Topic: Bye Bye, Wii!

[Halbred]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=16109

  Well, it finally happened. After fifteen years of loyally buying Nintendo consoles without an ounce of trouble, my Wii went bad last week and now I'm shipping it to Washington to get it fixed. I blame a rogue can of Dr. Pepper, spilled carelessly by a friend during the first week I had my Wii (which would also be the first week after the initial release), and perhaps those sticky, salty molecules just now made their way into the optic whatchamahoozit. At any rate, the machine won't read my Smash Bros. disk, and it might happen to you, too.    

This problem had reared its ugly head when I first got the game, on launch day. If I let the game sit in the system overnight, no disk would appear on the Disk Channel the next day. I had to manually eject the disk, then re-insert it (sometimes many times) in order to get the system to recognize the disk. A minor irritation, sure, but nothing I wasn't willing to live with. Never did I think that something was horribly wrong. Well, Mario Kart Wii came out, and I virtually abandoned Smash Bros. in favor of that Blue Shell-ridden game for weeks. Then, I started playing Odin Sphere (you should, too). Now, about a month later, I tried popping Smash Bros. in for the singular purpose of checking my friends list for shits 'n' giggles.    

The system never once read the disk. After about ten tries, I actually clicked on the Disk Channel, only to find the error message you see in the screenshot above. I flipped through the Wii Operations Manual to no avail--it basically said "visit the website!" And that I did. The support website had a big link which listed all problems relating to Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Well, how encouraging is THAT? I clicked it, and quickly found my problem. I encourage you all to go to support.nintendo.com and look at the stack of problems associated with that game, as it's really unbelievable.    

Anyway, I soon discovered that there was a problem with my Wii's optical...reading...mechanism and that I'd have to send it to a repair center in Washington, free of charge. Apparently, a small percentage of Wii's cannot read multi-layered disks, which Smash Bros. is. I filled out an online form, printed out a special FedEx label, and sent both my Wii (and Smash Bros.) off to Washington today. I wrapped the system in bubble wrap, then stuffed the box full of crumpled-up newspaper. There is no WAY that system is getting damaged. Turnaround (once they recieve the system) is about a week according to the website, and I'll have Metal Gear Solid 4 to keep me busy in the meantime.    

However, without Wii Fit, my gut size will increase, and the little Balance Board character will scold me upon the system's return. My hope is that, in addition to fixing the optical thingamabob, the repair people will also clean out any remaining Dr. Pepper. So what about you readers out there? Has this happened to any of you? If so, what was the turnaround time? And seriously, check out the Brawl support link. There are a lot of things wrong with that game.

[Deguello]

This happened to me too.  I just called them up and sent it to them.  It came back and worked.

[NWR_insanolord]

A friend of mine had the same problem. What sucked for him was it was the second time he had to send his Wii back for repairs.

[NWR_Neal]

Picture this scene:
Four happy collegeiate students come back after joyfully getting Super Smash Bros Brawl at midnight. They go back to one of their friend's apartment where there is a freaking huge HDTV to accompany their initial playing of the game. He put Brawl into the system and it didn't work.
And thus, we went across campus to a crappy dorm room with a 13" TV...

[vudu]

And thus, we went across campus to a crappy dorm room with a 13" TV, grabbed that guy's Wii, and brought it back to the original apartment

Fixed.

[NWR_Neal]

And thus, we went across campus to a crappy dorm room with a 13" TV, grabbed that guy's Wii, and brought it back to the original apartment

Fixed.

There was a substantial delay because, well, it was Rutgers and Rutgers is freaking huge so we had to go across campus.

[NWR_Lindy]

So when they service it, do you think they'll do it in slide show-style?  It'd only be appropriate.

[Nick DiMola]

A thread about servicing a guy's Wii? This is totally NSFW.

[BranDonk Kong]

It's a problem with the Wii's ability to read dual layer DVDs. Your system isn't dying or anything like that, it's just the laser wasn't tested thoroughly enough (or at all) before they started producing the systems. My system sometimes won't read Smash Bros, but it's ok, because I got bored of it after about 10 minutes anyway.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I don't see a Mario Kart FC in your sig.

[animecyberrat]

So my being broke and skipping out on this game actually paid off. Finally something to celebrate, cuz my Wii is still working. It really is too bad about your system though, sorry to hear that.

[BeautifulShy]

I had the Smash Bros. problem it took about 4 days to get it back. I think I might have a problem with the GPU. Like you I haven't had any problems with past Nintendo systems.

[animecyberrat]

I call BS unless you both never owned an NES.

[BeautifulShy]

I call BS unless you both never owned an NES.

I had a nes but the problem was manageable. What I meant was I never had to send a system up to Nintendo before.That is all.

[animecyberrat]

Ok then, cuz I was also gonna add that the Brawl problem seams to only affect a handful of games, where as the NES defect pretty much plagued the system. All I know is I only got to enjoy my NES for like 1 year and then it was *BLINK* , reset, *BLINK* reset, all day long for like years till I gave up and made the switch to Genesis.

[Halbred]

My NES had much the same problem. The light would just blink on and off, the TV screen teasing me with a half-second of game every second. At that point, it was about time to get an SNES, so I wasn't too worried about it. Still, it was hideously annoying, and I later learned that getting the problem fixed would have been as expensive as buying a new NES.

I got an email from Nintendo today saying that the repairs were done and my Wii is being shipped back. That was QUICK!

Now, my friend Scott suggested that what Nintendo actually does is just pop your Wii's memory core out of the unit and toss it in a different unit, thus essentially giving you a new Wii. That would kick ass, because the Dr. Pepper problem would be solved entirely, although my awesome Godzilla stickers would be gone.

[MegaByte]

Memory core?  Do you mean motherboard?  The memory chip is soldered on.  Even so, it would be easier to keep your machine as-is and just swap out the drive.

[Halbred]

Um...sure? We'll see if the Godzilla stickers remain upon the system's return. Only then will we know for sure.

[animecyberrat]

I put Apple stickers on my Wii that came with my I-Pod but then they started to peel so I took them off. I miss them now though. Which reminds me, I still have to send my I-pod off for repairs before the warranty expires.

[Ceric]

Mine was borked at launch... but Nintendo will fix it up for ya...

[KDR_11k]

Memory core?  Do you mean motherboard?  The memory chip is soldered on.  Even so, it would be easier to keep your machine as-is and just swap out the drive.

I think he means the flash memory. Or at least the data on it.

[MegaByte]

They have a special disc which will make a backup of the data to SD and restore it on another machine.  Like I said, the flash memory is not removable.  But for disc reading problems, they might not have to resort to that.

[Halbred]

So I got my machine back yesterday (they're quick--I sent it in on Monday). I think there are some new parts! The Godzilla stickers are still there, but they fixed the irritatingly stuck screw in the GC controller port (don't ask), and cleaned out all the Dr. Pepper from the On/Reset/Eject buttons! Now they click! It's so beautiful!

And Smash Bros. works. And more people have registered on my machine but not, of course, the vast majority of them.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Registered for what?

[Halbred]

Smash Bros. You know how it says "Awaiting Registration?" A few more people who had been awaiting are now registered. But not many.