Hackers Discover Boot Exploit for Software-Bricked Wii U Consoles Using Recovered SD Cards; ‘Paid the Beak’ Exploit Released on GitHub

Oh man, let me tell you about this wild ride with some Nintendo SD cards or something. So, there’s this console hacker dude, kinda like a modern-day pirate, who goes by WinCurious. No idea what that means, but it sounds cool. Anyway, he found these old SD cards lurking around a Nintendo factory, the kind they used to set up Wii and Wii U systems. Like, just thrown-out treasures waiting to be found. DeadlyFoez, another character in this saga, got them to tell their secrets. Picture Indiana Jones with a soldering iron, if you can.

Alright, so here’s the scoop. These cards were a mess—like, absolutely trashed. Total chaos. Some were so busted it was like trying to piece together a shattered snow globe. About 25% were beyond saving, but the other 75%? Just needed a little love, some resoldering, and a few were bent so bad you’d think they’d been through a horror movie chase scene. Once they patched them up, it was showtime.

But hold on, it wasn’t as easy as slapping them in a reader. Nope, that would be too sensible. They needed some external gadget to talk to the magic chips inside, but of course, they didn’t have what they needed—because life is never that convenient. The data dump wouldn’t even show the real stuff from the card, like trying to watch a movie through a warped screen.

Then, WinCurious comes up with this nutty idea. Let’s use a donor SD card and, I kid you not, swap out the brains like some sci-fi surgery. Pop out the chip from the dead card, stick it in a good one, and voila! A Frankenstein SD card! But geez, soldering those tiny TSOP 48 clips is a bit like trying to thread a needle with cooked spaghetti. They melt and, well, it’s a hot mess. Even with a magnifying glass, those pins are like invisible. And DeadlyFoez? Dude’s basically MacGyver with a soldering gun, using whatever he’s got to make it work, like some infrared preheater or something.

Okay, so they manage to save like 14 cards. Can you believe that? And then Rairii, another member of this motley crew, goes snooping around the data and spots this SDBoot1 image—essentially a hidden door into the console’s guts. They figured out how to run code on these bricked systems, calling this thing “paid the beak,” and shoved it onto GitHub for the world to enjoy.

Here’s the kicker though. They found a way to revive those almost-dead Wii U consoles unless they’re super beyond repair in some ways. But, yeah, you need some fancy Nintendo jig or other gimmicks like a Raspberry Pi just to make them boot from these resurrected SD cards.

And if you’re feeling adventurous, there’s another mod chip called de_Fuse that can handle the even tougher cases, but you better know your stuff or it’s game over. It’s like giving these old Wii U consoles a second life—kind of like a zombie apocalypse, but the friendly kind.

And there you go, now you can dust off your Wii U and maybe tinker a little without turning it into a paperweight. If you’re feeling brave and slightly reckless, of course. Anyway, follow Tom’s Hardware for more crazy tales and tech stuff straight to your brain—via Google News, whatever that is.