is on black screen (and I have a no connexion message on the mablet), is it an output error ? Do you know how to fix it ? 😢
@@MidiMusic do you hear the drive spin when you start it after a few seconds? Did you try on both HDMI and Analog outputs? The console could be set to either and the other one will be black
@@plgDavid i tried analog (yuv, rca) and hdmi cables (3 different) on a tv/computer screen... I have a no connexion message and no display signal at the same time...
@@MidiMusic you didnt answer if you heard the drive spinning on boot? Blue Led on?
A video I'm absolutely thankful for. As someone who's spent thousands, yes thousands of dollars on this console's VC and retail games, I was a bit worried about this issue catching up with me. I really appreciate people like you, thank you for this. The Wii U in the living room now boots to the main menu and stays there! 😁
Whoa, I almost forgot to thank you with a sub.
Fantastic video bud. It's so crazy that how the big TH-camrs with tons of resources tons of followers tons of support Can't figure out these solutions or use their massive piles of money to actually do something about it. Especially those big channels that tote themselves as "tech experts" more like click bait experts who regurgitate current news but offer no solution. Thank you so much for what you chose to do out of your own pocket using your own free time to help the community. It's greatly appreciated. Please keep up the good work.
Please do keep in mind that most people view almost 100k subscribers as a large number. He clearly deserves many more subscribers, but very few channels (relatively speaking) have more than 1000 subscribers, let alone close to 100000.
Bro ur a legend ur out there fixing Wii U’s AND ur still using windows 7
I fired up my Wii U tonight to take one last look at the eShop and mine bricked. :(
I’ll have to give this a try once the Pi I ordered arrives. Thank you for the video.
Any updates? Just happened to me. Gamepad works, blue light is on. Just no video. Looking to see if there's any chance to bring this back to life.
I somehow managed to trigger this error on my Wii U by just spam pressing one of the user icons on startup one time. The whole system froze and this error popped up. Great thing it can now be fixed most likely!
Very interesting! This fix will help a lot of people.
Props to Gary for saving the lives of bricked wiiUs. I hope he can find true joy in himself
The Raspberry Pico is truly one of the best electronic "gizmos" in years. As always great video Voultar! 🇮🇹
As someone who plans to use one in one of his projects, I agree!!
Just want to say thank you for being you! Without you I probably wouldn't be as interested in console modding and reviving old systems from the dead.
I'm gonna try it with my raspberry pi zero/w as I have a bunch in stock already, it's nice that I don't have to buy any new ones
I jailbroke my Wii U like 3 years ago but bricked it by accident and I really love that console so I decided to try this method and now my Wii U is up and running again !
Thank you so much
I've got arduinos and ESPs that I use for hobby projects and automation, but the couple of Raspberry Pi Picos that I have are more like swiss army knifes.
Picos are some of the most useful and versatile tools in the toolbox.
YES! It worked! Thank you so much!
The issue I faced at first was the U would shut down after I plugged in the USB cable. I'd used a 64gb SD that I formatted in 32bit. Apparently it didn't like that so I tried again with a 32gb and SUCCESS!
A huge thanks to you for the video and the creator of the software used! One more Wii U saved from the parts bin!
Hey voultar, I tried this on a Wii u with "deleting all content" error but had no luck. Any chance you'd trade one of those repaired ones for my BRICKED one?? I was able to dump nand but I have no clue how to restore it. That being said, the nand I dumped is probably corrupted anyways
In glad the community is finding a way to fix the Wiiu's problem and the best part it doesn't require any homebrew at all wich is a good thing
I have one that when you try create a profile it gets a soft brick. Would that be a Nand issue? There's no way to boot it to main menu as it asks to create a profile first
Thank you for broadcasting this simple and inexpensive fix for these units! I had no idea this was available. I was dreading the thought of having to replace my NAND in the future.
Awesome! What a great community.
I had the 0103 error message whenever I attempted to load anything. My Wii U would boot up into the menu and I could browse my games, but the system insisted it needed an update. Whether I tried to update or simply launch a game without applying the update, I would encounter the error.
I followed the steps in this video and, thankfully, my system works again. The system update was actually able to complete, and my games now launch just fine. Thank you so much for this guide!
