Author Topic: My Wii is dying. Repair? Replace? Or wait for WiiU? (Read 8494 times)

Tanookisuit · « **on:** August 26, 2011, 12:39:49 PM »

Hey guys. My beloved Wii, bought on launch day, is slowly decaying. I can no longer access the system settings or connect to the internet without getting the "system files are corrupted" message and being forced to restart my system.

And now it has started impacting my games. I'm working on getting the last few green stars in Mario Galaxy 2, and the game makes crazy static sounds when bright colors are on the screen, and completely freezes up when I try to get the 2nd green star on that bird galaxy.

So, should I pay Nintendo $70 to repair it? Should I sell it and buy a new system? Or should I wait for the WiiU?

I want to play Skyward Sword, Rhythm Heaven and Kirby this fall, and I'm worried my Wii won't be able to...

Ceric · « **Reply #1 on:** August 26, 2011, 12:47:28 PM »

Quote from: Tanookisuit on August 26, 2011, 12:39:49 PM

...
So, should I pay Nintendo $70 to repair it? Should I sell it and buy a new system? Or should I wait for the WiiU?

I want to play Skyward Sword, Rhythm Heaven and Kirby this fall, and I'm worried my Wii won't be able to...

$70 Repair.
Shoot you could probably have Brandogg do it and know its in the hand of someone your familiar with.
IF playing those game in the next year is important to you, it's really no choice at all. Plus you'll probably want all your saves, Wiiware, etc.
WiiU is at earliest coming in June. That being said it will probably be Early Holiday Season 2012 (Think September/October.)

Caliban · « **Reply #2 on:** August 26, 2011, 12:48:24 PM »

I was just going to post what Ceric said: Brandogg.

stevey · « **Reply #3 on:** August 26, 2011, 04:21:38 PM »

Did this happen after a system update or power failure? If not, then is sound like something causing the flash memory to slowly corrupt and fail and the only sure fix for that would be to swap out the MB. You could also try to patch the issue by overwriting the corrupt files with a new system update/Homebrew but it might fail.

Sending it to Nintendo would be the best option to fix that since they will (or at lease should!) be able to recover your save data/DLC.

Mop it up · « **Reply #4 on:** August 26, 2011, 05:13:28 PM »

The problem with your issue since it is the internal memory is that you could end up losing all of your data if you repair it. However, if you have any downloads like VC or WiiWare, you won't be able to transfer them to a new system so you would lose them if you didn't repair it. So I'd say that if you have any download games, and if you want a chance of keeping your save data, then send it in for a repair instead of buying a new one. Though I'd recommend copying any data to an SD card that you can, just in case. That way, you won't lose everything if the worst happens.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #5 on:** August 26, 2011, 06:33:30 PM »

I hate to say it, but if the memory is corrupted then maybe the data is ruined and gone forever. That's one thing I hate about DLC in general because unlike physical media you can end up losing stuff even if you take good care of it.

Tanookisuit · « **Reply #6 on:** August 26, 2011, 06:58:13 PM »

Bluh, this bums me out. I'll send it in. I'll copy what I can to an SD card, and send it in. Thanks for the feedback guys.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #7 on:** August 26, 2011, 07:17:09 PM »

I think sending it to Nintendo is your best bet. Hopefully they can restore the data for you, but if they can't then maybe they will let you get whatever is lost again for free. At least they should do that anyway...

blackfootsteps · « **Reply #8 on:** August 26, 2011, 07:43:24 PM »

Quote from: Chozo Ghost on August 26, 2011, 06:33:30 PM

I hate to say it, but if the memory is corrupted then maybe the data is ruined and gone forever. That's one thing I hate about DLC in general because unlike physical media you can end up losing stuff even if you take good care of it.

A unified online account would go someway to ameliorate this problem.

ejamer · « **Reply #9 on:** August 26, 2011, 09:00:56 PM »

No suggestions, but lots of sympathy.

My Wii has been slowly getting worse... messages about corrupt memory are popping up regularly, but I'm still doing my best to ignore them. Won't be long before I have to do the same thing though! Is it worth the cost to repair? I've got a ton of VC/WiiWare games so it doesn't seem like there's a good alternative for me.

Makes me long for the days of SNES and N64 - those systems were beasts that never seemed to die.

Tanookisuit · « **Reply #10 on:** August 26, 2011, 09:13:34 PM »

Yeah, my Wii sits right next to my wife's still-working NES!

