The console in question is a European Launch Wii. Had a Wiikey installed in February 2008 and havn't had any issues with it since then. The Wii read Dual Layer Brawl Backups just fine as well as all Originals (never tried an Original Pal Brawl). A coule of weeks ago the Drive all of a sudden got louder while playing on my Guitar Hero III Original disc, but the game seemed to work and load just fine still. The noise went away a couple days after and everything was back to normal. Earlier this week however the noise was back and soon turned into a very scary, even louder one that sounded like the disc being ground to pieces in the drive, but still with no impacts on loading. The disc was and still is in perfect condition. And then all of a sudden the drive doesn't seem to accept any discs anymore at all. From the sound of it the discs don't spin up anymore at all. There's a slight buzzing sound in the background, like a really low speed spinning. There's 4 "smaller" clicking noises followed by a louder click/beep mixture. The pattern repeats two or three times before the Wii gives up and declares the disc unreadable.

Ever since the problem started it managed to read a disc once, which then worked with no issues whatsoever, spinning without the loud noises observed earlier.

Firmware 3.2E, Wiikey 1.9g, if that matters at all.

From the sound of it the whole drive is wrecked, but I cannot even open the console to take a look inside.

Anybody got some experience with sending a chipped Wii to NoE for repair?