My Wii is dead

[RTSDaddy2]

I was playing Zelda with it this morning, and then my daughter decided to try her hand at it.   After we finished, I left the disk in, thinking nothing of it...my wife powered the console off with the wiimotes.

I got back from shopping about 30 minutes ago to find that the console will do nothing.  Red power light is on and the system will not power up.  Disc won't eject, unplugged everything, took the power out, then plugged power back in, nothing.  It's dead as a doornail.

Called Nintendo, they are going to send me a mailing label and how to package it...and then fix it for me.  Up to two weeks to repair, but at no cost to us, thank God. 

So...A WARNING: IF you hear your Wii start making funny rough noises, look out.  Ours had been running smoothly, until recently.  I noticed that the disc was really running hard and rough (very "clanky" sounding) when Zelda was in it.  Be careful if you notice this.

  it.  I was really wanting to play today while the wife was out of the house too.         

[MustardTent]

I'm really sorry to hear that.  I wonder if Nintendo has any kind of rev 2 hardware available now?  Did they mention anything about that? 

Also, one of the most annoying things:  trading Miis.  I'm guessing that Nintendo is not going to program the new Wii to have the same addr as your old one.  What's the solution?  Just tell everyone that you have a new address?  I hope nintendo has thought about that.

[RTSDaddy2]

As I understood it, the plan is that once they remove my Zelda disc, they can figure out what caused it to shut down and send me back my original unit.

I am going to place a list of downloaded VC games in with the packaging, and also place a list of games saved.  I hope that if a new machine is in order they can at least copy that info over from mine to the new one...that would really suck to have to start Zelda all over again....I'd put in 30 hours of play time!

[somunny]

You played it to death!    Out of curiosity, had you checked the usage clock recently?  How many hours did you log on it?

[sphetr2]

Wow...that;s two dead consoles today...hmmm.. Any siginificance of today's date? 

Anyways, that really stinks. Sure, you get another Wii, but it is quite the inconvenience.

One question: Were the noises from the disc? (i.e. loud disc reading noises). If so, that's not good news for me. 

[ChadTower]

Condolences.  Maybe you can try some Viagra.

[RTSDaddy2]

I hate to tell you this Spehtr, but yea, it was loud disc reading noises.

Munny, did you mean the daily clock? I figure we put in two to three hours daily on it since 11/19, sometimes less, sometimes more....but if that's average, that's a little less than 90 days x 2 - 3 hours daily = 180 to 270 hours in 3 months.     

Could it be the AC pack? Could that thing go out and the red light come on...it have just enough juice to turn the light on, but not enough to power the system?

[ChadTower]

The light is probably on a different circuit.  The fact that you have a light indicates that the power supply isn't completely dead, but with the complexity of modern game consoles, it could be any of a billion things based on that description.

[RTSDaddy2]

Though I am disappointed with the answer, of course (I was hoping for a quick fix, or a "quickie" in layman's terms), I am not surprised at it.  I will just make Nintendo a list of items downloaded and hope they can save the drive if nothing else....maybe transplant it into a new Wii.

[RTSDaddy2]

It is possible that my Wii is already on it's way back to us.  Somehow I doubt it, but it's possible.

The good news: another Wii customer had the same thing happen to her machine, and being that she lives near the HQ of Nintendo, they told her to just bring it there for repairs.  Said it took 30 minutes, which - by the time frames stated by UPS - is why I'm hopeful.

Good news 2: I can't do anything but second the lady's opinion of Nintendo's customer service...my experience was similar.  The guy who answered the phone and I even got into Zelda "chatter" as we are at the same point in the game.  See link for more:

http://www.nintendojo.com/infocus/view_item.php?1171852195

The bad news: be forewarned...the "clanky" drive seems to indicate nothing but trouble.  Hopefully not for you, but her machine did the same as mine.

[RTSDaddy2]

More bad news: UPS is of no help in tracking your package.  Their webpage is virtually useless as is their customer service.

 I have just basically been fussed out by a UPS CS while being extremely polite to her over fear of a lost "Wii" package.

[sphetr2]

The bad news: be forewarned...the "clanky" drive seems to indicate nothing but trouble.  Hopefully not for you, but her machine did the same as mine.

Hmm...haven't had any trouble yet...just some glitches in web browser...I hope that doesn't turn into anything.

Knowing my luck, something will happen the day after the warranty expires.

[RTSDaddy2]

Update: My Wii is - apparently - somewhere headed for New York again.  After four phone calls and research that I did, UPS was finally willing to help me learn something about the package (they did not know the address it was shipped from, NOR the address to which it was going - I had to provide that.  No, I am not kidding). 

Is that some sort of safety feature? If so, why didn't UPS just tell me "In order for us to confirm you are {name here}, please give us the starting and ending addresses," instead of being cantankerous?  BTW, their tracking system has apparently been offline for nearly 48 hours now.

My 4 year old wants to know when her Miis will be back.  We keep telling her it hasn't even seen the Wii doctor yet...she's good with it (just a cute aside).

Problem #2: I talked to Nintendo about just forgetting the repair and sending me a new console.  The guy I spoke to said that they cannot do so as I am now no longer in posession of the old console.  Though that sucks, it makes pretty good sense when you think about it. 

