Has it been soft or hard modded?

[GTI]

Hey all,
Is there a way to tell whether a Wii has been soft or hard modded. I've just bought one second hand and the guy said it was with a chip but I've got my doubts (it doesn't play back ups that great and it came with a brand new copy of Zelda ).

Cheers

[mmg]

try booting a game without the loader

[GTI]

try booting a game without the loader

Err sorry mate, but what is the loader? As soon as I turn it on I see those little windows game (top left), news, weather forecast etc.. is that the loader?

cheers
P.S I've tried and failed to find a simple tutorial on all things Wii

[tips]

Only registered and activated members with 10 posts or more can see links.

I thought that tut was brilliant.

Should be easy to tell if its hard or soft modded.

If it direct boots a copy its hard modded (boots from the top left window).

If its softmoded you will have a channel window elsewhere on the screen that says "Backup Loader" or words to that effect. It will also more than likely have an "Homebrew Channel".

[mmg]

if you put a game in and load it from the disc channel its a chip
if you use the loader in homebrew channel its a softmod

[GTI]

if you put a game in and load it from the disc channel its a chip
if you use the loader in homebrew channel its a softmod

Cool, there is no homebrew channel and the game loads from the disc channel...so I guess its a chip. The next assine question is whether I can let the Wii update itself, or should I proceed with caution?

Thanks

[face]

If you play the games from the top left disc loader it is hard modded. I think yours is from the sounds of it. Wii drives are not that good at reading cheap media and that may be why your having some problems with some backups.

You posted as i did so guess you know ths

Updates should be fine with a chip. Updates really only stop homebrew but you may still want that to install wiiware and vc games

[tips]

Cool, there is no homebrew channel and the game loads from the disc channel...so I guess its a chip. The next assine question is whether I can let the Wii update itself, or should I proceed with caution?

Thanks

AFAIK you do not have to update with the chip (wiikey anyway) though I will stand corrected. Though you do update with the wiikey updates as and when.

[GTI]

AFAIK you do not have to update with the chip (wiikey anyway) though I will stand corrected. Though you do update with the wiikey updates as and when.

Having established that it has been chipped, do you know if there is anyway to establish if the chip is a Wiikey, or perhaps some other variant without opening it up?

Thx

[{{909}}]

Its not easy to check which mod you have in there but if it boots games like Mario Galaxy, then you have nothing to worry about really, atleast not for the time being.

If you are desperate to find out the chip though, you can check which model of wii you have with the serial checker:

Only registered and activated members with 10 posts or more can see links.

. this slightly narrows down the possible chips that could be in there, you could try burnin a config disk for the wiikey and see if that works, if it does then you have a wiikey, in not, it could be anything really.

[GTI]

Its not easy to check which mod you have in there but if it boots games like Mario Galaxy, then you have nothing to worry about really, atleast not for the time being.

If you are desperate to find out the chip though, you can check which model of wii you have with the serial checker:

Only registered and activated members with 10 posts or more can see links.

. this slightly narrows down the possible chips that could be in there, you could try burnin a config disk for the wiikey and see if that works, if it does then you have a wiikey, in not, it could be anything really.

Cheers mate, mine starts LEH197313*** and the checker is saying
There is a 50% chance that your drive chip is a GC2-D2C
There is a 50% chance that the pins on your drive chip are not cut.

[{{909}}]

well that rules out a wiikey, but that doesnt really help. theres a chance it could be one of the early D2C chips that arnt updatable. just try mario galaxy and if it boots, dont worry about it

[biggy7]

open the 2x GC flaps on the side of the wii, see if you see a ribbon in there,

this is used in d2pro (and others) to update the firmware.

just an idea!

i reckon it could be d2pro or wasabi or argon

they the 3 common mods people used on the D2C's

if its been modded recently it could be wiikey 2