Unbrick Your Wii (Banner Brick)

MattMan69 · 05-21-2009, 08:29 PM

I was asked by a current member to post this here. So here it is, good luck to anyone that finds it useful.

This guide will help you unbrick your Wii if you installed a bad .wad file aka (Banner Brick). I banner bricked my v3.4 Wii awhile ago and was unable to find very much info on how to fix this problem. After hours and hours of searching I found a few bits and peices of information mostly for v3.2 witch did not help me one bit, so I decided to write this guide to maybe help soomeone else who Banner Bricked there Wii on v3.4. 3.4 is kinda tough because you can't use things like Starfall or preloader or even the Twilight hack to get things back in order. So if you find yourself in this position then this guide is for you. If your on a lower firmware there are other things that can be done to get you out of this with the right measures in place but this method should also work on lesser firmware versions.

NOTE: 4.0 Users are unable to boot the Offical Nintendo Disc. On 4.0 I was able to boot this [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]! Universal-Unbrick Disc v2 - which if you can get to boot would actually be better since you can just delete the .wad that caused the problem rather than deleting everything.

Defination of Banner Bricked Wii - You installed a bad .wad (channel) file or tried to edit the banner images in a existing .wad file. Your system boots up and after you push A at the Health & Safety warning screen you get a black screen or system files currupt error message.

There are 2 ways that I know of to get this repaired as of this writing.

1. Return Your Wii to Nintendo for repair. Not the best idea, if your Wii's warranty is up it will cost you a good chunk of cash plus when they return it to you it will most likely be returned with all your hacks removed and updated to the latest firmware leaving you homebrew-less..
2. Get a modchip. Getting a modchip is a much cheaper and safer way to go. I purchased a DriveKey modchip for around 50.00 shipped and as of this writing it is compatable with all Wii's.

Ok let's get started! Here's what you need:

1. ModChip - I used a DriveKey you can get one [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register][Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]. Very easy to install. No soldering.
2. Nintendo's Offical Wii BackUp Disk v1.31 - Download in TURDinc downloads section. [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]
3. An offical GameCube controler ( needs to be slightly modded ) guide here.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]

Or SaveMii, the Wii recovery dongle found here. [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]
NOTE: The modded GC controller does the same thing as SaveMii except it's free if you already have a GC controller.

Step 1. Install your modchip, if you have a DriveKey, there's a good guides on the forum here (which will be linked asap)
Step 2. Extract the .iso from Nintendo's Offical Wii BackUp Disk v1.31.rar that you downloaded from TURDinc. and burn it onto a DVD -R disk.
Step 3. Plug your modded GC controller into port 4 on your Wii.
Step 4. Turn on your Wii and boot into Recovery mode using your modded GC controller to press all 4 directions on the digi pad at the same time. You need the correct timing to boot into the Recovery mode. Best way is to start pressing all 4 directions repeditly as soon as you turn the Wii on. If done correctly you should see a black screen with your firmware version in the lower right corner of the screen. If your on v3.2 or lower you will only see a black screen, thats normal.

Step 5. Put in your burned copy of the Wii BackUp Disk v1.31 and in a few seconds you should see something like this.

Step 6. Select Delete All - This will return your Wii somewhat back to the way it was when you first baught it (does not effect firmware version). You will need to reinstall your HomeBrew. Most importantly it deletes the offending .wad

Step 7. Enjoy your unbricked Wii!!

This Thread is Authorized: modderman.. Thank you MattMan69

felixng64 · 06-03-2009, 02:12 PM

This tutorial save my bricked wii 3.4U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank You Mr.MattMan69!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You SAVED My Wii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Nintendo Recovery Disck Works 100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bubby323 · 06-10-2009, 01:47 PM

this may just save my wii!

Zeeman33 · 06-11-2009, 07:57 AM

do i need the drivekey if i already have a wiikey v1 installed ?

alanhuro · 06-11-2009, 03:37 PM

I really need help to save my Wii. It have version 4.0U. I tried to install Wii dump and on the first step of copy iso5 after it's done copying it restarted and unfriendly message pop up like a picture attached on top. I don't know what WAD file I should delete to get the system working again. I have modchip Wiikey 1 installed. Can I delete all the WAD. Can you give more details for unbrick version 4.0U.

thanks in advance for your help.

alanhuro · 06-11-2009, 04:27 PM

I forgot to mention. I have upgrade my Wii to run HW and other stuff from tutorial. I think my firmware is no longer a virgin 4

toby bob1 · 06-13-2009, 11:14 AM

hi i dont have a bricked wii yet but im shure i will since i stupidly installed banner bomb once i update to 4.0 anyway, i have two questions (p.s i have a mod chip dont worrie im not dum when using it (at least i think))
1.apperntly the other program universal unbricker need a file downloaded called cIOS249 but im not shure about this so any help on this file will be appricated
2.iv got rid of homebrew there are still traces ,as exspected,but technaly its not there so if i update can it be bricked from just using it
anyway i know im not spelling well but im very streesed about it because i love my wii so im not worring about simply things thank you

Bera · 06-14-2009, 04:05 PM

Everything goes fine until step 5. My wii enters the recovery mode, but it doesn't read neither the UUD, nor the nintendo BackUp disc.
My wii's running 3.3u. Can you help me?

Rheotron · 06-14-2009, 05:36 PM

When you press 'Delete all' does that delete everything on your Wii or just the .wads?

GiiMan · 06-17-2009, 01:17 AM

I have the problem you described of a Banner Bricked Wii after installing a bad forwarder .wad. I can get to the screen with the version in the right hand bottom corner using a GC controller. The version is 4.0 (EUR). When I put in the Universal-Unbrick Disc v2 it will not boot to a rescue menu. Do you have any ideas how to make it boot? It has a WiiKey2 installed with the update option set to None blocking updates.