Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:39 pm by brentbizzle
I will try to answer some of your questions, although I do think more searching and reading is in order for you. Mind you, everything I know has just been from scouring forums and news postings, then trying things out for myself. That and I've been on the Wii scene since it started up.
If playing backups is your goal for the Wii, I highly suggest modifying it with a soldered chip. There are no solder solutions out there like the Wii-clip or whatever it's called, but the general consensus in the moding community is that these are not good permanent solutions as there is the possibility for it to shift or move out of place. The best thing to do is solder the sucker down, and depending on what model your Wii is, it could be very easy. My suggestion would be to check out the Wii serial tracker (just google it) and see what chip you have in your Wii, and from there you can decide what path you are going to take.
For bricking, there are some ways now to fix it depending on how you have done it. One thing that has come out is BootMii (I think thats the right name). This puts some code on your Wii that is activated very early in the boot process (when you turn your Wii on). All the system software for the Wii is later on down the boot line, so if you do manage to mess it up, this nifty string of code will allow you to boot something off an SD card, to fix whatever you have done. There is also a slew of various Wii utilities to fix damage you have caused to your Wii.
The best tool is prevention. Semi-bricks seem slightly common, full bricks are very rare. I even semi-bricked my Wii back in the day, but a system update fixed it. My semi-brick was caused by an update on a Japanese game I ran in my US Wii. I wasn't able to access my system menu. All these semi-bricks have come about from people running out of region updates. Simple rule, don't run an update unless it was designed for your Wii's region. There are utilities out there to rip out updates and keep your Wii safe.
There is a backup loader that is out now that allows backups to be run without the need for a modchip. I don't know much about this since I have a modchip. You'll have to wait for someone else to get back to you on this.
Going back to moding, and to try and answer your final question, there really are no do's and don't's. My suggestion is don't buy more than you need. There are a great number of modchips out there for Wii. The reason for this is because there are diiferent versions. DMS, D2A, D2B, D2B with missing pad, D2B with clipped legs, D2C, D2C2 (A D2C marked Wii, but different than D2C). Buy a modchip that is suitable for YOUR Wii. Check the Serial tracker. If you want extra piece of mind then get a tri-wing screwdriver and open up your Wii to see exactly what you are dealing with. If you've got a DMS, D2A, D2B, then you have one of the most compatible systems, and you are fine using an older modchip which costs a lot less than the newer ones. Of course, you would have had to buy your Wii last year or very early this year for one of these models.
Hope this helps.
Founding father of the Wiibrew Packgen.
About 2 noob posts away from going ape sh*t