Guide Constant Corruption & Crashes in RVLoader

[Bubberiffic]

Myself and @zwolf64 were encountering issues with RVLoader corruption with Hiidra, etc. After rewiring the USB multiple times on Trimmed Wiis it still wouldn't work. Results of data corruption are posted below. We were both using the SanDisk Ultra Fit 3.1 (128 & 256GB variants) and both on separate occasions encountered the same results. Reformatting the USB will still result in the same issue(s).

All drives tested were used with the PMS-PD 2.

I've tested a variety of USB to Micro SD Adapters with Micro SD cards from PNY, and that fixed the issues that were present.

Tested Micro SD Cards:
PNY 32GB Elite
PNY 256GB PRO Elite

Issues with corruption (with SanDisk):

Corruption is always present when the GCPMap_S.TAR folder is in the root of the drive.

We used a new test build of RVLoader and the current (as of 3/21/24) version which is RVLoader 1.6. Swapping to PNY Micro SD cards fixed the issues in both versions 100% of the time.

Note:
Other Micro SD cards are probably fine to use as well, these are the ones that I just tested.

 

[Wesk]

Can you post pictures of your USB wiring? the data corruption could be caused by interference.

 

[WolfSquatch]

I'll get some pictures of mine when I get home from work.

 

[Bubberiffic]

Can you post pictures of your USB wiring? the data corruption could be caused by interference.

I tested with different wire, shielded wire, different gauges, and more. Here is a picture of the wiring before I routed it away from everything:

I have since closed up the portable. I also shortened the wire.

Here is when I used super shielded wire, and the issue still wasn’t fixed until changing the drive:

 

[Wesk]

1) Use a twisted pair like in your first image and make sure you twist them as tight as you have the video lines (or tighter).
2) Keep the wire run as short as reasonably possible.

After doing this, test if you have any improvement on filesystem stability with the Sandisk. If it continues to corrupt it is very likely a compatibility issue with that USB (Sandisk has been quite problematic in the past).

 

[Bubberiffic]

1) Use a twisted pair like in your first image and make sure you twist them as tight as you have the video lines (or tighter).
2) Keep the wire run as short as reasonably possible.

After doing this, test if you have any improvement on filesystem stability with the Sandisk. If it continues to corrupt it is very likely a compatibility issue with that USB (Sandisk has been quite problematic in the past).

I did, I just don't have a picture of it. The issues still persist when the length is way shorter and routed away from any wires that would disrupt the signal. Also, my SDW and SCW lines are great as well, no issues there; only with that drive it seems.

 

[WolfSquatch]

Ok I got home. Here are the pictures of my wiring.

Here is how twisted they are.
As well as the length and their connection to their respective boards.
I will say that since using that test build the corruption has happened alot less frequently however there is still a lot of freezes in games and in rvloader while switching menus or booting games.
I suspect it's my USB drive I'll update again whenever my PD3 arrives.

 

[Y2K]

Ok I got home. Here are the pictures of my wiring.View attachment 32257
View attachment 32258
View attachment 32259
View attachment 32260
Here is how twister they are.
As well as the length and their connection to their respective boards.
I will say that since using that test build the corruption has happened alot less frequently however there is still a lot of freezes in games and in rvloader while switching menus or booting games.
I suspect it's my USB drive I'll update again whenever my PD3 arrives.

I think the best approach to confirm that this is or isn't a Wii incompatibility issue is to wire to a separate USB port instead of PMS-PD, just to eliminate any potential variables. Knowing how PMS-PD Rev 2 works with its muxing, I kinda doubt it's the issue, but you can never be too careful.

Only reason why I say this is because I've used this exact same drive before on my GC Micro build and I had no issues with corruption like you're experiencing. Those units are just USB ports directly wired to the Wii, without any muxing. I have experienced corruption issues with 6 layer Wiis, however, so it still could be something on the Wii's side.