Hardware Considering current events...

[Aoko]

Hello, first time poster here in the Wii forums. I've debated long and hard about getting which next-gen system - I can only afford one at the moment - and since I'm a huge Nintendo fan, I decided to go with the Wii. Now, I know this has been asked before, but I do have some questions that I couldn't find any information of. If this thread serves to be an eyesore, I'm really sorry, but I just have to know. So, with that said, let's begin.

I plan on buying a Wii around next week. I've read about the recent update and how it's affected some chipped Wiis. While I'm all for supporting Nintendo, I'm in a country where it's hard to find releases, so I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy one with a chip already installed. Now, for the questions:

1. ) Should I buy a PAL console or an NTSC console?
2. ) What sort of things do I need to make sure of before purchasing? For example, before forking over the money for a DS Lite, you check it for dead pixels first. What do I need to check for before buying?
3. ) Are there any types of Wii I should steer clear from, with a certain serial number and so on?
4. ) Wi-Fi over here isn't that accessible as well, and I may not be able to update my Wii's firmware regularly. If on the off-chance I go ahead and buy retail games, will they update the console with every new release in lieu of being update over WiiConnect24?
5. ) If I go for a modded Wii, what's the recommended modchip I could have for it? Also, what should I make sure of before puttig down the money for it?

I have other questions, but pleae, if you have the time, kindly sate my curiosity. Thanks.

 

[Bitbyte]

1) NTSC if you're gonna mod it (games get released earlier in the USA)
2) Wiis don't have dead pixels =P
3) Can't comment on that, I was under the assumption that they could all be modded, but I haven't read the wii modding news in months.
4) Can't comment on that either

5) Wiikey is widely recognized as the best one. Make sure you get an authentic one, the ones with the holo seal.

 

[Aoko]

Thank you for the quick reply!

As for number 2, yes, I'm fully aware about Wiis not having dead pixels. What I'm asking for is things about the Wii I should test first before buying. Like, are there Wiis that don't detect Wiimote movement as good as other Wiis? Stuff like that.

 

[panteracfh]

They might not get dead pixels, but they get corrupt GPU's which imo look a lot worse.

My Wii is only 6 weeks old, and it is riddled with green / red corrupt pixels, it does not happen on GameCube games, but every Wii game looks like crap now

Resident Evil 4 being the worst.

I can't believe Nintendo can release a product onto the market which is so flakey.

I have had my Xbox for 4 years, not one problem ever, and I leave that on all the time.

The Wii I hardly ever leave on. Not much I can do about it now, since I have a WiiKey in it, so just have to put up with them.

No quality control whatsoever.

Just a word of warning.

 

[Seraph]

They might not get dead pixels, but they get corrupt GPU's which imo look a lot worse.

My Wii is only 6 weeks old, and it is riddled with green / red corrupt pixels, it does not happen on GameCube games, but every Wii game looks like crap now

Resident Evil 4 being the worst.

I can't believe Nintendo can release a product onto the market which is so flakey.

I have had my Xbox for 4 years, not one problem ever, and I leave that on all the time.

The Wii I hardly ever leave on. Not much I can do about it now, since I have a WiiKey in it, so just have to put up with them.

No quality control whatsoever.

Just a word of warning.

That happens when you leave your system on Standby mode, which heats your Wii up more than being on. This doesn't seem to happen to every Wii though and they usually don't have fried GPU's out of the box. Of course, if your warranty is still valid they'd probably fix it for you.

 

[ziddey]

Personally, I wouldn't view it as ethically wrong in your case to buy a wii from the store, swap parts to make a good wii again, and return the dud. Major stores won't pay as much attention to detail or even know of the white stickers you had to remove to open it up. That said, it's unsure whether they'll be caught holding the bag when they send it back to nintendo or whatnot, but eh. I suppose in a situation where if Nintento were to void my warranty on something that broke that a mod chip had no influence on, then it'd hurt less to have the distributor suffer a little bit than have the end user suffer completely. Completely arguable I know, but just putting it out there.

 

[1337Nemo]

i think the easiest way atm is to buy a pre-modded new wii from some modchip retailer. In germany they always offer this and if you never solderd before, you should really use this service (since the cutlegs problem really needs a good modder!)

 

[Aoko]

Well, I took the plunge and bought a pre-modded Wii, which was surprisingly already updated to 3.0U and working just fine with backups. However, should I be worried that I get the Wii Disc Error sometimes after inserting a backup disc? After ejecting the disc and power-cycling the Wii, inserting the disc that errored out works perfectly.

Should I take the Wii back, or is this a common occurrence with backups? Also, there was one time where Wii Sports errored out, but that was because I accidentally got a fingerprint on the data side. I wiped it clean after, though, and it now works fine.