Wii U Revival...

I had a Wii U that I bought from a friend several years ago. I've never taken his info off the console since Mario Kart 8 and all the DLC was attached to his Mii. 

I also ended up doing a "Haxchi" mod to the thing, but it was really iffy whenever I tried to run a game. I just sidelined the console for...wow...about 7 or so years ago. 

I went on and did a bunch of other things in the meantime...like, a lot of things.

I decided to take a break from soldering a bunch of things and literally dusted off the Wii U and work on it. Thankfully, it was still working and didn't give me the fatal error thing that the Wii U's are known for.

I started off by following the Wii U Hacks Guide. First step was to stop and uninstall the Coldboot Haxchi (CBHC) from the console. Next, as I wanted to start fresh with the Aroma hack installation, so I needed to update and format the console. The only issue I ran into was that the Wii U was locked with a PIN. 

...

I didn't bother contacting my friend since he'd probably didn't remember what the PIN was, so I did a deep web search. What needed to be done was the following:

1. Check the system settings for the date on the system (Month and Day). Remember this date.

2. Go to "Parental Controls", when it asks for the PIN, tap on "Forgot PIN".

3. It will ask a specific question. Tap again on "Forgot PIN"

4. There will be a code on the screen. Keep that code on the screen.

5. Go to Nintendo Homebrew mkey generator. 

6. Select "Wii U" in Device type.

7. Select the date that was checked in Step 1 in System Date.

8. Skip Additional data, and type in the code given from Step 4 in Inquiry Number. 

9. Click the Go button.

10. Remember the Master Key that is generated.

11. Back on the Wii U, tap next and use the Master Key that was generated. At that point, the Parental Controls restrictions can be removed.

After all those steps, I was able to format and reset the Wii U back to stock. Took a few minutes for it to format and restart to a fresh console. I then followed the Hacking Guide to install Aroma to the Wii U. 

Installing Aroma didn't take too long. There was a lot of turning the console on and off and removing the SD card from the console to the computer. A few apps were installed to get it back to where I had it before I felt like starting over: Homebrew channel, game installers, online server bypass, etc.

I had to do a few more web searches to refresh myself on getting and installing games to the console. I recalled having issues with the USB stick that I initially used for games stuck out too much, so I was worried about actually breaking the drive while moving the console or some other random thing. I ended up ordering a slim micro SD card reader and a 400GB Extreme micro SD card. I was able to install a bunch of games and apps after having the console format the card.

I was also able to check the type of  multi-level cell (MLC) memory that I had in the console. Thankfully, I had a Samsung MLC installed and not the Hynix MLC that is apparently prone to failure. I'm keeping it plugged in, just in case.

I think this old Wii U is probably better now. By being able to fully format the console and re-hacking it, I feel I now fully own this system. Pretendo is part of the installation process of Aroma, so it's nice to be able to jump back into playing Splatoon online. I might have to try some Super Mario Maker levels as well. 

...I also just realized that I just deleted my Breath of the Wild save file. Oh well, I may just restart another game on the Switch.

Mark this project (if we can call it that) done! A fresh start, freshly modded Wii U! After I clean up my work area, I may either start working on a PSX or a Gamecube...or maybe another NES...maybe the Famicom...Twin Fami?