Wii U:Hardmod unbrick

Start

Hello and welcome to the new and improved freddy fazbears pizza Wii U Unbrick Guide. This Guide only covers the SLC (Wii U).

Usually if you need to restore vWii NAND, there is vWii NAND Restorer (Needs backup) or vWii Decaffenator (Doesn’t need backup)

Wii U doesnt have something like that yet though. so we have to open up the console and solder some wires to the NAND.

To unbrick the Wii U we will use an Rasberry Pi. I have only ever used an RPi0 but the pinouts should be the same on every RPi. If you want to use a Teensy to unbrick, refer to this guide

What you need

• An slc.bin dump from before the brick, or an otp.bin dump.
• A Raspberry Pi and MicroSD for the Raspberry Pi.
• Decent soldering equipment.
• Decent soldering skills.
• Ability to follow instructions.
• A Lot of time.
• A Decent understanding of Linux.
• Last but not least, A Brain.

Setting up the software

1. Set up RPIOS on a MicroSD. (Guide: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/getting-started.html)
2. Power on your RPI and connect it to the internet.
3. Open up a terminal (CTRL ALT T) and run wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lazr1026/unbrick/main/pinand.sh && chmod +x pinand.sh
4. Now run ./pinand.sh.

Solder the RPI to Wii U board

Take apart the Wii U, look up a teardown.

Make sure you are VERY CAREFUL when soldering to these points. one mess up and your console may be dead for good.

Solder Points:

RPI:

Wii U Board:

It should look like this when finished.

Fixing the NAND

Note: Now depending on what the hell you did, you could be doing something WAY different (ie. only restoring certain pages). We will be flashing back an entire SLC image here.

FIXING THE NAND WITH ONLY OTP.BIN

Download Eyekeys NAND Tools and extract the zip somewhere on your PC.

1. Put the Wii U back together enough to get everything plugged in (Disc Drive, Power Button, Fan, Heatsink.)
2. Power on the Wii U.
3. Turn on the RPI.
4. Open up a terminal and run sudo ./pinand 50 read_id, you should get something like this.
   
5. Run sudo ./pinand 50 read_full 0 262144 slc.bin.
6. Wait for it to finish reading. (DO NOT UNPLUG THE WII U OR RPI.)
7. Turn off the Wii U and RPI, insert the RPI’ MicroSD in your PC.
8. Copy the slc.bin from sd:/home/[USER] to the NAND Tools folder on your PC. (Hint: Now would be a REALLY good time to copy otp.bin to the folder as well.)
9. Open a Command Prompt and run nandCbhcRemover.exe slc.bin. See the next section for flashing the NAND back to the Wii U.

FIXING THE NAND WITH ONLY SLC.BIN

1. Insert the RPI’ MicroSD in your PC.
2. Copy slc.bin to sd:/home/[USER]. (OTP Only Users: Click Replace when asked.)
3. Insert the RPI’ MicroSD into the RPI.
4. Turn on the Wii U.
5. Turn on the RPI.
6. Open a terminal and type in sudo ./pinand 50 read_id. You should get something like this.
   
7. Run sudo ./pinand 50 erase_blocks 0 4096 && sudo ./pinand 50 write_full 0 262144 slc.bin.
8. Wait for it to finish, this will take a LONG time (around 2 days for an RPi0). (DO NOT UNPLUG THE WIIU OR THE RPI.)

After Flashing

1. Turn off the Wii U.
2. Turn off the RPI.
3. Put the Wii U back together enough to test if it boots, plug in Disc Drive, Power Button, Fan, Heatsink.
4. Turn on the Wii U, connect an HDMI or AV (or if your Gamepad is still paired, that works too).

• If it loads to Wii U Menu, congrats, desolder the wires on the Wii U Board and put the system back together. You have successfully done the RPI Hardmod Method.
• If it does not load to Wii U Menu and Errors, then you did something wrong, or you used the wrong backup. Try Flashing again, or join Ivy’s Stuff and ask for help in #help

Credits:

• [1] - Created this guide.
• rw-r-r-0644 - sending me an edited pinand and fixing it.
• GaryOderNichts, Nightkingale, and agilly1989 - Emotional support while doing this.
• The 4TU Discord server - Letting me clog up their wiiu channel over this.
• RPi Forums - Having a thread on Bit-Banging a TSOP NAND.