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Just a month ago, the WiiU modchip de_Fuse begun development by shinyquagsire23, which can be used in a Raspberry Pi Pico board , setting off to achieve a way to be able to boot a Wii U console without having to rely on the console's installed eMMC, and instead allow booting through an SD card on an external medium, with the final goal being to alleviate the surging problem of Wii U consoles ending up bricked due to a failure in their NAND chips.

The project has since evolved in its development, and after several revisions and new updates to it, the modchip can now dump and restore SLC and MLC from the Wii U's eMMC thanks to the use of the Pico board, so developers and early adopters can verify whether or not their board is properly connected to the Wii U console to dump/restore the corresponding parts. Some of the features that de_Fuse currently offers are as follows:

• Flashing a Raspberry Pi Pico with de_Fuse to check for proper connection
• "minute" menu to navigate the options once connected
• NAND backup, SLC/MLC
• OTP and SEEPROM backup
• Setup redNAND with a 64GB SD card for 32GB Wii U models, and 16GB SD cards for the 8GB Wii U models.
• NAND restoration, SLC/MLC (might still have some bugs)
• OTP and SEEPROM restoration
• Overclock and underclock of the Radeon GPU
• Rewrite of de_Fuse in C, which allows for an eventual Aroma support.

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There also seems to be some people working on a solderless method to allow using de_Fuse, and there's also the possibility of an upcoming system title restore feature which could help with other kinds of bricks as well, so the future of de_Fuse is looking bright.

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Source

 

[AmandaRose]

Setup redNAND with a 64GB SD card​

64 GB SD card is only needed for a WiiU with 32gb nand. For 8gb nand models 16gb sd cards will work.

 

[ShadowOne333]

64 GB SD card is only needed for a WiiU with 32gb nand. For 8gb nand models 16gb sd cards will work.

Ah yes, I forgot there was an 8GB model of the WiiU, I have added that info to the list. Thanks!

 

[JuanMena]

Amazing. Time to get a WiiU?
Been craving Sm4sh since I last played it in my 3DS back in 2018.

 

[SylverReZ]

Amazing efforts from the Wii U community!

 

[ChaoticPumpkin]

Great! I have worried in the past about internal eMMC in any console dying, and it’s awesome to see so much dedication put towards saving these consoles!

 

[Valery0p]

Thanks for the article!

Post automatically merged: May 16, 2023

Here's the solderless install, as you can see it uses some jigs to connect to the easily accessible testpoints:

 

[Jayro]

Interested to see if an easy "user-friendly" version of this will be manufactured into a PCB ribbon or something, like most current mods are now. Tearing apart my Wii U sounds terrifying enough.

 

[fvig2001]

I do hope an easier to solder one is made since I really like the wii u but not that great with soldering small items.

 

[Valery0p]

Here's the solderless install, as you can see it uses some jigs to connect to the easily accessible testpoints:

@ShadowOne333 could you add this tweet and image to the article at the end? thanks.

 

[andyhappypants]

Interested to see if an easy "user-friendly" version of this will be manufactured into a PCB ribbon or something, like most current mods are now. Tearing apart my Wii U sounds terrifying enough.

I agree, it won’t be long before aliexpress and eBay are flooded with them at silly inflated prices

 

[impeeza]

There's already For the picofly

 

[Ryab]

Thanks for the article!

Post automatically merged: May 16, 2023

Here's the solderless install, as you can see it uses some jigs to connect to the easily accessible testpoints:

May be worth transitioning to an SD nand anyways, seeing they all seem to be dying.

 

[TheOperator1]

Well I'm excited, my WiiU died after many loving years of service - NAND Brick. I hope to resurrect it!

 

[Anxiety_timmy]

Overclocking sounds interesting.

 

[Jayro]

I'm kinda dumbfounded that the Wii U STILL doesn't have a software hack to write the NAND dumps back to the SLC. Meanwhile the Wii, 3DS, and Switch all had them almost immediately.

 

[Valery0p]

I'm kinda dumbfounded that the Wii U STILL doesn't have a software hack to write the NAND dumps back to the SLC. Meanwhile the Wii, 3DS, and Switch all had them almost immediately.

The USB exploit could do that but as I have understood it @GaryOderNichts avoided adding that function because if the IOSU (living on the MLC) crashes while writing you just bricked your console.
Also the 3ds had no seeprom to prevent downgrading, you really need a cold boot exploit like defuse to pull this off safely.

Post automatically merged: May 17, 2023

You could go YOLO and have some software write from a booted console, but I can't guarantee about the results...

 

[Ettino]

Overclock the GPU?! Interesting. I wonder if the extra heat will be an issue later on.

 

[Jayro]

Is it a REAL overclock, or just bringing the GPU back "up to stock" speeds like with the Switch?

 

[VashTS]

ahhh i need a tutorial asap! can't wait for this to be in a fully complete and ready state!