Wiikey Install - Did you succeed or fail?

[DISCODV]

I have read mixed reports of the Wiikey working on some machines and not on others.

Is this simply the case that some people are not installing it correctly or is it genuninly damaging some machines?

Just wondering what people on this forum had experienced when they installed their wiikey.

[apexi350z]

I have read mixed reports of the Wiikey working on some machines and not on others.

Is this simply the case that some people are not installing it correctly or is it genuninly damaging some machines?

Just wondering what people on this forum had experienced when they installed their wiikey.
simply the case that some people are not installing it correctly

[smurf]

Mine works excellent. I took my time and used wires instead of the quick solder method. Im impressed :)

[malsuk]

Mine works excellent. I took my time and used wires instead of the quick solder method. Im impressed :)

Same here no probs at all. best advice take your time and double check what you have done

[alkalinetrio]

exactly. take your time, DO NOT over heat the contact points and keep physical handling of the chip and the circuitary to a minumum and make sure you're earthed. Follow that and you should be fine. It was my first ever solder job and if i can do it then everyone else can. Not easy for beginners like me, but do-able! if you are unsure or don't have the right equipment, think about sending it off and paying the extra. it's worth it. i'm more than happy with mine!!

[Kian82]

i installe dthe the wiikey with wires. it recognized every backup cd on the wii channel but gave me DREs for each game i backed up, regardless whether NTSC or PAL (i hava D2A PAL console). due to my impatience i gave it to an experienced eletricians who then tried the quicksolder option and since then the wiikey doesnt work at all.

now i sent it to a console modding shop and i hope that they can rescue my wiikey otherwise i will ahve to pay additional 90€ for a new chip and its professional install :(.

now the most annoying thing:
my wire installation of the wiikey migth have worked in the first place if i just back up my wii games via an internal pioneer 112d dvd writer. instead i used a pioneer 111d dvd writer as an external drive via USB which probably caused data loss while writing...

that was my sad story :(

[RaGe517]

Wired install on a D2B wii console successful. I didn't have any issues but I took mine to work and used our instrument shop with big magnifiers and such to do it. as for the post above about the DRE's I'm not sure if that is a bad chip and just not a burn speed and media issue. My wiikey well not pick up TDK DVD-R discs burnt at over 6x. At 6x they work but with DRE's. I'm still trying different brands to find the the right brand of media and burn speed for my wii. Sony DVD-r burnt at 16x have worked so far. I'm about 1/2 way thru Zelda...

[Malboro]

My friend istalled my Wikkey. But I sometimes got "Unable to read disc" error, so i need to restart wii few times or unplug powercable and plug it back.. :/ But all my backup works whait i burned :) (i already burned 3 games and setup disc)

Maybe the error be caused by my DVD, so i need try better DVD...

[eprom]

i made a wired install and no problems, everything runs 100%.

[alkalinetrio]

now the most annoying thing:
my wire installation of the wiikey migth have worked in the first place if i just back up my wii games via an internal pioneer 112d dvd writer. instead i used a pioneer 111d dvd writer as an external drive via USB which probably caused data loss while writing...

that was my sad story :(

I'm afraid you might be right. If the wiikey doesn't work NOTHING will show up in the wii channel menu. It obviously recognised the disc, but from past users posting on here external writers just arn't up to the job.

I'm betting it was the games, other than that sounded like your install was ok!

[ASSPOP]

i had my friends friend do it professionally done :D no worries for me. :D

[thelairster]

90 percent of dre's are caused by burning issues. I've learnt to burn as slow as possible for a good outcome. 2-4x at most.

[ASSPOP]

I've been doing 8x on Maxell dvd-r, with prodisc fo2 dye. everything works perfectly. no dre for me. :D

[JspOt]

Success! Everything works fine! I am in Arcadia, CA, if you need install PM me.

http://www.jspot.net/wii/wiikey1.jpg
http://www.jspot.net/wii/wiikey2.jpg
http://www.jspot.net/wii/wiikey3.jpg

[cravavr3]

Looking @ chip pics above, my chip has the name scrapped off and does not work.

It appears to be an AtMega8 chip.

Maybe they scrapped to hard on my chip which made it DOA.

[LH1980]

I couldn't even try to install since I stripped one of the triwing screw and I don't have the tool to remove it. :(

[dipswitch]

Failure. :(

I got my wiikey in today an used wires to connect. Install went great but I can't get anything to load except for my original games. Wiikey update or backups just return "Unable to read disk" error. Media is Memorex DVD-R burned with Nero. I'm tired now and thoroughly disappointed.

