Wii Owners Beware

[Slappy00]

I got a wii about a month back and was enjoying it, and after buying the browser and Strikers Charged I was having a ball.

The problem started when I decided that I would use the Wii Connect 24 for news and weather. I didn't see any problem with it as I liked to browse weather and news on the wii rather than suing CNN or whatever.

Two weeks went by uneventfully and around the third week i turned it on and noticed read and green pixles covering the screen on every game I played (unique for each game... the pattern that is).
After searching forums it seems that the wii when put on wiiconnect24 (orange light) gets very hot and if left on for a long period of time, it can corrupt your graphics chip.

Apparently Nintendo knows about this problem (no fan when wiiconnect24 is on and subsequent overheating) but for some reason i didn't find out about it until it was too late.

Now I cant say 100% that if you leave wiiconnect24 on for awhile it will do this to your machine but be careful

link 1

youtube video (this happened to me with RE4)

on AVS forums

 

[NikolaeVarius]

This is fairly old news.

 

[Slappy00]

new to me ...

hell it would have been nice to know this a month ago when I first got my wii and I would have never turned connect24 on; as it stands I am waiting for my shipping label, old news or not.

 

[thermoelectro]

Good thing nintendo has a 1 year warranty. One thing I would suggest is if you want to have wiiconnect24 on only when you're playing the console is to just hold the power button longer so the light turns from orange to red when turning ur wii off. Maybe you know this, maybe you don't..I didn't at first..

 

[RandomFool]

There was a rumor that the last update fixed it so the fan would come on while in wiiconnect mode. I don't know if it's true or not mine is never hooked up in one place for long.

 

[Blayze]

I leave WiiConnect24 on. It really isn't useful now, but maybe eventually something will make use of it. Anyway my console gets warm, but its not hot in my opinion. I know some people have said the Wii got hot enough that it was hard to touch. Thankfully I haven't had this problem.

From what I have gathered reading around on this problem there is a flaw in some of the GPUs (more of the launch units were affected than current models) and the heat generated by WiiConnect24 just speeds up the process. Some people have had the issue though and left WiiConnect24 off, so its got to be something with the GPUs. Nintendo designed the Wii to run warm and to have WiiConnect24 on 24/7, plus Nintendo has great customer service from what I have heard. Also if you register your Wii online you will get a 3 month extension to the 1 year warranty.

I haven't noticed the fan turning on after the last update. You can always buy a fan stand to help keep the Wii cool if you want to use WiiConnect24 and not worry about it overheating. Also make sure your Wii is in a place where it can get plenty of air if you decide to leave WiiConnect24 on.

 

[randomlinh]

my console lies flat.. with wiiconnect24 on all the time, it is scorching on the bottom. The messaging system is kinda useless, and that was the only thing I left it on for. And I thought firmware updates would download in the background... no such luck.

So I just turned it off and even when playing metroid for two hours, it doesn't generate the same kind of heat.

 

[Netscorer]

I think the whole idea of leaving your Wii ON while you are not using it is useless, unless you need supplemental heater in your room that is. And can anyone tell me why does Nintendo not allow you to even browse your weather or news channels unless you turn the StandBy connection to ON? What is the point?

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: Netscorer
I think the whole idea of leaving your Wii ON while you are not using it is useless, unless you need supplemental heater in your room that is. And can anyone tell me why does Nintendo not allow you to even browse your weather or news channels unless you turn the StandBy connection to ON? What is the point?

You don't have to have the WiiConnect 24 on to use the Weather, News, Everybody Votes and Internet channels. I always thought Nintendo shot themselves in the foot when they started this WiiConnect 24.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Netscorer
I think the whole idea of leaving your Wii ON while you are not using it is useless, unless you need supplemental heater in your room that is. And can anyone tell me why does Nintendo not allow you to even browse your weather or news channels unless you turn the StandBy connection to ON? What is the point?

the wii gets no where hot enough to be a supplemental heater. not compared to the xbox360 and ps3

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: thermoelectro
Good thing nintendo has a 1 year warranty.

When I purchased my Wii 2 months ago, it came with a 90-day warranty, with an extra 90 days if you registered the console on Nintendo's website. Unless things have changed in the past 2 months, it's still a max of around 6 months if you aren't lazy (only 3 months if you are).

