Hacking DSi Left Should Button already dead - exchange not an option

[Rascal]

35 days old and my DSi has a bad left shoulder button (not a dust issue, the contact is bad). Gamestop was cool about it and was going to exchange it for me, even though it was 5 days past their policy. And I was going to do the exchange, until they told me that my DSi Ware points and downloads were tied to my DSi and would be lost. Reading up at Nintendo's support pages proved this to be true. Points/downloads are tied to the DSi, not the Club Nintendo account. I guess this makes 3rd party extended warranties pointless (pun intended).

So, off to Nintendo goes my DSi. Glad I kept a DSL around the house to keep me occupied for the next 2 weeks.

 

[jan777]

if you exchanged for the new dsi cant you just redownload?

 

[Rascal]

Nope. Tried that. Read my post in the DSi Faq thread for more info. The points and downloads are tied to the internal serial number of the DSi. If you were to unlink your DSi from your Club Nintendo account, it asks you to type in the External Serial Number and agree that any points/purchases linked to that DSi are null and void.

 

[Tokiopop]

That sucks. There seem to be a lot of hardware related problems with the DSi.

 

[SimpleSimon08]

That can't possibly be legal you have purchased something in good faith and own that item, surely they can't just take away there must be a way to retrieve points. If not then the system is seriously flawed, a backup mechanism must be developed.

 

[thieves like us]

Nope. Tried that. Read my post in the DSi Faq thread for more info. The points and downloads are tied to the internal serial number of the DSi. If you were to unlink your DSi from your Club Nintendo account, it asks you to type in the External Serial Number and agree that any points/purchases linked to that DSi are null and void.

it will be interesting to see how many unused, existing "free" points that people will acquire when they purchase a DSi system second hand (via stores like gamestop and/or ebay).

it's a shame that nintendo couldn't have done something similar to microsoft's xbox live and tie all of your purchased content to an account id which could reside in the system nand. similiar to xbox live and current wi-fi enabled nds games, you would then have the option to move (not copy) this account information from one system to another.

 

[Rascal]

UPDATE: Spoke to a different Nintendo representative who said that Nintendo CAN transfer points and downloads if you have to exchange your system. But you would have to deal directly with Nintendo yourself and have all information handy (both serial numbers, purchase dates, and club nintendo information).

Too bad the first rep I spoke to didn't make this clear.

 

[Rascal]

MOD: Please delete this double post. I couldn't find a way to do it myself.

 

[Rascal]

Just got an email from Nintendo. After only having the unit for a few hours, they are shipping me out a new DSi (the repair report shows the new serial #). I say new, but for all I know it could be a refurbished unit. It is scheduled to arrive today. I'll post an update tonight on the condition of the unit and if my content has already been transferred to it.

 

[SkyintheSea]

Did they charge you for the new DSi?

 

[Rascal]

Did they charge you for the new DSi?

No. The repair ticket shows that it would have cost $75, but was covered under warranty for $0.

 

[Tokiopop]

Even if it's refurb'd, it wont make much different. They basically just re-house it, keeping the working expensive parts. But, it's probably going to be new.

Good to hear they're sending you a new one and will transfer Points/ DS Ware!

 

[Rascal]

The DSI appears to be new (or a darn clean refurb). Shoulder buttons perfect and all content, settings, and WiFi transfered over. Nintendo store has correct number of points. Overall a good experience. But if it happens again, I'm going to pay for expedited shipping to Nintendo. When I used their pre-paid postage, it took a week to get there. Then only 2 days to replace and get back.

 

[kennypu]

The DSI appears to be new (or a darn clean refurb). Shoulder buttons perfect and all content, settings, and WiFi transfered over. Nintendo store has correct number of points. Overall a good experience. But if it happens again, I'm going to pay for expedited shipping to Nintendo. When I used their pre-paid postage, it took a week to get there. Then only 2 days to replace and get back.

I was in a similar situations, both of my shoulder buttons started to respond badly after about a month or so. I bought my DS in japan, and I came back here to the U.S., so no way of warrenty or anything(not that i can think of).
Anyway if anybody else has this problem with the shoulders, I believe its a dust issue. If i blow in the shoulder buttons for a few seconds, they start to work again. If any body was able to fix this problem manually (since the DS is phillip screwed anyways), that would be awesome :3

 

[lostdwarf]

you lucky bastard i have had the exact same problem but nintendo denied my dsi as broken and said it worked perfectly and just sent me it back the c*&t$

sorry about the bad language

 

[Rascal]

While I cannot comment as to why Nintendo did not determine your DSi to be broken, you can still migrate your DSiWare and points to a new unit if your retailer is willing to do an exchange for you. Details can be found in this post in a similar thread.