Hardware differences? RVT-R vs. Retail

Are there any hardware differences between an RVT-R and a retail Wii. From what I've seen, from the outside, save the green front-plate, they are identical. Are there any special chips inside or is it just a matter of an alternate firmware?

 

Ah, okay, thanks dude

 

-The drive has a different Firmware
-The Wii has a different GPU chip version with the dev keys

all what is different can't be changed.

You can't turn a retail Wii into an RVT-R Reader nor an RVT-R Reader into a retail Wii.

 

So you couldn't do a Rebug for Wii like with PS3? Sucks :/

 

Rebug is nowhere near a real debug ps3.

 

Oh, I was...nevermind, he told me not to talk about it <_< But yeah, anyway, there is no way to flash those chips and convert it?

 

nop, you can't change the key of GPU chip

mhh, but... where is this chip ? on disc drive board ? if i change this board with a retail?

 

-The drive has a different Firmware
^- Assuming the drive is old enough, and you know enough, you could write a modchip which would allow you to read the NR/RVT-R media.

-The Wii has a different GPU chip version with the dev keys
^- You could hack together IOS which used the dev keys or re-sign (fakesign) on the fly (transparent to the user)

Both are very hard things to achieve, and if you have that much talent, why not use it to earn some money and buy a real RVT-R Reader

 

Well I'm just curious, it's nothing I consider pursuing at this time, I'm just wondering if it is at all doable

Edit: Also, I may be mislead on something as well, correct me if I'm wrong. Is an RVT-R actual an effective debugging unit, or is it simply the Wii analogue of the NR-Reader (aka no closer to being a debugger than a retail unit, it simply plays different media and has some firmware tweaks)

 

It has the same debugging features as a retail unit - none

 

Okay, so is the NDEV the only official debugging solution?

 

yes, officially seen yes.

 

Not to pick nits, but there's a little more to it than that:

• The drive firmware is the same as on a retail Wii; it's the low-level controller chip that's different
• Not only does it use a different set of keys and cert chain, but the boot1 hash in OTP is all zeroes, which means boot1 may be modified and reflashed. (No recovery mechanism is present to recover from a failed boot1 flash, however…)
• Some units may come with an extra 64MB of RAM (at least, there's an empty spot you could solder a second GDDR3 chip to)
• Some units have a BT module that supports tethered Wiimotes (RF-over-coax), along with some extra RF connectors on the main board.