[Ukazi-TazZy]

I was wondering how easy it is to chip a nintendo wii??
And if there are any drawbacks in doing so, like not being able to play online or something??
Also if anyone could recommend me mod chips, it would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

[Colesy]

You can play online fine. The difficulty of the installation depends on how old (or new rather) your Wii is. The newer, the more difficult.

I use the Wiikey myself, and this was very easy but I bought my Wii back in May last year.

There are 3 different chipsets a Wii can have last time I checked, known as D2A, B and C. A being the easiest (and oldest) and C vice versa.

D2C's can't use the Wiikey, they use a chip called D2CKey I think.

To be more simple.

There are currently no drawbacks to chipping a Wii, and I thought the installation was pretty easy but this will depend on how new your Wii is.

[DJW]

Bear in mind if they ever add extra functionality that requires an update you won't be able to use it (updates tend to brick modded Wiis).
And the obvious voided warranty.

[Colesy]

Updates do not brick modded Wii's.. I don't know where you heard that. The modchip is installed to the DVD drive, not the Wii motherboard. As far as the Wii knows, there is no modchip.

[DJW]

It was a news story that was on a gaming news site the same day as one of the updates came out, saying if you've got a modded Wii don't download this update because people have reported bricked consoles...

[ophqui]

yeah, its a dangerous business, make sure you follow the instructions with the chip EXACTLY otherwise you'll have a very pretty white paperweight on your hands. All the chips are pretty much the same, everyone talks about Wiikey though, so maybe go for that. Make sure you google before you download any firmware updates and you'll be fine.

[what_apples]

I have done this very recently and have found that it can be ridiculously simple and (if you are willing to pay a bit more) really easy. People are correct in saying that the chip you should get depends on how old/new your Wii is - THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME. There are different versions of the DVD drive hardware that are identified with labels - DMS, D2A, D2B, D2C, D2C2 and the very, very new D2E.

The following site can try and estimate what chipset you have from the serial number of your Wii.

http://wiitracker.nintendo-scene.com/search.php

It's not 100% foolproof - the only way to know for sure is to open up your Wii and have a look at the version printed onto the DVD drive. Once you know what version you have, you can make a decision on which mod-chip to get. The only trick to this is that you need a special "tri-wing" screwdriver to get the thing open!

Chipping is traditionally a difficult task involving soldering - sometimes to tiny contacts (esp. with the newer DVD drives) - and easy to get wrong if you don't know what you're doing. Have a look at this:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/d2pro_13-15-19.jpg

Each one of the labelled points is somewhere you'd have to potentially solder wires to. Not fun. However help is at hand. Some clever people have started making clips that go over the main chip on the DVD drive meaning that the only soldering you have to do is relatively simple.

You go from this:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-02.jpg

To this:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-03.jpg

Then to actually install the thing, you open up the Wii and find the right chip:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-11.jpg

And just clip the mod-chip and it's holder into place (being sure to be firm).

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-06.jpg

Depending on the mod-chip and the version of the DVD drive in your Wii, you may need to only connect up certain points from the mod-chip to the clip. This can be a bit confusing. To make even this bit easy as pie, there are plenty of sites online that will solder the chip to the clip for you and make sure they connect up the right bits, provided you give them the right info on the version of your Wii. Then all you have to do is put open up the Wii, put the clip in place, close it back up again and Bob's your uncle.

The example chip I showed above requires extra soldering if you want to enable region free play. There are other options.

The D2Pro9 works flawlessly with only the wii clip and no extra soldering (I ordered this pre-soldered to the clip - installation took about 15 minutes!) and the Wasabi chip has already been confirmed to work with the new D2E version Wii. There's a lot of info out there to look at, but there are plenty of forums much better suited to helping you choose than this one.


Wow. That went on for a bit.

Hope it helps!

[Ukazi-TazZy]

Originally Posted by what_apples

I have done this very recently and have found that it can be ridiculously simple and (if you are willing to pay a bit more) really easy. People are correct in saying that the chip you should get depends on how old/new your Wii is - THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME. There are different versions of the DVD drive hardware that are identified with labels - DMS, D2A, D2B, D2C, D2C2 and the very, very new D2E.

