Monday, March 20th 2023
Nintendo Wii U Memory Failures Investigated by Homebrew Community, Hynix Chips in the Spotlight
The homebrew and modification community has delved deeper into the recent bout of bricked Nintendo Wii U consoles, unlucky owners are seeing their systems throwing up error codes that indicate an internal memory failure. As covered on TPU almost two weeks ago, it was speculated that leaving a Wii U in a long-term state of unuse was a root cause of the problem. It is now theorized that a simple choice of memory chip is the real issue behind the corruptions, and not a case of leaving your unplugged Wii U stashed in a box somewhere.
An online database has been established on hackmd.io, and a member is collecting hard data from Wii U owners across various online communities and sources. Early indications show that consoles fitted with a Hynix eMMC are leading the pack in terms of number of system failures, Samsung-equipped models are placed in a distant second place, and the Toshiba variant is reported as having zero problems.Early release versions (2012 - 2013) of the Deluxe Black 32 GB edition are most likely to be fitted with the problematic Hynix memory module, according to further research carried out by the community. The basic White 8 GB edition is thought to be entirely unaffected by corruption issues, due to it featuring a different Samsung board. The hombrew community has found two methods to restore normal operation on a corrupted console. One involves circumventing the internal memory entirely by using an external SD card as a primary memory module, and the other fix requires a Raspberry Pi Pico to be connected to the console via USB.Gamers are in a rush to shore up their Wii U and 3DS game libraries in anticipation of Nintendo's shuttering of online services on March 27, which has likely contributed to the uptick in discoveries of bricked systems. There has been a lot of activity and communication on Twitter regarding the Wii U memory lottery - key figures are keen to provide tips and are also asking for feedback from anyone with a bricked system:
An online database has been established on hackmd.io, and a member is collecting hard data from Wii U owners across various online communities and sources. Early indications show that consoles fitted with a Hynix eMMC are leading the pack in terms of number of system failures, Samsung-equipped models are placed in a distant second place, and the Toshiba variant is reported as having zero problems.Early release versions (2012 - 2013) of the Deluxe Black 32 GB edition are most likely to be fitted with the problematic Hynix memory module, according to further research carried out by the community. The basic White 8 GB edition is thought to be entirely unaffected by corruption issues, due to it featuring a different Samsung board. The hombrew community has found two methods to restore normal operation on a corrupted console. One involves circumventing the internal memory entirely by using an external SD card as a primary memory module, and the other fix requires a Raspberry Pi Pico to be connected to the console via USB.Gamers are in a rush to shore up their Wii U and 3DS game libraries in anticipation of Nintendo's shuttering of online services on March 27, which has likely contributed to the uptick in discoveries of bricked systems. There has been a lot of activity and communication on Twitter regarding the Wii U memory lottery - key figures are keen to provide tips and are also asking for feedback from anyone with a bricked system: