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I need a modchip and had a decision but now i want to change it because of the new 3.3U FW. Is there a modchip thats works with 3.3 and all the chipsets except for the newest ones thats a pain in the ass to figure out?
For the love of whatever invisible-man-in-the-sky-may-be-currently-watching, you people cannot use the search button, can you!?
My generic copypaste newbie answer:
Theres only so many times one can answer a question before wanting to kill someone. And since people DON'T SEARCH I've made this: The generic copypaste newbie response. It contains the answers to the newbie questions that are asked on a regular basis.
Choosing and installing a modchip:
Before choosing a modchip it is important to know what chipset your wii is. Entering your wii's serial number here http://wiitracker.nintendo-scene.com/search.php will give you a pretty good idea what chipset you have. If you cannot do this for some reason then there are a handful of chips that support all chipsets. The wasabi does and the infectus as well (only with the recent update however) There may be others now also, I don't really keep tabs on this particular feature because if you have an older wii then there's not much point spending extra on a more recent modchip when a wiikey will work.
If you have an earlier wii, then a wiikey is probably the way to go. But the Wiikey only works on DMS, D2A and D2B chipsets. If you have a D2C then you need a different modchip. D2Pro, wasabi, argon and infectus, among others, are valid choices. Also, if you have a D2C you don't have to worry about cut pins. Only some D2B chipsets had cut legs. Cut lets made it more difficult to mod the console.
If you are bad at soldering then something to keep in mind is a wii-clip. Solder the clip to your modchip and then you wont have to solder anything to the console. It makes an install MUCH easier, though does have the drawbacks of coming loose and being generally less reliable.
At the current time THERE ARE NO WII FIRMWARE UPDATES THAT CAN DETECT MODCHIPS. This may change in the future but for the time being it stands. Some newer games can detect some older modchips (giving error 001) but this can be fixed on some modchips by updating the chip's firmware.
You can safely allow the console to do updates from a game so long and ONLY SO LONG as the game you are updating is from the same region as your console. Updating with a firmware from a different region can brick or semi-brick your console and should never be attempted.
A semi-bricked console can be fixed by running a later update than the one that bricked the console from the proper region. Example: You have a NTSC console at firmware 3.1 and update it with the NTSC version of 3.2. The console is now semi-bricked. Games still play but the wii settings cannot be accessed. If you run the NTSC 3.3 firmware it will fix the console.
Questions on firmware 3.3:
Wii firmware 3.3 blocks the twilight hack (not gonna explain what that is here, if you don't know search for it) and it blocks truncha signed disks. Scrubbed disks still work (by most accounts). If you want more info on truncha and scrubbed disks search for them. As was said earlier, NO FIRMWARE UPDATES CAN DETECT MODCHIPS, AND THIS INCLUDES FIRMWARE 3.3
Updating the modchip:
Not all modchips can be updated. There is a very nice for updating the wiikey here http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/597460 but some D2C chips cannot be updated. Others lack the ability to update from a DVD. Not going to go into all the details here. Again, if you need the info try searching for it.
Burning disk images:
First off is downloading or backing up your games. If you choose to download one you will most likely get a collection of rar files. There's a guide on what to do with them to get the iso file here http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/555919
Backing up your games is a little more complex, but there are 2 ways to go about doing it.
First off remember that most DVD drives cannot read wii disks. In fact, only 4 models of DVD drive can read them, and they can be somewhat hard to track down.
The second option is to use an SD Gecko, its a gamecube memory card with an SD slot. If you have a modded console you can run a homebrew program that will dump an iso of the game in your wii console to the SD card in the Gecko.
Either way, once you have your iso image the process of burning the game is simpler. Any DVD burner will work for burning wii games. Simply load up imgburn or nero and burn your iso file. I recommend burning at 4x to reduce errors. The brand of the disk used is also important. Verbatum DVD-R is preferred by most, but +R is fine as well. Don't bother with the off-brand disks as you'll probably end up with a bunch of coasters.
That concludes the generic copypaste newbie response. It will probably get longer in the future as more newbie questions are asked, but I think that hits most of the basics.
