One and Only "____ is wrong with my Wii" General Questions/Help Topic.

oh I don't know! when I put in my serial # it said it would be $75. I'll call them. called it is $75.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Putting my serial number in tells me $75 too. I guess I need to try to get this done soon. My disk drive is louder than my air conditioner :cry:

It's pretty safe right? I won't lose my game saves? That's all I really care about.
 
[quote name='cag1125']So...judging by the number of posts on this thread, that the Wii in general breaks easily?[/QUOTE]

No, but your question leaves a lot to consider. For example, does the owner have a large population of Tazmanian devils in their house? Then yes - it probably breaks easily during their whirlwind dances of doom.

I'd imagine a failure rate of 1-2% of so, which is average for Nintendo products, but well below the average for other companies/consumer products.

This thread is 2 years old, with 400 posts, half of which are Wolfpup complaining. Low rate, like some credit cards like to advertise.
 
[quote name='Daisydog']Putting my serial number in tells me $75 too. I guess I need to try to get this done soon. My disk drive is louder than my air conditioner :cry:

It's pretty safe right? I won't lose my game saves? That's all I really care about.[/QUOTE]

Copy them to an SD card if you can. For some unknown reason a lot of Wii games have DRM on the save games, but a lot don't. Also for some unknown reason you have to first launch a game on the Wii before you can copy a save file back.

[quote name='cag1125']So...judging by the number of posts on this thread, that the Wii in general breaks easily?[/QUOTE]

I don't know if it's a lot really. From here and other things I hear (and my own experiences) it seems like it's the least reliable Nintendo system, at any rate. Gamecube failures were really rare. Whatever drive they're using, it sure seems to be junkier than the Gamecube's Panasonic drive.
 
Yay, my Wii once again has the stupid pixel defect. Starting to notice it during Animal Crossing. I thought I was safe finally.

Third Wii now.

EDIT:
I don't get it. Why does this happen?
It just sits on a cool glass platform, all by it's lonesome, open air, minimal use, never moves.

It should be just fine.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Copy them to an SD card if you can. For some unknown reason a lot of Wii games have DRM on the save games, but a lot don't. Also for some unknown reason you have to first launch a game on the Wii before you can copy a save file back.
[/quote]
Thank you. I will try that today. I doubt animal crossing, mario kart, or brawl data can be saved to an sd card, so if I get a different unit back I guess all of that will be gone :cry:

Well, it's only the disk drive. Maybe they can fix it without touching the memory :pray:
 
[quote name='dallow']Yay, my Wii once again has the stupid pixel defect. Starting to notice it during Animal Crossing. I thought I was safe finally.

Third Wii now.

EDIT:
I don't get it. Why does this happen?
It just sits on a cool glass platform, all by it's lonesome, open air, minimal use, never moves.

It should be just fine.[/QUOTE]

I'm kind of guessing it's the same issue ('defect') that's hit the last gen Nvidia parts and the Xbox 360? Although it was a 90nm part...not sure if that's been fixed.

What's really weird about the Wii's reliability to me though is that the Gamecube was made at this point 7 years ago, and never had widespread drive or GPU issues.

Though if you're just getting back refurbs, that could be why. Maybe they've fixed it?

My last Wii was fine in terms of the GPU at least.
 
Well I copied 16 games to an sd card. 7 of them wouldn't go (Brawl, AC, & Kart in that list :cry:)

Is it really a good idea to send it in? For now the only problem is the noise. I have had disk read errors in the past, but not lately. I just don't know if it's worth the cost, and the possible lost saved data would be a huge let down.

I see youtube videos on how to fix it and those involve opening the wii, taking out the disk drive, and leaving a screw unscrewed. Also attaching plastic somewhere? I got scared when I had to take apart my dvd player the other day! It would be easier if my brother would support me on this, but he just keeps saying, "do whatever" :lol:


This video is very similar to what my Wii sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsmBFP1LtwA
 
[quote name='Daisydog']Well I copied 16 games to an sd card. 7 of them wouldn't go (Brawl, AC, & Kart in that list :cry:)

Is it really a good idea to send it in? For now the only problem is the noise. I have had disk read errors in the past, but not lately. I just don't know if it's worth the cost, and the possible lost saved data would be a huge let down.[/quote]

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it, but Nintendo has finally released the Wii Lens Cleaning Kit stateside. As of now, it's only available from Nintendo's online store, but it may be an option to try if you're hesitant to send your system in.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it, but Nintendo has finally released the Wii Lens Cleaning Kit stateside. As of now, it's only available from Nintendo's online store, but it may be an option to try if you're hesitant to send your system in.
 
