Wrote on 2/26/2007
-->First draft of the review
Updated on 3/20/2007
-->Added a review for the 3.0 upgrade
Updated on 3/23/2007
-->Added a few more games that I tested and some extra links
-->Also wanted to address a few people's comments about the review. I put my comments in bold
Be sure to also check out my Qoob Pro review.
A few sites have linked to my review and I wanted to link back to them since my review is getting a lot of hits. Please visit their site and keep it in your bookmarks. I visit both sites daily.
Maxconsole's link to my Cyclowiz review
WiiNewz's link to my Cyclowiz review.
Before I get started into my review, I wanted to address a few comments that I've seen on the forums:
Everyone says what about the defective chip you received or the looping during the upgrade, weren't those negative points?
The reason that I did not give that a negative point is because it has been fixed. Everyone who orders a cyclowiz now already gets v2 and shortly will receive a switch. If cyclowiz hadn't of fix it then I would of listed it as a negative.
The Looping issue is more than likely a result of my shady soldering, I have seen plenty of NTSC/PAL cyclowiz owners have no difficulty with this. I believe my S wire was not making full contact.
I have added more comments below that should help clarify things, my comments are in bold
Hello, and thank you for reading Crumpster's Cyclowiz review. I am going to follow the same format as my previous Qoob Pro mod. So if things look alike, then don't worry. I give my 100% honest opinion about a chip. I swash rumors about a chip if I find they are false. I pretty much just want to give you the best bang for your buck. I don't care if I hurt someone's feelings by not liking their chip.
First things first, here is what you get after you install the chip and run the 3.0 upgrade.
* Direct boot of NTSC Wii imports on NTSC consoles (no patch needed)
* Direct boot of PAL Wii imports on NTSC consoles (no patch needed, partial compatibility)
* Direct boot of NTSC Wii imports on PAL consoles (no patch needed, partial compatibility)
* Runs imported GC games (partially without swap)
* Perfect compatibility (100% of games are working)
* Improved read (no more slowdowns)
* Compatible with DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW (no bitsetting required)
* Fully upgradable via DVD (YES, it has been proven)
* Direct boot of Wii backups
* Direct boot of GC backups
* Direct boot of homebrew in GC mode
* Build-in audio fix (no patch required)
* Compatible with Multi-Disc games
* Stealth mode
* Multi-purpose LED
* Chips supplied in professional ESD packing
* Very easy to install
My cyclowiz chip came from mod-chip.com. They are based in Austria and the delivery was extremely slow. I was under the belief they were in the USA as stated on cyclowiz's website here. It took from 2/9/07 to 2/24/07 to receive the chip. I also got the defective chip and had to do the tutorial here to make it working. The best thing about this whole experience was they were fast to answer e-mails. I will not be doing business with them again. FoundMy.com is a great alternative site for ordering chips and I recommend them. (I get nothing for this link). I had some problems with my install and Ed (letsmod) was more than willing to help me out. I bought my qoob pro chip from them and everything worked out great. Don't worry about ordering from them. Ed/Terry will take care of you. (Let me state again, I get nothing for recommending them). The chip sells for $49 dollars, and shipping was $4 at mod-chip.com. I recommend buying the "triwing" driver as other methods (sawing off a screwdriver end) pretty much sucks. This will set you back another $6 dollars or so. Well worth it, IMHO. Anyways, on with the review. I did all of my testing on NTSC WII backup booting and several GC NTSC games. I did not do any real testing of other regions games. I DO plan on adding more info and testing those features though. I should also point out that I don't care if there is spelling errors in this document or if you know a "better way" to do something. My last rant is about all the people that bitch and moan over maxconsole.com advertising the cyclowiz, they have a business to run and their site is free, so get over it. I will tell you one thing acemilo/whackawookie (mods there) and helpful in almost any thread and have answered questions in my thread. My props to the guys at maxconsole.com. As I said on the forums after whackawookie showed the upgrade feature, if it comes from him you can believe it 100%
Please note I am using a launch NTSC WII (DMS chipset) and the first version cyclowiz.
CycloWiz v1 currently supports DMS and D2A chipset, but doesn’t support D2B.
CycloWiz v2 currently supports all chipsets (DMS, D2A, D2B). NOTE: At the time of this writing their is no 3.0 upgrade available for D2B users.
