The 'Bricked' Wii Thread
Wednesday, June 18
So there I was, about to win the first race in the leaf cup in the 150 cc category when the system just locks up while making a horrible screeching sound. I unplug it immediately to stop the noise and with little fear, I plug the power cord back into my Wii. I am graced with the all reassuring sign of a blue power light and reach for my Wii-mote, when it dawns on me; where's the Press A to continue screen? Matter of fact, why is the no video signal making it to my TV? My Wii-mote flashes its two blue lights a few times and shuts itself off.
Now at this point I start to be a little more concerned. After all, I managed to secure a copy of MLB Power Pros and was really looking forward to a good baseball game for the Wii. I fiddle with the video cables. I fiddle with the power cord. I switch around the Wii-motes. No luck.
Thursday, June 19
Kids soccer keeps me away from the house and working on the Wii. Side note; had to reload Windows at home. A nasty little Trojan found its way onto my system. Damn IE7.
Friday, June 20
MLB Power Pro's shows up in the mail. This is the moment I was dreading. I had assign the games arrival as the day I would call Nintendo tech support for help. I pick up the phone and call. I navigate the phone tree (a 2, a 5, and finally a 0) and end up speaking with a live person. She has me check the video cable for kinks, breaks or chew marks. I have none. At this point she announces; it needs to be shipped in. She quickly confirms the worse; its out of warranty. I need to ship it in. I can save $10 if I drive to Chatsworth (roughly 60 torturous miles north of my location through the heart of downtown Los Angeles). I decline and take the shipping option for an additional 7.50. The repair will cost $75 USD plus the shipping fee and tax. 10 to 11 business days to repair once they get it. And I'm told to have a nice day.
A few minutes later, the email arrives with instructions (English and Spanish) along with instructions on how to get my FedEx labels for shipping it in. I print the whole thing out including the labels and box up the Wii (sans cables or remotes) in the box the baseball game arrived in.
Saturday, June 21
I shipped it in.
Now, I wait. Just a little bummed but very happy with Nintendo's customer support. Quick, easy and to the point.
I hope I don't loose all of the Mii's and such. It will be a pain recreating them all.
Steam Community ID
Mythos Player ID: cejansen
My Wii didn't exactly "brick" on me. One day, Will turned it on and there were colored lines and dots all over the screen in RE4. This happened in every game. In the Wii menu, there were only a few lines but they were black. I checked all of the connections. Colored lines. I bought new cables. Colored lines. Called Nintendo.
Apparently, Wii Connect 24 fried my GPU. I had to send it in for repairs. I bought an SD card so I could copy my saved data before shipping it. Luckily, I received the same system back from there as good as new. No hassle whatsoever.
Now, I keep Wii Connect 24 off permanently.
XBL / Art / Blog / Buy me!
Happened to me. Nintendo got me back a new one 5 days after mine went in the mail. Have no idea how that happened.
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm | Twitter
"Think of it as 'grinding SO rep in the Kitchen instance.' " - Montalban
I had that problem with my Wii too. They call it a "sparkly" problem. It's actually overheating that ruins the video card so it starts artifacting. Also, there's no evidence outside of rumours that Wii Connect 24 has something to do with the problem. All the people who leave it off are just increasing the chances of the problem not showing up until after their warranty ends.
And I agree about the Nintendo customer service. It puts almost every other product or service company to shame. Both times I called (I had a broken Wii remote earlier), I was on hold for less than 5 minutes. I just described the artifacting problem and he filled out a replacement order immediately. No asking me to try turning it off and on or a hundred other things even though it's obviously a hardware problem, a la MS customer service with the red rings. I shipped mine off on a Friday and got the replacement the following Thursday. Highly impressed.
I would think the first rule of PR is to ignore forum people, because they vacillate between crazy and liar. - Elysium
Our Wii hasn't bricked yet but several months ago it started getting the 'loud optical drive' problem. Where before the drive was practically silent now it makes a very audible whine when a disk is loaded. It still hasn't gotten loud enough to be distracting while playing or has affected performance. Just crossing my fingers.
I have to admit, its been a little warm out here. Wonder if I just experienced a thermal issue. Nothing a fan or two wouldn't fix.
Steam Community ID
Mythos Player ID: cejansen
I am pretty sure that the cause for our Wii was Wii Connect 24. Mine is a launch system and there was about a six month time span where didn't use the Wii at all. From the time we stopped playing to the time we purchased RE4, the Wii wasn't used. But Wii Connect 24 was on the entire time. When Will decided to play RE4 was when we first noticed these lines. Six months before, there was no problem.
But I guess if our Wii was part of a bad batch, it could've happened at any time.
XBL / Art / Blog / Buy me!
I started to turn Wii Connect 24 off last night, after reading this thread. But that breaks the news, weather, and Nintendo channels. So I decided to leave it on until I actually have a problem.
Xbox Live: JayhawkerGWJ
last.fm: JayhawkerGWJ
Well, I was talking about how I was reading up on the issue on the phone after the Nintendo service guy asked me how I knew the problem by it's terminology and I said I had read up on it online. He wouldn't tell me what the cause was but he said Wii Connect 24 had nothing to do with it. He said that units running in the standby mode tend to make the problem pop up sooner, but that the numbers that had the issue were not much higher than those not connected to the Internet at all. In fact, the first firmware update was to automatically turn the fan on at a certain temperature in standby mode just to rule it out.
I've read reports that the problem involves a design that can sometimes lead to a poorly placed heatsink causing the GPU to overheat. This makes sense to me because the issue looks exactly like the artifacting that occurs if you're overclocking a video card too much. It also explains why it almost always makes it's first appearance in a 3D title (mine appeared in RE4 as well).
I would think the first rule of PR is to ignore forum people, because they vacillate between crazy and liar. - Elysium
I got it back today.
So, for the record, shipped it on Saturday, June 21st. Received at Nintendo on Tuesday, June 25th. Repair completed and shipped back to me on Monday, June 30th. Total down time: 13 Days; Wednesday, June 18 to Monday, June 30.
Not too shabby. Nice to have a bit of a warranty backing it now. Wonder how long the repair warranty is good for?
EDIT: They sent an entirely new system to me. New friend code, etc. (0560-5986-0659-1200). Bummer. I need to back up my Mii's and friend codes next time.
Steam Community ID
Mythos Player ID: cejansen