Hacking [Discussion] Wii U freezing in-game

[MattKimura]

Lately I've been having an issue with my Wii U and I'm trying to figure out what causes it, if it's a hardware problem or not. It's a known problem from as far back as 2012, where the system will hard lock with a loud buzzing noise where you have to get up and hold the power button to shut it off. This happens to me in the same exact area within Zelda Botw every time I walk there. It's also happened in other areas in the game so it's completely random, kinda like sweet spots for it to happen. This doesn't happen in other games, just this one.

According to research, this has happened with plenty of games in the past, such as
Nintendo Land
Mario Kart 8
Batman Arkham City
Lego City Undercover
Assassin's Creed 3
Call of Duty Ghosts
Lego Marvel Avengers
Zelda Botw (Besides me, it happened to others)

To me, my guess would be an issue with the hardware. It sounds like it's running out of RAM and can't play any longer. It seems to happen to CPU intensive games, I've never had this issue before for as long as I owned this Wii U since Nov 2015.

Here's an example of how it looks when it freezes (Not my video):




Also you can get a good idea of how it sounds in this video (Not my video):



Nintendo designed the system to give off this loud noise as a way to let you know that it hard locked.


I've tried reinstalling the game and it's update (Which is to a USB HDD), and restoring the save with saviine. The issue is still the same, in the same area. I've tried uninstalling CBHC, and disconnecting from the internet. I've tried unplugging the system from the wall outlet.

This cannot be an overheating issue as I can let it rest all day and when I go to play it, it still happens while it's cooled off.

I bought another console for $130 on ebay, manufacturer refurbished by Nintendo. Not everyone seems to be having this problem with their Wii U. I'm half way through the game and I'm just now running into this problem.

Let this be a discussion for Wii U freezing in general, seems like nobody ever comes up with a solution aside from sending it to Nintendo. And no it's not Wii U hack related, this issue happened with legit users way back then since the console first launched.

If anyone wants to help test my save, I'd appreciate it. Saviine can successfully export/import saves. I've done it myself with this game.

 

[zeldaism]

My Wii U never freezes on me unless I use cheats for a very long time. Other than that I've never had this problem when playing regularly.

 

[Deleted-379826]

This has never happened. Although, in BOTW there would be a like 4 second freeze when whacking a big mobin or whatever, but it would return after the freeze. This seems like a super common problem.

 

[thekarter104]

Never happened to me with any game. And I have many hours into BotW.
Just some framerate issues in Kakariko Village and someother big towns if I look at a direction where it happens., maybe many houses on screen? But that,s it.

 

[Deleted User]

Nah. [I still don't know why Wii U freezes when it loads Blockchain website...]
I don't think it froze in-games forcing me to turn off Wii U or freezing mid-game.
It's pretty stable for me.

 

[fenderjaguar]

Only happened with minecraft, when we had 2 player co-op and built rail carts. I mean, we played hundreds of hours, and it only ever locked up like you describe when we started riding the minecarts

 

[superkrups20056]

This freezing issue has been happening to me. I just got my refurbished Wii U directly from Nintendo in the mail a week ago. I've been going absolutely crazy and spent HOURS trying to resolve this stupid issue. I've remade my redNAND 3 times, tried 3 different HDDs (2 with external power and one with Y cable) and it still freezes at the very beginning. I'm using basically the same model 6 year old Western Digital HD as my cousin too and he has played hours without issue. I've tried 3 different plug outlets, 2 different power strips, and still have the same problem. I'm almost to my breaking point. What are my options right now? Is there ANYTHING ELSE I can do on my end to make it work? I want to run games from the USB. It does the same thing with Xenoblade Chronicles X. Both occur within 3-4 minutes of starting the game. Sometimes the game will freeze on the title screen before even launching.

I've also noticed other weird things with my Wii. Sometimes, whether I load SysNAND OR RedNAND, the icons plain fail to load on the home menu, although they are selectable. At one point, the Wii started freezing at the brown Mocha CFW logo and forced me to format and remake my RedNAND to access it. I can't find my issue anywhere else. Is there anything I can do to alleviate this issue?

 

[KyoIsHacking]

My WiiU likes to freeze in Activity log or while trying to enter the password of an account..