Hacking Exploded Wii mains lead, help?

[ZeroBlitz]

I just received an imported US Wii (in the UK) but it didn't come with a plug adapter (though it was meant to) so I searched around the house and found an old adapter that seemed to have slots that fit dual pin type plugs and the american ones. I plugged it in and the box on the Wii power lead seemed to have exploded... Is there any chance that it may have affected the console? Will buying a UK Wii mains lead rectify the problem or am I screwed?

Edit: check my latest post for my new disc drive problem after getting a UK Wii mains lead.

 

[Redsquirrel]

you should be fine if you just buy a UK psu.

 

[legendofphil]

There is a possibility that it has damaged the console.
If you know someone with a Wii borrow their power adaptor.

Did you know beforehand that putting 230V through a 110V device would damage it?

 

[ZeroBlitz]

Nope, only after doing some research now.. (didn't realise the voltage would be different) though the website I bought it from said it would include a "Power cable/adapter". http://www.uexboxmods.com/index.php?act=vi...d&productId=378

What's the likelihood of the console being damaged? And, if it is, what parts of the console are likely to be? (how much would it cost to replace them)

I've already paid £250 (console) + £50 (shipping) + £36 (customs) + £11 (UK power lead, coming tomorrow/day after)

 

[webjedi]

uexboxmods.com - holy cow. Someone went off about how this company ripped them off.

Who sends a console without a power cord?

There should be a official thread on where NOT to buy from. Some companies seem to pop up more then others.

 

[ZeroBlitz]

It had the original US Wii power cable that came in the box, though given that he's an international seller (and even mentions including an adapter on the website), I don't see why he'd not bother to include the adapter. Now the included US mains lead is obviously useless and I hope the Wii isn't completely done in..

 

[legendofphil]

That was quite expensive, that's twice the price of a US console (I overpaid but I think it was less than £180 to import including shipping and no customs charges).
The damage could just be limited to the power adaptor or it could have taken out the majority of the hardware in the console.

 

[ZeroBlitz]

It was expensive because of the d2ckey. I guess I'll just have to hope the console still works... Kinda strange that you didn't get charged customs and I did, do you think I'll get charged for importing WiiPlay from yesasia.com?

 

[legendofphil]

When I got mine I got it from eBay and asked the seller to mark it as a gift, went through with no problems.

If your WiiPlay is coming through normal air mail it shouldn't incur customs charges.

 

[BoneMonkey]

try a different psu adapter and tell us what happens

 

[TehLink]

Try to get another power adapter meant for the UK(230V) and try to use it. I blew my power adapter during a visit to Israel because my converter failed on me, but when I got back to the U.S. I just purchased a new adapter and everything was fine.

 

[ZeroBlitz]

TehLink,
Thanks, now I actually have some hope as Israel seems to use the same voltage as England. A UK power lead should arrive in a day or two. I tried getting one locally but a store told me to buy one from Nintendo so I got one on ebay (297 good / 100% feedback).

legendofphil,
My order was marked as a Gift too. It was in a pretty huge box though.. and $200/$300 value was marked on the side. The customs charge was approx £22.50 for VAT and £13.50 for parcelforce shipping once it arrived in the UK which I discovered from looking over the box some more.

Good news about WiiPlay though, thanks.

 

[gov78]

dun worry happend to my friend once got a new PSU for £11 of ebay works fine now

 

[Lazycus]

Yeah, probably didn't have a chance to send any voltage to your Wii since you smoked the power supply so quickly. How about a picture?!

 

[ZeroBlitz]

It's not something you can see, it just made a really loud exploding noise the second it got plugged in and I pulled it out immediately. ^^;

I received the UK power lead and the Wii powers on so at least I know all of the components in the console aren't blown. But, the disc drive seems to be having some problems... (actually, a lot). At first, when I put some games in (original and backups) it was reading them fine, but would get a disc read error* after a short period of time (seconds to a couple of minutes). I tried putting a backup in, let the disc drive run for a minute after loading the game, pressed reset and started the game. That allowed the game I was playing to run for about 30 minutes before coming up with the error. I tried running another backup using the same method immediately afterward, but it only lasted a couple of minutes again. I kept trying this method and the amount of times it lasted before messing up varied and a lot of the time it would take me awhile to get the drive to eject the disc. Twice, it has taken me ages to get the disc out of the console (and a lot of the time it took at least a minute). I alternated between pressing the Eject button, resetting and switching the power off (holding the Power button when it was frozen, which was a lot) in order to try to get the disc out of the console. (Yes, I was being fairly patient with it and not constantly pressing the buttons)

It wasn't until the second time the disc really didn't want to come out and I left it alone for a bit (pressing eject 20 mins later, which worked) that I realised that the disc drive must be getting burned out incredibly quickly and need to cool down (or something similar, no the console doesn't feel hot when it happens). I'm pretty sure it's the disc drive as just before the game's about to get an error, it makes weird noises like it can't spin the disc or is getting locked up.

It's probably also worth noting that Gamecube games don't seem to work... SA2: Battle, an original PAL disc wasn't recognised on the disc load-up screen and neither was an NTSC-J backup.

Is the disc drive where the modchip is installed? Is it more likely to be a problem due to the mistake with the power lead (which seems kinda strange since I'd assume more to be wrong if a powerful electrical surge had gone through the system) or is it possibly caused by a faulty install of the modchip?

QUOTE(Disc Read Error*)
An error has occurred. Press the Eject Button and remove the disc, then turn the Wii console off and refer to the Wii Operations Manual for help troubleshooting.


Edit: Also, sometimes it won't even let me put a disc in. Even now, after leaving it for an hour, it's completely refusing access to any discs.

EDIT BY Hadrian:
Don't double post! I added your last post into this one.