 

[Slappy00]

Originally posted by: potato28

Originally posted by: Netscorer
I think the whole idea of leaving your Wii ON while you are not using it is useless, unless you need supplemental heater in your room that is. And can anyone tell me why does Nintendo not allow you to even browse your weather or news channels unless you turn the StandBy connection to ON? What is the point?

You don't have to have the WiiConnect 24 on to use the Weather, News, Everybody Votes and Internet channels. I always thought Nintendo shot themselves in the foot when they started this WiiConnect 24.

i turned it on because i thought it would download news weather and updates in the background so i would not have to do it myself...

so now i got a white brick waiting for a shipping label

 

[Vampirrella]

With the heat that the Wii has been producing, lately I have been cutting the power to the entire unit after I am done playing. Is this a bad thing to do? Is there a reason I need to leave the power connected to the unit for any reason? I dont really make use of the Wiiconnect feature and it scares me at how hot it gets when I leave Wiiconnect on so Ive since cut the power when not in use.

 

[Capitalizt]

I bought a nifty little cooling stand that glows neon blue. It makes my living room look like aliens are invading at night.

 

[mlm]

Originally posted by: Vampirrella
With the heat that the Wii has been producing, lately I have been cutting the power to the entire unit after I am done playing. Is this a bad thing to do? Is there a reason I need to leave the power connected to the unit for any reason? I dont really make use of the Wiiconnect feature and it scares me at how hot it gets when I leave Wiiconnect on so Ive since cut the power when not in use.

Just turn off WiiConnect24. You obviously have a computer, so the features that require it shouldn't be important to you.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Netscorer
I think the whole idea of leaving your Wii ON while you are not using it is useless, unless you need supplemental heater in your room that is. And can anyone tell me why does Nintendo not allow you to even browse your weather or news channels unless you turn the StandBy connection to ON? What is the point?

It's just 13W. I leave the 24Connect thing on and haven't had any problems with heat or anything. This is the first time that I can recall someone here busting the console because of it.

 

[Blayze]

Same here. In fact I just checked the Wii and its barely warm to the touch. I got my Wii in May, so I'm not sure if some of this has to do with older launch units. I have heard of people getting this problem with WiiConnect24 turned off. Personally I don't think WiiConnect24 is the problem, it just speeds up a problem that is already present in some consoles.

In my opinion its better to leave WiiConnect24 on and if you have a defective heatsink/GPU get it replaced with the 12 month (15 if you register online) warranty that Nintendo gives you.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Blayze
Same here. In fact I just checked the Wii and its barely warm to the touch. I got my Wii in May, so I'm not sure if some of this has to do with older launch units. I have heard of people getting this problem with WiiConnect24 turned off. Personally I don't think WiiConnect24 is the problem, it just speeds up a problem that is already present in some consoles.

In my opinion its better to leave WiiConnect24 on and if you have a defective heatsink/GPU get it replaced with the 12 month (15 if you register online) warranty that Nintendo gives you.

That's what it looks like to me, faulty heatsink on the GPU. Those artifacts remind me of what would happen if I overclocked my GPU too much. I've kept Connect24 on since I got mine way back in December and haven't any problems with heat.

 

[Modeps]

I dont know why my WiiConnect is even on... I never use anything that it uses.

 

[zerocool84]

I have a launch Wii and I leave Wiiconnect off. No point for me to leave it on at all. You still have to wait a long ass time to connect to the Wiistore/weather/news

 

[TemjinGold]

Originally posted by: Slappy00
The problem started when I decided that I would use the Wii Connect 24 for news and weather. I didn't see any problem with it as I liked to browse weather and news on the wii rather than suing CNN or whatever.

I prefer suing CNN personally...

 

[mlm]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
I have a launch Wii and I leave Wiiconnect off. No point for me to leave it on at all. You still have to wait a long ass time to connect to the Wiistore/weather/news

It's not even connected 24/7 like the name implies. IIRC, it only tries to connect once an hour or so.

 

[Czar]

Turned it of few days ago, the bottom of the wii went from almost burning hot to cold.

 

[Slew Foot]

Ive had mine on continuously since launch and I havent had a problem. The unit is barely warm.

 

[secretanchitman]

ive had my wiiconnect24 on since launch...nothing wrong has happened to it. in fact, ive left it on pause with smash bros melee for a couple of days now...no worries.