Hardware WiiU red flashing light...

[Tokiopop]

So when I came back at the start of July from living away, I decided I'd play my WiiU for the first time in a while. It got the flashing red light the first time I tried to use it, I googled, and found dust might be the problem. I gave it a quick spray with some compressed air, and that fixed it.

Move onto a few weeks later and I take my WiiU to my girlfriends house. Red flashing light again as soon as I try it. Compressed air didn't fix it. More googling, and I find the power supply might be the issue. I tried the 90s reset, nothing. After leaving everything unplugged for 5 or 10 minutes, it worked again. A week later she comes over to my house, so I hook it all up again and bam, same problem. I couldn't get it to work at all, so I end up ringing Nintendo support. They want me to send it in, and send me all the information via email. When I got back to my PC I tried the WiiU again, and it worked!

It's been working all week ever since, until today. And again, I can't get it to work no matter what.

Is the issue dust trapped inside, the power supply being dodgy, the motherboard? What should I try to fix this? I'd really rather not send it in and have to pay for it to be fixed.

 

[the_randomizer]

Have you tried calling Nintendo?

 

[Tokiopop]

As I mentioned, yes. And they wouldn't suggest anything, they just wanted me to send it in. Which I'd like to avoid because it's out of warranty and I'd likely have to pay (the vWii is also softmodded)

 

[Tokiopop]

Tried it this morning and it turned on... Probably wont come on for another few days if I turn it off :/

I also tested the power supply and it's outputting correctly, so that narrows it down to dust (which there is none of, so the sensor may be bust) or the motherboard. Looks like it might have to be sent back, and nintendo charge a bomb for repairs...

 

[Foxi4]

A quick Google search tells me this sounds like a defective unit or a case of overheating (for whatever reason) - is your system sufficiently ventilated?

 

[Tokiopop]

Yeah it's got about a foot behind it and half a foot to the side (where the intake is). If it's a defective unit, do I still have to pay for repairs out of warranty? I really don't think it's overheating because when it actually works I can play it for hours, but when it's been off for a while it just wont come back on...

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah it's got about a foot behind it and half a foot to the side (where the intake is). If it's a defective unit, do I still have to pay for repairs out of warranty? I really don't think it's overheating because when it actually works I can play it for hours, but when it's been off for a while it just wont come back on...

If you're out of warranty and on top of that have a modded system, you're in a world of hurt. You'd have to virginize it prior to sending it in and "hope" that they don't find any left-overs in the NAND as Nintendo may decline and send the system back. You will have to pay either way, but in the latter case they just won't fix it because you've "modified the system" and it's your problem now.

It could've been a one-time-only issue, so I'd say give it some time. Dust the system, make sure all the connectors are clean and leave it be - start worrying if it happens again. Monitor the heat of the unit from time to time when using it, if it won't happen again within the week then it just derped.

 

[Tokiopop]

Is there an easy way to clean up the vWii? Or would it mean just doing a full wipe of the system (losing downloaded games and whatnot)?

 

[Foxi4]

Is there an easy way to clean up the vWii? Or would it mean just doing a full wipe of the system (losing downloaded games and whatnot)?

I'm not really into the Wii U business, I only know the Wii side of things, so I can't help you there. It shouldn't be too difficult to virginize it, but from what I've heard, there's always something left behind.

 

[Tokiopop]

I'm not really into the Wii U business, I only know the Wii side of things, so I can't help you there. It shouldn't be too difficult to virginize it, but from what I've heard, there's always something left behind.

Thanks for all the help. I have a feeling it's harder to restore the vWii since there's no priiloader, bootmii or anyything of that sort, but I'll look into it.

 

[Foxi4]

As I said, give the system some time. It might've been a completely accidental error that won't ever pop up again - systems tend to get glitchy from time to time. If it was a genuine overheating or a sign of BGA damage, it'll pop up again - then you'll know for sure.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Is there an easy way to clean up the vWii? Or would it mean just doing a full wipe of the system (losing downloaded games and whatnot)?

Nope. The best you can do is manually uninstall anything hack/homebrew related like cIOS, homebrew channel, other channels you installed (WADs and homebrew), out-of-region save files, anything that shouldn't normally be there, and even then there will still be traces left that they can find if they search thoroughly enough. I don't know what their standard procedure is for detecting hacked systems so they might find the traces or they might not.