BranDonk Kong · « **Reply #11 on:** August 26, 2011, 09:26:06 PM »

Thanks for all of the recommendations, but I actually agree with the "send it to Nintendo" sentiment. $70 is cheaper than anyone else would actually swap a motherboard out for, and there's at least a chance that you'll be able to get your data recovered. You could install the Homebrew Channel and dump your entire system flash, then uninstall of course (don't want Nintendo seeing that), reinstalling on the new Wii and restoring - but that might be a bad idea since there will probably be a whole bunch of corrupt data in there. It's also pretty time consuming. The one good thing is that you typically get your stuff back very quickly from Nintendo. I sent in my daughter's DSi that had a blown IC on it and they had it back to me by the end of the same week.

smoreyjinza · « **Reply #12 on:** August 28, 2011, 08:12:34 PM »

Sending it to Nintendo sounds good as you wouldn't want to miss out on Skyward sword. Too bad they don't make systems like they used to.

Ymeegod · « **Reply #13 on:** August 29, 2011, 03:21:54 AM »

Did you have anything like HBC installed? If so then Nintendo might not even fix it even if you pay them.

Also you might call them up, Nintendo's been known to fix alot of these issues for free even past warranty dates.

TJ Spyke · « **Reply #14 on:** August 29, 2011, 10:45:59 AM »

Key word is "might", sometimes Nintendo will still fix the Wii anyways (and from what I have heard from people who did it, sometimes Nintendo will fix it and leave HBC on, sometimes they will fix the Wii and delete the HBC). The best bet would be to just remove it ahead of time though.

Mop it up · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2011, 05:38:25 PM »

I also sort of know what you're going through. I had to get mine repaired for a broken disc drive, although I didn't lose my data with that. I've had a GameCube memory card corrupt on me, but that isn't quite the same as losing everything.

And yeah, try calling them up if you haven't already. Explain your situation, and mention that it was a launch system and that you're a big Nintendo fan (if true) and have never had issues with Nintendo hardware (if true), or some things like that. It didn't work for me, but I've heard of people talking down the price or getting a free repair from saying such things. As for delivery time, that will depend on where you live. For me, it took 29 days from the day I shipped it off to the day I received it back, so it can take a while sometimes.

xcwarrior · « **Reply #16 on:** September 04, 2011, 01:55:11 PM »

Alright, my Wii, also a launch Wii, started acting up and finally wouldn't boot up.

I sent it in for repair, they couldn't fix it and scrapped it. I did save all the game files I could over to an SD card, but sadly any online game couldn't be saved to SD. So MHT, Brawl, Tetris Party, MKWii, Goldeneye and about 10 other games saw their files meet an untimely end.

Nintendo is replacing my Wii, though the first replacement they sent me was garbage. I'm getting try #2 on Tuesday, and I'll have to hope it actually is a perfectly working system. It has been a very painful 2.5 months without my Wii.

I would try the repair, the WiiU isn't coming out for at least a year. After the 3DS debacle, the Wii is coming out holiday 2012 at the earliest. I still have almost 20 Wii games on the shelf that still need beaten, so I couldn't go that long without a Wii. The PC, DS and 3DS just don't occupy my time like my Wii has.

Tanookisuit · « **Reply #17 on:** November 03, 2011, 05:40:53 PM »

Got my Wii back. I was unable to copy saves to an SD card before it sent it in (due to the nature of my problem), and have just lost 5 years of game saves. I'm not crying. It's just raining on my face.

Fatty The Hutt · « **Reply #18 on:** January 02, 2012, 01:27:56 PM »

I am now getting error messages with my wii that say "system files corrupted". This happens when I use the home button to back out of a game and attempt to return to the wii menu. It does not happen every time. It seems to have started since we started playing Skyward Sword. Another thing has been happening at the same time. The wii will not recognize our two old wii remotes, just the wii motion plus remote that we got with Skyward Sword. In order for the wii to recognize the old remotes, you have to get to the wii remote settings screen and reconnect the remotes.

Since these two weird things have only started since we booted up Skyward Sword, I am left wondering if Zelda bricked my Wii? Anyone else have any similar issues?

Mop it up · « **Reply #19 on:** January 05, 2012, 08:37:04 PM »

Hm, not sure about that one. Try copying your Skyward Sword save to an SD card, then delete it off the Wii, and copy it back to the Wii. Maybe the save file is on a bad block or something?

The sync one is odd. The only thing I can think of is that the part of the memory that stores the synced Wiimote information is corrupted... if that's even possible.

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Author Topic: My Wii is dying. Repair? Replace? Or wait for WiiU? (Read 8494 times)