[quote name='alison']I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it, but Nintendo has finally released the Wii Lens Cleaning Kit stateside. As of now, it's only available from Nintendo's online store, but it may be an option to try if you're hesitant to send your system in.[/QUOTE]

Seems to me that one of these should be included in every new console package.
 
I suppose I may as well join the party and describe the problem that I'm having - ever since I started playing AC:CF, I've noticed a horizontal line appear on the screen every few minutes. It's in the vicinity of the menu tabs, and disappears after a second or two. I also noticed it briefly while playing Shaun White Snowboarding last night (although, given the speed of the game and the fact that my eyes weren't focused on that portion of the screen, it may have appeared more often than I noticed it). Based on a bit of research, the line looks like screen/video tearing. I just posted this problem on the WiiChat forums, where it appears that someone has the same issue and blames it on the latest update (which, if I remember, was required for AC:CF) and 480p - he doesn't see the issue when switching to 480i. I sure as heck didn't see this line before AC:CF, and have yet to try switching my output to 480i and seeing if the line doesn't appear.

So...anyone else had this problem?
 
[quote name='yukine']I only get that line while playing AC, I figured it had to be some video glitch with the game...[/quote]

Well, I'm glad that I'm not the only one. To be fair, I'm not completely sure that I saw it while playing Shaun White (there are various "effects" during gameplay that I may have confused it with), but I've definitely seen it multiple times during AC.

I really don't want there to be a problem w/ my Wii.

Here's a question for you - are you running the game at 480p or 480i?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='alison']I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned it, but Nintendo has finally released the Wii Lens Cleaning Kit stateside. As of now, it's only available from Nintendo's online store, but it may be an option to try if you're hesitant to send your system in.[/QUOTE]

Hmm...I wonder if this would help my dying Wii somehow. Maybe I should give it a try. Doesn't SEEM like it would do any good, but who knows.
 
[quote name='yukine']480p / 16:9.[/QUOTE]

Same here. Just for shits and giggles, I did what the other guy on the WiiChat board suggested and switched it to 480i. After playing for nearly an hour this morning, the horizontal line didn't appear. Looks to be a problem w/ the 480p setting. If you get a chance, you may want to try out a few minutes on 480i and see if you get the same result.
 
I'm getting the dead pixels of doom. I had my Wii since near launch and recently turned it on for the first time in months. I'm undecided if i want to spend the $75 just to fix it right now. The problem is pretty easily ignorable and at this rate only bothers me in a few games. Wasnt noticeable in brawl but was in mario kart.
 
Does anyone have a list of game saves that cannot be copied onto an SD card? I don't want to lose all my saves when I send the machine back to Nintendo, but if the games I own have save files that can't be copied, I'll not waste time and money getting an SD card.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']Does anyone have a list of game saves that cannot be copied onto an SD card? I don't want to lose all my saves when I send the machine back to Nintendo, but if the games I own have save files that can't be copied, I'll not waste time and money getting an SD card.[/quote] I copied what I could before I sent mine out but when I got a different machine back EVERYTHING was on the new one. I'm not sure if this is SOP or I just got lucky as hell.
 
I'm lucky to have a Nintendo HQ locally, so I just hop on in when I need some repairs.

What they do is they will use a special disc and transfer ALL YOUR DATA to the new wii if they are replacing the unit, otherwise they will just repair your unit and send it back.
 
[quote name='mickeyp']I got mine at launch and now I am getting can't read the disc errors on all games. Please anyone know what to do ?[/quote]

Well I am happy to report that my wii came home today safe and sound. :)
I shipped it fedex last friday and it came back today. They fixed it and sent the same one back. I am so glad to have it back and so is my son. I am happy with the quick service as well.
 
My wii is safely home too :bouncy: and all of my information is still there.

The paper just says that they replaced damaged components. The disk drive makes some new noises but seems to be running fine. Now I would compare it to a small fan rather than a hover boat :lol:


If anyone would like a timeline:
Dropped it into a fed ex drop box on January 2nd
Nintendo received it (or at least signed for it) on January 6th
It was mailed back to me on January 7th
I received it today on January 12th


That's a super fast turn around! It might have even been faster had I not mailed it so late in the week.
Thank you for the reassurance on my save data guys :) I'm happy with the repair and everything turned out OK. Hopefully I won't be returning to this thread with a problem anytime soon.
 
Ok, so here's what happened to me...

Have been having random freezes for a while now - usually when just starting up a game (during that annoying "attach your strap" screen) or when leaving channels (freezes during the black screen that comes up just before returning to the Wii menu).