I was kinda upset upon receiving my wiikey to notice that points 2 and 5 were bridged before I even touched it. So who know if its even a functioning chip. I guess I'll have to crack open the wii and quadruple check my solder points again and again. :(

Or just stick with modcheap.:rolleyes:

[grabb]

Received my wiikey today and installed it into a NTSC unit, with a D2B chipset. I used the wired install, as most people mention the no-wire install looked tricky and the points didn't line up well. It works just great as far as I can tell. All of my originals work fine, and a backup of Excite Truck ran fine for the 30 mins or so I played it. No DRE's at all, using Verbatim DVD-R 4x media.

[Radix999]

Success for me. Friend did the soldering as he has a much steadier hand than I, and I did the pulling it apart and putting it back together :)
I used wires and stored the chip in the middle with a bit of electrical tape on each side so it was fully covered, then used another bit of tape to hold it in place.

No probs with media for me - used Verbatim DVD-R and some cheapy LG -R's and both have worked sweet!

[ShawnC]

Success for me.

The process took longer than expected. Tho the trouble were mostly due to the wires I'm using (even the ones stripped from the ide cable were slightly too thick).

The first install works ok, but the console will flash and turn off after putting everything back together. Only after checking through I realised I'm such a dumbass by sticking the wiikey pcb directly on top of the metal plate in the dvd drive without any form of insulation.

With that solved while redoing one of the solder points, i messed up and bridge one of the traces on the pcb (a brown patch around the contact points). Resulting in unable to read disc errors for all discs. I tot I had bricked my wii, but after cleaning up with some solvent and soldering it back, everything works now.

Now all properly burned discs worked properly with no DREs at all. I'm using TY Verbatim DVD-R and CloneCD.

[CUBERT]

Never did soldering before, but i manage to succed on first attempt(quick soldering), but wow ...this is very tiny.

This chip is the best, no DRE at all, use memorex DVD-R media, and all my old gamecube games work flawless too no mather the brand of media.

[Lok1]

Installed mine last night, no problems. Used wires. Burned backups with Verbatim DVD-R on a Pioneer 111d at 8X. All backups work great so far. This was my first time soldering. I just followed all the advice from this forum. My only advice would be to take your time and go slow.

[leo_bsb]

Did the install yesterday.

I was using wires too thick. Everything is ruined when the wires are not flexible, when you route the wires the solder points are damaged.

I found some audio CD-ROM cable, the wires inside it are perfect, flexible and very thin.

The solder iron should have a thin point and you should have 0,5mm solder, put some on the points and than put the wires over it. This is the safest and fastest way. Make sure you have a solder sucker so you can fix the bridged solder points with ease.

The chip is working great, tried all my backups, playied Metal Slug and Elebits for 2 hours without DREs. Burned all on old DVD+R and everything were regconized without problems.
sorry for my poor english.

[theshow4life]

I installed a wiikey today and it worked fine for a few hours now for some reason when i put a backup in and select the disc channle it says i need to update but i am up to date with them?? when i try to update witht eh disc it says failed and restarts my wii anyone have a idea on what this is Thx.

[dipswitch]

Failure. :(

I got my wiikey in today an used wires to connect. Install went great but I can't get anything to load except for my original games. Wiikey update or backups just return "Unable to read disk" error. Media is Memorex DVD-R burned with Nero.....

Need to go on record and say after opening my wii the soldering job I did was kinda screwed. A wire was frayed and was touching another pad. I undid all of that and used better single core SCSI cable wire and everything is working perfectly.

[Bothahoe]

Installed 2 wiikeys. both works:)

[cwindsor]

!st try with small wires was a no go... Used a little bigger wires and came right up. :D

[rocket34psp]

Looking @ chip pics above, my chip has the name scrapped off and does not work.

It appears to be an AtMega8 chip.

Maybe they scrapped to hard on my chip which made it DOA.

I waited over a month for this chip to arrive from Modchipstore ... with all their delays and wait not. I get the damn thing install it, nothing .. DOA. My chip does not have the AtMega8 writing on it either. Looks like it was scratched off as well. Maybe they have a bad batch they are sending out?

[ShadowKong]

Looking @ chip pics above, my chip has the name scrapped off and does not work.

It appears to be an AtMega8 chip.

Maybe they scrapped to hard on my chip which made it DOA.


