Wii U wont turn on - Solid red light

[Cloakandmail]

Hi, I have a Wii U owned since new and very reliable... until the other day. It was working fine a few days ago but now it will not turn on. It has a solid red light but nothing happens when you press the power button. I have tried the following :-

Unplugged the PSU, held power button down etc...
Bought a replacement Genuine Nintendo PSU
Replaced the coin battery on the side, and even tried without a battery.

Does anybody have any further suggestions please. Thank you.

 

[V10lator]

My fist guess would be that the ribborn cable between the front panel and the motherboard became loose but it's weird that the LED still shines as it goes through the same cable.

Unlikely but maybe the button itself got defective? You could try pressing the eject instead of the power button, IIRC this should trigger the Wii U to start up, too.

 

[bodefuceta]

I have the same situation here, except it's a blinking, not solid, red light. It's been months, tried all I could think, sent to a technician, and nothing.

I'm offering some money to whoever can lead to a fix. If you're reading this and understand about fixing hardware and the Wii U, please consider writing a repair guide, all that I could find out there was clickbait and stuff that don't simply cause blinking or (IIRC) solid red lights.

Check out the thread I opened for some general directions from gbatemp members.

 

[SDIO]

Did you try turning it on with a paired controller or by inserting a Disc? Te Wii U should turn on if you try to feed it a Disc.

If that doesn't the problem is probably with the SoC or SLC. If it's the first, then there is probably no way to fix it and if it is the SLC, you would probably need a backup.

Maybe something can be done the new boot0 glitch if the SoC is still alive enough. I heard there are some debug pads on the board, which should give the error code. But that would also involve opening up the console and solder to it. And evenen if we have the code it is questionable that we can do anything to fix it.

 

[skawo]

A solid red right sometimes indicates that there is a ground short on the board.

 

[SDIO]

Would make sense to check the power rails then. Maybe some component just went bust

 

[Cloakandmail]

Thank you so much for your feedback guys.

I had already checked the Eject button.
I found a Wii controller that was paired with the Wii U and that did not allow it to start.
I tried to feed it a disc but I believe a disc may already be in there. There was no reaction from the Wii U though.
Not even the fan flickers at all.
I have a multimeter and I am happy to take the Wii U apart but would not have a clue as to what to look for once disassembled. Does anybody know where I can find some instructions or to write some simple instructions please? Checking the "Power Rails" sounds like something I could do, if I knew how to.

Thank you all again.

 

[gorgyrip]

Maybe something can be done the new boot0 glitch if the SoC is still alive enough. I heard there are some debug pads on the board, which should give the error code. But that would also involve opening up the console and solder to it. And evenen if we have the code it is questionable that we can do anything to fix it.

What new glitch are you referring to?

 

[V10lator]

What new glitch are you referring to?

https://douevenknow.us/post/714056575412764672/defuse-the-one-true-pwn

 

[Cloakandmail]

Not sure if it is of help but I have discovered a nand.bin file that I stored away for safe keeping in 2016 (528 MB). I remember dumping the file a few years back when I soft modded the WiiU with Haxchi.

 

[SDIO]

are you sure hat that isn't from the Wii and not the Wii U?

 

[Cloakandmail]

are you sure hat that isn't from the Wii and not the Wii U?

I have 2 copies one in a folder called WiiU and one in a folder called WiiU Nand Dump for safe keeping. So I believe they are linked to the WiiU only by the name of the folders I gave them at the time. Maybe the Wii part of the WiiU was backed up ??? is that possible?

 

[SDIO]

I assume that it is only the vWii part, which you backed up when you only modded the vWii.
For the Wii U, you would normally have a slc.bin, a slcmcpt.bin (vWii), multiple mlc.bin.part files, otp.bin and seeprom.bin

 

[Cloakandmail]

I assume that it is only the vWii part, which you backed up when you only modded the vWii.
For the Wii U, you would normally have a slc.bin, a slcmcpt.bin (vWii), multiple mlc.bin.part files, otp.bin and seeprom.bin

Thanks for your response, I don't think I have these files.
I might just have to crack open the box and see if anything visually looks strange.