My kids wanted to play World of Goo but it kept freezing on the "wii strap" warning page. This happened 4 or 5 times in a row (turning it off via the power switch each time was the only way to get out). It was a new thing that this was happening pretty consistently. So I figure, OK, I'll delete World of Goo and redownload it - maybe the file was corrupt or something.

I go into the channel management page. I have about 124 blocks free and World of Goo is 370 or so. I delete it and it says "Erasing" for well over 20 minutes. It isn't frozen as I can use the pointer and get the slash though the home icon if I try to go back to the Wii menu. Eventually, though, I realize something is wrong and I have to turn it off.

When I turn it back on, World of Goo is gone. However, if I go into the save data/channel utility, I SEE NOTHING FOR EITHER. It just shows a blank page and doesn't tell me how much I have free either. It also does not let me select the SD card. It is like it is still working on figuring out what's there and never does. If I quit to the Wii menu it freezes at the black screen every time.

OK, so I turn off/restart again and go to see if I can redownload World of Goo. When I try it says I do not have enough space and that I should go into the Wii system settings and clear some space (bastards - I tried to and no longer can do anything there :bomb:).

On the plus side, it seems that although I cannot view any of my game saves, they seem to be intact. I played Animal Crossing with no problem.

So, I bascially have a brain-dead Wii in which I can no longer download anything new or manage my saves or channels in any way. However, I can still play what I have. I guess I need to contact Nintendo but I just want to say a giant big fuck you to them for not providing a backup solution to this piece of crap system they have. I have some stuff backed up on my SD card, but of course all the better games do not allow you to copy stuff over (SSBB, Animal Crossing, etc). If I could do that, I'd just trash this system and get a new one. I guess I'll contact them and give 'em hell for not having a backup solution and hope they offer to fix it for free. Bah... I just don't want to deal with all this crap. It sucks, though, that we can no longer play the game of the year since it crapped out and won't redownload now :bomb:...
 
The inability to backup is total BS, absolutely agreed. They locked the save on Animal Crossing for the Gamecube too for reasons I don't know, and on the Wii it seems like almost every save is locked. It does make me want to install homebrew if it really does allow for backing up and restoring such saves. In any case, best of luck with the repair.
 
I've been dealing with the "flashing pixels" and they are hardly noticeable, if at all noticeable on Mario Galax. They are pretty noticeable on the main screen and cooking mama. I've given up on sending my Wii for repair ATM since I use this console once a week if that. I wonder how long before the pixels get worst/the system blows up :p
 
I know this thread isn't very active , but I wonder if anyone knows what the chances are for the wii's power supply to fail , and if nintendo would replace that (hopefully at no charge).

To outline my problem , my system won't power on at all. However , when I brought my system out to the family room where my brothers system is and plugged it in with the power supply from their wii it comes on. Is it possible to be another problem BESIDES the power supply?
 
[quote name='StarKnightX']I know this thread isn't very active , but I wonder if anyone knows what the chances are for the wii's power supply to fail , and if nintendo would replace that (hopefully at no charge).

To outline my problem , my system won't power on at all. However , when I brought my system out to the family room where my brothers system is and plugged it in with the power supply from their wii it comes on. Is it possible to be another problem BESIDES the power supply?[/quote]
It could be a problem with the outlet it's plugged into unless you checked that. Not sure if they would replace it - you can get a new one on the nintendo store for $20.
 
[quote name='tsmvengy']It could be a problem with the outlet it's plugged into unless you checked that. Not sure if they would replace it - you can get a new one on the nintendo store for $20.[/quote]

Yep , already been tried. Guess I'll check with nintendo themselves and see whats up. I'm going to try a few other things though first just in case.
 
If your Wii is still under warranty then your power source is still under the 1 yr. They will replace it during that time. It typically is a fuse located inside the power source itself. After the one year warranty you would have to pay to get it fixed.

In that case your better off picking up a $20 power source on ebay or at a local store.
 
I can't get my Wii to connect to the internet. I've had it for awhile now, it was connected before. Nothing changed, I didn't play it for a bit though. I turned it on the other day and tried connecting to check for updates and it wouldnt work. At first it gave me one error and now it's giving me error code 50302 or something like that.

I've tried all the things it says to do, switching the channel number, mixed mode, etc.

anyone else experience this problem?
 
[quote name='MrDubbs']I can't get my Wii to connect to the internet. I've had it for awhile now, it was connected before. Nothing changed, I didn't play it for a bit though. I turned it on the other day and tried connecting to check for updates and it wouldnt work. At first it gave me one error and now it's giving me error code 50302 or something like that.

