YouTuber Voultar has shared a information on the usage of our favourite microcontroller, the Raspberry Pi Pico, as a device to unbrick the Nintendo Wii U.
The repair therapies an obvious corruption of the flash reminiscence utilized in Nintendo’s now 11-year-old console. In step with Nintendo, the mistakes (160-0101 and 160-0103) relate to both a machine model being outdated or machine reminiscence corruption. The corruption is alleged to brick the machines, making them unusable. In Voultar’s video they search to raised perceive this factor and feature bought 5 bricked Wii U’s for checking out.
To try the repair, Voultar used a $4 Raspberry Pi Pico to fix the “Name ID” which is corrupted within the Wii U’s reminiscence. This does not essentially imply that all the reminiscence is corrupt, reasonably the information that tells the Wii U the place information is saved has been corrupted.
The tool facet of the undertaking makes use of GaryOderNichts UDPIH (USB Descriptor Parsing Is Laborious) undertaking. This tool exploits a worm with the USB host stack descriptor, which permits USB gadgets to inject a payload into the Wi U. On this case the payload will likely be tool to unbrick the reminiscence.
Putting in the tool to the Raspberry Pi Pico is discreet. GaryOderNichts has provided a UF2 record which may also be flashed directly to the Raspberry Pi Pico’s onboard flash reminiscence. After {that a} restoration menu record must be copied from the GitHub to the foundation of a freshly formatted FAT32 SD card. Position that within the Wii U, after which get in a position to insert the Raspberry Pi Pico into the Wii U.
That is the crucial bit, and Voultar is restricted of their directions: Pay attention for the inner power to begin. When this occurs, attach the Raspberry Pi Pico to both of the entrance USB ports. Observe that the power can get started prior to or after the Wii U emblem seems.
As soon as the exploit has been used, the restoration menu seems. The usage of Eject to navigate the menu and Energy to choose, Voultar selects ColdBoot Document and recaches the Wii U working machine for his or her respective nation. As soon as carried out, Voultar arduous powers off the Wii U and is gifted with a operating console.
This undertaking is a smart instance of the usage of an exploit that may be used for nefarious manner for just right — as a device to revive and service outdated consoles.
The Wii U isn’t the one console to obtain new lifestyles due to the Raspberry Pi Pico. The unique PlayStation console has observed a Pico substitute the CD power, to play ROM recordsdata. Some of the Wii U’s predecessors, the GameCube, has additionally observed a Pico based totally modchip to allow it play homebrew video games. Going additional again within the historical past of videogaming there’s even a Pico based totally emulator for Sinclair ZX Spectrum house computer systems from the early Nineteen Eighties.
Supply Via https://www.tomshardware.com/information/raspberry-pi-pico-unbricks-nintendo-wii-u