New Wii Dvd Board Revision In North America Options

[appleguru]

Just got two new wiis with new dvd drive board revisions. Both are US NTSC consoles and were purchased yesterday. Their serials start with LU521

In addition to cut IC legs, these boards are also missing "pad 3" needed for installing the wiikey (same as some of the wiis that were showing up elsewhere in the world before the legs started getting cut); it's still a d2b chip though, so rebuilding to the ic leg works just fine.

Here is an initial pic of the board (I took a lot more, including final install pics, but I don't have access to them at the moment)

http://www.otbmods.com/us_ntsc_cutpins_missing_pad_3.JPG

More pics to come.... if anyone is wondering where to rebuild to, it's the pin marked orange in this image:

[sicknasty413]

Nice find appleguru! Thanks for the info

[FallsInc]

i just got one of these too, LU521

[Heet]

Ah man you find the good stuff. Thanks!

[wisedude]

my wii is an lu521.... Also, is NTSC the region? Or is it a further classification of US

[mike96sc4]

my wii is an lu521.... Also, is NTSC the region? Or is it a further classification of US

if it's a North American Wii then it will be NTSC (other regions are SECAM, PAL, and NSTC-J)

[Chron Johnson]

I just got an LU522 today, it's not going to have a troll living in there in addition to some strange GC2 chip is it. Do Gamecube and XBox modification success mean I can repair these cut legs. Need R2D2. Or Chewie. Yeah. Feels like paying for mod install defeats the point of trying to have mad skills. Who has mad skills.

[BIMPtacular]

i did my own install on my wii with the cut legs......it was actually pretty easy, just make sure you have some flux

BIMP

[RUBiK]

Quick question for you guys.

I just got a new US NTSC Wii. The serial number starts with 'LU3162' so I'm sure it has the pins cut off (can't pop it open yet; waiting on the "special" screwdriver to be delivered).

Do the cut off pins simply mean that the wiikey chip won't work while others might? Or will NO chip work anymore? I was looking at the CycloWiz chip for example... it doesn't seem to need/use the pins that are missing so it should work even with new revision boards?

Is that correct or am I off here?

Any info would be greatly appreciated; I'm off to do more reading.

EDIT: Oops.. it looks like the CycloWiz needs those pins/connections un-cut for it to work. Ugh. Now to pray that I got lucky and my board doesn't have the pins cut. *cross fingers*

This post has been edited by RUBiK: Aug 2 2007, 05:26 AM

[commandersafi]

The chips are still able to work, it just take much more skill to get them in. You have to grind away some of the plastic around the cut IC legs and then solder some wires from the legs to the chip, instead of just soldering the chip in place

[asnagrim]

If you are worried about your skill level with a dremel...(inside a wii is not the best learning environment).. you can use a file or stanley knife (razor/exacto knife) instead. Obviously you still want to be careful of traces and fingers, but its a slower process, so easier to control.
If you use flux, try to remove the excess when you are done. Also, plumbers flux is a really bad idea since its generally conductive.

[Chron Johnson]

Appleguru, did you just get served by Nintendo. Did Foundmy. What just happened. I can't even mod this thing myself now no one has chips overnight. Least of all you.