I've tried all the things it says to do, switching the channel number, mixed mode, etc.

anyone else experience this problem?[/quote]

If you haven't used it in a while, is it possible that you've introduced a new 'node' on your network? Is anything else wirelessly connected to your router that wasn't before? I know I keep my router set to allow only 2 wireless connections at a time. It might be that any additional connections to your router are being rejected.

Just a thought. Good luck.
 
I've been going crazy trying to find a straight answer to this issue. Please offer suggestions, CAGers.

My download speed on my wired PC is just under 7Mb.
My download speed on my wife's crappy wireless work laptop is just under 6Mb.
My download speed on my wireless Wii is about 3.5Mb.

I can't get a steady stream of video from Youku.com and that makes my soul sad. Youtube is fine, but I want my Youku.

Is it my router? Is it just the Wii?

Any help is greatly appreciated...
 
How do I know how many my router is set up for? I have a linksys router

Edit: I turned of the security temporarily to see if that will help. The Wii connected fine, and it's updating.. What would stop it from being able to connect with security on though?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='MrDubbs']How do I know how many my router is set up for? I have a linksys router

Edit: I turned of the security temporarily to see if that will help. The Wii connected fine, and it's updating.. What would stop it from being able to connect with security on though?[/quote]

I'm a total amateur at this stuff, but I'll log into my router this weekend (I'm at work, currently) and I'll find where that setting is on mine. I've got D-Link from 2005. The jist is that you change the final set of numbers in one of the IP addresses to the number of nodes you want to allow. So, mine would be a '2'. Like I said, I'm no pro, so I'll try to get you a screen shot or an explanation.

Glad you at least got it online!
 
[quote name='MrDubbs']How do I know how many my router is set up for? I have a linksys router

Edit: I turned of the security temporarily to see if that will help. The Wii connected fine, and it's updating.. What would stop it from being able to connect with security on though?[/quote]

Looks like this feature is under DHCP. My router IP is 192.168.0.1, so I have to set the last set of numbers in the "Ending IP Address" to 102 if I want only two connections. It would be 103 for three connections, and so on. Hope that helps.
 
With mine it looks like I can have up to 50 which is weird, because I only have 2 wireless PCs that access the router. My Ps3 I have wired, and my 360 is wired
 
Does the Wii support WPA2? (ie real security)? The setting would have to be the same for both, and you'd want to turn off TKIP on the router if you can.
 
[quote name='io']Ok, so here's what happened to me...

Have been having random freezes for a while now - usually when just starting up a game (during that annoying "attach your strap" screen) or when leaving channels (freezes during the black screen that comes up just before returning to the Wii menu).

My kids wanted to play World of Goo but it kept freezing on the "wii strap" warning page. This happened 4 or 5 times in a row (turning it off via the power switch each time was the only way to get out). It was a new thing that this was happening pretty consistently. So I figure, OK, I'll delete World of Goo and redownload it - maybe the file was corrupt or something.

I go into the channel management page. I have about 124 blocks free and World of Goo is 370 or so. I delete it and it says "Erasing" for well over 20 minutes. It isn't frozen as I can use the pointer and get the slash though the home icon if I try to go back to the Wii menu. Eventually, though, I realize something is wrong and I have to turn it off.

When I turn it back on, World of Goo is gone. However, if I go into the save data/channel utility, I SEE NOTHING FOR EITHER. It just shows a blank page and doesn't tell me how much I have free either. It also does not let me select the SD card. It is like it is still working on figuring out what's there and never does. If I quit to the Wii menu it freezes at the black screen every time.

OK, so I turn off/restart again and go to see if I can redownload World of Goo. When I try it says I do not have enough space and that I should go into the Wii system settings and clear some space (bastards - I tried to and no longer can do anything there :bomb:).

On the plus side, it seems that although I cannot view any of my game saves, they seem to be intact. I played Animal Crossing with no problem.

So, I bascially have a brain-dead Wii in which I can no longer download anything new or manage my saves or channels in any way. However, I can still play what I have. I guess I need to contact Nintendo but I just want to say a giant big fuck you to them for not providing a backup solution to this piece of crap system they have. I have some stuff backed up on my SD card, but of course all the better games do not allow you to copy stuff over (SSBB, Animal Crossing, etc). If I could do that, I'd just trash this system and get a new one. I guess I'll contact them and give 'em hell for not having a backup solution and hope they offer to fix it for free. Bah... I just don't want to deal with all this crap. It sucks, though, that we can no longer play the game of the year since it crapped out and won't redownload now :bomb:...[/QUOTE]

Lordy, I didn't realize it has been this long. After an initial email to Nintendo support to which they replied, "sounds like a problem, you need to call in" I finally got around to calling in today (May 4th - nearly 4 months after I had this problem). We've been playing it sparingly since then but games like SSBB and Wii Sports work fine. I still can't manage the saves and channels in any way (the saves and channels tabs are all white, it won't let me select the SD tab, and it freezes when I try to go back to the main menu). I didn't want to download the new system update for fear that would be too much new data written to the memory (and may corrupt it permanently).

