Self Descruct Mode Engaged! WiiKey Help!

[Omega740]

Hey fellas,
Just finished installing my WiiKey with probably one of the worst jobs I have ever done on a console mod. Everything just seemed to go wrong when I was following the directions (wrong apparently). First off when seperating the drive from the Wii the brown (weak as hell) piece of plastic that held the drive ribbon broke off; hence, the ribbon from the drive was gonna be hard to get back into a snug fit. I later, when closeing the Wii back up hot glue'd the ribbon back to intial position. Secondly, not only once;but twice, the wire solder that I was attempting for the WiiKey: 2 of the solder points on the board of the driver came off the board and huge my soldering iron for a while. Now a know what your thinking, this guy is a shmuck and is using a huge ass soldering iron, but iv'e done many cosole/wire soldering jobs in the past w/ more than perfect results. Right now I am using a Weller 15w Soldering Iron and of course having more trouble b/c I have 2 square points on the board gone. I spent hours attempting to get the 30 gauge wire directing on the tin lining which led to the missing peices on the board and examined them with a magnifying glass until I was satisfied. Solderd the rest of the points w/ ease and braced down the sketchy points w/ hot glue and slaped that sucker back together. Turned on my Wii, it booted up at least, and inserted the WiiKey boot up disk. To my surprise, cough* sarcasm cough*, the Wii could not read any kind of disk; not even the origionals. So my question to you folks is:

Where should I start trouble shooting first?

Do I go back and check the ribbon from the drive and try to push the brown, weak ass, piece of plastic back into place or glue it in, hence, pushing down onthe ribbon to make a better connection or somthing?

If the chip was installed incorrectly would there just be a no read disk thing going on or would I see some other symtoms that havn't poped up yet?

Is there any way possible to reset the whole dam thing and try to repair the board on the drive by fixing the damaged points for soldering. Or for that matter, are there alternate points that I could possibly solder to?

Im sure your tired of reading my annoyances so hence, I await your comments on where I should start first.

Thanks alot,
Omeag740

[m0tyrider]

Hmmm when you say you insert a disc and it does not "read" does the GUI Detect the disc and it comes up as a error or does nothing come up at all?

Check all points you have done and that ribbon cable, apparntly that is very sensitive...

[SpanKie]

I think you should send it to a professional before more damage is done. That is of course if its not already beyond repair.

Sounds like a lot of damage has been done from the drive cable to the drives board. Of course its your Wii, but continued tampering and trying to troubleshoot the problem may lead to more trouble.

It sounds like something with the solder points or the cable is not seated properly.

[Omega740]

Hmmm when you say you insert a disc and it does not "read" does the GUI Detect the disc and it comes up as a error or does nothing come up at all?

Check all points you have done and that ribbon cable, apparntly that is very sensitive...

It goes to a black screen and says that the Wii cannot read the disk, to call the manufacturer. Basically what it would say if I inserted a blank disk in there when it wasn't chipped

I think you should send it to a professional before more damage is done. That is of course if its not already beyond repair.

Sounds like a lot of damage has been done from the drive cable to the drives board. Of course its your Wii, but continued tampering and trying to troubleshoot the problem may lead to more trouble.

It sounds like something with the solder points or the cable is not seated properly.

I don't know; the cable itself is fine, its just the brown plastic setter on the drive board that has popped off. I tried to pop it back in but the thing is so small and I wasn't sure how it was set in the first place. Does anyone have a close up pic of what I am talking about to help me clarify how the brown piece sets?

[Omega740]

I didn't get to fix the solder points, but what I did was solder the 2 points I screwed up on the panasonic chip that the traces led to. It worked out really well and now my Wiikey works :D!

[nomorgow]

So you solved the problem by fixing the points on the ICU legs?

On a wii that i did, three of the four small solderpads also came off, and i attempted soldering on the lgs of the controller chip when I was getting that same error. I removed the chip and my wires and still have the same problem..

I need to get a better magnifying glass before I go in and try to mess with it again. It's like ps2 v3 all over again. :(

[SpanKie]

glad you got it working :)

[Krusty2515]

yeah if yoru wii cant read discs but the drive starts up you have screwed up ribbon placement.