Make sure you have a supported chipset before you start as nintendo will probably be releasing newer wii's. The new Cyclowiz comes in a ESD bag with the word "cyclowiz" all over it. I also have read they are going to start including the switch in the future. So no need to run to radioshack to buy one.
Ok, at this point I'm sure most of you are afraid of soldering and want more info, so here goes. This information was originally wrote for a sticky I have at gbatemp.org located here.
To open the wii you will need:
A box cutter (to get the little white stickers that are hiding the screws)
A Very Small Phillips Head Screwdriver (should already have)
A Tri-wing driver size 1-4 if possible
You can search Ebay for the tri-wing driver but the one I received from ebay didn't fit all the tri-wing screws. I had a hard time with the ones on the face plate. I would recommend buying a kit on the net (security screw kit). I believe those need a tri-wing driver size 1, and the ebay driver is a 3.
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I find it easier for you to watch THIS video. Its hosted on youtube and is the best out there right now. You will only have to do steps until the 5:50 mark. The dvd drive he pulls out is where you will be soldering onto (underneath it, that is).
Here are some installation pics, the first is the main case removed. The rest are shots of the drive and chip installed. The last 2 pics are close ups of the chip. You need a solid green light. The last pic is a closeup of the 5 wires that need to be soldered. Crappy quality pics, but its the only cam I got.
Below is a pic of my poor wii after going through several opening and closings, soldering and me cursing it (or rather my skills)
I actually had a hard time installing the chip, I've a complete amateur at soldering and didn't realize how small the points were. I'd watched many videos on the net and it seemed it would be a walk in the park, but it actually wasn't. The guys in those videos are pro's at soldering and have probably done a few hundreds consoles, compared to my 2 (TWO) console's. Here is some tips I've learned during this process.
Buy the 30AWG wire as the points are too small for anything bigger.
If you are a n00b, then practice soldering on a broken cd player, etc.
I found it best to use tape to hold down the wires I was about to solder, then get some solder on the tip of the iron and apply it to the wires.
If you reach a spot that the solder won't stick then use flux. After that glue it down with a hot glue gun. (After I got the mod installed a wire came loose and it wouldn't read my backups any longer, I finally got the B point to stick again and after I got the green led I used my hot glue gun to really make it stick. So far, no problems.
After you finish soldering the wires, plug in the drive cable and power cable to the wii. If all is well then you will have a solid green led light. This mean the mod is active, If its blinking, check points A,B,C. If no light check G and V (for Ground and Volts).
Now its time to install the switch used for upgrading, You will need to run 2 wires (X & T) from the switch (one goes to the mainboard, the other the modchip). Then another wire (S) will go from the modchip to the mainboard. Most people are putting the switches in the fan opening on the bottom of the wii. It actually fits nicely in the case because the case has a hole in it.
A few tips for those having problems getting the switch to work
*Taken from the cyclowiz website*
* If you turn off your console during the welcome screen or switch test screens, make sure it is in deep sleep mode for at lest 10 seconds, it won't recognise discs until you do it. If you have any doubts, unplug the console for 10 seconds.
* If you get stuck in a Programming - Verifying loop for more than 10 cycles, it is likely that there is an installation problem with the S wire. You have to turn off the console to fix this, but make sure you never turn it off before trying at least a dozen cycles. We got two reports of this behaviour and it was fixed both times.
* Make sure the switch pads are not in contact with any metal part of the Wii, including shielding. If there is such a short circuit, the fuse next to the X point can blow and drive won't spin or eject anymore until you fix the fuse.
I had the looping problem and it looped around 5 times, I'm still not certain if it was because of my shady install or me not flipping the switch properly. Anyways it worked successfully on the 6th try. Strange, I know. Most people have had no problems upgrading and the ones that did had not correctly installed the S wire.
You can call the switch a good or a bad thing, I'm not certain if its there to stop nintendo from upgrading our chips or what. All I know is it works and can be hidden easily.
Now you can put your wii back together. I would recommend only putting the 4 screws on the dvd drive until you verify everything is working like you want it.
Next Up is testing the chip:
The following backups were tested (all NTSC scene releases):
DVD Burner Used: BENQ DVD DD DW1640 Firmware BSRB (ATA) or EIDE
DVD Software Used: Nero Burning Rom 6 (came free and I dont' want to purchase Nero 7)
DVD Media Used: Verbatim DVD-R and RIDATA DVD+R
DVD Burning Speed: 16X on the Verbatim's and 8X on the RIDATA DVD+R (booktype set to DVD-ROM) (Note: You don't have to do this with the newest update 3.0)
Note: All of the following games were tested using the latest upgrade available on the Team Cyclops website. (Currently Revision 3.0) I played at least the first few levels before I listed it as WORKING PERFECT, while looking for lag in cut-scenes, disk read errors, any other abnormal behavior. Before the update came out, COD3 was unplayable and WarioWare/TonyHawks had slowdowns during cutscenes.