So, here we are, stuck.  I swear if I ever have an extra $250 to spend / throw away, I'm going to buy a 2nd Wii to have as a backup...a spare Wii if  you will.  Once again, this sucks.  I want to Wii again!!!!!!!     

[ChadTower]

Dude, relax, take that as a chance to rest your arms.  As much as you want it back it's just a game console.  Use a different one until it arrives.

[RTSDaddy2]

You're right - just gotta relax, stay cool   

[TheResidentEvil]

I have had a remote problem 2 times since i bought the console about 2 months ago. I turn the console on and press A on the remote and the remote flashes and then turns off again. The only way to fix it is to unplug the console from the wall and plug it back in. I have tried different remotes, new batteries, resyncing and there is no way around it. You just have to unplug it.

[shmokes]

Heh, RTSDaddy, this is just cruel of me, but I can't help myself.  My younger brother's Wii has had a problem since the day he bought it, where about 20% of the time when he chooses any channel the screen goes black (normal), but then it just hangs there and the channel never loads (not normal).  He didn't just return it to the store, cos the system never locked up while he was in the middle of a game or anything, only between games.  So it wasn't worth returning to the store, which would be unable to provide him with a new system due to the complete lack of inventory.  He figured he'd just wait out the shortage.

Well, since Gamestop's return policy is only 7 days, he gave Nintendo customer service a call today and told them about the problem he's been having.  They are sending him a new Wii immediately, which should arrive in 3 to 4 days along with a prepaid shipping label.  So all he has to do is pull out his new Wii, transfer all his save game data and Miis via SD card/remote, put the old Wii in the box and ship it back to them.  # of days without a Wii = 0   

Sounds like you talked to the wrong customer service rep!   

[RTSDaddy2]

Shmokes man, I wish that'd worked for us!  He went the "advance replacement" route, or whatever N calls it.

I knew of it, but the guy I spoke to "thought" a fix was worth a try because we'd lose all our stuff otherwise.   Outside of just having our Wii back quicker, that's all it would have really done for us though - we couldn't get the power on to transfer Miis and save data.

The save data is obvious to me....but how would you put the Miis on an SD card?  Is there a spot in Wii settings where you go to find them all?

BTW Shmokes, per your idea I sent a positive yet complaining letter to Nintendo about losing our game save data and Miis (read: I explained how nice everyone was that I talked to).....I have yet to hear from them, but at least it's done.

[RTSDaddy2]

While I'm here, a warning...be careful using rental games, etc (this from Nintendo itself).  Nintendo sent with our Wii information stating we should make sure that rental games are clean and free from defect.

I think that I know what might have happened to ours, if such is possible.  I decided to rent Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube from a local store.  Yet when I put it in, it would get past the game selection screen but then it would stop and just crash and burn.  I found this odd, since even Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (an early GC game) is compatible with the Wii.

What struck me in hindsight was I believe that ours didn't get "clunky" sounding until AFTER I tried that out. 

To quote Kelly Bundy: "To be forewarned is to have four arms."

[spiffyshoes]

The save data is obvious to me....but how would you put the Miis on an SD card?  Is there a spot in Wii settings where you go to find them all?

You can't put your Miis onto a SD card but you can save them onto the Wii Remote for tranfering to another system.

[ChadTower]

I don't see how a bad disc could damage a drive unless it was physically deformed... and you would have seen that before you put it in. 

[hypernova]

Did Nintendo elaborate on that issue?  I'd love to hear an explanation as  to why you shouldn't rent games.

[shmokes]

LMAO, could it be, perhaps, that it's because it cuts into their bottom line? 

And yeah, RTS, Miis are copied to the memory on the remote, but each remote can only hold 8 at a time.

[ChadTower]

He didn't say they told him not to rent.  He said they told him to inspect rental discs carefully before sticking them in his console.

[shmokes]

But my suspicion is that they are simply trying to make people nervous about rentals.  Or not.  It certainly would be bad for the Wii to have a disc explode inside it.

[ChadTower]

I've seen cracked discs shatter inside drives in the past.  Probably more common than people think.

[RTSDaddy2]

I don't recall that they were more specific about rentals than just making sure they were clean, scratch free, etc.

As for the SD card thing, I misread an earlier post...I didn't think one could store the Miis anywhere but the remotes (that I knew), but thought I'd ask based upon what I thought I read.

The disc I used was pretty scratched up, but not warped, chipped or anything that I noticed...at the time, I thought nothing of it.  That might not even be it, but just thought I'd throw their little note out here.

[RayB]

I've seen cracked discs shatter inside drives in the past.  Probably more common than people think.

Even non-cracked. Those cheap discs you get free in cereal boxes are prone to shatter in high-revolution drives.

[RTSDaddy2]

Heard back from Nintendo - they still didn't tell me what happened to my machine, but I think I can assume from what they said that they couldn't get it to power back on either.  I was told that without being able to get it to power on there was no way to transfer our save data and Miis. 

So - again a word of warning....make backups of your save data to SD card and save the Miis you really like to your wiimote...just in case.

[shmokes]

Well, it's not true, but I suppose it's nice that they at least sent a personal response.  The reality, of course, is that all they need is a test bed, which of course they have, and they could simply remove the memory from your machine, plug it into the test bed, and pull the data off.