Sent Wii in for repair - LOST EVERYTHING.

UncleBob

UncleBob

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So, my Wii died. I sent it in for repairs and, since it was out of warranty, I paid $75.

I received it back without any explanation as to what was wrong with the system. Nothing telling me what was fixed. Did I do something wrong that broke it? Is there something I need to do to prevent it from happening again? Who knows? I called in (before reconnecting my Wii) to find out and the guy I spoke with told me it was probably nothing I did. So, I paid $75 to fix my Wii that broke through no fault of my own.

Then, I hook it up.

None of my downloads are showing up. After updating my Wii (it had been reverted to v3.3), I was able to check the Wii Shop - and sure enough, all of my purchased games were showing up. Yay.
However, none of my games that I had already downloaded and copied to my SD card would load. This means I get the pleasure of downloading every single game *again*. And moving them over to my SD card *again*.

Next up, my Photo Channel v1.0 had been replaced with v1.1 - and there's no option to revert back. This means I lost the ability to play MP3's - something I was told my WIi would do when I purchased.

Finally - and most importantly, EVERY SINGLE PIECE of my saved data is gone.
1.) All Save Files - including my unlocked stuff in Brawl and Mario Kart, my Animal Crossing file, my Wii Sports and Wii Fit records, my Twilight Princess, Paper Mario and Mario Galaxy save files - every single save file (including VC and Wii Ware saves). Gone.
2.) Every single Mii I created and my collection that had been sent to me - Gone.
3.) All of my Messages on my message board - Gone.
4.) All of my photos, including those sent to me, photos from the Check Mii Out channel and Pokémon Snap photos - Gone.
5.) All of my stats from the Check Mii Out Channel and Everybody Votes channel - Gone.
6.) All of my Friend Codes - Gone. Resetting the games up will give me new Friend Codes.

Everything - Gone.

And before someone suggests that I should have backed up my data before sending in my Wii - the system would not turn on, so it would have been impossible. Additionally, some of this data cannot be backed up because the files are locked.

For the privilege of all of this, I got to pay $75. I don't make a lot of money. The money that went to this "repair" came from what I had set aside for Wii Sports Resort and a second Wii Motion Plus. So, that's gone too.
 
I feel your pain. My xbox 360 broke recently but I had the option of transferring the data into the new hard drive. Anyway tough luck about that I also have a wii but I barely use it, mostly to entertain the cousins that show up from time to time. This basically shows that nintendo have very poor support for the consumer.
 
Wow, that is rough. I got lucky when I sent my Wii in, everything was still ok (my disk drive failed so i think they just replaced it). Sorry to hear about that, sounds like a lot of time was lost.
 
[quote name='hero101']is that your e-mail and phone number near your sig? You better remove it or you might get spammed.[/QUOTE]

Spam? On the internet? Never... ;)

It's been in my signature for 10 years now, on several different sites. Never once had a problem with it. You'd be surprised. ;)
 
About the Miis...could've put them on your Wiimote(s) if you had the chance, or you could've asked Nintendo to preserve them. The same about the photos on the message board (I got mine saved when I had to send it in; I asked). In fact, pretty much everything was saved because I asked, but maybe the circumstances were different.

And yeah, I know the pain about having to download every channel again. I guess it was a safety feature (a stupid one) that they put in place. As for save files...with the exception of the wifi games (notably Brawl and Mario Kart) you should've backed them up. Why you can't put Brawl and MK saves on SD cards without modding your system is beyond me.
 
Unfortunately, my Wii just decided it didn't want to turn on one day - with absolutely no warning that anything was ever wrong. I had no reason to think about backing anything up - and considering the three main games (Mario Kart, Brawl and Animal Crossing) won't even let you back them up, there's not anything to be done about that.
Of course, there's no way to save message board messages and I don't think Check Mii Out/Pokémon Snap photos can be saved to the SD card. Nothing I can do about the Friend Codes. Nothing I can do about the loss of Photo Channel v1.0.
 
