Hardware Hacking I got the blinking red light of death

bodefuceta · Jul 22, 2022

Hello, folks.

I got this Wii u brand new in 2014. I still play a lot on it, or rather, used to play until last week. I feel deeply sad about the fact it doesn't work anymore, and am at my wit's end trying to get it to work. I got a ton of controllers, games, accessories etc, this whole ordeal cost me a fortune, let me say in advance that I am fully willing to pay if someone can at least point me in the right direction here.

It has plain old Haxchi, never had CBHC. The failure happened playing local multiplayer on CoD BO2, around 30 minutes after turning on, the screen froze mid-game and no way to reset other than disconnecting power. It was well-ventilated and not particularly hot. Put the power plug in, the usual red led shows up along the eject led. Press either button, and it's just the blinking red led.

No button combination or time pressed would make a difference, neither plugging or unplugging any cable. I opened it up, cleaned absolutely everything, it was already very clean. Re-plugged everything there was to, re-applied thermal paste, visually inspected the circuit board to no finding, still the same issue.

Any ideas or suggestions would be deeply appreciated! I hope your dear Wii U's stay safe, not working isn't fun.

Kopimist · Jul 22, 2022

Have you checked the case fan to make sure it's fully functional and not plugged up with dust or anything? Does it spin up at all?

godreborn · Jul 22, 2022

blinking red light = overheating.

V10lator · Jul 22, 2022

Hard to see but there seems to be a scratch on the PCB:

Could you try to get a better picture of this?

Other than that: No 100% sign of overheating but some hints. Look at this, for example:

... really unsure if dirt or corrosion caused by overheating...

//EDIT: Also other parts of the PCB look... Weird... Really hard to say on the blurry pictures but there's either a lot of dirt or scratches at some parts.

//EDIT²: Really, really hard to diagnose from that blurry pictures but I would say it's dirt... So try to clean the PCB with isoprophyl alcohol and in case that won't work: Give us sharp pictures of the cleaned PCB.

bodefuceta · Jul 22, 2022

Kopimist said:
Have you checked the case fan to make sure it's fully functional and not plugged up with dust or anything? Does it spin up at all?

I cleaned it spotless, it does not seem to be clogged at all but unfortunately the console does not power up to a state it would begin spinning.

godreborn said:
blinking red light = overheating.

As in it overheated one time? Maybe it could have happened if the fan failed right before that happened, but it was definitely working before, and there were no dust bunnies or any clog.

V10lator said:
Hard to see but there seems to be a scratch on the PCB:
View attachment 319026
Could you try to get a better picture of this?

Other than that: No 100% sign of overheating but some hints. Look at this, for example:
View attachment 319027
... really unsure if dirt or corrosion caused by overheating...

//EDIT: Also other parts of the PCB look... Weird... Really hard to say on the blurry pictures but there's either a lot of dirt or scratches at some parts.

//EDIT²: Really, really hard to diagnose from that blurry pictures but I would say it's dirt... So try to clean the PCB with isoprophyl alcohol and in case that won't work: Give us sharp pictures of the cleaned PCB.

It has a bit of dirt there indeed, I took all pictures before cleaning. I failed to notice that scratch! Just have one more picture of it now but it's not great. I did clean with isopropyl and qtips afterwards to no avail, but really should have taken more pictures before closing it! I'll open it again soon. Thanks for looking into it!

V10lator · Jul 22, 2022

With the new informations it would either be that scratch or the console refusing to boot cause of a defective fan (you say it doesn't boot untill the fan would spin but... Think about it the other way: Are you 100% sure it doesn't boot because the fan doesn't spin? Like could it be that the console senses the fan not spinning and as such refuses to boot? AFAIK the console senses the fan and is able to give the red light of dead cause of it but to be fair I don't know for sure).

bodefuceta · Jul 22, 2022

V10lator said:
With the new informations it would either be that scratch or the console refusing to boot cause of a defective fan (you say it doesn't boot untill the fan would spin but... Think about it the other way: Are you 100% sure it doesn't boot because the fan doesn't spin? Like could it be that the console senses the fan not spinning and as such refuses to boot? AFAIK the console senses the fan and is able to give the red light of dead cause of it but to be fair I don't know for sure).

