Anyone have experience returning a Wii for service?

F-Stop

I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with a faulty Wii. I got mine about 2 or 3 months ago. It's been working fine, but I just got RE4 the other day and started noticing green 'glimmering' pixels on screen. I now also see pixel 'marks' on the Wii menu screen. I tried different cables and the problem is still there. Xbox and ps2 are fine, as is TV reception, so it's not the TV.

I emailed Nintendo, and after asking a few questions, they've agreed to take it in for service/replacement. Has anyone had to do this?

What's the shipping cost for a boxed Wii sent registered to the UK going to be?

Will I lose any VC games Wii points?

I have emailed Nintendo about this, but just wondered what others' experiences have been.

I have the receipt and could probably just bring it back to Smyths and get it replaced. If I'm definitely going to lose the VC games and points, and have to pay shipping, and wait for however long, then that would probably make more sense. Just scratching my head wondering what the best thing to do is, so any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Also: Apparently the problem is caused by WiiConnect24 being left on. The fan doesn't kick in and can cause the GPU to overheat resulting in the appearance of red and/or green pixels on screen.

daedalus2097

Hmmm... sounds nasty I've sent a power supply back and got a replacement in about 3 working days I think... As far as I know they can register a new Wii to your account under circumstances like that. You'll lose any info you have on it if they replace the main board or unit (very likely), including save games, Miis and VC games. Back all your stuff up onto an SD card and you should be fine, VC games won't transfer to another Wii but once you're registered in your account with a new Wii you can download them again for free...

nedd

hi.

i had to return my XBOX 360 and microsoft organised UPS to collect it from me. i didnt have to pay anything. i would have thought Nintendo would do the same.

daedalus2097

I think Microsoft had hundreds of 360s to return - it's no wonder they're doing that to try and keep everyone happy and to minimise upsetting their reputation. They probably had a nice deal with UPS too Having said that, I was quite disappointed that I had to pay postage when my PSU went back. It was only a few quid, not the end of the world, but even if they got their distributors to do it instead of having to fork out for what would be a fairly expensive package to the UK it would be better.

Rhyme

Had my first Wii hiccup there on Monday when i put in Mario Strikers for the first time, it froze on the disc select screen... the fact that it hadn't been turned on in about a month may have contributed.

F-Stop

Thanks Daedalus2097 - Nintendo's reply said pretty much exactly what you said. Decided I'd send it back rather than just swap for a new one. It cost 15 euro to send it registered to the UK, not as much as I thought it would be, but I agree that it would be nice if the cost was covered. Now to play the waiting game...

daedalus2097

Cool, good luck I found them to be very quick to get it back to me - I sent it on a Friday and had the new PSU on the following Tuesday I think... Not much waiting around anyway, you should have it early next week I reckon.

F-Stop

Just to update. Sent the Wii off last Wednesday, a new replacement machine was sent to me and it arrived today Thursday. Works fine, just have to redownload the VC games. Just a week for a replacement, not bad at all.