Congratulations on the video, you did an awesome job....
the chad energy that overwhelmed me when i saw voultar's basic as biscuits windows 7 desktop
Gary is a legend. Thanks Gary!
Why weren't you in my subscribed list? Made sure you are now. Great work! Thank you. 😊
Big props for figuring this out!
So this is sorta like a factory reset, right? Does any data previously present on the system, such as downloaded games or miis, become lost?
I unbricked my wii u with this method I'm so excited rn!! Keep up the positivity! What a wonderful video
This is incredible. Thanks for all your hard work on stuff like this.
I don't care if you tripped down a hill and busted your ass. Voultar is the Hero we don't deserve.
Unfortunately, this method did not work for me. I was able to dump the OTP and SEEPROM though, as well as system logs if those would be of any use to you. It seems like my system might actually have nand/emmc corruption.
Something to note, while I was getting the 160-0103 error, the disc drive would always initialize twice. After setting the coldboot title and rebooting, it only initialized once, then still booted into the error. Not sure if that matters, but might be worth mentioning.
Sorry Dylan. You most likely have a failing eMMC and this unfortunately will not repair a faulty NAND. But sit tight, there's still hope as this is currently being developed.
@@Voultar Darn, that’s too bad. Excited to see where developments lead though
Another youtuber at Robed Repair had done this too. In his video he didn't say of his system was jail broke no not. But it is good to know that you don't have to jail break the console just to repair the chip.
Also the error code is related to a chip on the under side of the motherboard that stores boot data, save games, and downloaded games.
My Wii U still boots up and runs games, but the error code appears in some system apps like the Mii maker. If I were to reset the system, I would not be able to get past the setup process, essentially bricking my Wii U. I'll also point out that some of my virrual console titles also crashed to that error code screen, and after reinstalling them they worked fine again.
I would really like to know what could be done for a console that exhibits the symptoms mine does, since most of the sorrounding discussion is focused on Wii Us that can't boot.
It will sound risky (it is) but you could try by letting you wiiu brick with the reset system process and then try to recover it with the PICO Pi payload. OR you could try modding you wiiU and see if you can reinstall WiiU system applications individually without having to factory reset the console. (Since you said that VC titles with that error were fixed by just reinstalling them)
In theory if you have the dying NAND hardware issue your console is screwed up no matter what you do, but if it's only the corrupted software problem the PICO PI recovery should work.
It took a few tries but I finally got the timing just right! Thank you!
Thank you lord Voultar for teaching us how to do a bcdedit for wiiu!
Don't have a bricked WiiU yet, mine is homebrewed so I have a backup of the NAND but I'll go ahead and pick this up because I do a lot of repairs for people so this is perfect!!
Great work and awesome video!! 🤘🤘
Thank you for providing a great, detailed solution to the latest console fearmongering hot topic.
I haven't had this problem with my Wii U yet. I love the console. As a kid growing with the normal wii, this was the best upgrade that Nintendo could have given to the wii to extend its life into new generations imo. The only reasons it flopped was due to poor marketing and third parties not being able to program well with the gamepad.
I love this console since it represents that growth from the wii to the wii u and most of memories and progress of most of my chilhood games. I wouldn't like to think how would I feel about the console becoming a brick because of a minor bug/manufacturing error.
With all of this I want to say thank you for giving the community a solution to the problem.
Mine isn't totally bricked, but there are certain points in certain games that cause that error message to pop up.
Hmm. Are the games on disk or internal storage
@@adventureoflinkmk2 Both, actually. I can recall it happening consistently at certain points with Game and Wario (internal) and Nintendo Land (disc).
You are a superhero! i had a wiiU stored for more than 4 years and I was able to revive it with this method. Thank you!!
I’ve tried this method already as I saw it in another video but it does not work. The Wii U does not boot up the recovery menu, and I know I’ve done every step correctly. In my case, my Wii U displays nothing on the tv screen and the gamepad refuses to connect to the Wii U when I try to enter the Wii U home menu, but it turns on the console just fine. I also do not get an error code at all as the only message I get is that the gamepad can not connect to the console. I’ve tried replacing the CR2032 battery as well but that didn’t fix it either. I tried using the Wii Composite/Component port as well just to make sure it wasn’t the HDMI port that was dead but I was still getting the same results. I have no clue what is wrong with my Wii U.
hm difficult indeed
I'm in same boat man. Don't boot nothing on screen gamepad don't connect. Hopefully someone figures out something here.