 

[Tokiopop]

Okay, so today it worked when I turned it on (after refusing to do anything for days). I just turned it off now, and decided to see what happened if I turned it on again. It got the flashing light. I unplug it from the mains, wait a couple of minutes, plug it back in to a different mains socket and then remove the HDMI (because today when it turned on there was no picture because the HDMI connection had come loose, so I thought it'd be worth a try to see if the HDMI was the issue). It turned on again! Only a couple of minutes after not working, which it's never done before. I then turned it off again, kept the HDMI out (to check if that really was the issue) and turned it on. Red flashing light again.

So swapping the plug to a different mains socket made it work, until I tried it again. I really don't understand what's wrong with it. Maybe it is the power supply, even though it was outputting the correct values?

 

[Foxi4]

Okay, so today it worked when I turned it on (after refusing to do anything for days). I just turned it off now, and decided to see what happened if I turned it on again. It got the flashing light. I unplug it from the mains, wait a couple of minutes, plug it back in to a different mains socket and then remove the HDMI (because today when it turned on there was no picture because the HDMI connection had come loose, so I thought it'd be worth a try to see if the HDMI was the issue). It turned on again! Only a couple of minutes after not working, which it's never done before. I then turned it off again, kept the HDMI out (to check if that really was the issue) and turned it on. Red flashing light again.

So swapping the plug to a different mains socket made it work, until I tried it again. I really don't understand what's wrong with it. Maybe it is the power supply, even though it was outputting the correct values?

It might be a power supply *or* the HDMI cable/socket shorting. Repeat the procedure, but use the other HDMI plug to narrow down the possibilities - there's no reason why it'd overheat during just booting.

 

[Tokiopop]

It might be a power supply *or* the HDMI cable/socket shorting. Repeat the procedure, but use the other HDMI plug to narrow down the possibilities - there's no reason why it'd overheat during just booting.

I just tunred on, off, on and off again successfully in the same socket with no HDMI. I tried it with the HDMI, and it got a red flashing light. I took that out, left it for 90s unplugged from the mains, and it turned on again!

Going to try a new HDMI cable.

Yep, it's the HDMI port. Out of 6 times, 4 without a HDMI it's come on, once with the old HDMI it didn't come on, and once with the new HDMI it didn't come on.

 

[Foxi4]

I just tunred on, off, on and off again successfully in the same socket with no HDMI. I tried it with the HDMI, and it got a red flashing light. I took that out, left it for 90s unplugged from the mains, and it turned on again!

Going to try a new HDMI cable.

The PS4 had a similar issue with the HDMI port, that's what gave me the idea. There's definitely something going on there.

 

[Tokiopop]

The PS4 had a similar issue with the HDMI port, that's what gave me the idea. There's definitely something going on there.

It doesn't seem to matter whether or not the HDMI is connected to a TV or not, if there's one in it just wont work... However, turning it on and putting a HDMI in does seem to make it work. I also made an edit to my previous post, if you didn't see

 

[Nathan Drake]

Now, a question, since we've deduced that it was the HDMI port:
Did it give you any issues pre-not playing it for an extended length of time?
If not, do you have your Wii U stored in such a way that the HDMI cable pulls downward or upward at a kind of tight angle?

If the latter is the case, I would guess it wasn't a manufacturing defect, but rather, extended pressure on the cable damaged the HDMI port.

Edit: Also, try a few HDMI cables. Never know. The one you have may just be shot, or nearly there.

 

[Foxi4]

It doesn't seem to matter whether or not the HDMI is connected to a TV or not, if there's one in it just wont work... However, turning it on and putting a HDMI in does seem to make it work. I also made an edit to my previous post, if you didn't see

In that case you narrowed it down successfully - the HDMI port is shorting or the cable is shot. Do you have a replacement cable? Does it short no matter what cable/which end is in? That, and would you mind trying out the composite connector instead of the HDMI, just for testing purposes?

 

[Tokiopop]

Now, a question, since we've deduced that it was the HDMI port:
Did it give you any issues pre-not playing it for an extended length of time?
If not, do you have your Wii U stored in such a way that the HDMI cable pulls downward or upward at a kind of tight angle?

If the latter is the case, I would guess it wasn't a manufacturing defect, but rather, extended pressure on the cable damaged the HDMI port.

I can't recall if a HDMI cable was in the console for the time I was away or not. It's a very good idea that damage could have been caused like that, but if a HDMI cable was plugged in I don't think it would have been a great amount of pressure. And no, there were no issues before I'd left.

What I don't understand is, why does it work fine if I plug a cable in after the console has booted?