Nintendo Wii U NAND Vulnerable To Dying If Not Powered On Often

[rcpd]

Well you can't change the past of your system, the best you can do now is just be a good Wii U owner and don't neglect it, try and turn it on once a week, even if you're not going to play it. Perhaps that can't ensure you won't brick somehow, but it's certainly better than t to keep it powered off for months or even years at a time.

Once a week? I’m a GameCube fanatic and this thing plays them all flawlessly. I’ll be playing my Wii U more than any other console. It is only a bonus that it also plays Wii and Wii U games.

 

[CrazySquid]

Right now I wonder what Nintendo support will say about the NANDs, like, if you ask about turning on the Wii U from time to time and stuff for not getting data corruption, what will they say? I personally don't think they will have an answer to that, since when I was younger I asked at the phone if they could help with developing homebrew alongside the community (I don't remember if I asked them to help improve Nintendont or Haxchi). And the guy replied that they didn't even know what Haxchi is lol.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Once a week? I’m a GameCube fanatic and this thing plays them all flawlessly. I’ll be playing my Wii U more than any other console. It is only a bonus that it also plays Wii and Wii U games.

Hell dude, I don't think I've gone more than 3 days without playing something on my Wii U in the last 7 or 8 years, I have it on typically daily, so I totally feel ya. I'm just saying if you're fearful of this kind of brick; just continue to show your system love, with once a week or once a month just being what I'd consider a reasonable minimum.

 

[godreborn]

Hell dude, I don't think I've gine more than 3 days without playing something on my Wii U in the last 7 or 8 years, I have it on typically daily, so I totally feel ya. I'm just saying if you're fearful of this kind of brick; just continue to show your system love, with once a week or once a month just being what I'd consider a reasonable minimum.

indeed, I play almost every day on the wiiu. no issues.

 

[rcpd]

As I said in the 3DS forum, I'm not so much worried about this particular NAND brick as it seems to be specific to the 32Gb NAND models and mine is an 8Gb NAND model. But this had me thinking that any flash memory storage has a limited life cycle and will eventually fail. So I had a thought for attempting to mitigate it before that happens. I'm finding that we can do this with the 3DS but cannot with the Wii U. I'll just love the thing until it does eventually fail. And hope that I can get another one later on if that happens.

 

[retrofan_k]

I was hit with this bug. Have a console not used for 3 years, bought from new in 2012. Was working 100% before putting it away, yet recently saw the news about bricks, so powered it up this week.

It appears mine is semi bricked, as I cannot access "System Settings" to change any settings because it crashes everytime with Error 160-2215.

Wii maker and Friends list do the same error crash. However, other installed default programs load and games load from external hdd.

 

[SDIO]

@rcpd everything has a limited lifespan, the question is just what dies first. It doesn't seem like Wii Us are dying because of to many write cycles. If the SoC dies, it's gone, if you have a full NAND backup every NAND failure, be it SLC or MLC is fixable, with the right skills.

@retrofan_k please do a complete NAND Backup and copy it to the PC.
Then do a seconds backup and maybe a third. If it is really a eMMC failure it's just luck to get a good backup.
When you have the Backups, blease run the attached version of mdinfo and show a photo of it.

 

[android_advance]

I have an unmodded 32GB launch Wii U that has been unused for a few years and it is having the 106-0103 error when trying to play some games (including discs like Nintendoland) and the Mii Maker. I am able to play some discs, like BotW and Xenoblade, and I can play Donkey Kong off my USB HDD.

I have tried multiple times to run the nanddumper and it fails every time with the 106-0103 error, even when I try to select only one option at a time.

I'm guessing my Wii U's internal system memory is too corrupted to perform a nand dump at this point?

 

[SDIO]

I am working on adding a NAND Dumper to the recovery menu, maybe that will work better for you. But it will take a few more days or weeks.
Maybe you could try to run mdinfo, which I attached above. But keep in mind, the longer you use the console the more likely it will brick. I wouldn't use the console, until you have a good backup.
If it is really a bad eMMC you will need to do hardware modifications anyway. Then you can also dump the eMMC through hardware.
How good are oyu with the soldering Iron?

