Topic: Various Wii problems

[thejeek]

I've been experiencing some problems with my Wii. Mainly with the Wii menu and associated applications. Problems include:

- often won't load a game disk if I go to the Wii game channel after visiting some other part of the Wii menu first - instead the Wii just hangs with a black screen. However, it usually will load if I have gone straight to the game channel from booting up

- network issues - hangs trying to update, hangs trying to reach the shop etc. Pretty sure it's not a wireless config issue as it works occasionally and my laptop gets plenty of signal if I place it next to the Wii.

- the controller only works reliably as a pointer over a very narrow range of distances. In Rayman even with the sensitivity turned up it won't operate reliably from my sofa (approx 2.5 meters from the TV, game keeps telling me to move closer). Oddly it works fine in the Wii menu at this distance (provided sensitivity is turned up - at low sensitivity the cursor jumps around)

- the controller is distracted by the open fire in the same room and I can't really see how I can rearrange the room to alleviate the problem (the fire obviously can't be moved and arrangements where the fire is behind the TV or behind the sofa are going not fix the problem/be impractical)

Are these common problems, or is my unit faulty. Are there solutions or workarounds for any of these problems?  

[BlkPaladin]

The last two are probally cause by ir interfearence. The sensor bar really isn't that powerful of an ir source and can be interfered with. Fire produces ir so that is what is interfering with the controller there. I don't know what to say about the other issues though. I haven't experience anything like. Though sometimes the servers are hit because of a shipment and people updating.

In the worse case senerio you may have to call Nintendo and see if its a common problem covered by warrenty and they will fix it for free if you have Save Data/VC games on the console, or complete replace it otherwise.

[thejeek]

Thanks, I thought the fire was probably IR interference. I guess I just have to not light the fire if I want to use the Wii - it's a bit inconvinient but I can live with it.

As for the other problems, I thought the games refusing to load and the network stuff might just be because the firmware/OS was new and buggy or the network busy but if other people aren't experiencing these problems perhaps my Wii is just broken. That would be a pain - I don't particularly want to part with it while they fix it, especially over christmas.

BTW my firmware version is 2.0E (it's displayed at the top of the Wii settings menu), does anyone have a version different to this (more recent?)

[Ceric]

Yeah.  I get the Network thing where sometimes it just won't get an update.  Most of the time it has something to do with my router or there server being slammed.

[couchmonkey]

I have had problems with Wii shop, but my network setup isn't the most reliable and last night my issues were actually occurring while in the shopping channel, that and the "try again later" message lead me to wonder if Nintendo is just not prepared for the amount of traffic it's getting.  If that were the case, either a lot of people are just browsing (like me), or we can expect the prices to stay exactly where they are for a while yet.