Wii board overheated and died after running letterbomb?

[Jonathan Holt]

So, I was soft modding a wii on a completed wii laptop project, and suddenly the Wii died. Here's the details.

I had finished all the wiring and hardware modding on my Wii laptop and had my portable reassembled, but had to set up the software and softmod it so I can run games off USB loader.

When I opened letter bomb, it hung for a few seconds and then turned off. I'm not sure if this was a coincidence or if letterbomb overloaded the wii, because when I tried to turn it back on, it popped and the wii led turned off. Then seconds later I smelled burnt PCB. (Note,I had the wii on for 30-40 minutes prior to doing letter bomb and it was fine, this is why I'm wondering if it was related or not).

I quickly disassembled the wii, and it appears as though the ground line I used on the multi at lines has been burnt. I have no idea why, there wasn't any bridged connection. I went back and checked a picture I took of the wiring earlier and there wasn't any bridges.

I am completely at a loss as to why this happened. For clarification, I have a picture below.

Also, what I was using the ground for was for a negative wire for an extra fan I had. I was using a second wii fan on the other side of the board to keep the board cool, and I had it wired to the 5+v line and the ground line mentioned.

On a final note, I am not 100% sure that this is what was burnt, the burnt smell was just strongest around this area.

I removed the header there and rewired the fan to the negative for the wii main power supply to the left of the multi-av leads, and it has not helped the condition of the wii.

The letterbomb I used was a part of a package created using ModMii, and the Wii was running software version 4.3u.

Any one have any thoughts on what happened? Did the software cause the board to overheat for some reason? Could the ground line have been faulty??

I guess most importantly, anyone have any thoughts on how I can fix it??

 

[samjc3]

I don't have much actual input for you, but I do find it kinda poetical that it died while you ran a letterbomb.

The first actual thought that jumped to mind was that a bug or something might have bridged it and got fried in the process - seen it happen at work - but I'd say that's absurdly unlikely at the amperage levels in a wii. Beyond that, I guess if one of the chippy things fried inside and shorted, it could push voltage onto the ground, which would get hot at the highest resistance point in that circuit, which could well be the solder joint. If the latter happened, I'd expect it to be dead or at least safety shutdown near instantly, which would explain why it's awful bricklike now.

 

[Jonathan Holt]

I don't have much actual input for you, but I do find it kinda poetical that it died while you ran a letterbomb.

The first actual thought that jumped to mind was that a bug or something might have bridged it and got fried in the process - seen it happen at work - but I'd say that's absurdly unlikely at the amperage levels in a wii. Beyond that, I guess if one of the chippy things fried inside and shorted, it could push voltage onto the ground, which would get hot at the highest resistance point in that circuit, which could well be the solder joint. If the latter happened, I'd expect it to be dead or at least safety shutdown near instantly, which would explain why it's awful bricklike now.

Thanks for the reply. Have you ever heard if letterbomb causing electrical issues when modding the Wii? I want to make sure that had nothing to do with it so I don't fry another board with the package.

 

[Prog]

Software can't do that.
Disclaimer: I think

 

[ttsgeb]

Software can't do that.
Disclaimer: I think

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_poke
Oh it definitely can.
Not sure that it can happen on a stock Wii, but it can definitely happen.

 

[Prog]

(In this context)