That's strange: mine had the name scrapped too and it wasn't working.
I've redone the soldering many times until I burned one of the legs (2) then later, one of the chip's legs.
I've emailed modchip store and I'm waiting for an answer...

[rocket34psp]

Yeah I been waiting for a reply from Modchipstore as well. I am about to bite the bullet and just pruchase one from another site. How is divineo and how they ship? It shows shipping within 24 hours. I couldn't find any other site that had them in stock right now.


I doubt I ever use Modchipstore again. The delays on top of the bunk ass chip is annoying. I wasted a lot of time with Modchipstore and I doubt they have any chips to send out to replace these DOAs.

[eperdeme]

Mine also has the name markings scratched off, re-soldered it all 3x now and still refuses to read dvd-r's only my originals.

Got my chip from modchip.it :/

[fazered]

That's strange: mine had the name scrapped too and it wasn't working.
I've redone the soldering many times until I burned one of the legs (2) then later, one of the chip's legs.
I've emailed modchip store and I'm waiting for an answer...
Make that a fourth person! I think we have an clue. I thought mine had a sticker on it that had been removed. It's even left a mark on my electric tape, which was dark and almost ash like. Could it have been burnt to remove the markings, perhaps with some sort of chemical solvent? Why would they bother doing it?

[fazered]

I got mine from Eurasia by the way.

[JP311]

Make that a fourth person! I think we have an clue. I thought mine had a sticker on it that had been removed. It's even left a mark on my electric tape, which was dark and almost ash like. Could it have been burnt to remove the markings, perhaps with some sort of chemical solvent? Why would they bother doing it?

Mine had the numbers removed as well and it works fine (purchased from mod-chip.com). Make sure you try a few different types of DVDs before you open it back up or remove your chip. I tried Imation and Philips since I already had those, it will only read the Philips.

As for the install I had one of my friends help me out. He is a game tech at a chucky cheese type place and has a lot of electrical/soldering experience. We took our time , checked our connections with a meter and made sure we secured it solidly. Works like a champ :D

[fazered]

Ahhh that is interesting that yours works.

I'm done a quite a few install before and have checked mine a number of times. I've also tried 5 different brands of media and used multiple burn settings and programs.

Here she is:

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/9657/fazered1sm4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[JP311]

Ahhh that is interesting that yours works.

I'm done a quite a few install before and have checked mine a number of times. I've also tried 5 different brands of media and used multiple burn settings and programs.

Here she is:

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/9657/fazered1sm4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Looks to me like you soldered the #2 wire to the wrong point.

[fazered]

my soldering iron won't heat up quick enough.

[JP311]

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8242/fazeredfixedua0.jpg

You need to move your #2 wire here

[fazered]

ahhh looking at it I have used the other point before. Must have got it mixed up on one of the times I reinstalled it.

[fazered]

Can't type.... must keep playing Wario.... ...works perfectly... feel silly.... to happy playing Wario to mind.

Thank you for spotting my foolishness.

[leo_bsb]

Yeah I been waiting for a reply from Modchipstore as well. I am about to bite the bullet and just pruchase one from another site. How is divineo and how they ship? It shows shipping within 24 hours. I couldn't find any other site that had them in stock right now.


I doubt I ever use Modchipstore again. The delays on top of the bunk ass chip is annoying. I wasted a lot of time with Modchipstore and I doubt they have any chips to send out to replace these DOAs.

I bought 2 chips at divineo.cn , arrived in Brazil 4 days later.
Both came with the name scraped but they both worked fine. Did a wire install and using cheap media without problems.

[eperdeme]

Mine fails to read 4 dif DVD-r's via 2 dif writers. Checked all points with multimeter and all make it from wiichip -> dvd chip.

All match up except the "blobs" as unsure where they trace on the pcb.

http://www.eper.net/images/chip.JPG

[USERN]

100% working! did a quicksolder/short wire installation. clean and tidy. no messy wire. wiikey rocks.:D :D

[xbox360.8]

success for me

[Todesengelvr6]

When I was soldering mine, the solder pad on the wiikey #4 fell right off, like there wasent even nothing holding it to the board.

[JspOt]

Here is another successful install on a wiiKey chip that does not have a name on the chip.

http://www.jspot.net/wii/wiikey4.jpg

[eperdeme]

I've managed to get mine working...out of the blue.

Reopened it all up the case after it not reading any dvd-r's.