Anyway, after she had me do some stupid stuff (unplugging the system and restarting it) she figured it needed to be sent in. Even though I'm way out of warranty she said they'll do a one-time waiver of that. Unfortunately, when she sent me an email with repair instuctions it included the $85 charge. So now I have an email out to them about that just making sure I'm not actually paying for anything. Because I'd rather just try reformatting the memory than paying $85 even though that means losing my AC/SSBB/etc saves. She said they will have a good chance of recovering the saves if I send it in (since they all do still work). I certainly hope so. Worst case is they simply reformat it AND then try to charge me :bomb:.

If, on the other hand, they manage to recover the saves and don't charge me then Nintendo will be my favorite company once again. I was so pissed over this happening (in conjunction with their crappy storage solution and non-copyable save files) that they went to a distant third there for a while. But then a few days ago my 360 Elite red ringed. So it appears I will have both sent off at the same time :lol:. Just have to say that this gen is full of crap hardware compared to last. My Gamecube and PS2 still work just fine. (And of course no problems with my PS3 yet but I just got it in December whereas the Wii is 2 1/2 years old and the 360 is 2 years old).
 
Got my brand new Wii from the Amazon trade-in deal that just occurred. Got my kids all excited about it when it arrived. Set it up, connected it to the wireless router with ease, put in Wii Sports and...

An error has occurred...

After multiple attempts at solving and re-orienting the Wii itself and all manner of voodoo, I had to call customer service. Because a borrowed copy of Raving Rabbids works just fine, they are sending a new Wii Sports disk, which I will not get until after the holiday weekend.

Bravo Nintendo. And Bravo me, for getting my kids' hopes up and then making them cry. I should know better.
 
Did anyone have problems with the 1019 Gamecube memory cards? So far every time I save the game in Pokemon Colosseum the data gets corrupted, so I basically can't play the game at all. This happened to my RE4 save too. I've read somewhere that it happens to certain games but only using the 1019 mc. Anyone knows a way to get over that except buying a 251 mc?
 
"Invalid format" error on my TV when I try playing VC (NES) games. I'm hooked up via component cables on the Wii. :(
 
How difficult is it to pull the cord out of a nunchuck connector? I was playing MadWorld earlier for the first time and I did one of the motions where you move the nunchuck & remote in opposite directions and I pulled the cord taut. No problems as far as I can see but it did make me utter "Oh shit."
 
Does anyone have a problem with the Wii creating circular scratches on their discs? By that I mean that the scratch goes around the disc, and clearly was put there as the disc rotated. We've had 3 games ruined by this (give "disc read" errors"), most recently Wii Sports Resort which we just got for xmas. We haven't bumped the system at all, yet this has happened. It's not all the time, but it clearly is happening. I've tried using the (official) cleaning disc, and of course cleaning the disc itself, without luck. I presume the disc read error is happening due to these scratches.

I'm not sure if sending the Wii in for repair is going to do any good since it isn't a problem that happens every time a disc is played, but now that we've lost 3 top tier games due to this (Mario Kart Wii, Animal Crossing and now Wii Sports Resort), I'm going to send it in and hope for the best. Of course there are all the dire warnings about possibly losing save data, and that has me wary. In any case I tried to go through the process of starting a repair, and the web site keeps giving me a java error message about a missing resource at the last step (after clicking "finalize the order" or some such button name). So that's another problem I wanted to ask if others had seen. I will try again tomorrow. Hopefully that's just a temporary website issue. I've tried using Safari, Firefox and even Firefox in Windows. All give the same problem.
 
I'm getting weird pixels/artifacts showing up on the screen now. Is that the whole GPU is screwed up thing? It's not permanent though. They disappear and reappear every few minutes. The Wii is about 3 years old now, so I doubt it's still under warranty. Would the best solution be to buy a new Wii? Or is there a DIY way to fix it? Or could it just be the component cables? I don't think I really noticed it when it was through composite... the colors look kinda washed out too. The cables are the official Nintendo ones too. =p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top