Modding a Wii without the CD Drive?

[slycrel]

My Wii's disc drive isn't working anymore, so I thought I'd ask -- is there a reasonable way to softmod it without the drive?  It's sitting in a desk drawer which seems a shame right now...

[hypernova]

You've never needed the disc drive to softmod.  Maybe...lemme check the 4.3 menus...

OK...you shouldn't need it at all.

edit:

Well, I guess it was needed at the very beginning when using the TP hack...but you don't need it anymore.

[Drnick]

Do a search for letterbomb.  It should have you up and running in about 10 minutes 

[shateredsoul1979]

From last I checked

It depends on your firmware

earlier firmware does not require a disc, but newer firmware does require a disc (either zelda twilight or lego indiana jones). That wsa true about 2 months ago, so unless they figured out how to do it without a disc or if you're on an earlier firmware you may not be able to mod the system.

[Red]

No disc needed:

HMN - Softmod Wii 4.3 Without A Game (LetterBomb) - YouTube

HMN - Softmod Wii 4.3 Without A Game (LetterBomb)

[Howard_Casto]

It's odd, I got Skyward Sword for Xmas but my drive isn't working.  I say it's odd because I don't really use my disc drive, or at least I haven't for about 3 years since I bought a hdd for it.

Generally how it works is I get a new game, I rip it to the hdd, and then The drive isn't used again until the next game.  I don't think I've bought a new Wii game in quite some time, possibly a year.

Do you think LACK of use could ruin the drives?

I opened mine up....  not a spec of dust that I could see, the retainer clips weren't rubbing the disc so afaik it was spinning up at full speed, the laser was "lasing" as far as I can tell.  So I'm kinda stumped. 

Mind you it isn't THAT big of a deal... this is probably the last game I'll buy for the thing and I have since "aquired" a wbfs image of the game so I can play it.    I just want to know what is going on with these things. 

I'm going to pickup a cleaning kit from amazon later this week and see if that helps.  If not I'm just going to leave my wii as-is and later on when the wii becomes last gen and you can pick one up for nothing I'll get one to play my old games on. 

[Howard_Casto]

I've had nothing but trouble with my Wii drive and I bought it at launch.   

Mine was a launch wii as well.  I would be mad about it, but it's 6 years old at this point and I've played the hell out of it, especially those first two years. 

I never have trusted those "tray-less" disc drives though... they tend to wear out faster.

[crashwg]

I never have trusted those "tray-less" disc drives though... they tend to wear out faster.

I've rarely used the disc drive in my Wii so I can't comment on how fast it is wearing out but I have been having a heck of a time with four out of four "trayed" drives in my household... 
XBOX #1 - Won't open unless there's a disc in the drive or you whack the top of the console immediately after pressing eject
XBOX #2 - Won't do a damn thing.  Press the button all you want but the most you'll get is a blinky light
XBOX 360 - Needs help ejecting (pull on the tray) or it will think it's hit a blockage and suck back in.  Also needs help loading (push it in) or it will think it's not all the way in and blinks at you until the power is cycled
PS2 - Doesn't read anything.  Granted this one I can fix most likely with a pot adjustment, I'm just too lazy!

One more point that Sega got right with the Dreamcast.  Only issue I've ever had with a DC (and I've had a few) is not reading burned media...

[Howard_Casto]

Well I've gotten mine to start working intermittantly now. 

Get this:

I physically took my wii apart and cleaned the sensor with a swab and some cleaning solution, even though the inside of my wii was SPOTLESS.  No effect.  I even adjusted the retainer clips to make sure the disc was going at the optimal speed.  No effect.  Then I pick up a can of air at the store that I needed for something else... I blast the heck out of the disc slot just for the hell of it and some of the games start booting again!

I'm going to pickup an official cleaning kit.  I wouldn't count a "dead" drive out until you've tried everything because something seemingly non-sensical worked for me. 

crashwg:

Do you have kids?  How about idiot friends?  Disc read errors typically are due to failing or dirt, but the physical tray mechanism going out sounds like abuse to me.

[Vigo]

One more point that Sega got right with the Dreamcast.  Only issue I've ever had with a DC (and I've had a few) is not reading burned media...

My DC is beginning to fail regularly....I think I can probably fix it with cleaning and adjustment, but I wouldn't say it is perfect either. Yeah, it does fail much less than your average PS2 drive though.

[crashwg]

crashwg:

Do you have kids?  How about idiot friends?  Disc read errors typically are due to failing or dirt, but the physical tray mechanism going out sounds like abuse to me.

I do have kids but I can assure you they never touch any of the consoles aside from "press the little button" when I'm being lazy and want the XBOX on.  The XBOX with the ejection issues is due to the magnet disc being too powerful for the tray motor which is fairly common in (I believe) Samsung drives.  The 360 I can't really vouch for since it's used but it worked fine when I got it and has slowly been getting worse.

[SavannahLion]

The XBOX with the ejection issues is due to the magnet disc being too powerful for the tray motor which is fairly common in (I believe) Samsung drives.  The 360 I can't really vouch for since it's used but it worked fine when I got it and has slowly been getting worse.

I haven't gutted an XBox drive so I'm not sure as to the internals but I do have a DVD drive that exhibited this exact problem. Fixed it for a while by adding a shim I fashioned to "weaken" the pull on the magnet but the problem cropped up again. Discussed it with others (was it here? I don't remember) and traced it to the belt on the motor that opens the tray. Why they designers didn't just go with a gear system? The belt started to lose tension, not enough to prevent the door from opening/closing but enough that it couldn't overcome the magnet. Finding a direct replacement is near impossible unless I want to shell out oodles of cash for a piece of rubber string.  

A rubber band was suggested but I care little to taking the damn thing apart every six months when the rubber band breaks down.

I thought about fashioning some kind of tensioner or seeing if there is a way to move the motor back but I haven't really pushed to tackle the problem.

[hypernova]

Lack of use is surely sometimes a cause of issues.  While I don't know whether it pertains to everything you could think of, it seems logical.  Gravity takes hold, oil drains off critical parts, heat/cold will expand/shrink things.  I assume even subtle differences in these variables over long periods of time will sometimes have an effect.

Cars for instance.  When people go off to the military and on tours, it is advisable to run their car for a few minutes (possibly even drive-can't remember exactly) every couple of weeks.  I don't remember specifically why and what this is supposed to do, but apparently it's something you're advised to do.

[Howard_Casto]

Three main reasons for running your car...

1.  To get oil circulating through the system.  Oil safely settles in the bottom of the engine when not in use but most parts on a engine are designed to be lubricated/preserved via this same engine oil.  The seals on various parts in particular.

2.  To get gas circulating through the system.  If left alone gas turns into a nasty shellac-like substance, particularly the small deposits found in the carborator.  There are preservatives you can add to keep the gas in the tank from going all nasty, but it doesn't help residual gas left in the lines and carb.

3.  To keep the battery charged.  Car batteries weaken while sitting around just like a normal household battery does.  You don't notice this when you are driving it regularly because your alternator is doing it's job, but letting a acid core battery drain completely via lack of use can shorten it's life span.

Now if I only practiced what I preached. 


I'm guessing small scale electronics have similar issues, but disc drives don't really use oil, so that isn't it.  My guess would be that springs and rubber parts lose their tension, but then again they would lose their tension via excessive use as well, so I dunno how you could prevent this problem.

[Green Giant]

Moisture can actually build up inside an engine if left sitting.

I am talking so much that when you change the oil, water comes pouring out.  The moisture built up is actually a major component of why they say to change your oil every 3000 miles or 3 months.  Although you can stretch that out.