Boot exploit for software-bricked Wii U consoles discovered by repairing Nintendo factory's destroyed and trashed SD cards — team posts 'paid the beak' exploit to Github

Recovering destroyed Nintendo SD cards
(Image credit: DeadlyFoez / ConsoleBytes)

A console hacker named WinCurious obtained some discarded SD cards from a Nintendo factory that the company used for the factory setup process of Wii and Wii U systems. According to DeadlyFoez, the cards contained a boot image that Nintendo used for the factory setup of the Wii U console. They were able to recover data on some of the damaged SD cards, after which another member of their team discovered an exploit that could be used to restore software-bricked Wii U consoles.

The first challenge they faced was that all the cards were damaged, with approximately 25% of them having a destroyed die and flash memory IC. However, the remaining 75% only had PCB damage — some of them required resoldering work or PCB replacement, while others needed only straightening before they could be read. After the repairs were completed, the next step was to read the contents of the SD cards.

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as plugging the SD cards into a reader and then copying and pasting them to another drive on your Windows PC. One solution to this was to use an external programmer to read the NAND flash memory directly, but this wasn’t viable because DeadlyFoez did not have one that was compatible with the TSOP 48 chips used on the Nintendo SD cards. The dumped data would not represent what was actually on the card because it didn’t go through its controller chip.

“I can not express how incredibly difficult it is to solder these TSOP 48 clips onto anything at all. They melt at a rather lower temperature. If the solder is melted, then the plastic of these will be soft and malleable. In most cases, the solder pads of the PCB are the same size as the pins of the clip, making it impossibly difficult to see even with magnification,” says DeadlyFoez. “To solder these on you must tin the pads of the PCB first, then place the TSOP 48 clip directly on top of the peaks of the tinned pads. Finally, you must reflow the solder. The right way to do it would be with a reflow oven and using solder paste with a stencil, but I do not have those. I do have my infrared preheater, which works well enough for these things.”

Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

  • thisisaname
    Guess they will make sure anything will be more destroyed from now on?

    Will Nintendo be issuing a Cease and Desist order to stop the Tinkerers.
    Will the exploit work on the Switch 2?
    Reply
  • fiyz
    thisisaname said:
    Guess they will make sure anything will be more destroyed from now on?

    Will Nintendo be issuing a Cease and Desist order to stop the Tinkerers.
    Will the exploit work on the Switch 2?
    What our government helps normalize is crazy.
    Reply