I had the same question, but there's a video of a guy who says his wii u works for 10 whole minutes without the fan working. so it's not really possible to be this I guess, or is it?
Edit: 1:55 of the video.
edit2: Now that I think of it, the error is the same as when it is overheated. Maybe it's the temperature sensor?

godreborn · Jul 22, 2022

I had to replace my fan back in April. I play the system almost every day for 8-10 hours, so it's not really that shocking that it failed after about 8 years or so. it hasn't overheated since.

bodefuceta · Jul 22, 2022

godreborn said:
I had to replace my fan back in April. I play the system almost every day for 8-10 hours, so it's not really that shocking that it failed after about 8 years or so. it hasn't overheated since.

Did it turn on and start blinking afterward? Or immediately blinks red when trying to turn on cold like mine?

godreborn · Jul 22, 2022

I don't recall if it would do that after the initial time I got the red blinking light. I don't think it was immediate, but I don't remember for sure.

bodefuceta · Aug 10, 2022

Just got the Wii U back from a local electronic repair guy, he took a look at it but it's not something he understands well (I'm in a small city), I still have the same issue and still offer money for anyone who can help fixing this.

nWo · Aug 10, 2022

bodefuceta said:
Just got the Wii U back from a local electronic repair guy, he took a look at it but it's not something he understands well (I'm in a small city), I still have the same issue and still offer money for anyone who can help fix

Hey man. It is very hard to recover from the red light of death, but kinda possible. In my experience, there are two causes: the fan or the thermal pads on top of the processor.

If your fan works good, then they are the pads. I think I have some pages about that, let me check and if I find them I'll send them to you.

bodefuceta · Aug 11, 2022

nWo said:
Hey man. It is very hard to recover from the red light of death, but kinda possible. In my experience, there are two causes: the fan or the thermal pads on top of the processor.

If your fan works good, then they are the pads. I think I have some pages about that, let me check and if I find them I'll send them to you.

Hello, nWo, thank you for looking into this issue. I did remove the heatsink, there was a thick thermal paste, which I replaced with a noctua one, but no thermal pads. Unfortunately the Wii U fails as soon as I attempt to turn it on (generates no heat), so I cannot confirm whether there is an issue with the fan but I do know a healthy Wii U would at least just turn on even without a fan connected.

Ondrashek06 · Aug 11, 2022

I borrowed a Wii U. The borrower was an idiot and let her kids throw it out of the window, so the motherboard was broken.
There was a repair centre in Prague, so we sent it there. They were genuinely surprised that they got a Wii U because they rarely see those.

Repair #1 - Motherboard fixed. Wii U booted and I could play using the gamepad, however the HDMI output was completely busted so no TV play.
Repair #2 - HDMI output fixed. However red blinking light of death came on 15 minutes later. It overheated and the fan wasn't spinning.
Repair #3 - Fan still wasn't fixed, not sure what they did this time.
Repair #4 - Fan got fixed and no RBLoD came on. Wii U was completely functioning.

It is possible to get rid of the RBLoD, but you need to push them a little bit.

Kopimist · Aug 11, 2022

bodefuceta said:
Hello, nWo, thank you for looking into this issue. I did remove the heatsink, there was a thick thermal paste, which I replaced with a noctua one, but no thermal pads. Unfortunately the Wii U fails as soon as I attempt to turn it on (generates no heat), so I cannot confirm whether there is an issue with the fan but I do know a healthy Wii U would at least just turn on even without a fan connected.

I believe the WiiU detects if the fan is functioning correctly as soon as you turn it on. Most consoles do this nowadays as a safety measure. I suspect if the fan isn't functioning it could cause this problem you're having. Try replacing the fan, if that doesn't do the trick, it could be the scratch on the PCB.

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