How to Unlock Your Wii’s True Potential

This guide will instruct you on how to install a Homebrew channel on your Wii, that can launch various applications. They range from DVD Player, NES Emulator, N64 Emulator, Cheating application, etc. The best part about it, is that all you need is a SD card!  Note: This only works for system versions 3.0 – 4.0. If you don’t know what version it is, go to settings on your Wii and it should say on top right corner.

Caution

This is a hack for the Wii, and it will void your warranty for it. Please take note of this, before you begin. There is also a very slim chance you can brick your Wii. That’s only if you don’t know what you are doing, so please follow my steps very carefully. I take no responsibility for your Wii.

Step 1

If your SD card has any important files on it, then back them up and keep them somewhere safe, as the SD card needs to be empty.

Step 2

Now that your SD card is empty, go to this website: http://bootmii.org/download

Click on “HackMii Installer v0.2″ in blue, and download it. Unzip it, go inside the folder, and take the file “installer.elf”, rename it to “boot.elf” and place it on root of SD card.

Step 3

Download this file: http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/aads/aad1f_v108.zip

Unzip it and place the folder “private” on the root (the root is the “beginning” of your SD card.

Step 4

Go to this website: http://bootmii.org/download

Click on “HackMii Installer v0.2″ in blue, and download it. Unzip it, go inside the folder, and take the file “installer.elf”, rename it to “boot.elf” and place it on root of SD card.

Step 5

Put the SD card in your Wii and start it up. Now go to “Wii” (Bottom left hand corner), then go to Data Management, then Channels, then on the top, go to the SD tab. It shoud either say “Load boot.dol/elf?” or it will freeze.

• If it says “Load boot.dol/elf?”. Follow the instructions, and when it asks what to install, install only Homebrew Channel, and DVDx. After you’ve installed both, exit out and reset your Wii.
• If it froze instead of saying “Load boot.dol/elf?”. If it freezes then you might have to try a different file instead of the one in Step 3. Go here: http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/aads/ and download “aad1a v108.zip”, and repeat steps 3 and 4. If that one doesn’t work then download the next one in order, on the list, and repeat steps 3 and 4 for each one. The aad1f and the aad20 are the ones that usually work. You have to try all of them if they don’t work, however.
• Getting applications. Congratulations if you made it this far, the Homebrew Channel should now be intalled on the newest channel space! Once you have the HB Channel, you can delete the “private” and “boot.elf” files from your SD card. Then create a folder called “apps” on the root of your SD card. Make sure it’s all lowercase or it won’t work. Now go to this website: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/List_of_all_homebrew

Scroll down to see all of the applications! (This is what I meant when I said “true potential”). Next to the name of all the apps should be a description. Click one that you are intrested in, and on most of them it will say “installation” or something along those lines. It ’s just a short guide on how to install them. Most of them, you just have to unzip and place the folder in the apps directory, but on few of them, it will be different so make you know what you’re doing.

• Homebrew Broswer. This nifty application lets you download apps right from your Wii! I strongly suggest you download this app so you don’t have to go to your computer every time you want a new app. You can find this app in the list I gave you.

Common mistakes

Step 3 – Forgetting to rename “installer.elf” to “boot.elf”.

Step 5 – Going to the little SD icon (Wii’s with version 4.0) on the main Wii menu, instead of going to Wii, then Data Management, then Channels, then the SD tab.

Step 5 – Going to Wii, Data Management, Save data instead of going to Wii, Data Management, Channels, SD tab.

Getting Applications – Naming it “Apps” or “APPS” instead of “apps”. No capitals (or quotations)!

What’s next?

Congratulations if everything worked out for you. I will try to answer all of your questions. I’ll make a how to hack Wii games guide, if enough people like this guide.

Have fun!

Image via Wikipedia