Gaming Wii has no sound?

[nwh212]

I recently bought a Wii that has no sound output, so I got to work on it. I opened it up and aside from dust, the board seems fine, nothing fried or abnormal. I tested the pins of the AV out port to make sure they were continuous, and they seemed fine. I tried changing the Wii's sound settings, nothing. I tried different cables, nothing. I tried powering it from the wall and not from a surge protector, nothing. I reset the Wii, nothing. When put loudly through my amplifier, the speakers him a very low noise, of which I know is coming from the system. What is it that could have gone wrong? Is there a component that could've fried that I'm unaware of? Could someone have screwed up on custom firmware or something? What could've caused this?

 

[Judge_Furret]

Not completely sure. Maybe something with CFW.

 

[V10lator]

I recently bought a Wii that has no sound output, so I got to work on it. I opened it up and aside from dust, the board seems fine, nothing fried or abnormal.

Try to clean the board with isoprophyl alcohol none the less. I had weird things caused by dust on other systems, so that's the first thing I do when getting my hands on a dusted system showing weird symptoms.

 

[Edmonds]

Did you try compressed air in the RGB connections?

 

[nwh212]

Try to clean the board with isoprophyl alcohol none the less. I had weird things caused by dust on other systems, so that's the first thing I do when getting my hands on a dusted system showing weird symptoms.

I tried that, it unfortunately hasn't solved the issue. I may try it again but I doubt it'll change if it didn't work the first time.

Did you try compressed air in the RGB connections?

Yup. The port seems to be fine. In fact, there is sound coming from the Wii - cranking my amp to max volume reveals a low electrical hum that I have confirmed comes from the wii. Is it possible that something on the board blown, or the firmware is janked?

 

[Edmonds]

I tried that, it unfortunately hasn't solved the issue. I may try it again but I doubt it'll change if it didn't work the first time.

Yup. The port seems to be fine. In fact, there is sound coming from the Wii - cranking my amp to max volume reveals a low electrical hum that I have confirmed comes from the wii. Is it possible that something on the board blown, or the firmware is janked?

I imagine it would be something hardware, not software. I don't know if you can, but look into buying a new audio card

 

[nwh212]

I imagine it would be something hardware, not software. I don't know if you can, but look into buying a new audio card

New audio card? I'll see if I can.

 

[nwh212]

It seems the suspect could be a preamp chip on the board located nearest to the AV output on the bottom side of the board. The chip reads 932 AMPAM. Anyone know where to find a replacement for this?

 

[nwh212]

SOLUTION HERE
I hate when threads end with no resolution, poor saps who come in later that have no idea what they're doing, have this same issue, only to turn up empty. I've fixed the Wii, it was an issue that seems far from common, and I hope nobody else ever has it.

If your sound isn't working, several things you can try before doing this are:

• Changing sound settings between mono, stereo and surround
• Testing the Wii on different TVs and through different AV cables
• Testing continuity for the LR pads on the AV out port (there are Wii pinouts online that show you which ones are for audio)

If those fall short, you likely have my issue, an issue that nobody else seems to have had or documented yet. Anyways, you're going to want to test the audio preamp chip on the motherboard. It's a small 8-pin chip on the bottom side of the board. It's close to the IC audio-video chip and sits right next to the AV port. It has a unique manufacturing symbol that looks like an A or an M, and should say AMPAM on it. This image I snatched from bitbuilt shows it off better.

You're going to want to test the two pins of the chip above indicated in red, then the two indicated in white. If your chip is bad, you won't get any continuity or read of any kind between the pins. I found a good chip gives me ~770 on my multimeter in just plain old continuity mode. If it's bad, here's the kicker - you gotta salvage one from a donor board. I've looked extensively for replacements, I have no idea where to find any. The company, the markings, they don't lead anywhere. Ampam didn't give me any lead as to who the manufacturer is, or any similar replacement components. You're likely better off just paying the 10 bucks for a donor board, sadly. Though, if anyone finds a replacement chip, do let me know.

 

[hotparm]

Ampam didn't give me any lead as to who the manufacturer is, or any similar replacement components.

The logo is Microchip Technology. Also it appears different Wii revisions use different chips.
I have a Rev 01 board, the chip markings are 727 AMPAM

I checked Mouser and found part "584-OP727ARZ"
It's a 12v opamp, pinout looks like it might be right.