EDIT: but please don't waste to much time of your console trying to run mdinfo. If you get it to work on the first try, then fine, but please don't try to much, as it could brick any moment and then it might not be fixable.

 

[rcpd]

@rcpd everything has a limited lifespan, the question is just what dies first. It doesn't seem like Wii Us are dying because of to many write cycles. If the SoC dies, it's gone, if you have a full NAND backup every NAND failure, be it SLC or MLC is fixable, with the right skills.

I don't have those skills. I did some research for some locally who I've heard that can. And one of them assured me that as long as I have valid NAND backups he can fix it and has fixed some like this in the past. I guess I just have to trust him. They're a pretty well known business known for doing cell phone and video game console repairs.

 

[SDIO]

@android_advance how exactly are you launching the NAND Dumper?

 

[android_advance]

@android_advance how exactly are you launching the NAND Dumper?

I downloaded tiramisu to an sd card, then I went to wiiuexploit.xyz in the Wii U web browser and clicked on the Run Exploit button while holding down the B button on the gamepad.

From there I was able to select the nand dumper, but regardless of which options I choose to include in the backup I always get a 106-0103 error.

 

[SDIO]

Lets try it without tiramisu. Try a clean SD card with at leas 64GB and formatted FAT32. Get the nand-dumper payload from here: https://github.com/wiiu-env/wiiu-nanddumper-payload/releases/tag/v0.1
extract it to your SD card. Your SD card should then only have the folder "wiiu" with the payload.elf inside.
Put the SD card in the Wii U again, after safely removing it from the PC and then launch the browser exploit again.

If that doesn't work you could try UDPIH to at least dump the OTP. I am working on adding the nand dumper to the recovery menu for udpih.

 

[retrofan_k]

Lets try it without tiramisu. Try a clean SD card with at leas 64GB and formatted FAT32. Get the nand-dumper payload from here: https://github.com/wiiu-env/wiiu-nanddumper-payload/releases/tag/v0.1
extract it to your SD card. Your SD card should then only have the folder "wiiu" with the payload.elf inside.
Put the SD card in the Wii U again, after safely removing it from the PC and then launch the browser exploit again.

Hi,

Guess I'll have to try this payload.elf file to make nand dumps?, since I'm not running Tiramisu (console still has CBHC) installed and due to way it's behaving atm with error code 160-2215, I don't fancy updating it to Tiramisu in case it makes matters worse.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't be able to access the internet on it anyway to use the browser exploit page, since I cannot use system settings to configure the Wifi.

 

[SDIO]

@retrofan_k Try this version: https://github.com/koolkdev/wiiu-nanddumper/releases/tag/v0.4 it should work with CBHC

 

[Dyhr]

What I kinda love about this flaw in the Wii U is that it effectively shows who loved and who neglected their Wii Us. I mean it's a terrible flaw don't get me wrong, but all the same if you use yours regularly and show it love, this flaw shouldn't catch up to it. I can see the comic strips making light of the situation now.

Let's be honest, Nintendo didn't give us much reason to like it or want it.

- It had spectacularly bad software support.
- It was infamously hard to develop for.
- The controls for the system were, being generous, an absolute nightmare. You should not need an optional 60$ controller for any game to be mildly playable.
- Too bad for the above, you still need to use the tablet and/or Wiimote for most activities.
- The UI of the Wii U OS is utterly horrific and cluttered. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a good philosophy, Nintendo followed "Keep It Stupid, Simple".
- The tablet (which costs most of the system IF you can even get a replacement) is essential for function. No working tablet, no working console, even for games that won't need it.
- The tablet was horrendously low-quality, had an inexcusably bad, blurry, low-resolution screen, and no real range away from the console. It was a distraction from playing the game more than it ever was an aide or alternative for "portability".
- Online play in anything was painfully slow and disconnected constantly, just like the DS, 3DS, and Wii before it.
- FRIEND CODES.
- It lacked a Blu-Ray drive, which limited use hard for home theater (something Sony has been controlled since 2006's PS3).
- It lacked most streaming services because Nintendo are cheap as anything.
- WHY DID IT NOT HAVE A HARD DRIVE. NO ONE IS PUTTING GAMES ON A FREAKING SD CARD OF ALL THINGS. And sorry, an expensive, and slow as hell USB 2.0 External HDD DOES NOT COUNT.

