Solved Help with my faulty Wii (strange power issue)

[dsclee1]

I'm reaching out for a bit of help with a Wii I picked up second hand as "faulty".

It's a C/RVL-CPU-01 board, and has an interesting fault, which I'm hoping someone can help me track the cause of?

When plugged in it powers on ok, goes to a red light, and on pressing the power button goes to a green light. However, neither the fan or disc drive spin up, and nothing displays on the screen.

Looking over the board, everything looks solid. No obvious signs of liquid damage, capacitor damage, dodgy soldering etc. I've tried reflowing the board, but still it won't start.

I'm wondering if this problem could be caused by the previous owner attempting a flash of the NAND, and corrupting it? Or even a faulty Hollywood chip? I'm not sure what damage to the various chips would result in my symptoms?

It might just be a case of adding this one to my "spare parts" pile!

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[cheese]

You removed the wifi module... right? The fan is also probably just bad, since they should spin up regardless of the software on the wii.

 

[dsclee1]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I've tried it with both the Wifi module in and out. Could possibly be a faulty module.

However, I know for sure the fan works, as I've run a 5v power supply directly onto it to check it spins. And on the motherboard itself I'm not reading any voltage across the fan (well there's a trace voltage of 0.5v without the fan, and zero with the fan, I also checked that the fan wasn't shorting).

If the fan always spins up regardless of software I'm assuming this would suggest some kind of capacitor issue in the fan power circuit? But that still doesn't explain the disc drive not spinning up? Could a faulty Hollywood or Broadway chip stop power to the fan?

 

[cheese]

I'd say check all the voltages from the regulators, one of them may be bad

 

[dsclee1]

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

 

[dsclee1]

I've run through all the voltage regulators (1v, 1.15v, 1.8v, 3.3v, 5v) and they all test out fine.

Tracing back the circuit to the fan I can see that what turns it on is an input voltage to TP48. Using a jumper wire to TP48 from the 1.15v test pad I can get the fan to spin (the circuit allows the 5v supply to switch on for fan power), unfortunately this still doesn't mean the console starts up properly.

Trying to trace TP48 to it's source is near impossible on my 6-layer board. It's going straight to a via, and appears to have no destination on the other side of the via, so must be connecting across one of the middle layers. I've tried a continuity test from TP48 to various points on the board, but there's just so many pins to test I'm not having any luck.

Looking at pictures of the 4-layer board from the cutting thread I can see TP48 runs along a trace, and down into a via (instead of straight into a via like on the 6-layer board), I don't know if that via goes somewhere from the other side though? It would be greatly appreciated if you wouldn't mind checking for me on a 4-layer board?

I'm starting to have a sneaking suspicion that TP48 goes to a Hollywood pin, which initializes the fan... in which case I imagine the chip is toast.

 

[cheese]

Just making sure you are checking with the wifi module in? It won't boot without it. Also, try holding reset when turning the console on. If the priiloader menu comes up not all hope is lost for this board. Otherwise it could be a bricked board

EDIT: Also, plug in the disc drive light to the front port, if it flashes that means bootmii is installed, which means you can restore a nand image to fix it

 

[dsclee1]

I've run through the suggestions, thanks.

I hooked up the drive, drive light, bluetooth module, and wifi module. When I plug it in it goes to a yellow light, and the drive light stays off. When I turn it on it goes to a green light, and the drive light comes on solid blue and stays on. With the Wifi module removed I get the same result (in fact with everything removed I get the same result). Neither the fan or disc drive are spinning up. There is no signal at all coming out to my TV (not even an attempt to display a black screen).

Holding down the power button will now not even switch it to the red light, which is interesting as this previously worked before I started playing around. And holding down/pressing reset seems to do nothing at all.

As a last ditch attempt I might just solder a jumper cable across from the 1.15v test point to TP48 so at least the fan kicks in, however I doubt this will solve it, as it's pretty clear what's supposed to be providing the trigger voltage for the fan isn't doing it's job.

It's looking more and more like this is in some way bricked.

 

[mokus]

Yes, TP48 is driven by a pin on the GPU. I don't know enough about the startup sequence to say whether that means your GPU is toast or not. One non-toast possibility might be that U10 is not working correctly (it's a 3V voltage detector that tells the GPU when it's safe to turn on). Another is that perhaps a very badly corrupted NAND flash could be crashing during boot before it ever gets around to enabling the fan (that's very much speculation though, I don't know whether the firmware even has control of the fan or not).

 

[dsclee1]

I've checked the U9 and U10 outputs, and they appear to be putting out 3.3v correctly.


I like the idea about the corrupt NAND. I have a solder rework air gun, as it's looking like this board is probably dead I can have a go at taking the NAND off and seeing if that changes my results. I don't have any hardware programmer to fix it if it bust, and from reading a bit of info I think there's some kind of marrying between Hollywood/Broadway and the NAND anyway, so if the key is lost I can't fix it?

 

[dsclee1]

I removed the NAND, and I'm still getting exactly the same result. This could indicate NAND corruption, or just as easily indicate that boot0 in the Hollywood chip isn't initializing.

 

[Stitches]

Yeah the NAND contains the hardware keys for Hollywood/Broadway and won't work on another system unless you also transplant them. The system also just straight up won't boot without the NAND present. You're going to have to get a new Wii I think.

 

[dsclee1]

Thanks very much for the help on this everyone, think it's time to admit defeat!