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System Menu Downgrades

I don’t know why you’d want to downgrade your Wii, but alas, here you are.

WARNING: Downgrading your Wii is highly risky and not very useful. It’s highly recommended that you only try this if you have BootMii installed as boot2. Otherwise, you could cause a permanent brick (only fixable with a hardware NAND programmer!). You are trying this at your own risk. There are parts of this guide that will not go fully into detail, acting as a safety check. If you don’t understand it, you probably shouldn’t be trying this.

Another thing to note is that if you have a Wii that is incompatible with BootMii as boot2, and you are trying this anyway, absolutely do not downgrade below 3.2. It is guaranteed to cause a brick.

Breakdown

The System Menu has two major parts: the System Menu itself, and the corresponding IOS. For example, the latest System Menu version is 4.3, and it uses IOS80.

It’s not too often that the same System Menu IOS is used for multiple System Menu versions. The main exception to this rule is System Menu 4.0 and 4.1, which both use IOS60. There are others as well.

When Nintendo updates the System Menu, they also stub out (meaning making it useless) the previous System Menu IOS. For example, IOS70 was stubbed out with the 4.3 update. This creates an extra step when downgrading, as the stubbed IOS must be unstubbed.

Prerequisites

In order to downgrade, you’ll need the following things to start:

  • A Windows computer with internet access
  • A softmodded Wii (make sure that if you have a custom theme installed, you restore the default theme)
  • An SD card, and a way to transfer files to it
  • Wii Mod Lite
  • NUS Downloader
  • BootMii NAND Backup (not required but highly recommended)

Before you begin

Before you start, you need to know a few things:

  • The System Menu version you wish to downgrade to
  • The correct IOS and IOS revision (this is very important) for that System Menu
  • The current region of the victim Wii (the downgraded System Menu must be the same region)

In case you don’t know the second one, here’s a list of all the System Menu versions and their corresponding IOS:

  • Version 4.3 - IOS80 v6944
  • Version 4.2 - IOS70 v6687
  • Version 4.0 and 4.1 - IOS60 v6174
  • Version 3.5 (only released in Korea) - IOS52 v5661
  • Version 3.4 - IOS50 v4889
  • Version 3.3K (this IOS version was only used in Korea and only for 3.3K) - IOS40 v2835
  • Version 3.0-3.3 (For 3.3, this is only for non-Korean regions. If using 3.3K, see above) - IOS30 v2576
  • Version 2.2 - IOS20 v12
  • Version 2.0 and 2.1 - IOS11 v10
  • Version 1.0 - IOS9 v516
  • Version Prelaunch/Wii Startup Disc - IOS4 v3

The Process

  1. Open NUS Downloader, ensure the pack WAD option is checked.
  2. Use NUS Downloader to download the desired System Menu WAD and System Menu IOS WAD
  3. Navigate to the directory where NUS Downloader is located. There will be a folder named title. There may be several folders inside there. Eventually you will find the WAD files that you downloaded
  4. Move these WAD files to a folder on the root of your SD Card named wads
  5. Eject the SD card from the computer and put it in your Wii
  6. Open Wii Mod Lite on the Wii
  7. Navigate to the WAD Manager
  8. Go to the System Menu WAD, and press A to install
  9. When it is complete, go to the System Menu IOS WAD and press A to install
  10. Exit Wii Mod Lite and the Homebrew Channel.
  11. You should now be on your downgraded System Menu

I bricked. Now what?

So you messed up. You bricked your Wii.

If you bricked your Wii, what will happen is no signal will appear on the screen. Your TV may say there is no signal, or the screen may simply be blank.

If this happens, and you don’t have BootMii installed as boot2, well, it’s dead, Jim. You’ll either have to use a hardware NAND programmer or just get a new Wii. It sucks, but in all fairness, I did warn you.

If you do have BootMii installed as boot2, use it to do one of the following things:

  • Restore a NAND backup. This is by far the easiest method, and is a good option if you don’t know exactly what went wrong, or you don’t want to risk messing up again
  • Boot to the Homebrew Channel and use Wii Mod Lite to undo the damage. You can either download a 4.3 WAD and install it, or just correct whatever mistake you made that caused the brick.

Outro

Well, you’ve gotten your downgraded System Menu. Stop, take a look, and ask yourself if this was worth it.