I had I think five Wii U games. Played the hell out of all of them except Mario Maker, due to the awful online support of the Wii U (shocking for a company that still uses friend codes, I know).

Nintendo took FOREVER to support it. SSB4 and Mario Kart 8 were in its second year. Sorry Nintendo, I love New Super Mario Bros, and the U one was good, but that's not a system mover. SSB4 and MK8 would've been. How did they not learn this lesson from the 3DS? Which had no Nintendo support until like over a year in?!

And lastly, the biggest one why it didn't sell.

That name sucked. Parents and even less obsessed gamers wouldn't think it's a NEW console. Why would they? The Wii Mini wasn't new. The PS3 Slim wasn't new. The PS3 Super Slim wasn't new. It's literally the same name as their previous console with one letter added that tells you NOTHING. Wii 2 would've helped. Wii U? What the hell is that?

All this being said, the good games the Wii U had, were amazing. But they came late and still competed with the flaws of the console. And even the good games had severe flaws---MK8 having a horrendous and counterintuitive local co-op was agonizing. Ironically as they move to a fully widescreen console they have a LESS WIDESCREEN FRIENDLY SPLITSCREEN THAN EVER BEFORE.

Super Smash Bros. 4 replaced Melee entirely (Brawl was never good without fan support) for multiplayer fun. But Mario Kart 8 was not a replacement if you were playing with people locally. That vertical splitscreen was an absolute disaster and gave you almost no field of vision.

 

[V10lator]

- It had spectacularly bad software support.

Examples?

- It was infamously hard to develop for.

As a homebrew dev and one who knows Nintendos SDK I tend to disagree.

- The UI of the Wii U OS is utterly horrific and cluttered

Again: Examples?

- Online play in anything was painfully slow and disconnected constantly

I'm able to play online for hours without any issues whatsoever. Only time I disconnect is when I disconnect on purpose and there are zero slowdowns. So I tend to disagree here, too.

- WHY DID IT NOT HAVE A HARD DRIVE. NO ONE IS PUTTING GAMES ON A FREAKING SD CARD OF ALL THINGS. And sorry, an expensive, and slow as hell USB 2.0 External HDD DOES NOT COUNT.

What? This doesn't make any sense: You can't play games from an SD card and USB 2 is more than fast enough for all games, so why does a HDD not count as a HDD?

they have a LESS WIDESCREEN FRIENDLY SPLITSCREEN THAN EVER BEFORE.

Yea, dual screen is the worst ever... Lol... I play with friends regulary and no one complains, no matter if dual or split screen.

The rest I won't even reply to. Keep your off-topic shitposts elsewhere, please.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Let's be honest, Nintendo didn't give us much reason to like it or want it.

- It had spectacularly bad software support.
- It was infamously hard to develop for.
- The controls for the system were, being generous, an absolute nightmare. You should not need an optional 60$ controller for any game to be mildly playable.
- Too bad for the above, you still need to use the tablet and/or Wiimote for most activities.
- The UI of the Wii U OS is utterly horrific and cluttered. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a good philosophy, Nintendo followed "Keep It Stupid, Simple".
- The tablet (which costs most of the system IF you can even get a replacement) is essential for function. No working tablet, no working console, even for games that won't need it.
- The tablet was horrendously low-quality, had an inexcusably bad, blurry, low-resolution screen, and no real range away from the console. It was a distraction from playing the game more than it ever was an aide or alternative for "portability".
- Online play in anything was painfully slow and disconnected constantly, just like the DS, 3DS, and Wii before it.
- FRIEND CODES.
- It lacked a Blu-Ray drive, which limited use hard for home theater (something Sony has been controlled since 2006's PS3).
- It lacked most streaming services because Nintendo are cheap as anything.
- WHY DID IT NOT HAVE A HARD DRIVE. NO ONE IS PUTTING GAMES ON A FREAKING SD CARD OF ALL THINGS. And sorry, an expensive, and slow as hell USB 2.0 External HDD DOES NOT COUNT.

