HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TSTODDEN!

[soloist]

Happy Birthday, TStodden!
Here's hoping that your
birthday is an enjoy-
able one. Ironic t-
hat it falls on M-
emorial Day s-
o others get
the day off
and can h-
elp you
celeb-
rate
it.

[Roemello]

Happy b'day, TStodden! Hope it was a good one!

[Diabolique]

Happy Birthday!!! Hope you had a fun one!

[TStodden]

Thanks for the Birthday wishes. I had a fairly quiet birthday, but I've been enjoying my Wii a bit more since I finally got fully softmodded for discless gaming... it was something that I've wanted to do since I softmodded my Wii, but I had to wait to get the suitable external HDD for it.

[soloist]

I'm glad you had an enjoyable birthday TStodden!
Fairly quiet is a good thing or so I would thin-
k. I'm sure you're pleased with the upgra-
des to your Wii. I would like to learn
how your managed to accomplish
such a feat. Feel free to leav-
e a PM on this if you'd lik-
e. I still make good u-
se out of that upg-
raded PSP that
a friend gav-
e me lon-
g ago.



(it has...)

-over 200 NES titles
-over 200 Sega Genesis titles
-over 100 GBA titles
-over 20 Turbo Grafx titles
-over 50 SNES titles
-around 10 PSone titles

[TStodden]

Softmodding a Wii isn't too hard on the basic level... It's the more advanced stuff (like installing cIOS's & WAD's) where you can get into trouble if you're not careful since there's a potential brick risk.

For the basic stuff, visit http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_setup to install the Homebrew Channel...
For the more advanced stuff (which WiiBrew doesn't cover), visit http://sites.google.com/site/completesg/home

These can be done on any Wii, but Pre-LU64 systems (mine is LU-57) are the best suited for this as you can install BootMii in the Boot2 sector for some anti-brick protection (as you can use it to back-up your Wii's NAND & restore it to that state, if something goes wrong).

[soloist]

Thanks for the information, TStodden!
I'll check it out upon my returning
later on tonight (10 pm EST).
Discless play sounds fun
(no need to keep ch-
ange discs); s pr-
ospect that I
will defin-
itely lo-
ok in-
to.



(Thanks again...)

[TStodden]

I've split the conversation about discless gaming to http://spiffy-entertainment.com/forums2 ... =6&t=14142 , just to make it more relevant.

[soloist]

And relevancy is key
in remaining ef-
ficient, and
we strive
for su-
ch.



(thanks, TStodden!)

[Nakor]

Happy (rather quite late) birthday!

There's something I find far too enjoyable about modding stuff when it has a risk of bricking it. I do not know why. I was screwing around with my Android phone before I left, trying to find a mod for it. Rooting and installing new mods (essentially different versions of the Android OS) is pretty much risk-free (assuming you ran a back-up first, it's almost always recoverable if it screws up), but certain things like flashing new radio firmware can brick it.

I seriously scared myself when I bluescreened my laptop while I was here, half a world away from my collection of stuff that I could use to fix most issues. I was trying to install the German language pack for Windows 7 onto my version (I have Win7 Pro which doesn't allow you to switch to other localizations like Ultimate or Enterprise) so that I could try the built-in dictation in German. Only problem was, I hadn't done enough research plus I was following old instructions; it turns out if you have SP1, you need a different language pack than if you don't. I was following pre-SP1 instructions (so they didn't even mention this discrepancy) and ended up with BSOD on boot (even to save mode).

Fortune didn't completely have it in for me though, the "last known good configuration" option on boot worked just fine and undid the whole thing. Best part: when I finally got it working, the dictation software just plain did not understand a thing I was saying. I think it's half-and-half that my German just plain doesn't have the accent it would be looking for (which it might eventually get used to) but also that I have a crap mic and it seemed to be picking up random sounds that weren't my voice. (I could say a single short word, and have it type three long ones for no apparent reason.)

So yeah, messing with risky stuff... just a little too much fun for me, I think.

[IJzebel]

Happy belated b-day!!!

[soloist]

Ouch! I'm sorry to learn that you've been through so much, Nakor!
I'm familiar with those words "last good configuration" since
I contracted a virus a few months ago and manually elim-
inated it... but it a long time to accomplish since I k-
new nothing about the process, so it was a trail a-
nd error situation. Though mostly error (laugh-
s), I finally was able to get it out of my sys-
tem and restore most of the main appli-
cations of my system. I tried the "las-
t good configuration" but neither
this nor system restore helpe-
d much until I removed th-
e harmed sectors. How
is your Android phon-
e now, Nakor? Ha-
ve you been ab-
le to get it f-
unctionin-
g beyon-
d the:

(blue screen...)



A-
nd y-
eah, m-
odding com-
es with a poten-
tal for bricking. The-
res usually a method for
unbricking a bricked system,
but technical know-how is need-
ed here and depending on your level
of patience and/or understanding of the
inner-workings of your unit will determine if
you're able to restore your system to a functiona-
l position. Let me know if the video below helps any:

[Nakor]

Well, technically, if there's a method to unbrick it, then it wasn't bricked in the first place. The term is only used in cases where there's no fix possible. (For example, on really old hard drives it was possible using software to send a series of commands to the drive that would physically damage it beyond repair. This is thankfully no longer the case.) But in any case, that was my laptop bluescreening; my phone was fine. I've got an HTC Desire and installed dGB mod with a custom h-boot onto it -- loads of room in the partition that holds the apps now, and quite slick and fast.