Bricks

A “Brick” usually means your Wii has reached a state where, its only use is that of a literal brick.
Bricks can occur for a variety of reasons, usually caused by improper system modifications via homebrew.

Here, we will discuss the different types of bricks, as well as some potential solutions.

Cause

Banner bricks occur if you install a WAD file that has an invalid Wii Menu banner or icon.

Solutions

If you have Priiloader installed, enter it by holding RESET while turning your Wii on. Select Homebrew Channel, then use your WAD manager to uninstall the faulty WAD.

If you don’t have Priiloader, Maintenance mode may be worth a try. Hold down + and - on the Health and Safety screen. (do not press A!)

If you are fortunate enough to get to the Wii Menu, enter the Homebrew Channel and uninstall the faulty WAD.

Theme brick

Cause

A theme brick occurs when a wrongly formatted theme is installed.

Solutions

To resolve this issue, open HBC through Priiloader and access MyMenuifyMod to install a default theme.

Semibrick

Cause

A semibrick occurs when a different region Wii Menu or a different region custom theme is installed. This causes the Wii to fail to find the Wii settings page files. Semibrick

Solutions

If this was caused by a theme you installed, use MyMenuifyMod to re-download the original theme file.

If this was caused by a Wii Menu WAD you installed, use NUS Downloader to re-obtain your original Wii Menu.

Be cautious when downloading the Wii Menu WAD. Make sure to pick the same version with the corrected region.

If you are actually in the process of a region change, use ARC-ME to automatically fix all your region settings to match your Wii Menu.

Wii Menu brick

Cause

This brick is a more fatal version of a Semibrick. If your SYSCONF gets corrupt or damaged, the Wii will regenerate it and start the setup phase.

However, the setup pages are in a similar location to the Wii settings pages. If you have an incorrect region Wii Menu or theme, the Wii cannot find them. Wii menu brick

Solutions

If you still have Priiloader, use it to enter the Homebrew Channel and re-install the original theme file/original Wii Menu.

In case you do not have Priiloader, you can try BlueBomb.

Mail brick

Cause

A mail brick happens when your Wii has a lot of mail. This will make the Wii crash.

Solutions

To fix a mail brick, enter Maintenance mode by holding + and - on the Health and Safety screen. (do not press A!)
Enter the Homebrew Channel, and use cdbackup to delete your Wii Message Board data.

Wi-Fi brick

Cause

This brick arises when your Wii’s Wi-Fi (or Bluetooth) module is damaged or not inserted properly. In such cases, the Wii gets stuck on a black screen while awaiting a response from IOS.

You can try and differentiate by checking if your Wii Remote still powers on your Wii.

This will also happen on the Wii Mini if you install a normal Wii IOS, because the Wii Mini doesn’t have a Wi-Fi module.

Solutions

To resolve this problem, you can try to reseat or replace the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module.

If you are on a Wii Mini, you must install a Wi-Fi module.

Error 003 Brick

Cause

This brick happens when a non-Korean Wii Menu on 4.2 or 4.3 detects that the Korean common key is present.

This is usually an immediate follow-up to a Wii System Update on an unsuspecting region-changed Korean Wii. Error 003

Solutions

Since this brick most often occurs after the Wii Menu updates, Priiloader will not be present.

Korean Wiis also released with Wii Menu 3.3, around the time that Nintendo fixed the Trucha bug in boot1, so BootMii as Boot2 cannot be installed to any Korean Wii.

The only way to fix this brick is a way to launch homebrew by launching a game through the Recovery Menu. It’s only accessible if you take apart a GameCube controller to hold all 4 +Control Pad buttons down while the GameCube controller’s plugged into the 4th slot on your Wii as it’s turned on. Taking apart the controller is necessary since you cannot hold down all the buttons without taking the controller apart.

IOS brick

Cause

This brick happens when the Wii Menu’s IOS is a stub. This is usually the consequence of attempting to downgrade your Wii menu.

Solutions

You must have BootMii as boot2 to fix this brick. Priiloader will not load.

You can either restore a NAND backup, or do this:

  1. Use NUS Downloader to pack a WAD of your original Wii Menu.
  2. Use BootMii to enter the Homebrew Channel, and use a WAD manager to install the Wii Menu WAD.

Low-level brick

Cause

This brick occurs when boot1/boot2 is corrupt.

Solutions

You can only recover by using a NAND programmer.