Good thing my Wii U still works as my previous use was July 2019. When I realized what was happening when I first saw it on facebook, I end up hooking up my Wii U and charging the gamepad and once I turn on my Wii U, it still works and updated to the latest version.
You, sir, are amazing, as always!
Thanks for the vid 😊.
BTW I swore that Gon was ur avatar till the end lol.
So what if there is no Wii U video output? Presumably it’s the same issue but I wouldn’t be able to use the pico because I can’t see the software menu.
I have no video output for mine too
@@pokmonx so apparently you can still do this without video output but you are literally doing it blind. Also, there’s a chance that it won’t even boot into the recovery menu.
@freestyla101 i bought a wii u for $20 today and I can get it to power on but nothing on the tv. I have purchased a charger for the handheld because it came without it and it's dead so maybe that's why there's nothing coming up? I have no experience with wii u so I'm just trying everything I can for now lol
@@pokmonx it’s one of two things. Either there is an internal issue or the video output was set to analog which is the cable with the three plugs red yellow white. I’d try that first, you can use one from the Wii if you have it.
@freestyla101 I have the analog cord I've tried it with no success 😔
I'll try this on my extra bricked Wii U. It has been sitting for two years disassembled because I know it can be fixed, but I couldn't find a good tutorial to un-brick it.
Well done Voultar :)
I figured something like this was going on because spawnwave pointed out that this was not a new problem it was something that was happing with wii u's during their warranty period and the fix was send it back to Nintendo. Now it is possible that Nintendo was going through the trouble of replacing the emmc but that sounds like a lot of work I get the feeling that if this was something that Nintendo was doing probably very quickly they would be releasing a revision of the console. Nintendo reflashing the system image makes far more sense to me.
My Wii u won't even turn on, it's completely dead. My daughter is pretty disappointed, of course nintendo won't fix them anymore. Lord Voultar do you fix Wii u?
Have you tried buying or borrowing another power supply? A failure to power on can be the simplest and easiest "repair" ever.
@@CAHSR2020 - unfortunately yes we purchased 2 other power supplies and it didn't work
I don't know if the problem is 100% solved, but this fix gives me hope for the future of Wii U retro gaming. Thanks for looking into this.
Dude, you never cease to amaze me. PHENOMENAL job like always Voultar! 😊 Respect 🤜🤛
This is unrelated to recent reports of dying Wii Us. This **won't** magically fix your defect NAND. Udpih is an awesome tool and let's you fix "CBHC bricks" (and similar (mostly) user-caused bricks), but can't do anything about NANDs dying at hardware level.
From the data the homebrew community is collecting, there is also no indication that not using a Wii U for a long time is causing it. The data suggest it's mostly NANDs from HYNIX which are dying
Did you actually watch the video?
@@Voultar Yes I did, but both the title and the video are suggesting this is a solution for the recent report of dying NANDs.
@@maschell How is the title misleading? Neither the title nor thumbnail mention anything about corrupted NANDs and I made special care in the video to explain that this will not fix Wii U systems with corrupted NANDS. Are you sure you watched the video? There's a forum with a sample size of maybe 40 consoles that have been affected by a NAND corruption, this is a very small dataset and I am willing to believe that many people with 160-0101 or 160-0103 error messages don't have problems that are recoverable other than a failing eMMC.
I bought a Wii U from Ebay that was modded previously without me knowing. I factory reset the wii and ended up with the 0101 code. This let me fix it! Thank you very much.
You kinda lost me at the end.....like yeah people are trying to spread the word of what is going on and you calling them that. Yeah, I get it some idiots do it for the click or whatever (the last time I check youtube is about getting views) but others were spreading the word to see if someone had a solution.
The videos I saw were presented in the form of "Is this true? Has it happened to you? Do you know how to fix it?" Seems pretty innocuous.
