Completely power off GamePad?

[lightwo]

After some time of not using my Wii U GamePad, I found that its battery drained enough that pressing/holding the power button did nothing. I assume it uses idle power to wait for Wii U to announce its presence.

Even though I already use a Stroopwafel plugin to disable Wii U from powering on the GamePad, I don't think it ended up being that useful...

Is there a method I can use to make the GamePad power off entirely without taking the battery out every time?

 

[Jayinem]

Don't think there is but you could keep it charging. To be able to turn on the Wii U it has to have a little bit of power it was just made that way. Every wireless controller is made the exact same way if you go months without using it they will eventually die. I'm not sure why that's a big deal though if you have to charge it once after 3 months of not using it.

 

[lightwo]

Don't think there is but you could keep it charging. To be able to turn on the Wii U it has to have a little bit of power it was just made that way. Every wireless controller is made the exact same way if you go months without using it they will eventually die. I'm not sure why that's a big deal though if you have to charge it once after 3 months of not using it.

Well, the hardware and firmware has clearly been extensively researched, given that it's possible to flash it and I recall seeing a basic emulator running on it too. I'd stop at that point as well if it was still effectively a black box.

 

[Jayinem]

Well, the hardware and firmware has clearly been extensively researched, given that it's possible to flash it and I recall seeing a basic emulator running on it too. I'd stop at that point as well if it was still effectively a black box.

Okay? But why is it a big deal to take a cord plug it into a wall take the other end plug it into the Gamepad and do that 4 times a year? Is it even worth worrying about that you have to do that?

 

[lightwo]

Okay? But why is it a big deal to take a cord plug it into a wall take the other end plug it into the Gamepad and do that 4 times a year? Is it even worth worrying about that you have to do that?

When a Li-Ion battery flatlines (0%), its battery life decreases much faster as opposed to keeping it in storage on around 80%. There is a big difference.

For what it's worth, no, I don't have a charging dock, and I don't really have a practical place to put it while charging. Besides, either way, unless I'm charging it, I can't know the battery status until I power it on manually.

 

[Technician]

When a Li-Ion battery flatlines (0%), its battery life decreases much faster as opposed to keeping it in storage on around 80%. There is a big difference.

For what it's worth, no, I don't have a charging dock, and I don't really have a practical place to put it while charging. Besides, either way, I can't know the battery status until I power it on manually.

You can put the gamepad inside a freezer to slow down the decharging speed. Maybe the components will survive. Or if you don't use it at all, you can sell it for good bucks. Other than that there is nothing you can do about the battery decharging. It's completely normal for a lithium ion battery to decharge over time. You can't prevent that

 

[lightwo]

You can put the gamepad inside a freezer to slow down the decharging speed. Maybe the components will survive. Or if you don't use it at all, you can sell it for good bucks. Other than that there is nothing you can do about the battery decharging. It's completely normal for a lithium ion battery to decharge over time. You can't prevent that

It is normal for the battery to discharge without any load, yes, but that is an order of magnitude slower than having the device that uses it consume idle power all the time... which is clearly what's happening as the GamePad has to receive some power to know when the console powers on.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

The Gamepad being always on is serious, know design flaw.
Other than manually disconnecting the battery when not in use for a longer time you could install a switch yourself.

 

[Technician]

After some time of not using my Wii U GamePad, I found that its battery drained enough that pressing/holding the power button did nothing. I assume it uses idle power to wait for Wii U to announce its presence.

Even though I already use a Stroopwafel plugin to disable Wii U from powering on the GamePad, I don't think it ended up being that useful...

Is there a method I can use to make the GamePad power off entirely without taking the battery out every time?

One thing though: how do you know that your battery health is still good? Might be that it's close to permanent death. And do you have the stock battery or did you change it with a bigger one?

 

[lightwo]

The Gamepad being always on is serious, know design flaw.
Other than manually disconnecting the battery when not in use for a longer time you could install a switch yourself.

Great, thanks for the information! Still, that definitely goes beyond what I'm willing to do to a piece of hardware that's soon to be obsoleted by Vanilla, so I don't want to make irreversible modifications to it.

Do you also happen to know if the GamePad powers off at a healthy level (most ICs don't power on on too low current)? Common sense tells me that should be the case, but who knows...

One thing though: how do you know that your battery health is still good? Might be that it's close to permanent death. And do you have the stock battery or did you change it with a bigger one?

It's a larger capacity third-party battery replacement that I tested when I got, and it supposedly wasn't degraded at all considering how long I had it powered on after full charge. I took a 1-2 month break before trying to power it on today.

 

[Technician]

Great, thanks for the information! Still, that definitely goes beyond what I'm willing to do to a piece of hardware that's soon to be obsoleted by Vanilla, so I don't want to make irreversible modifications to it.

Do you also happen to know if the GamePad powers off at a healthy level (most ICs don't power on on too low current)? Common sense tells me that should be the case, but who knows...


It's a larger capacity third-party battery replacement that I tested when I got, and it supposedly wasn't degraded at all considering how long I had it powered on after full charge. I took a 1-2 month break before trying to power it on today.

I know you don't want to hear it but those third-party batteries tend to be rubbish after a short time. Just make test. Charge it completely and then let it run some mario kart 8 demos.

 

[lightwo]

I know you don't want to hear it but those third-party batteries tend to be rubbish after a short time. Just make test. Charge it completely and then let it run some mario kart 8 demos.

Thanks for the heads-up. Other than a dud I got in my first order, I later got another seemingly from the same factory (same label) and it has been working fine so far. Regardless though, I want to keep it alive as long as I can.

Post automatically merged: Dec 25, 2025

Well, I found that there is no difference between doing:

• Power off GamePad during Wii U early boot (GamePad doesn't power off the console)
• Enter pairing mode on console (2x "sync" on Wii U, then hold power on GamePad)
• Enter pairing mode on GamePad (Wii U powered off, power on GamePad, press "sync")
• Turning off with PadCon

After powering the console on, the GamePad also powers on, meaning that it is consuming standby power.

Entering pairing mode doesn't change pairing until a new device is paired, so the GamePad is always paired and listening for power on signals. Presumably, unless there is a way to unpair the GamePad, I don't see a way it could keep itself powered off...

At least the best thing that can be done without doing the hard mod to add a physical switch seems to be using wafel_noinit_tablet Stroopwafel plugin.

Post automatically merged: Dec 25, 2025

It looks like GamePad UIC states have been documented here, but I can't see anything about power consumption. More importantly, from what I can tell, these states are set by the GamePad itself and not the console, so I believe that CFW would be necessary to manually pick a state anyway...

 

[wei134102]

我认为最终的解决方案就是 打开后面的电池后盖 添加一个开关来控制电池的红色线！
I think the final solution is to open the back cover of the battery and add a switch to control the red line of the battery!