I had I think five Wii U games. Played the hell out of all of them except Mario Maker, due to the awful online support of the Wii U (shocking for a company that still uses friend codes, I know).

Nintendo took FOREVER to support it. SSB4 and Mario Kart 8 were in its second year. Sorry Nintendo, I love New Super Mario Bros, and the U one was good, but that's not a system mover. SSB4 and MK8 would've been. How did they not learn this lesson from the 3DS? Which had no Nintendo support until like over a year in?!

And lastly, the biggest one why it didn't sell.

That name sucked. Parents and even less obsessed gamers wouldn't think it's a NEW console. Why would they? The Wii Mini wasn't new. The PS3 Slim wasn't new. The PS3 Super Slim wasn't new. It's literally the same name as their previous console with one letter added that tells you NOTHING. Wii 2 would've helped. Wii U? What the hell is that?

All this being said, the good games the Wii U had, were amazing. But they came late and still competed with the flaws of the console. And even the good games had severe flaws---MK8 having a horrendous and counterintuitive local co-op was agonizing. Ironically as they move to a fully widescreen console they have a LESS WIDESCREEN FRIENDLY SPLITSCREEN THAN EVER BEFORE.

Super Smash Bros. 4 replaced Melee entirely (Brawl was never good without fan support) for multiplayer fun. But Mario Kart 8 was not a replacement if you were playing with people locally. That vertical splitscreen was an absolute disaster and gave you almost no field of vision.

If you didn't love it, you didn't love it, no excuses needed. I loved it from its inception and the modding scene only forever cemented that love.

 

[CrazySquid]

Let's be honest, Nintendo didn't give us much reason to like it or want it.

- It had spectacularly bad software support.
- It was infamously hard to develop for.
- The controls for the system were, being generous, an absolute nightmare. You should not need an optional 60$ controller for any game to be mildly playable.
- Too bad for the above, you still need to use the tablet and/or Wiimote for most activities.
- The UI of the Wii U OS is utterly horrific and cluttered. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a good philosophy, Nintendo followed "Keep It Stupid, Simple".
- The tablet (which costs most of the system IF you can even get a replacement) is essential for function. No working tablet, no working console, even for games that won't need it.
- The tablet was horrendously low-quality, had an inexcusably bad, blurry, low-resolution screen, and no real range away from the console. It was a distraction from playing the game more than it ever was an aide or alternative for "portability".
- Online play in anything was painfully slow and disconnected constantly, just like the DS, 3DS, and Wii before it.
- FRIEND CODES.
- It lacked a Blu-Ray drive, which limited use hard for home theater (something Sony has been controlled since 2006's PS3).
- It lacked most streaming services because Nintendo are cheap as anything.
- WHY DID IT NOT HAVE A HARD DRIVE. NO ONE IS PUTTING GAMES ON A FREAKING SD CARD OF ALL THINGS. And sorry, an expensive, and slow as hell USB 2.0 External HDD DOES NOT COUNT.

I had I think five Wii U games. Played the hell out of all of them except Mario Maker, due to the awful online support of the Wii U (shocking for a company that still uses friend codes, I know).

Nintendo took FOREVER to support it. SSB4 and Mario Kart 8 were in its second year. Sorry Nintendo, I love New Super Mario Bros, and the U one was good, but that's not a system mover. SSB4 and MK8 would've been. How did they not learn this lesson from the 3DS? Which had no Nintendo support until like over a year in?!

And lastly, the biggest one why it didn't sell.

That name sucked. Parents and even less obsessed gamers wouldn't think it's a NEW console. Why would they? The Wii Mini wasn't new. The PS3 Slim wasn't new. The PS3 Super Slim wasn't new. It's literally the same name as their previous console with one letter added that tells you NOTHING. Wii 2 would've helped. Wii U? What the hell is that?

All this being said, the good games the Wii U had, were amazing. But they came late and still competed with the flaws of the console. And even the good games had severe flaws---MK8 having a horrendous and counterintuitive local co-op was agonizing. Ironically as they move to a fully widescreen console they have a LESS WIDESCREEN FRIENDLY SPLITSCREEN THAN EVER BEFORE.