@@CAHSR2020 exactly one of my bruh told me that his talking about someone else, but still like bruh chill thanks for the fix.... but like fam that's not the way to talk about other people's videos on the subject.
It’s weirdly tone-deaf and inappropriate. People are going to report on this stuff without having perfect knowledge of the situation or the technical skills to come up with their own fix. There are no negative consequences to reporting on this because no one who got this error tossed their Wii U in the river. Instead they are almost certainly waiting for word on a possible solution.
I have a Wii U that must have its memory/NAND corrupted, because the way it died was really weird and with no error codes. It was not modded at all. Before I knew about the fragile memory, I was fine opening games I downloaded from the eshop on the system memory. One day I opened Super Mario Advance, a game previously played and beaten with no issues, after barely a year of owning my first Wii U (I wish things went better with such a good console I was only experiencing for the first time). The game froze seconds after starting, so I reset the console.
I thought it was a harmless, silly error because when I was little, my Wii froze like that one time during New Super Mario Bros. Wii’s first boss fight. The same Wii over a decade old is alive and well.
But on my Wii U’s profile screen, selecting a profile always crashed it. It was like the Wii U’s menu didn’t exist anymore. The next day, it wouldn’t load past the Wii U logo screen at the start, just froze immediately (I have video of this on my channel). No error codes at all. Now, after an attempt at unbricking from what I was told, the console doesn’t even send anything to the TV. It’s completely dead, like nothing exists on it.
Well… I still have it. Not sure anyone would be interested in it since everyone tells me it’s completely unrecoverable without a NAND backup, but it’s certainly useless for me to keep around. I think of what happened as the crash of death. If there’s even the smallest chance of it being recoverable though, I would LOVE to see my first Wii U be brought back to life! Especially with how devastating it was for it to just die like that. My first consoles are always so special to me, and it was sad seeing the unbricking solution fail…
That was my first time ever losing a console, and I learned from that awful experience. Luckily Nintendo transferred my NNID so I got my games and dlc back. But now all save data and downloads are on external storage. The system memory is blank in data management, and I’m too scared to put anything on it. I have the NAND backed up, and I’m being as careful as possible. I love my Wii U so much and really don’t want to lose another.
I know someone who has one brand new in box that they never even opened. I’m curious if it’ll end up bricked if it’s not already.
This is really fantastic news! Thanks for figuring this out.
Great fix. The only thing that saddens me is that Nintendo couldn't be arsed to release details surrounding this issue in better detail to make figuring this stuff out easier.
Yeah, or offer repairs at a cost. Never in my life have I heard of a console that fails or develops memory issues just because you don't play it for a few years. Mine's never been idle for more than 3 since I bought it, and it has since last year's update developed an issue where it refuses to perform it, freezes routinely at 99%, thus preventing me from playing online, accessing the e-shop, or update any games that need it. I'm out the ability to play Mario Kart 8 because I was mistakenly led to believe that the game was responsible for the update failure, so I went from not being able to play it online, to not being able to play it at all. Like you said, Nintendo couldn't give 2 shits about it, and that is damn depressing, doesn't make one want to continue doing business with them, that's for sure, I'm sure as hell not. If I were them, I'd look at this happening as an unacceptable failure on my part as a company, and offer at least a means of righting the wrong, even if it as the cost of the customer, at least give them an option other than 'accepting' an inevitable failure.
I just saw a video of someone bringing their Wii U to a Nintendo facility, they were able to replace the device.
@@wicky7591 Could you link the video? I'm questioning where this happened, because Nintendo of America is adamantly refusing to offer any help or solutions to me, even when I say I'm willing to pay for repairs.
@@commanderb7291It's called "Why I took my Wii U Back to Nintendo."
Wow such a simple fix, I've got a couple of Wii-U's that are working just fine and to be honest I haven't seen many that are sold as faulty but this is good to know about.
It would be good to know why they end up with these errors in the first place though, and once fixed using this method what are the chances it will happen again?
Great video either way, thanks.
Timing the ad right when telling people when to plug in the USB drive might mess a few people up. Id recommend fixing that. But thanks for the video!