Call of Duty 3 = WORKING PERFECT
Cooking Mama = WORKING PERFECT
Elebits = WORKING PERFECT
Excite Truck = WORKING PERFECT
Far Cry: Vengeance = WORKING PERFECT
GT Pro Series = WORKING PERFECT
Happy Feet = WORKING PERFECT
Madden NFL 07 = WORKING PERFECT
Marvel Ultimate Alliance = WORKING PERFECT
Metal Slug Anthology = WORKING PERFECT
Monster 4x4 World Circuit = WORKING PERFECT
Need For Speed: Carbon = WORKING PERFECT
Open Season = WORKING PERFECT
Rapala Tournament Fishing = WORKING PERFECT
Rayman Raving Rabbids = WORKING PERFECT
Red Steel = WORKING PERFECT
Sonic and the Secret Rings = WORKING PERFECT
SSX Blur = WORKING PERFECT
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz = WORKING PERFECT
Super Swing Golf = WORKING PERFECT
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles = WORKING PERFECT
The Godfather: BlackHand Edition = WORKING PERFECT
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess = WORKING PERFECT
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 = WORKING PERFECT
Tony Hawks Downhill Jam = WORKING PERFECT
Trauma Center: Second Opinion = WORKING PERFECT
Warioware: Smooth Moves = WORKING PERFECT
Wii Play = WORKING PERFECT
World Series of Poker: Tournment of Champions 2007 Edition = WORKING PERFECT
As you can tell 100% Compatibility with all NTSC releases that I've tested
Check out this list for which import games work or not here.
Please remember this is a simple hexedit and it will never work 100% of the time. The mod-chip makers have found a way to patch the media code on the dvd without having to use a hexeditor/syndicate tool before you burn the iso. This method will never be 100%, later on we might have a better solution for other region games
Here are some pics of the backups booting
Here is quick pic of an original game booting
Here I tried a NTSC-J game (Unfortunately, it didn't work - but right now I'm blaming myself for this) Confirmed: I burned it wrong!
Final Thoughts: The cyclowiz chip booted/played EVERYTHING I threw at it. I did not do any laser adjustment. The chip just booted and ran great. I have played wii play/sonic for long periods of time without any single DRE. The cyclowiz chip is upgradable, and this should extend the life of the modchip. It finally has been proven, and I've ran it myself. If you are on the fence and not sure what modchip to get, I'd say get the cyclowiz for near perfect backup playing. The wiikey is also a good choice because it doesn't require a switch and came out of the box with all these features. See below for + and - points.
Positive Points
The most important thing to me is price, and this chip is around $40 to $50.
Booted every NTSC WII backup game I tried and worked 100% (after the 3.0 upgrade)
Booted every NTSC WII original game I tried and worked 100%
Booted every NTSC GC backup game I tried and worked 100% (Did not test original GC game)
Quick Solder installation, would not do this route though.
A special version of GCOS for the cyclowiz already available.
The following are extra's that came with the update 3.0. You no longer need to use wiifree or the syndicate tool to play imports. It is always better to get the release for your region as each region uses different frequency/etc.
Direct boot of NTSC Wii imports on NTSC consoles (no patch needed)
Direct boot of PAL Wii imports on NTSC consoles (no patch needed, partial compatibility)
Direct boot of NTSC Wii imports on PAL consoles (no patch needed, partial compatibility)
Negative Points
Not a single thing, except they kept us waiting forever =) Nah, the chip is great after the update, all games from your region work and thats what was promised. I'm a satisfied customer at this point.
I want to point out again, this modchip does what is promised. It never says on the website 100% multi-region support. I stick with my zero negative points about the chip because it does according to the specs on the website
The modchip does what its supposed to do and thats play backups from your own region. If you are desperate to get a 1st gen modchip then go ahead and get the cyclowiz. The WiiKey is also a good choice as both modchip are very simular.
Thanks for reading my review. I might update this review/tutorial in the future but I am uncertain. Anyways, I hoped I helped someone make a educated purchase.