I got nothing to add here besides that sucks and I'm sorry. Ouch.

Most of the losses wouldn't be too bad, but I'd be more than a little upset to lose my game saves.
 
I would check the serial number and see if it's actually the same console. I don't know why the photo channel would update and the firmware would downgrade when they repair it, so maybe you got a different one and they didn't copy over your saved data because you didn't ask?

That seems to be the operative part in everything I've read about people sending their Wiis in ... you need to ask that everything on your console stay there/saved and added to the next. This is stupid, though. Nintendo should have a system in place that notifies the customer about the ramifications and potential rectifications.
 
[quote name='snipegod']
That seems to be the operative part in everything I've read about people sending their Wiis in ... you need to ask that everything on your console stay there/saved and added to the next. This is stupid, though. Nintendo should have a system in place that notifies the customer about the ramifications and potential rectifications.[/QUOTE]

That may be the case in some circumstances, but I had the same experience as the OP. My Wii wouldn't power up, I sent it in and paid $70, and I specifically asked that all my VC games/Miis/save data be preserved. I got my Wii back (same serial number), but everything had been wiped out. They included a sheet that said something like, "For technical reasons, we were unable to preserve your data" and instructions for re-downloading my VC games. Pretty frustrating.
 
Im surprised they didnt warn you about that, when I had to send mine in (well, didnt have to. But it was being a little wonkey so I sent it in while it was still under warranty.) they told me to be sure I back up any important saves or games because they may need to be deleted. They werent deleted, but they still warned me.

That really sucks that you lost all your stuff, have to get crackin on brawl again, eh?
 
my wii wouldn't turn on the other day, turned to to be a faulty power cord. Worked like a charm once I got a new power cord. Idk if it had anything to do with leaving my system on standby (yellow light).
 
[quote name='TimPV3']I'm just giggling because you're upset your Wii won't play MP3s.[/QUOTE]

It might seem minor, but when my 500+ CDs are already ripped into the MP3 format, it's nice to not have to mess around with them all over again.
 
Yeah, I went through the same thing about 8 months ago. Total shutdown one day, unrecoverable.

Of course, it was not long after I had loaded just about all of the pokenmon out of my DS cartridge into Pokemon Ranch.
 
That must suck losing all your save files.

Downloading all the games from the Wii Shop Channel shouldn't be that big a problem, though. You don't have to get them all at the same time. I would just download each game, one at a time, when I fell like playing it.
 
It's not a big problem, just annoying. Especially the fact that the ones I had on my SD card (most of them) won't play now.
 
after a storm, mine wouldn't turn on. read some threads on nintendo forums that said any time the power goes off to unplug it for about 10 mins & let the auto-shutoff feature reset. thank GOD it worked in my case. very sorry 2 hear about ur situation. now u know for next time
 
That's awful. $75 AND to lose everything? Just awful.
The problem is that a lot of save files you can NOT back up. This could all be avoided if ALL save files could be copied to an SD card.

But that's asking a lot. Ya know, for a feature to work.
 
i remember reading that leaving the wii on even in standby mode the network adapter in it could get too hot and damage the system.
 
Yeah, that's the reason I don't leave it on standby/wiiconnect24. My Wii got hot as fuck so I just turn off completely.

Anyway, maybe the heat fried the hard drive and that's why they couldn't save your stuff? But, I dunno. At least Brawl is so much easier than Melee that it shouldn't take too long to get a respectable save back. Either way, that really sucks. I'd call Nintendo and complain. If they get enough complaints and they're valid, Nintendo has no choice but to listen or else they will lose customers. Especially when you consider that many of their customers aren't techsavvy, so if word gets out that the customer service is crap, many older folk might just say it's not worth it.
 
[quote name='Chronis']

Especially when you consider that many of their customers aren't techsavvy, so if word gets out that the customer service is crap, many older folk might just say it's not worth it.[/QUOTE]

The thing is, many of the "older folk" don't mind losing a save file for Wii Sports or Wii Play.
 
