Question Trimmed Wii Won’t Boot RVL 40

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Aug 28, 2020
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Hi all,
Checked out an old board I had and wanted to see if I could get it up and running! Sadly it is not working! :C
C1DF3696-8834-4420-A2EF-AE523C861D4D.jpeg

The chips heat up and a signal is detected by the screen (the screen goes a dark grey rather than staying blue).

I have tried:
Wiring video to a different av. (distorted, lots of diagonal lines that moved about).
Wiring video directly to the video chip. (Still had distortions)
Wiring video with a shielded cable. (This made the image just grey, no funny distortions).

I know that these are working:
Functioning U10 from another Wii
LCD (worked connected to something else)
RVL PMS (used to supply voltage).

Resistances measured (Nothing connected):
GND 1V - 52ohm
GND 1.15V - 32.2ohm
GND 3.3V - 216ohm

1V 1.15V - 108.4ohm
1V 3.3V - 163.4ohm

1.15V 3.3V - 135.2ohm

Any ideas as to how to fix this? The only potential there issue I see is in the diagonal cut of the trim being too large and I could trim that down?

Any help is much appreciated :)

70C379CB-D758-47AA-9309-311B3324EF51.jpeg
DC73CE73-7D0E-455F-8740-D9B17B376F5C.jpeg
 

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xsping

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Hi all,
Checked out an old board I had and wanted to see if I could get it up and running! Sadly it is not working! :C
View attachment 16998

The chips heat up and a signal is detected by the screen (the screen goes a dark grey rather than staying blue).

I have tried:
Wiring video to a different av. (distorted, lots of diagonal lines that moved about).
Wiring video directly to the video chip. (Still had distortions)
Wiring video with a shielded cable. (This made the image just grey, no funny distortions).

I know that these are working:
Functioning U10 from another Wii
LCD (worked connected to something else)
RVL PMS (used to supply voltage).

Resistances measured (Nothing connected):
GND 1V - 52ohm
GND 1.15V - 32.2ohm
GND 3.3V - 216ohm

1V 1.15V - 108.4ohm
1V 3.3V - 163.4ohm

1.15V 3.3V - 135.2ohm

Any ideas as to how to fix this? The only potential there issue I see is in the diagonal cut of the trim being too large and I could trim that down?

Any help is much appreciated :)

View attachment 16995 View attachment 16996
Resistance 3.3V TO GND is too low, it should be 4-8 k ohms
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2020
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Hi all, found my issues.

I’ve sanded the board down again as per recommendations and the sides are now silky smooth, but I’ve made no progress, with 176ohm resistance between 3v3 and GND.

I tried trimming down the board a bit more and sanding again, to no avail.
I also tried reconnecting the U10 wire to the required trace.

I did find a small solder ball beneath the CPU (the first time I trimmed I didn’t tape the GPU/CPU cuz I was stupid XD ) but that hasn’t changed anything.

I then realised that I had wired the U10 trace to 3v3 rather than the via!!! I resoldered it to the correct trace, but still have a very low resistance between 3v3 and GND.

Any other tips, or is this a lost cause?
 

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Last edited:
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Hi all, found my issues.

I’ve sanded the board down again as per recommendations and the sides are now silky smooth, but I’ve made no progress, with 176ohm resistance between 3v3 and GND.

I tried trimming down the board a bit more and sanding again, to no avail.
I also tried reconnecting the U10 wire to the required trace.

I did find a small solder ball beneath the CPU (the first time I trimmed I didn’t tape the GPU/CPU cuz I was stupid XD ) but that hasn’t changed anything.

I then realised that I had wired the U10 trace to 3v3 rather than the via!!! I resoldered it to the correct trace, but still have a very low resistance between 3v3 and GND.

Any other tips, or is this a lost cause?

I do see a u10 wired to the wrong pin in the photo. Like the post above mentions it's a good idea when sanding to not sand flush the edge but adding a small chamfer carefully around the top and bottom, it helps to ensure the PCB layers are separated.

The photo is from cropped your image you're on the wrong u10 leg needs to be the circled pin.
 

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Joined
Aug 28, 2020
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Location
UK
I do see a u10 wired to the wrong pin in the photo. Like the post above mentions it's a good idea when sanding to not sand flush the edge but adding a small chamfer carefully around the top and bottom, it helps to ensure the PCB layers are separated.

The photo is from cropped your image you're on the wrong u10 leg needs to be the circled pin.

Yep, I rewired that afterward, still have the issue.
 
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I did't see the screen photo, but it looks like the u10 isn't connected properly, so maybe use thicker wire.
I tested and the U10 3.3V and Via are not shorted to GND, has a 3.3V input and has all three pins at the back connected to ground.
I’m using 38 gauge wire which worked perfectly for my other working trimmed motherboard.
 

Stitches

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38AWG is fine for U10 and other data wires
 
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Tried sanding at an angle repeatedly, the resistance on the 3v3 line is still ~180ohms.
Have no clue what’s gone wrong with this board, everything else seems fine.
 
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