i finally went ahead and installed the wasabi zero mod chip into my wii. i did everything according to the instructions but the chip kept on flashing a red led meaning it wasn't working. the wii turned on just fine and i was able to access the menu screen, but the disc drive wouldn't spin. bear in mind that what i was doing might be construed as slightly illegal, or at the very least void my warranty. having said that, it's not like i can just call up tech support and get some help. when you're doing something illicit, you're pretty much on your own. was the chip itself broken? or maybe just the attachment clip? i had no idea.

fortunately there's still the internet, which provided a possible solution. i came across the idea of gently "massaging" the clip while turning on the wii. sure enough, the red led switched off, a steady green led came on, and the dvd started to spin. success! i managed to play a previously burned copy of boom blox without any problms. once i left the game and went back to the main menu, the chip went back to the red light and stopped working again. after that i could only get the chip to work by pressing down on the clip once more, which meant the clip itself was definite bad (the mod chip was fine).

i got in touch with the place where i bought the wasabi zero. they said they had a 30 day exchange policy on defective merchandise, so i wrote them hoping i could possibly get a replacement. in the meantime, i also looked for a substitute wii clip. only one company makes them, and the clip itself costs $20, almost the entire price of the wasabi zero chip itself ($25), but if it'll fix the problem, it might be worth it. there is however a different solution, one that involves soldering 6 wires from the chip directly to the wii circuit board. unfortunately i don't have that expertise, so i'll rely on a solderless solution for now (not soldering also allows me to revert to an unmodified wii which technically still validates my warranty).

the rest of the day i was working for client N. there's a friday delivery (what's the point? not like anybody will be seriously productive with labor day weekend around the corner) but molly wants both beta versions of the interactives by thursday morning so she can look them over before sending them to the client. i'd been slacking for the past 2 weeks so i put in some major time into the code, programming until 10:00.