• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Warning - Wii U console *could* die by itself if not used

cireza

Member
Going to be interesting to see the price of working Wii U price rocket upwards. I check with seven friends to see if their Wii U is still working and all but one got that error. This is actually quite scary.
Well that sucks. I hope that some competent hackers out there manage to find a solution to bypass NAND, looks like this will become a necessity.
 

ZoukGalaxy

Member
Dusted mine off tonight to see if it works. First impressions were that the console boots fine but as soon as I try to start up a game I get the error code. Fuck.
Shit, mine also didn't booted since many years, really hope I will be not doomed too, so many games to play o_O
 

nush

Member
Finally got around to firing up my Wii U after over four years (and it getting shipped half way around the world).

Thankfully, all is working as much as it can in 2023.

The gamepad stick caps have suffered severe rubber reversion, and the console itself is quite loud (possibly damage from the shipping).

I think I'll hack it and backup the NAND.

Mine survived the trip too.
 

Killer8

Member
I've been reading that supposedly the white 8GB Wii U never used the Hyinx NAND, which is more susceptible to deterioration than the Samsung and Toshiba NAND. I'll be getting one of these as a replacement to my (hopefully temporarily) busted black 32gb Zelda unit. Only using an external HDD for everything and powering it on every couple of months should hopefully dodge the issue happening in the long term. Installing CFW on the system and backing up the NAND also seems to be essential.
 
Last edited:

Tams

Member
Mine's a Japanese one, so it might have been in a different batch.

In Japan the 32GB Deluxe version was white and the 8GB standard black. But given how supply chains work, who knows.

For storage, I'm going with an endurance microSD in a compact card reader. Solid state memory isn't quite the lottery it used to be, and it's not like MLC was ever used for SD cards and the like.
 
Last edited:

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Switch may end up similary. Given the stock battery on mine can easily drop to zero if unplugged for 3 weeks. Makes me wonder how it'll hold up some years down the road. Saw someone post that they don't make em' like they used to. That's fo sho. NES and Super Famicom are still running smoothly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isa

Kupfer

Member
Switch may end up similary. Given the stock battery on mine can easily drop to zero if unplugged for 3 weeks. Makes me wonder how it'll hold up some years down the road. Saw someone post that they don't make em' like they used to. That's fo sho. NES and Super Famicom are still running smoothly.
This is a problem with (old) batteries in general. But fortunately we can replace them relatively easily - unlike chips soldered to the mainboard for example.
 
Last edited:

Drew1440

Member
This is also starting to occur with the Xbox 360 S with the 4GB models, where the eMMC module just dies. My advice is to store a little as you can on the internal flash, using USB storage is preferred.
Could also affect the 12GB PS3 models also. But you can switch those to an internal HDD pretty easily. eMMC flash memory just isn't very reliable.
 

Moses85

Member
Going to be interesting to see the price of working Wii U price rocket upwards. I check with seven friends to see if their Wii U is still working and all but one got that error. This is actually quite scary.
Very scary.

I have 5 WiiUs
Zelda CE, which I use
2 white und 2 black consoles (all sealed)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Isa

Tams

Member
Very scary.

I have 5 WiiUs
Zelda CE, which I use
2 white und 2 black consoles (all sealed)

Yo be fair, the sealed ones are never going to be unsealed now.

Well, maybe by some rich YouTuber (or whatever platform then) in the future.
 

Tams

Member
Eventually got around to dumping/backing up my NAND. Took about an hour for the 32GB version. I feel quite relieved.

I've installed Tiramisu and Aroma. I haven't had a chance to play around with them.

Damn, I miss old Opera though. Cloudflare won't even let the Wii U Opera browser load Neogaf!
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I enjoyed my Wii U and because Switch was mainly Wii U ports it took me till TotK to finally get a Switch. Well, now I am very glad I got a Switch and will double dip whatever I want to play because the Wii U is dead to me. The only thing I would really need it for is to play some Wii games like RE Darkside Chronicles, but if my Wii U has or will die then I can just get a Wii.
 
Last edited:

BootsLoader

Banned
fb0.jpg
Naniiiiii!!?!?!??!
 

alucard0712_rus

Gold Member
Switch may end up similary. Given the stock battery on mine can easily drop to zero if unplugged for 3 weeks. Makes me wonder how it'll hold up some years down the road. Saw someone post that they don't make em' like they used to. That's fo sho. NES and Super Famicom are still running smoothly.
Turn it off from the menu, not just stand by.
 

