Hardware Wii Component Cable Woes

[bolt7]

I've been having a problem with my Wii since I moved back home from Uni, and it's really bugging me (to the point of where I just can't play it.)

I have a three year old Bush 26" HDTV and am running the Wii through component (as RGB looks absolute crap with the Wii on this telly.) Every so often, no matter if I'm running on 480p, 480i or 570i, the screen goes back for around three or four seconds. It comes up with the screen settings in the top left corner (like when a HDTV adjusts from say, 1080p to 720p, etc) and it does this more often depending on how long I'm playing.

I've been searching online, but have only found a few things specifically related to this issue (as the Wii supposedly has another 'black screen' problem, too.) I figured it might be the cable; so I decided to buy a new one from Amazon. Same problem.

Does anyone have any idea what's causing this? Like I say, it's extremely irritating and what's more annoying is the fact I may have just wasted a tenner on buying another cable. = =

Cheers.

(As posted on Sonic Retro.)

 

[PPSainity]

Just thinking out load on some possible hardware causes here...

It seems your TV has to re-acquire the A/V signal every so often. Usually this is caused by a drop in the signal itself. You have bought a new cable so that excludes the cable as an issue as it is unlikely that both cables were bad. Intermittent signal loss can be caused by faulty or worn sockets as well. Inspect the A/V port on your TV and Wii to see if they are loose. Jiggle the connections to see if the signal goes out. If you have another component input free on your TV try it out to see if the problem is with the previous input.

Another common possible source of the issue can be the power fed to the TV and Wii. If you house suffers from bad wiring or brown power in general, this can cause the TV to lose sync in weaker A/V signals. Troubleshooting bad power is hard as it either involves using a UPS, RF filtering power smoothing surge bar, or dragging your TV and Wii to another friends house (one with good electrical wiring and clean power).

The last thing I can think of that could be a cause of your issue, is an extreme - and I mean extreme, source of interference. If you Wii is right next to a really leaky microwave, furnace blower, Chernobyl ... move it.

In the end it could just be a sucky TV that is just made that way, or our TV or the Wii is flaking out and needs to be repaired.

EDIT: Your Wii isn't overheating or one of the early models with faulty GPU heatsink issues is it?

-[]D

 

[Moquedami]

I had this issue with my Gamecube some years ago. Later i discovered that the problem was the refresh rate of the TV. It just wasn't fast enough.
Try the console with the cable and the same game in another tv.

 

[bolt7]

Thanks a lot for both your replies!

What bugs me the most is, while at University this TV worked fine with my Wii and a Component Cable! It's only since I've moved back home I've been having these problems.

It seems your TV has to re-acquire the A/V signal every so often. Usually this is caused by a drop in the signal itself. You have bought a new cable so that excludes the cable as an issue as it is unlikely that both cables were bad. Intermittent signal loss can be caused by faulty or worn sockets as well. Inspect the A/V port on your TV and Wii to see if they are loose. Jiggle the connections to see if the signal goes out. If you have another component input free on your TV try it out to see if the problem is with the previous input.

Just had a go at doing this, and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I plan on testing my Wii out on the TV downstairs tomorrow sometime, so I'll let you know how that goes. I'm 99% sure nothing in the room is causing it to do this, however the point you mentioned about the power might be a possible cause. My Xbox 360 works fine through HDMI, though... I can't see how that would and this wouldn't.

And no, I'm sure it's not over-heating either. I actually did own one of those consoles a few years back, however I got it replaced by GAME after noticing the problem.

 

[PPSainity]

.....
I plan on testing my Wii out on the TV downstairs tomorrow sometime, so I'll let you know how that goes. I'm 99% sure nothing in the room is causing it to do this, however the point you mentioned about the power might be a possible cause. My Xbox 360 works fine through HDMI, though... I can't see how that would and this wouldn't.

.....

Interference is the less likely of causes as you would have other issues no doubt with such an extreme source of EMI. One thing to understand however, is that HDMI is a digital signal, while component is analogue. Digital signals have more tolerance to interference than analogue so what works for one doesn't exactly translate to the other.

-[]D

 

[Rafinesque]

If the problem was the cable, the color would be off, but the screen wouldn't go black - because, like someone already said, component is analog. Not all 3 wires will go bad at the same time. I'd say something is causing the Wii to stop outputting video (overheating) or the video input board on the TV is going bad or flaking out. Maybe something inside the TV got shaken loose when it was being moved, since you said it was oK before being moved from university to home.