Looked at it for 30 mins, checked it all over with multimeter put it back together whilst crying and now it works. Seems sending low voltage thought it kicked the chip in to life. Very weird.

Ah well providing it keeps working I'll stay happy.

[csmon]

Wiikey works now. Seems a wire that i thought was solid came loose. All is well and cheap optodisc 8x media works fine at 6x.

[WiiCrazy]

im from australia and im getting mine done at acegames I dont want to risk recking my wii. should be coming back tomorrow or some time this week

[Spykemike]

Here is another successful install on a wiiKey chip that does not have a name on the chip.

http://www.jspot.net/wii/wiikey4.jpg

I am a first-time solderer and I have managed to get mine working by wired install. It's mounted exactly the same as yours - only with orange Kynar :D

I am so happy that it went well. It was a lot easier than I expected.

Mike

[cablecar]

Had my Wiikey installed in Brighton yesterday. All is working fine. I've burn't iso's on to unbranded -R media with ritek dye and only had a problem when doing this at 8 speed, at 6x everything works fine.

I also got lucky in the fact that my hitachi dvd rom in my pc reads wii originals with rawdump 2.0.

[thebman919]

I tried to get my friends dad who had soldering experience to install it but alas during the attempt 2 pads were lifted on the wiikey. (5 and 6) so i said what the hell lemme try to solder to the legs. with no previous soldering experience i bought some solder and flux and proceded to solder the points and... lifted pad 4 :P so instead of throwing it away i proceded to solder to legs 4 5 and 6 on the wiikey chip. It took me forever to solder the points without bridging coz 4 and 6 legs are right next to each other! so ya after i soldered em all i soldered the sucker in the wii, turned it on and... backups didnt work. :( so again i didnt give up and opened the wii and noticed point 1 was loose on the wii so i resoldered it put it all back together and...... EVERYTHING WORKS!!! :D :D :D :D Needless to say, Im extremely happy :p That was my little success story for you.

[Spykemike]

I tried to get my friends dad who had soldering experience to install it but alas during the attempt 2 pads were lifted on the wiikey. (5 and 6) so i said what the hell lemme try to solder to the legs. with no previous soldering experience i bought some solder and flux and proceded to solder the points and... lifted pad 4 :P so instead of throwing it away i proceded to solder to legs 4 5 and 6 on the wiikey chip. It took me forever to solder the points without bridging coz 4 and 6 legs are right next to each other! so ya after i soldered em all i soldered the sucker in the wii, turned it on and... backups didnt work. :( so again i didnt give up and opened the wii and noticed point 1 was loose on the wii so i resoldered it put it all back together and...... EVERYTHING WORKS!!! :D :D :D :D Needless to say, Im extremely happy :p That was my little success story for you.

Nice save! Well done :D

[atinoco]

I tried the quicksolder method 1st but the wii wouldn't read backups, I guess one of the solder points wasn't working, but it was hard to see which one with the chip onthe way.

We desoldered the chip and then installed the chip using wires and its working 100% now, I believe the wire install its the best option since it's easier to spot problems with soldering and it also minimizes the risk of damaging your drive (desoldering the chip was pretty hard).

-Andres

[Swami]

Well, I installed 2 of the wiikey chips yesterday. Both work flawlessly first time out. The contacts on the board were a little smaller than I antisipated, but after thinking that I might have ruined my Wii, I was able to get it installed and working. I was trying to add solder to the small pads on the dvd drive board and instead of adding to it I sucked the solder off from the board. There was a small amount left there (as seen under magnifing glass) so I added more flux to the wii board and then tried to get it back on there. I was able to do this so I quit my idea of adding more to the board itself. Instead, I made sure the wires were tined (and refluxed afterward) and board pads were fluxed real good and then I just made sure I had plenty of solder on the tip. Then I just held the wires down tight on the pads and touched the wire/pads for about .5 secs (just til I heard them sizzle) then lifted and held the wires there for a sec. They all whet in perfect and stayed good when I pulled on them afterwards.

BTW, all of my backups made on the Verbatims that are recommended have worked flawlessly on both systems. Here is the best deal I could find which are $22.99 after $13 rebate for a 100 pack at buy.com. Here is a link if the moderators allow this. If not do a search on buy dot com.

http://www.buy.com/prod/verbatim-dvd-r-4-7gb-16x-branded-100pk-spindle-95102/q/loc/101/10412809.html

Be sure to choose the economy shipping that is free. You will still get them in a few days for free.