[quote name='hero101']Since I have viewed this thread, I have backed up all my saves and game applications.[/QUOTE]

Glad I could help! ;)
 
Stories like this make me worried. My disc slot stopped working with some games a while ago, so I finally got around to sending my Wii in a few days ago. I'm hoping I didn't lose anything, and I wrote down my main friend code and serial number just to be sure they give me the same one. But I'm hoping that I don't lose my major saves.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']It's not a big problem, just annoying. Especially the fact that the ones I had on my SD card (most of them) won't play now.[/QUOTE]

Maybe this is a stupid suggestion, but are they not playing because they just can't play on this Wii, or because you haven't updated the firmware to the version that allows channels to play from SD cards?
 
[quote name='_heretic']Maybe this is a stupid suggestion, but are they not playing because they just can't play on this Wii, or because you haven't updated the firmware to the version that allows channels to play from SD cards?[/QUOTE]

Won't play on this Wii.
Funny thing though - if I download the game again onto my Wii, then I can play the game from the SD card (the earlier copy, not a new one)
 
I have a question for people who paid to get their Wii repaired. The last CSR I talked to today originally told me that it would cost $75 plus shipping & possibly tax. But after I gave him my serial number, he read ALL of the stuff that the previous CSR wrote up in my notes (it was a lot of notes). He asked me a few more questions and then set up a repair number for me.

When I look up my repair number on their website, it says total due is $0.00. Would it say $75 right away if they were charging me for it? Is my repair actually going to be free or can they still change the total due once they have my Wii and have fixed it?? Just wondering how this repair tracking works. The CSR never asked me for any payment details.

I really hope they can keep all of my data intact, but I'm going to be backing up as much stuff as possible. Too bad I can't back up any of my wifi enabled saves.
 
[quote name='Lone_Prodigy']I may have missed it, but have you contacted Nintendo with this issue?[/QUOTE]

Yup. They were nice enough about it, but pretty much told me I was out of luck, nothing could be done.

[quote name='Miranda']I have a question for people who paid to get their Wii repaired. The last CSR I talked to today originally told me that it would cost $75 plus shipping & possibly tax. But after I gave him my serial number, he read ALL of the stuff that the previous CSR wrote up in my notes (it was a lot of notes). He asked me a few more questions and then set up a repair number for me.

When I look up my repair number on their website, it says total due is $0.00. Would it say $75 right away if they were charging me for it? Is my repair actually going to be free or can they still change the total due once they have my Wii and have fixed it?? Just wondering how this repair tracking works. The CSR never asked me for any payment details.

I really hope they can keep all of my data intact, but I'm going to be backing up as much stuff as possible. Too bad I can't back up any of my wifi enabled saves.[/QUOTE]

Nothing is due until they fix the system. It'll show $0 until they receive/repair.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']
Nothing is due until they fix the system. It'll show $0 until they receive/repair.[/QUOTE]

Oh, darn. I was hoping that I just got lucky like someone else I know who sent in their Wii out of warranty and got it fixed for free.

Did Nintendo also provide you with a prepaid shipping label or did you have to print & pay for your own? They gave me a link to print a prepaid label. I was expecting to have to pay for that too since the guy said $75 plus shipping.

I guess we'll see what happens once they get it. It's going straight to NOA HQ in WA and not the CA repair facility. I know they have a repair place in CA since that's where I sent my DS Lite when the hinge cracked.
 
Mine went to the repair facility in California. Never sending anything there ever again. ;)

They offered the prepaid label thing, but since I don't have a printer, I just shipped it myself (pre-paid label option costs $10 extra.)
 
[quote name='UncleBob']Mine went to the repair facility in California. Never sending anything there ever again. ;)

They offered the prepaid label thing, but since I don't have a printer, I just shipped it myself (pre-paid label option costs $10 extra.)[/QUOTE]

The guy I talked to today didn't even tell me the costs for shipping if it was provided through them. He started to ask me if I wanted a label and stopped himself mid-sentence and just went ahead and made one for me after asking if I had a printer. You'd think if they were going to charge me for it, they'd want me to know exactly how much I'd be paying for it. Which kind of makes me think even more that they're covering the costs.
 
