Hardware Wii U steady red light, no power

[ToothyNom]

With 3ds and Wii U prices going up I bought a broken Wii U to try and fix. The thing is it just won't turn on. On the faceplate, there's a steady red light and nothing else. No white light, no blue/yellow. Pressing the power button does nothing. It just stays red. I saw some people had issue where the red light would go off for a bit, not here, stays red no matter what i do. I took it apart and disconnected the drive, same red light, won't power on. I checked the big fuse close to power adapter and i get 15V on both sides. Checked the small fuse just past what seems like a filter, 15V on both sides. the other fuse on negative side is also good. There's a small tear in the power button ribbon but none of the traces seem to be damaged and continuity is there.

There's also a scratch on the drive ribbon cable, again, non of the traces seem to be affected and it still wont boot up with the drive + ribbon unplugged.

On the faceplate connector I get two 3.somethingV and one 1.6V. I assume the 1.6v is enable. Anyone knows what two pins i need to short to force boot on the motherboard? Just 1.6 to ground?

 

[tmsu444]

It's getting power, the red light means the Wii U is off iirc, the console might just be bricked beyond belief.
(i barely know anything about hardware so dont quote me on this)

 

[V10lator]

On the faceplate, there's a steady red light and nothing else. No white light, no blue/yellow. Pressing the power button does nothing. It just stays red.

This sounds extremely like a broken power button. The issue might be the scratch at the ribborn cable (did you test it for continuity?) or a ripped of part on the PCB (not sure but it looks like at least D3 had something on the PCB which is missing).

 

[Solenski]

I have the same issue with my WII U. Red steady light. I tested the buttons and the ribbon cable. The third or fourth pin on the ribbon cable seems to be pulling to the ground when the button is pressed so I'm assuming it's working. I also found a short on C6 capacitor but it's seems like it's just a filter cause there's still a short after removing it. What worries me is that the CPU/GPU heat spreader warms up after connecting the AC Adapter. Does yours do the same?