BlackTron

Member
I set up a Wii U as the ultimate legacy Nintendo rig. Even if I don't use it all the time, the idea was consolidation, for posterity's sake. But if the idea is posterity, maybe a console with NAND doesn't make a ton of sense lol. I wouldn't sell that Gamecube.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Thankfully most of the good wii u games are on Switch and enhanced as well.
Emulation in a crunch for anythjng else.
 

Papa_Wisdom

Member
I boxed mine up years ago when I got cemu up and running on my pc. The mario kart 32 gig bundle I think it was. Thinking about maybe going and getting it to see if it still works. Pretty sure I had Nintendont on it along with the Metroid trilogy. Are they worth anything these days (assuming it works) I’m very ocd about keeping things in as perfect condition as I can therefore the console and box are pretty much mint.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Eventually got around to dumping/backing up my NAND. Took about an hour for the 32GB version. I feel quite relieved.

I've installed Tiramisu and Aroma. I haven't had a chance to play around with them.

Damn, I miss old Opera though. Cloudflare won't even let the Wii U Opera browser load Neogaf!
What tutorial did you follow for homebrew? I need to go and do it on mine. I turned it on a couple weeks ago and it worked fine thankfully but really need to dump the nand and stuff.
 

Tams

Member
What tutorial did you follow for homebrew? I need to go and do it on mine. I turned it on a couple weeks ago and it worked fine thankfully but really need to dump the nand and stuff.

Just the recommended one for Tiramisu. I then installed Aroma afterwards (literally just copying the files onto the SD card in the top directory (it just adds the extra files for Aroma).

The only issue I had was an error with reading the SD card at one point, but I just formatted it and put the files on again, and gave the contacts a quick clean. After that it worked fine.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Just the recommended one for Tiramisu. I then installed Aroma afterwards (literally just copying the files onto the SD card in the top directory (it just adds the extra files for Aroma).

The only issue I had was an error with reading the SD card at one point, but I just formatted it and put the files on again, and gave the contacts a quick clean. After that it worked fine.
Thank you! Will attempt it tomorrow.
 

Tams

Member
Thank you! Will attempt it tomorrow.
If you're backing-up/dumping the NAND (as you should), then make sure the SD card you use is one capacity higher than the NAND. So at least 16GB for the 8GB and 64GB for the 32GB.

I'd go for a 128GB card as it's worth it for the slight increase in cost. After that, the price difference is too much.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
If you're backing-up/dumping the NAND (as you should), then make sure the SD card you use is one capacity higher than the NAND. So at least 16GB for the 8GB and 64GB for the 32GB.

I'd go for a 128GB card as it's worth it for the slight increase in cost. After that, the price difference is too much.

Its a black 32gb, I have a 64gb sd card, hopefully itll be fine. The console is factory reset anyway so no games or data.

Im planning on getting an external hdd for it as well.
 

Tams

Member
Its a black 32gb, I have a 64gb sd card, hopefully itll be fine. The console is factory reset anyway so no games or data.

Im planning on getting an external hdd for it as well.

64GB will be fine, you just won't have as much space in it for games. I believe the whole NAND gets dumped, even the 'empty' space.

As for external storage; I've gone with an endurance microSD card in a small USB A card reader.

Apparently the Wii U constantly (or is it often?) writes to the external storage, so it'll wear out older cheaper SSDs and flash memory. Storage controllers have gotten a lot better these days though.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
64GB will be fine, you just won't have as much space in it for games. I believe the whole NAND gets dumped, even the 'empty' space.

As for external storage; I've gone with an endurance microSD card in a small USB A card reader.

Apparently the Wii U constantly (or is it often?) writes to the external storage, so it'll wear out older cheaper SSDs and flash memory. Storage controllers have gotten a lot better these days though.

Yeah ive read that about SSDs, also read that there's no real benefit to use an SSD for the wii u, so im going to go with a regular ole spinning hard drive.
 

Tams

Member
Yeah ive read that about SSDs, also read that there's no real benefit to use an SSD for the wii u, so im going to go with a regular ole spinning hard drive.

Bear in mind that only a 2.5" one will be powered over USB. A 3.5" one will require its own power source.

But if you have the space to have HDDs next to it, it's a good choice.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Bear in mind that only a 2.5" one will be powered over USB. A 3.5" one will require its own power source.

But if you have the space to have HDDs next to it, it's a good choice.

Yeah I'm going to grab a Y cable so it can be powered from both usb ports, at least thats what I heard works.
 
Top Bottom