Question Wii USB Port issues

[Dark Jaguar]

Alright I've been doing some work on my Wii and have recapped it's video to get a nice big bright image as well as repaired the optical drive (which... I'd rather not get into... frustrations were had). But, there's one remaining issue I've yet to repair on my Adam Whii.

My USB ports appear to be rather unreliable. Near as I can tell, it's not an issue with the connector. Not only have I thoroughly cleaned both ports with some Deoxit and a nylon brush, I've added a little but of a "squeeze" to metal framing for a more solid connection and reflowed (in fact, sucked up and then completely resoldered) all the pins going from connector to board.

The ports do work occasionally, but never both at the same time. Plugging in an additional device will cause one to, it seems "turn off" leaving only one port active. That port will stay active for maybe a day or maybe a few hours but over long enough play will also turn off. I've used game loaders that rely exclusively on the SD Card as a result, since I can't rely on the USB ports themselves to stay active when a flash drive is plugged in. That said, all I'm using right now is Nintendo's own licensed microphone and network USB devices. This issue started happening before I'd even started hacking my unit so near as I can tell the failure point is just a component that aged too much.

Would anyone be able to inform me of a common point of failure on the USB ports? If I were to guess I'd assume it was another cap feeding the +5 running into it or maybe even the voltage regulator, but there's VERY little information I can find online in my usual haunts. It took some effort to even discover which caps to replace for restoring video but this forum provided. Any information from the pros here that seem extremely familiar with it's internals would be much appreciated!

Edit: I wasn't sure if this was the right forum for this, but since none of the others felt like the best fit, I put it here to be safe.

 

[Stitches]

As matter of fact, the Wii is only able to use one USB device at a time. While you can have 2 drives connected for storing games and switch between them in some software (not recommended), you can't load from both at the same time. Using USB perpherals while running games from USB storage is also hit or miss, with great emphasis on miss.

Although, if your USB devices are randomly failing during play, that speaks to a different issue. What kind of drives are you using?

 

[Dark Jaguar]

I'm not using any drives currently. I'm using the Wiispeak microphone and the ethernet adapter, but currently only the ethernet adapter is plugged in, and yes, it's still intermittently turning off the device. It doesn't matter if I'm playing or not, as it fails even when in the base Wii menu while checking configuration. It will randomly report no detected device and I'll need to switch over to wifi.

 

[Stitches]

In that case, I'm afraid I can't really speculate beyond that the USB host controller might be scuffed. And afaik that's part of the CPU chipset and can't be replaced or fixed.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

In that case, I'm afraid I can't really speculate beyond that the USB host controller might be scuffed. And afaik that's part of the CPU chipset and can't be replaced or fixed.

Dang... no chance it might be a power rail related issue?

 

[Stitches]

Dang... no chance it might be a power rail related issue?

Unsure. You could test it by chopping a USB extension cable and drawing 5v from another source, like a power bank or phone charger. Or even just buying a USB Y cable. If the problem persists with a clean outside supply, then it isn't the onboad reg

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Unsure. You could test it by chopping a USB extension cable and drawing 5v from another source, like a power bank or phone charger. Or even just buying a USB Y cable. If the problem persists with a clean outside supply, then it isn't the onboad reg

Thank you for the suggestion! I'll do just that (the latter) with an externally powered USB hub of some kind. Here's hoping.

 

[Stitches]

Thank you for the suggestion! I'll do just that (the latter) with an externally powered USB hub of some kind. Here's hoping.

USB hubs often don't play nice with the old and slightly odd USB protocol used by the Wii. It's absolutely worth a try, but don't be surprised if it gets even jankier or just fails outright

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Alright, then I'll pick up a Y cable soon.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

"Soon" dragged on for two years, and I'm sorry about that! I did get a Y split cable, but plugging that thing into a wall outlet and then back into my Wii terrified me, since it's just a dumb voltage line. In any case, things do appear to be more stable with the thing, but I am scared to run it for more than a few minutes at a time to test. Frankly I'm shocked something like this is even allowed to exist. I feel like I'm slow roasting my Wii any time I use it and just plug an end into my Wii.