I feel for you. I like my wii, but I wish Nintendo would really think it over about some of the "features" of the console with things tied to the serial, but it is what it is for now.

My wii "died" on me once too. I was about to go through the whole repair process but through a few searches, the possibility of the power cord issue was brought up as mentioned by one of the previous poster here. Thinking that's worth a try, I asked one of my co-worker to bring in his power so I can try and that if it is ok, I was going to buy the power adapter. He said, no worry, you wont' have to do that either. So... at work, I connected my wii and my power, didn't work, connected my wii and his power adapter, it booted up! I ejected my Madworld disc and then connected my wii back with my power adapter and wouldn't you know it, it booted and I've been using my same equipment ever since.

obviously, there are many reason why an equipment may die and the power is just one issue, but it it is worth a try to borrow the adapter from a friend or a local store before you hand it to Nintendo for repair.
 
Wow, missed this thread. I had a small problem with my Wii (caused I think by World of Goo - those bastards OWE me!). That game started to freeze and wouldn't get past the startup screen so I decided to try deleting it and redownloading it. When I tried to delete it, it was taking nearly an hour to do so. I knew this was bad news and eventually I had to turn off the Wii. When I started it back up everything appeared fine, and World of Goo was gone. However, when I went to the data management utility, the Wii would freeze on that page and would not load the game saves or Wii channel info.

Now, I could play everything just fine and use my Miis and my game saves (including Animal Crossing) and everything else. However, World of Goo didn't properly delete so I could not redownload it (not enough room it said) and I couldn't manage anything with regards to the saves or channels.

After about 2 months of basically avoiding playing the Wii I finally called Nintendo and got them to fix it for free. They even assured me that my game saves would be restored if at all possible. So I sent it in. I almost had Strell or someone take all my AC game items/money just in case but I was too busy to deal with that so I never set that up.

Well, I got the machine back pretty damn fast but was devastated to find out exactly what you did. There was no indication of what was wrong and ALL my save data and Miis were wiped clean. I didn't even check out the Photo Channel but I'm sure I was similarly hosed as you on that (as I never wanted to upgrade either). I basically got fed up with the thing and said I'd never play it or support Nintendo again but I relented with Swords & Soldiers and now Wii Sports Resort.

Still, though, I can't fathom ever playing SSBB, Mario Kart, or Animal Crossing again. Since the Wii memory clearly can go corrupt at any minute (as mine did - there was nothing else wrong with it as far as I could tell) I don't want to invest a single minute in any game where I can't back up the game save to the SD card. Luckily I had done so not too long before this happened and had my full Mario Galaxy 120 star game save on there, as well as my Metroid Prime 3 one and a few others.

But of course SSBB and AC were the big blows. But there were many smaller ones too such as Endless Ocean, Mario Baseball (though my son and I did play through that again to unlock everything - at least that doesn't take forever), and many more.

Besides the big games the worst was losing all the Miis and the Mii Parade. I'd had my ssytem hooked up since midnight of launch day and had over 1500 Miis in the Mii parade. I also had 80 or so friends (mostly CAGs who all exchanged codes early on including even Cheapy back when he gave the Wii an initial glance before ignoring it for good ;)). When I got my new Wii code I posted it in the thread here and not a single person PM'd me about re-adding. I just figure those days are long gone and no one wants to bother with that any more. I just want people on to build up the Mii Parade if nothing else ;).

Anyway, yeah, their service time is terrific, and I was glad they didn't make me pay the $75, but I would probably have gladly paid that if they could have restored everything. The thing is, had I paid it they still would have wiped it clean. Had I known what was going to happen I probably would have kept the old one and just gotten a new one.
 
