Release Wii Revision Checker - Online Tool to Identify Your Console by Serial Number

[Bryceshaw06]

Wii Revision Checker

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A problem I've come across often when sourcing Wii consoles is determining if they are suitable for portabilizing or not. There is a very helpful guide to identify these "4-Layer Wiis", however it requires removing the battery tray if the Wii has a white shell. The vast majority of “For Parts” listings on eBay (and similar marketplaces) are for White Wii consoles, and it's not feasible to ask every seller to open the tray up and send a photo for every listing. However, there is a solution to this! In 2016 @Shank started a thread and spreadsheet documenting Wii serial numbers alongside their revisions in order to see if there was any correlation. It turns out there was, and we now have enough data to reliably guess any Wii's revision based on only the serial. I've created a site that does exactly this.

Simply go to https://wii-revision.netlify.app/ select the serial prefix (e.g. "LU" for North American consoles), and type in the digits that follow it. The site will then display:

- Most likely revision
- Amount of board layers
- Recommend community projects

This website was made in part for my upcoming Xii-Boy Ultra guide, but I hope anybody can get some use out of it! No data is collected on the site itself. If you encounter any issues, message me here, on Discord, on make a GitHub issue. Massive thank you to everyone who contributed to the original spreadsheet!

Website URL: https://wii-revision.netlify.app/

Website Source Code: https://github.com/Bryceshaw06/Wii-Revision-Checker

 

[Xenii]

Just perfect! Thanks!

 

[JamesPi]

I'm glad a simple tool now exists for this great source of data!

 

[Stitches]

 

[T_BangIT]

Out of curiosity, I checked the Wii I normally use to play and the site says it's a 6-layer, even though it's a 4-layer.
Serial number: LEH 267674495

 

[Bryceshaw06]

Out of curiosity, I checked the Wii I normally use to play and the site says it's a 6-layer, even though it's a 4-layer.
Serial number: LEH 267674495

I’ll look into it! We don’t have nearly as much data on non USA or JPN Wiis, so that’s likely why. Can you please send the specific revision (e.g. RVL-CPU-40)

 

[thedrew]

This is awesome Bryce!

 

[cy]

I missed this when you initially posted it. This is so cool! What percentage of accuracy would you say this tool has for guessing motherboard revisions and more importantly, layer count? Just curious.

Also, thanks for open sourcing! As a data horder, I love keeping stuff like this preserved!

 

[T_BangIT]

I’ll look into it! We don’t have nearly as much data on non USA or JPN Wiis, so that’s likely why. Can you please send the specific revision (e.g. RVL-CPU-40)

I had some doubts, since the buffer battery area was a bit dirty and damaged, I relied on looking at the motherboard, forgetting that rev 30 exists . I looked at it too superficially, focusing too much on the size of the CPU, it's a RVL-CPU-30 (the site says rev 01, but still it is 6 -layer...)

 

[Bryceshaw06]

I missed this when you initially posted it. This is so cool! What percentage of accuracy would you say this tool has for guessing motherboard revisions and more importantly, layer count? Just curious.

Also, thanks for open sourcing! As a data horder, I love keeping stuff like this preserved!

Thank you Drew and Cy! I've tested 5 of my Wiis that weren't on the spreadsheet, and they all were spot on. USA/JPN should have near 100% accuracy, any region outside of those should get the 6 vs 4 layer guess correct, but the exact revision might be incorrect.

My method of guessing will hopefully never be an issue, inaccuracies will likely come from data sample sizes.

 

[Stitches]

There's also no accounting for reshelled Wiis and the part intermixing that happens within the suppliers between revision deployments

 

[cy]

Ah, that all makes sense. This still makes it a heck of a lot easier to get an idea of what you're getting though! Awesome tool Bryce!

 

[Wiipro17]

Is there any way I can check when a wii was purchased? I bought one at a garage sale and it doesn't work but I want to find when it was purchased. The serial number is LU10769052[4]

 

[Xenii]

I don’t think you can check exactly when it has been bought in a store, but I guess you could know when it has roughly been produced. I just don’t know exactly what the number means, but I’m pretty sure it contains the information you’re looking for