3.5 froze and will no longer run

[PunDefeated]

Some background info: I'm using a wii from release, running software version 4.3 U. I was, in the past, running PM from Brawl using the stage builder, but the disk drive started dying, so I transferred to an external HDD. I used Bannerbomb to do the exploit necessary for homebrew, and use USB Loader gx to run the Brawl iso, which immediately boots up PM.

A few days ago, my roommates were playing and the game suddenly froze. They tried restarting, but to no avail. We've had a similar problem before, and reloading the SD card and/or plugging the HDD into the computer for a while always fixed it. However, neither of those options have worked this time.

When we try to load the game through the Brawl disk, we go to stage manager (no stages) and nothing happens. Brawl just keeps running. When we try to go through USB Loader gx, we get a "Waiting for HDD" error for 20 seconds, and then it proceeds without loading the HDD.

Here's all the info:

SD Card: 2 GB, has USB Loader gx, Project M Launcher, DOP-mii and d2x-cios-installer in the apps folder. I've tried reverting it to the backup I have saved on my computer, but no luck.
HDD: 200 GB, connected with a USB cable. Only the brawl iso on it.
cIOS: 37 v5663, in slot 249.

Things I've Tried:
I HAVE checked that the USB ports on the back of the wii are functioning by plugging my mouse into them. It lights up.
I HAVE checked that the HDD is still formatted correctly using WBFS Manager 3.0
I HAVE replaced all the files on the SD card
I HAVE tried the HDD in both USB ports.
I HAVE tried the SD card and brawl on a DIFFERENT Wii. It didn't work. This is especially bizarre.

Things I haven't Tried:
I HAVE NOT reformatted the HDD and recopied the Brawl iso to it.
I HAVE NOT softmodded the second Wii
I HAVE NOT tried without the dop-mii and d2x-cios-installers on the SD card

Has anyone seen something like this? Do you know of other USB loader packages we might try using?
Does anyone know how to go about fixing this?

If you need any more info, let me know and I'll add it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PunDefeated]

SOLVED IT.

After fiddling with the wii all morning, I got 3.5 up and running again. Here's what I think was going on, and what I had to do.

I think the wii "forgot" to to read/use the HDD. Actually. Something wasn't registering, and when the USB cord was plugged into the port, it wasn't powering the HDD. I figured this out in a few steps. I plugged a 2nd HDD into a 2nd wii, and made sure it powered up. Then I plugged the original HDD (the one with the brawl iso) into the 2nd wii as well, and the wii powered it up.
Next, I plugged the 2nd HDD into the original wii in port 0, and it powered up. Finally, I plugged the original HDD back into port 0 on the original wii. It powered up and I could run 3.5 through USB Loader gx again.

Hope this is helpful to anyone who has a similar problem in the future.