This is getting off-topic honestly, I feel like you did it just to bash the Wii U or whatever.

"- It had spectacularly bad software support."
From third-partys? Yeah, maybe.
From Nintendo? For what the machine sold, it was pretty great.


"- It was infamously hard to develop for."
You are confusing PS3 with the Wii U, the Wii U was not hard actually hard to develop for. It was different.


"- The controls for the system were, being generous, an absolute nightmare. You should not need an optional 60$ controller for any game to be mildly playable."

Uh... the Wii Remotes were a great sucess, and the Wii U GamePad is easily the best controller ever made. It was full of features that any other controller doesn't even have... I mean, it has a touchscren, what else do you want? Lol.

"- The UI of the Wii U OS is utterly horrific and cluttered. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a good philosophy, Nintendo followed "Keep It Stupid, Simple"."

The Wii U OS is inefficient, due to wasting an entire GB of RAM for what it actually does. Not sure if this is because it has that RAM reserved for the web browser.
It lacks themes and may be a bit slow, but other than that it's pretty good. I prefer it over the Switch OS for example, but the 3DS is the one that have the best one.

"- The tablet (which costs most of the system IF you can even get a replacement) is essential for function. No working tablet, no working console, even for games that won't need it."

False, I use my Wii U from time to time without even needing the GamePad. It's true that some apps need it though, but if you need edit your system setings, just use Sys config tool.

"- The tablet was horrendously low-quality, had an inexcusably bad, blurry, low-resolution screen, and no real range away from the console. It was a distraction from playing the game more than it ever was an aide or alternative for "portability"."

You got a defective unit, I have a launch Wii U from 2012 and the quality is top-notch, it's working like the first day even today... and I was a very heavy Wii U user in the past years. It was not a distraction at all for the games that implemented the GamePad well. In fact, enhanced the gaming experiencie. Even the Camera was good enough for the purpouses it served just like taking a shot for Wii Fit U or some Wii U Chat, while not great quality, it was good enough for casual use.

"- Online play in anything was painfully slow and disconnected constantly, just like the DS, 3DS, and Wii before it."

That's because you have bad internet, played heavily Splatoon and Mario Kart in the past and didn't have those issues... but it was laggy in Splatoon, that is really annoying, and still happens on Switch (and it's pay, I didn't care that much on Wii U because it was free).

"- It lacked a Blu-Ray drive, which limited use hard for home theater (something Sony has been controlled since 2006's PS3)."

Who cares? I mean, are you buying a console? Or Blu-Ray player?

"
- FRIEND CODES.

What? Wii U doesn't use friend-codes lmao. I'm starting to believe you are a Sony fanboy or something, like, you are not even informed about the Wii U and compare it to the PS3...

"- It lacked most streaming services because Nintendo are cheap as anything."
?

"- WHY DID IT NOT HAVE A HARD DRIVE. NO ONE IS PUTTING GAMES ON A FREAKING SD CARD OF ALL THINGS. And sorry, an expensive, and slow as hell USB 2.0 External HDD DOES NOT COUNT."

That's like asking why the PS5 and Xbox Series doesn't have hard drives either

"That name sucked. Parents and even less obsessed gamers wouldn't think it's a NEW console. Why would they? The Wii Mini wasn't new. The PS3 Slim wasn't new. The PS3 Super Slim wasn't new. It's literally the same name as their previous console with one letter added that tells you NOTHING. Wii 2 would've helped. Wii U? What the hell is that?"

Problem was not the name, otherwise the 3DS would have failed because people would think it's a 3D DS...
The problem was marketing itself. Too mcuh focus on the GamePad.


But, like the others said, stop spreading bullshit and get on-topic, I even feel like you did the thread just to throw shit at the machine...

 

[HandsomeJack]

In the here-and-now, Nintendont on its own makes the case for getting a Wii U. Overclocked native GameCube with HDMI and widescreen hacking.

I love WiiMC-SS. It was a great pity Wii didn't ship with a video player app like that.