Just recently, returning to this, I went through the process of modifying a NAND pull to make it work with another Wii that appeared to have stable power. That DID work, buuut, that Wii has it's own issues (the old black pixel video output issue). A shame, it otherwise was working pretty well!

As it stands, I'm back to this one. I'm hoping to find out a few more details on how voltage regulation works on the Wii, since information on that is surprisingly scant online. If I can replace a few components (perhaps from this other Wii with faulty video) then I intend to go that route, I just need to know what to swap out.

 

[tealflip]

In any case, things do appear to be more stable with the thing, but I am scared to run it for more than a few minutes at a time to test. Frankly I'm shocked something like this is even allowed to exist. I feel like I'm slow roasting my Wii any time I use it and just plug an end into my Wii.

Don't be. If anything, it might be doing LESS power than a usual SATA power connector. It's only 5v. Unless your using a C-C cable, it can ONLY take 5v. No more, no less. Don't be scared, trust me, I've done the same and it worked fine for my side. If it is worrying, you can just unplug the power portion whenever your done. But, trust me, it won't fry your Wii or disk drive.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Don't be. If anything, it might be doing LESS power than a usual SATA power connector. It's only 5v. Unless your using a C-C cable, it can ONLY take 5v. No more, no less. Don't be scared, trust me, I've done the same and it worked fine for my side. If it is worrying, you can just unplug the power portion whenever your done. But, trust me, it won't fry your Wii or disk drive.

Oh I'm not using an external disk drive. Indeed, that's the problem! If I tried, it wouldn't even start up. I'm using an SD card because it's the only thing I can rely on to power up without forcing another USB device to turn off.

 

[tealflip]

Oh I'm not using an external disk drive. Indeed, that's the problem! If I tried, it wouldn't even start up. I'm using an SD card because it's the only thing I can rely on to power up without forcing another USB device to turn off.

Now that you mention that, I've had a similar issue in the past with MY Y cable setup. What I did was simply plug in the power part of the cable AFTER boot. I'm not sure if that'll help you in this case, but it could be worth a shot.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Now that you mention that, I've had a similar issue in the past with MY Y cable setup. What I did was simply plug in the power part of the cable AFTER boot. I'm not sure if that'll help you in this case, but it could be worth a shot.

I can give that a try, thank you. Beyond that, do you have any information on where the voltage regulation on a Wii is and what parts would need to be replaced that specifically sends power to the USB ports? At this point, I'm leaning heavily towards that as the one solution left to try.

 

[tealflip]

I can give that a try, thank you. Beyond that, do you have any information on where the voltage regulation on a Wii is and what parts would need to be replaced that specifically sends power to the USB ports? At this point, I'm leaning heavily towards that as the one solution left to try.

I'd check the Wii trimming guide, it has EVERY single pinout for voltage rails, including the 5v lines. I'll try and find a possible failure point, but I'd advise you to look at it yourself too: The Definitive Wii Trimming Guide

 

[tealflip]

Couple things you can test by the way:

Make sure the rumble for your Gamecube controllers is working. If not, that gives a very local issue on the board. Use a homebrew tool like Controller Tester, that should help identify if it's the 5V rail, or something more USB related.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Couple things you can test by the way:

Make sure the rumble for your Gamecube controllers is working. If not, that gives a very local issue on the board. Use a homebrew tool like Controller Tester, that should help identify if it's the 5V rail, or something more USB related.

Oh! Come to think of it, the rumble is working correctly, at least on port 1. I usually use a Wavebird so it wouldn't have come to mind if it hadn't, but this helps! Also, thank you for including that link, it'll be a big help! I suppose that means it's a more local issue. I'll do a more thorough test with the application you mentioned.

Edit: I've run the test and confirmed Rumble is working on all four Gamecube controller ports with a standard controller.