[quote name='io']Wow, missed this thread. I had a small problem with my Wii (caused I think by World of Goo - those bastards OWE me!). That game started to freeze and wouldn't get past the startup screen so I decided to try deleting it and redownloading it. When I tried to delete it, it was taking nearly an hour to do so. I knew this was bad news and eventually I had to turn off the Wii. When I started it back up everything appeared fine, and World of Goo was gone. However, when I went to the data management utility, the Wii would freeze on that page and would not load the game saves or Wii channel info.

Now, I could play everything just fine and use my Miis and my game saves (including Animal Crossing) and everything else. However, World of Goo didn't properly delete so I could not redownload it (not enough room it said) and I couldn't manage anything with regards to the saves or channels.

After about 2 months of basically avoiding playing the Wii I finally called Nintendo and got them to fix it for free. They even assured me that my game saves would be restored if at all possible. So I sent it in. I almost had Strell or someone take all my AC game items/money just in case but I was too busy to deal with that so I never set that up.

Well, I got the machine back pretty damn fast but was devastated to find out exactly what you did. There was no indication of what was wrong and ALL my save data and Miis were wiped clean. I didn't even check out the Photo Channel but I'm sure I was similarly hosed as you on that (as I never wanted to upgrade either). I basically got fed up with the thing and said I'd never play it or support Nintendo again but I relented with Swords & Soldiers and now Wii Sports Resort.

Still, though, I can't fathom ever playing SSBB, Mario Kart, or Animal Crossing again. Since the Wii memory clearly can go corrupt at any minute (as mine did - there was nothing else wrong with it as far as I could tell) I don't want to invest a single minute in any game where I can't back up the game save to the SD card. Luckily I had done so not too long before this happened and had my full Mario Galaxy 120 star game save on there, as well as my Metroid Prime 3 one and a few others.

But of course SSBB and AC were the big blows. But there were many smaller ones too such as Endless Ocean, Mario Baseball (though my son and I did play through that again to unlock everything - at least that doesn't take forever), and many more.

Besides the big games the worst was losing all the Miis and the Mii Parade. I'd had my ssytem hooked up since midnight of launch day and had over 1500 Miis in the Mii parade. I also had 80 or so friends (mostly CAGs who all exchanged codes early on including even Cheapy back when he gave the Wii an initial glance before ignoring it for good ;)). When I got my new Wii code I posted it in the thread here and not a single person PM'd me about re-adding. I just figure those days are long gone and no one wants to bother with that any more. I just want people on to build up the Mii Parade if nothing else ;).

Anyway, yeah, their service time is terrific, and I was glad they didn't make me pay the $75, but I would probably have gladly paid that if they could have restored everything. The thing is, had I paid it they still would have wiped it clean. Had I known what was going to happen I probably would have kept the old one and just gotten a new one.[/QUOTE]

Ouch dude. That is a hell of a lot to lose, but at least it's good that you didn't have to pay that $75 fee. But, that SSBB and AC is just a huge blow, so much time put in.

I got my Wii back yesterday from Nintendo, and I swear, I love their customer service. They predicted 2-3 weeks, it only took a week and a half. To shine some good news on this thread, I had all my saves, WiiWare/VC, and settings the same. :) (except the clock, but whatever)

They also shipped me a replacement Mario Kart game (my Wii was scratching that one up), which was really nice of them too. Plus I didn't have to spend any money on the repair, thanks to waiting until Christmas to get a Wii.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the repair process.
 
Yup - the turn around time was amazing - but I would have gladly waited another month if it had meant they could have saved my data. ;)
 
This thread makes me think more and more about homebrew. Actually I'm already using the program that lets you backup the save of any game that you have the disc for, which is great, but that means you can't use it to backup VC/WiiWare saves and such - not anything that doesn't have a disc. There is a way to backup your entire memory, and thus such saves, but it requires a *much* more intrusive hack. Right now I'm just running the backup/restore program via a means that doesn't require any permanent hack. It's temporary. I'd prefer if I could keep it that way, but I don't think there is any way to fully backup your Wii's memory via this method. Oh well.