Also, thanks to the other thread that showed the good wiikey installs. I followed the one of the guy who used the short wires and double sided taped it just to the left of the pads (like he did). Worked great. I didn't want to try putting big globs of solder with the quick solder method after seeing how close and tiny the pads are.

Swami

[WiiCrazy]

recieved my wii back from acegames who installed it, works perfect

[astroboiii]

Didn't have the correct tip on my soldering iron so I tried to mickey mouse the install. Needless to say bad idea.

If anyone can get the board the chip goes on (the one on the back of the dvd-rom drive) I would be forever in there debt.

Needless to say I'm not going to half ass it and buy a proper tip for my soldering iron plus a MUCH thinner gauge wire.


in retrospect, half-assing the wii-mode was not a grande idea and I'm paying for it now =D

anyone know if they'll have wii-replacement parts like they did for the ps2 and stuf? first mod I've ever botched lol (prolly' shouldn't have done it after I had come out from a night of partying huh? lol)

[ricmorgpreston]

Finally got mine working tonight, my advice to people doing an install for the first time is practice first AND read all the helpful guides and advice on here.

Without it i would have never got mine working !

:)

[GTluver]

Here is another successful install on a wiiKey chip that does not have a name on the chip.


wtf dude.....wuts w/ ur avatar...trying to prove something?

[JspOt]

wtf dude.....wuts w/ ur avatar...trying to prove something?

Nope, not trying to prove anything at all. Its a unique sign....if it offends you so let me know...

[Memnock]

I paid a someone for the install. I didn't want to risk messing it up. BTW my Wiikey works great! I'm very glad I got it.

[11111]

Nope, not trying to prove anything at all. Its a unique sign....if it offends you so let me know...

how is this sign offending anyone? it's a real sign.

[ramborai1987]

im a noob and i installed wiikey on the first go with no mistakes or problems. time and patience is what is needed and i recommend u guys to use a low watt soldering iron like 15w, it helps alot. the only reason people mess up is because the rush and a install needs alot of concentration.

[babb_z]

My last Wiikey install - quicksoldered.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1452/dsc0394xw5.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc0394xw5.jpg)

[foobar2k]

My upgrade went flawlessly, took literally 20 seconds.

Configuration:
PAL Wii
DMS Chip
CycloWiz v1

For all those having trouble with looping update, first check your switch is installed correctly before blaming the update.

Good luck
foobar

[optimus]

Installed mine last night for the second time.

First time: quick install without a magnifying glass. I got it all back together and the wii worked as if no chip was in. So...I knew that I had not gotten all the points connected.

Last night: I took the unit back apart and inspected with a magnifying glass...sure enough...there was one pad that wasn't connected. I soldered under the glass and everything booted just fine.

Incidentally, my chip also looks like the name was scraped off.

Of note: when I went to the config and didn't change anything, it reported an error in saving. So...I don't know if something is wrong.

[doomgaze_86]

Quick question for you guys.

I'm going to have someone install my Wiikey. He offered to add a switch for $15 more.. Is this necessary? I was under the impression that the Wiikey had a built in stealth mode using the reset button or something like that...

[hacktek]

Quick question for you guys.

I'm going to have someone install my Wiikey. He offered to add a switch for $15 more.. Is this necessary? I was under the impression that the Wiikey had a built in stealth mode using the reset button or something like that...

He's trying to screw you

[doomgaze_86]

He's trying to screw you

I think the switch was meant for the Cyclowiz (for updating). Guess I won't be needing it.

How do you disable the Wiikey or put it in stealth mode?

[ShreddinPB]

Yeah I been waiting for a reply from Modchipstore as well. I am about to bite the bullet and just pruchase one from another site. How is divineo and how they ship? It shows shipping within 24 hours. I couldn't find any other site that had them in stock right now.


I doubt I ever use Modchipstore again. The delays on top of the bunk ass chip is annoying. I wasted a lot of time with Modchipstore and I doubt they have any chips to send out to replace these DOAs.
I ordered my wiikey and R4 for my dslite from divineo.cn, not even realizing I was ordering from the chinese site. I payed a couple extra dollars for faster shipping, and I think it took a total of 3 days to get to me.. I was astounded! On the site it had the little "3day" thing for the wiikey, but it got to me in that time.. VERY happy shopping with them.

I however didnt realize at the time about the tri-wing screwdriver needed.. so I havnt installed yet.. screwdriver should be here by friday, then install on the weekend.