Hardware Does anyone else's Wii U disconnect after a long period of time?

[RemixDeluxe]

This seems to happen on a daily basis now and I have no idea why it happens. My Wii U works as intended and I can play it for hours on end. However after a play session with it and going to sleep I notice the power light flashes red. I've seen it happen once and I wrote it off as a possible power failure in the middle of the night but now this has happened at least 5 times now and in order to use my Wii U again everytime this happens I have to disconnect the power and replug it in and that seems to fix the issue temporarily.

Any explanation what's going on and how I can fix it for good?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

This seems to happen on a daily basis now and I have no idea why it happens. My Wii U works as intended and I can play it for hours on end. However after a play session with it and going to sleep I notice the power light flashes red. I've seen it happen once and I wrote it off as a possible power failure in the middle of the night but now this has happened at least 5 times now and in order to use my Wii U again everytime this happens I have to disconnect the power and replug it in and that seems to fix the issue temporarily.

Any explanation what's going on and how I can fix it for good?

If the LED flashes red, try cleaning the vents, i believe it got overheated, i cleaned the vents and it hasn't happened since.

Use a broom or small dusting tool. Maybe some compressed air, or just blow into the vents, on the bottom and the fan on the back a few times, get a wash cloth and try cleaning in between after you dust the vents.

 

[DocAmes1980]

What @Sonic Angel Knight said reminds me of an important question to ask. If your Wii U is vertical do you have the side intake vent facing the bottom (power and eject will be on top)? If you have it where the side intake vent is facing upwards it won't be able it cool itself as efficiently. I really don't get the appeal of placing a console on its side in the first place. Maybe some people think it looks slick. Launch model Xbox 360s looked slick in the vertical position for about four months until they got the RRoD due to insufficient airflow combined with crappy design.

Sorry. Rant over.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

What @Sonic Angel Knight said reminds me of an important question to ask. If your Wii U is vertical do you have the side intake vent facing the bottom (power and eject will be on top)? If you have it where the side intake vent is facing upwards it won't be able it cool itself as efficiently. I really don't get the appeal of placing a console on its side in the first place. Maybe some people think it looks slick. Launch model Xbox 360s looked slick in the vertical position for about four months until they got the RRoD due to insufficient airflow combined with crappy design.

Sorry. Rant over.

Well the wii u has a stand that allows it to stand up like it does, but i got mine with the deluxe edition, it has space underneath to allow the vent to function, and all consoles has a fan inside and always place on the back, regardless of the position of the system, the fan always has access to open area.

I dunno why they stand up, perhaps is cause it takes up less room sitting flat horizontally which make sense. You wouldn't stack them on top of each other, but side by side, if they sit flat horizontally like the console of the 1990's then you have less room to sit them and space to work with on a shelf, while if they are vertial, then you can put them near each other and save room, is really not good idea to stack them but is okay to sit side by side.

 

[RemixDeluxe]

My Wii U is placed horizontally. The only console I've ever placed vertically was the Wii, for the Wii U it doesn't make much sense to do so vertically since the access to the USB ports would make the wires dangle from the middle of the console rather than lay flat.

I'll see what I can do about cleaning the vents.

 

[DocAmes1980]

Well the wii u has a stand that allows it to stand up like it does, but i got mine with the deluxe edition, it has space underneath to allow the vent to function, and all consoles has a fan inside and always place on the back, regardless of the position of the system, the fan always has access to open area.

I dunno why they stand up, perhaps is cause it takes up less room sitting flat horizontally which make sense. You wouldn't stack them on top of each other, but side by side, if they sit flat horizontally like the console of the 1990's then you have less room to sit them and space to work with on a shelf, while if they are vertial, then you can put them near each other and save room, is really not good idea to stack them but is okay to sit side by side.

Yeah I should have made a caveat for the Wii U. The Wii U might even cool better when using that stand due to it being able to intake unrestricted fresh air from the bottom and the exhaust fan being on top in the vertical position. The Wii's stand was fairly well designed too. It had a cutout for the intake and the back of the stand was left open. Not all consoles have rear exhaust fan(s). The Xbox One for example just has an intake fan. For the consoles that do have rear exhaust fan(s) ensuring that the rear has space is only part of the equation. The exhaust fan(s) also help the console intake fresh air due to the fact that having only exhaust fan(s) and no intake fan(s) creates negative pressure. Consoles still have intake vents even if they don't have an intake fan. I brought up the Xbox 360 because it had crappy cooling design in general but especially for vertical placement. The console's air intake was the entire right side (when horizontal). When you placed the console vertical the right side was only raised off the surface by thin rubber feet. This drastically reduced the amount of air the console could take through the intake and spoiled the airflow. Also the exhaust was towards the bottom when vertical which is fucking retarded. Heat rises after all.

 

[RemixDeluxe]

Looking straight at my Wii U and seeing its right side the vent cover part looks dusty, not caked but a fair amount. I'll include a picture. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B94sGHv3JlDMenhtV0I0TC0tcGc/view?usp=sharing

If I were to get something like a data vac should I open up the Wii U system before using it to blow out whatever dust and debris is causing this issue or just a blow at the vent alone without opening is good enough?