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What died? My Wii or the Power Supply?

Last night I was using my Wii when a brownout occurred for a brief moment. Then the electricity cut out completely for a few seconds, before coming back on. Everything that had been switched on in my room came back on - the lights, the TV, the speakers; everything except the Wii :(

I'm hoping it's either of the following:

1). The fuse in the plug
2). The power supply
3). Not my Wii

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I haven't had the chance to test anything since it happened late last night and I'm not currently at home.

Any help would be appreciated.

UPDATE: Seems like many people in this thread, I have a Wii capable of resurrection. "Problem" solved!
 
I may be completely talking out my ass about this, but if a 'brownout' is similar to a power surge, the big block on your cord should be whats fried...
 
A brownout is when the voltage sags a bit and your lights go dim for a while. But it's possible there was a surge when the power came back on.

I'm thinking it would be the power supply that would die in this case too, but I can't be sure yet.
 

WoWcraft

Banned
You console gamers need to learn the way of the PC. Find some way to get a hold of other working components and see which one broke.
 
WoWcraft said:
You console gamers need to learn the way of the PC. Find some way to get a hold of other working components and see which one broke.

This is so true. This is how I fix everything on my PC, lol.
 
Jaded Alyx said:
A brownout is when the voltage sags a bit and your lights go dim for a while. But it's possible there was a surge when the power came back on.

I'm thinking it would be the power supply that would die in this case too, but I can't be sure yet.



I've never heard of that... learn something every day... are they common?
 

GeNoMe

Member
Don´t you know anyone else that has a wii?

If so, you could try pluggin your wii into his/her's powersupply and see what happens.

sexy!
 
WoWcraft said:
You console gamers need to learn the way of the PC. Find some way to get a hold of other working components and see which one broke.

Hey, I'm a PC gamer too:lol

You're right I suppose. I should try to get another power cable from somewhere (ie. ebay or some other online store since nobody else has a Wii here). I was just wondering if anyone else had the same problem.
 

curls

Wake up Sheeple, your boring insistence that Obama is not a lizardman from Atlantis is wearing on my patience 💤
I have had this happen under the same circumstance, I thought that mine had died or that the fuse had blown (UK plug here). I just disconnected the power and left it for a while and then it suddenly worked. Odd...
 
curls said:
I have had this happen under the same circumstance, I thought that mine had died or that the fuse had blown (UK plug here). I just disconnected the power and left it for a while and then it suddenly worked. Odd...

Really? How long is 'a while' in this case?
 

curls

Wake up Sheeple, your boring insistence that Obama is not a lizardman from Atlantis is wearing on my patience 💤
About an hour.
 

Tobor

Member
Same thing happened to me. I called Nintendo Support, and they advised me to unplug the power supply from the wall and the Wii, and wait 5 minutes. It should reset the PSU.
 

Threi

notag
bafflewaffle said:
While we're on the subject, is it ok to let your Wii power supply dangle? That's how mine is situated right now.
Well that depends on if you enjoy the freedom.
 
Tobor said:
Same thing happened to me. I called Nintendo Support, and they advised me to unplug the power supply from the wall and the Wii, and wait 5 minutes. It should reset the PSU.

Interesting. Will try, thanks.

bafflewaffle said:
While we're on the subject, is it ok to let your Wii power supply dangle? That's how mine is situated right now.

Any particular reason for that?
 
The same exact scenario happen to me last week. I used it the least but it bothered me a bit. I unplugged everything like the website says to reset the system and no go....... So anyhow yesterday I decided to plug it in and low and behold the Wii returned from the dead.:D Like Jesus but with less good third-party support.
 
Jaded Alyx said:
Any particular reason for that?
Basically I'd rather not have the wire and power supply on display, and the Wii's on a relatively high shelf. It pulls the connector down a few degrees but there's been no malfunctions so far.
 
Hold on a second while I get my bearings over the fact that I'm actually allowed to post now.

Done.

There is a simple way for you to check if your power supply is dead. You need to get yourself a decent multimeter, if you don't have one, now you know you should.

With the power supply not plugged in, you can use any multimeter and do a test for continuity. It does this by applying a small current through the circuit and detecting if the path is complete. The circuit between the positive and negative should, I would say, be complete and your multimeter should report this. This would pretty much rule out that something inside basically snapped, like a resistor that popped off during a spike or an internal fuse that blew.

You can use the multimeter, so long as it's robust enough to test line voltage, to test the current and voltage coming out of your power supply, while it's plugged in, if the above test passes. You should get numbers that roughly match what the external casing of the power supply reports.

Edit:
http://www.ladyada.net/learn/metertut/
 
Chances are it is the power supply. It's designed to be the first thing to go. Try the multimeter only if you don't have a friend close by with a Wii (or if you are into electrical stuff). Otherwise just take it over there and try different things.
 
ScrabbleBanshee said:
Hold on a second while I get my bearings over the fact that I'm actually allowed to post now.

Done.

There is a simple way for you to check if your power supply is dead. You need to get yourself a decent multimeter, if you don't have one, now you know you should.

I did think of this briefly, since I do have one lying around the house (I think). I just wish I was home so I could try these suggestions out.
 
wow. i love the wii.

this happened to me 2 weeks ago and i was pretty annoyed as my car had broken down too. hadn't played the wii in ages so went to turn it on (we had a big storm a couple days earlier) and no go, just like you.

a few days later plugged it into another powerpoint and it worked..WTF i thought, plugged it back in the original powerpoint and still working since.

good to hear that it revives from other people too.
unlike my 360 which is at Microsoft service for the 3rd time now :(
 
...........

Well if mine does the same, we can conclude the Wii is Jesus/Lazarus/a Zombie incarnate.

EDIT: Got home, plugged the Wii in, and red light = systems are go. Maybe the Pikmin were knocked out temporarily.

Thanks to everyone for the help :)
 

chuckddd

Fear of a GAF Planet
Wow. This just happened to me! Mark down May 27th as my new Wiister.

I had narrowed the problem down to the power supply thanks to a friend with a wii. Did a google search, and bam, it brings me back to the gaf. Unplug overnight and all is well today.

People say the Wii isn't an advanced piece of technology, but this is the first time I've seen a crowbar circuit implemented into a consumer electronic device. Very cool.
 
LOL. This thread reminds me of the recent problem I had when the waggle in my remote stopped working out of the blue.

The solution:

rabhw said:
Tilt Problems

1. Check the motion sensor functionality by holding the Wii Remote with the button side down. Without using much force, tap the button side of the remote against the palm of your other hand. Doing this does not take a lot of force, so be sure not to tap the Wii Remote very hard.
:D
 
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