EDIT: question: if a game associates your save with a Mii, then if you copy that Mii to a remote, does that actually backup the save (to the remote)? For example, Tetris Party associates saves with Mii's. Is that a way to back it up, or does that just copy the Mii graphical character and nothing else?
 
[quote name='crunchewy']This thread makes me think more and more about homebrew. Actually I'm already using the program that lets you backup the save of any game that you have the disc for, which is great, but that means you can't use it to backup VC/WiiWare saves and such - not anything that doesn't have a disc. There is a way to backup your entire memory, and thus such saves, but it requires a *much* more intrusive hack. Right now I'm just running the backup/restore program via a means that doesn't require any permanent hack. It's temporary. I'd prefer if I could keep it that way, but I don't think there is any way to fully backup your Wii's memory via this method. Oh well.[/QUOTE]

Can't you use a combination of Homebrew and the latest Wii update? Homebrew would take care of the 'retail' or disc-based games (i.e. Brawl, MK Wii) and the most recent or one of the more recent updates for the Wii allowed VC/WiiWare games to be stored on SD cards. Moving your Mii's to remotes should complete the save tri-fecta, no?

I hope my logic is right, as have a launch Wii that has a damaged graphics card (due to what I would guess would be previous non-stop use WiiConnect24) and I really want a replaced card so I don't see any more dead pixels, especially before Muramasa and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
 
I don't know about homebrew (honestly, this makes me want to investigate further). Is there any way to back up your friend codes, contact lists, memos, etc. using homebrew?
 
I feel that my Wii's about to die...I keep getting an error saying that my internal memory is corrupted. I've just been restarting the system and it comes back by the second try.

I'm scared about losing all my game saves...specifically ones that I can't seem to back up such as animal crossing. Can someone post a link to how to go about backing them up somehow?
 
[quote name='Dingleberry']I feel that my Wii's about to die...I keep getting an error saying that my internal memory is corrupted. I've just been restarting the system and it comes back by the second try.

I'm scared about losing all my game saves...specifically ones that I can't seem to back up such as animal crossing. Can someone post a link to how to go about backing them up somehow?[/QUOTE]

Dude - do something about that ASAP. I wasn't even getting the "corrupt memory" error yet mine clearly was corrupt. Yours may be even worse off than mine. They will wipe it clean if they fix it.

Posting about the homebrew stuff really isn't allowed here (even if just used for save backups), but someone can PM it to you ;).
 
Io, it's okay to mention what it does, but as far as how to get it working they need to go elsewhere, right?

The NAND memory backup option with Homebrew supposedly only works on the same system that it was created from. If Nintendo were to swap your system out, this could be an issue.

It also does allow you to copy locked saves to an SD card and back, even to a completely different system. If you're so inclined, each locked save has a flag somewhere that tells the system not to copy, and if you know where to look for it you can change it so you never have to worry about using homebrew to copy it again in the future.

If anyone has further question, as Io said, PM me. I might can help.
 
It's been almost two months since Nintendo set up my repair order number for me, but I still haven't gotten around to shipping them my Wii until today.

I emailed them to confirm the cost of my repair and this is what they told me:

20090921nintendorepair.png


Since mine doesn't have any physical damage, it looks like my repair really is free even though my launch Wii is out of warranty. :D

I hope they don't lose any of my data, especially not my Brawl & AC saves. But I wouldn't really mind so much starting a new AC town - I was getting a little tired of my town's layout. I left a note saying to keep my data intact, if possible.

Hopefully I won't have to wait too long to get it back from WA.

9/24 update: My Wii is at the repair center now. I checked my RO# on the website and under warranty, it now shows "Yes" when it used to be just a blank space, so it looks like they didn't find any physical damage with the Wii itself. The email says 9-11 day turnaround time now that they have it.

9/25 update: Arrrrrrrrrgh. I don't think Nintendo could figure out how to fix my Wii. It looks like they're sending me one with a completely different serial number. And that most likely means my save files are history! Nooooooooooo!
 
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