The following site can try and estimate what chipset you have from the serial number of your Wii.

http://wiitracker.nintendo-scene.com/search.php

It's not 100% foolproof - the only way to know for sure is to open up your Wii and have a look at the version printed onto the DVD drive. Once you know what version you have, you can make a decision on which mod-chip to get. The only trick to this is that you need a special "tri-wing" screwdriver to get the thing open!

Chipping is traditionally a difficult task involving soldering - sometimes to tiny contacts (esp. with the newer DVD drives) - and easy to get wrong if you don't know what you're doing. Have a look at this:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/d2pro_13-15-19.jpg

Each one of the labelled points is somewhere you'd have to potentially solder wires to. Not fun. However help is at hand. Some clever people have started making clips that go over the main chip on the DVD drive meaning that the only soldering you have to do is relatively simple.

You go from this:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-02.jpg

To this:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-03.jpg

Then to actually install the thing, you open up the Wii and find the right chip:

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-11.jpg

And just clip the mod-chip and it's holder into place (being sure to be firm).

http://www.wii-clip.com/images/D2pro_V4-06.jpg

Depending on the mod-chip and the version of the DVD drive in your Wii, you may need to only connect up certain points from the mod-chip to the clip. This can be a bit confusing. To make even this bit easy as pie, there are plenty of sites online that will solder the chip to the clip for you and make sure they connect up the right bits, provided you give them the right info on the version of your Wii. Then all you have to do is put open up the Wii, put the clip in place, close it back up again and Bob's your uncle.

The example chip I showed above requires extra soldering if you want to enable region free play. There are other options.

The D2Pro9 works flawlessly with only the wii clip and no extra soldering (I ordered this pre-soldered to the clip - installation took about 15 minutes!) and the Wasabi chip has already been confirmed to work with the new D2E version Wii. There's a lot of info out there to look at, but there are plenty of forums much better suited to helping you choose than this one.


Wow. That went on for a bit.

Hope it helps!

wow, thanks thorough information Rep for you!
(i can't rep you today so if i remember ill do it tomorrow.)

[DeSiFiEd]

Updates don't brick a wii. Use a wii-clip so you don't need to solder.

Even solderless I don't want to do myself...so looking for someone to do mine...or hopefully custom firmware etc.

[what_apples]

Originally Posted by DeSiFiEd

Updates don't brick a wii. Use a wii-clip so you don't need to solder.

Even solderless I don't want to do myself...so looking for someone to do mine...or hopefully custom firmware etc.

There has just been a custom firmware released that enables reading data from the DVD drive (e.g. to dump game data). Using the Twilight Princess Hack, this could potentially pave the way to soft-modding the Wii - i.e. no chipping required! The only issue with that is that it's easy for Nintendo to detect. The trick would be for the modders to create a patched version of the official firmware every time a new one is released.

I have my D2Pro9 installed and running but still interesting to keep up with all these things.

Also, the wii-clip really does make it hella-easy. There are step-by-step guides for taking your Wii apart as well:

http://forums.lovingwii.com/nintendo...-pictures.html

It really is pretty simple.

[DeSiFiEd]

Originally Posted by what_apples

There has just been a custom firmware released that enables reading data from the DVD drive (e.g. to dump game data). Using the Twilight Princess Hack, this could potentially pave the way to soft-modding the Wii - i.e. no chipping required! The only issue with that is that it's easy for Nintendo to detect. The trick would be for the modders to create a patched version of the official firmware every time a new one is released.

I have my D2Pro9 installed and running but still interesting to keep up with all these things.

Also, the wii-clip really does make it hella-easy. There are step-by-step guides for taking your Wii apart as well:

http://forums.lovingwii.com/nintendo...-pictures.html

It really is pretty simple.

Yeah I've been following wii news on a soft-mod, that Bushing developer has found the exploit, but is being a snitch and telling Nintendo about it lol.

Its all abit like how the PSP's development started, quite exciting! Custom Firmwares are already being created, but releases ATM are very very buggy...so I don't want to brick my wii!

Yeah I've seen that guide and a few others..but seriously, me + any type of tool really doesn't equal careful workmanship :o lol