Our Wii died - now what?

[reginaastralis]

We've been having a lot of issues with our xbox (including the red ring of death, twice) and my boyfriend asked around to his friends and found a kid who fixes them. Sure, it's not a legit repair shop, but I bet with a bit of leg work, you could find someone in your town who works on Wii's on the side ... think high school/college age. The kid charged us $15 for the first red ring, and fixed the second for free. We called him a couple of days ago because our a/c adapter shorted ... and he fixed it for like $10. Way cheaper than getting a new xbox. HTH

 

[pal-mickey]

My wii died recently also. Nintendo wants $75 just to look at it. I plan on buying a used one from GameStop. They told me they would give $23 for the old one. If you buy a new one just realize that it doesn't play the GameCube games.

 

[coastiewifern]

I see tons on craigslist

 

[IDoDis]

We bought a 2nd Wii console for a different TV for $20 on ebay a few months ago and it works fine. No problems at all.

 

[torinsmom]

We have gotten someone to fix my DS' Xbox several times on Craigslist for pretty cheap. It was an older one, and had several different problems over its last year of life. I remember we had the laser replaced once for $30. I bet there are people who fix Wii ones as well.

I would check with Nintendo first about the Smash Brothers problem. IME, Nintendo is very good at customer service. We have had every game system they ever made, except for the newest DS.

 

[momejay]

Our wii died a few weeks before Christmas & I had already purchased games to give the kids. We ordered a refurbished wii from Gamestop. It was $79 & came with a guarantee. We later realized that what was wrong with our wii was the power chord. Swap one with a friend or you can try to replace that first. They are only about $10.

 

[torinsmom]

Our first edition Wii died last year. It had the same error. When I heard it would cost $100 to fix it, I considered that it would extend the life by maybe two years. Or I could get a new one for $40 more and would last maybe five years. I bought the new one and sold the old one, as is, on eBay for $20. (I guess people use it for parts?)
Since your son uses it almost daily, I would think you'd be better off getting a new one.

Yep, never throw away a used game system even if it's broken. DS' PSP fell and the screen broke right after he got it. I put it aside, thinking one day I would get it fixed. A year later, I found a great deal on a PSP bundle and listed the old one on ebay for parts. Someone paid $70 for it! He said he had a screen sitting at his house and fixed it right up.

 

[Plantlady]

If you have super smash brothers brawl... that is your key.

A first generation wii cannot read the disk, as it is a duel layered disk. Go to the nintendo website, fill out the form. You will have to send in your wii and disc. Ours died of an unrelated cause, and I had never gotten around to having it fixed for the smash bros game. When it died, I filled out the form, and now the wii as as good as new.

Also, you can replace the disc drive yourself for less than $50. There are websites and videos that state how to do it. That would also fix the problem.

 

[cjnix29]

cowboom.com has them today for $59. It's best buy's discount site.

 

[JB2K]

If you are able to wait a bit, you may want to do so -- the Wii's successor, the "Wii U" (an HD model, among other things) is due out in late 2012, meaning the Wiis we've had around since 2006 will be deeply-discounted.

 

[sdmom]

You don't by any change own the Super Smash Brothers Brawl game, do you? There was a flaw in the disk of that game that sometimes caused the laser in the console to die. If so, Nintendo will repair it for free and replace the game disk. (It doesn't matter if that is the actual reason your console died; it is a known problem and if you have the game and a dead console, you get the fix.)

If you have the game, go the Nintendo Wii website and search for Brawl. It will lead you to a form that is good for a free factory repair. When we sent ours in it took about a week to come back.

Thank you sooo much NotUrsula! We have a Wii that had a very loud fan and intermittent power problems. I didn't want to pay Nintendo the $70 to send it in for repair or buy a new one so, I took a chance with the "Smash Bros fix" based on your post. (we weren't experiencing problems with Smash Bros)

Just got the Wii back today and they fixed it! It is so quiet now, I had to ask DS twice if it was even turned on.

Love the Dis and helpful people!