Basically I put any game into my Wii and it fails to read. It tries for a while then gives up and presents the message 'An error has occurred... remove disc... switch off Wii blah blah blah'
Naturally my wiiware and VC games still work fine.
So far I've tried blowing it out with a hairdryer to move any dust that might be on the lens and left it unplugged overnight. These methods have not worked.
I've emailed Nintendo and they want me to send it in for inspection, but I would have to pay any costs involved because it's no longer under warranty.

It would be really helpful if anyone could give me any advice. Like how much this problem usually costs to fix or if there's anything else I can try myself?

Thanks in advance

LLB

You used a hairdryer? WTF! Promise me that next time you'll use a proper can of air.

If it was me, I'd open her up and have a look to see if there is anything obvious on the lens. If there isn't, then off to Nintendo it goes. I have no idea of the costs though, sorry.

edit: Ooh... have you tried the lens cleaning kit?

I've ordered the kit. Cheers Machu! I hope it works!

Yeah, sounds like a lens problem to me (i had a very similar problem with one of my 360s); good luck with the lens cleaning kit. And please don't use a hair dryer for something like that again! You could do some serious damage to your machine.

The lens cleaning kit came in the post today, but it didn't work. I phoned up Ninendo and the guy said that if the problem isn't the lense it must be the drive itself. Guess how much it costs to fix? - 100 euro.

I'm pretty disappointed to be honest cos I don't see myself spending that amount anytime soon. So basically I'm restricted to only playing VC and Wiiware games on my Wii. The funny thing is that one of the reasons I chose the Wii over the 360 is cos I thought it would never break on me. Oh well...

Hhhm, I would speak to Mange if I were you (his email address is in his sig), he replaced the drive himself and I think it was a lot cheaper. Here's an example.

I think it sucks that Ninty are making profit from replacing faulty drives.

Thanks Machu.

To be fair to Nintendo I would get a replacement console, which is their policy when your drive breaks, at least in Belgium anyway. So 100 euro for the new console plus postage and packaging is not so unreasonable I suppose. But I'm more just disappointed that it broke in the first place...

This is the same thing that happened to me, only i could barley play my games, and when they did, an awful buzzing sound emerged from the console. I was able to get it fixed (the DVD drive) for about $90 AU, and got it back in a week. Quite good I say. But I didn't get it fixed through Nintendo.

Same problem i had thankfully Nintendo right now is fixing it and i only paid $60. Hopefully will get it back within the week. (hopefully before galaxy 2 comes out)

Wow $60 is cheap! I think Nintendo of America are much more generous than Nintendo of Europe.

Yeah, I think we pay £70 in the UK?

So the same in the UK as Belgium then. I have to pay 100 euro incl P&P or if i take it to Antwerp myself they can do it in a day for 84. That's probably what I'll do (when SMG2 comes out and I can no longer resist).

Hey, I got this same problem a week before Christmas (perfect ) and I'd like to hear if Nintendo's repair service is reliable for this. I'm considering sending it off to be repaired by Nintendo, but the last time I sent in a DS hoping to get the touch screen repaired, it took so long to come back that I ended up just getting a used one. Even worse, I've heard at least two accounts of people losing tons of save data from these "repairs".

If I decide not to send it to Nintendo, my dad will attempt to fix the disc drive himself. But first, has anyone had experience with this that could help me decide which way to go on this? If the problem is simple enough to fix at home, I don't want to spend a wad of cash and a month of waiting just to get back a Wii with all its memory ripped out. If not though, I don't think they'll repair a Wii that's been taken apart, and I don't want to lose the downloaded games too! Could somebody help me on this? I've got a stack of 5 Wii discs that I got for Christmas and I can't play any of them!

@Pasta: Is it under warranty? You can also save most data on an SD card

I haven't checked about the warranty, but I've had the console for about 3 or 4 years, so I would guess no. And yes, I have copied what data I could onto the SD card. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible to copy data from disc games that use Wi-fi, such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, so the games I spent the most time playing are the ones I have to worry about, basically.

My Gosh! Im So Worried That This Will Happen To Me! Do You Think Yu Didnt Take Care Of Yur Stuff Or did it just happened? im more worried about the saved data and downloaded games....! i wish you the best

@Haps relax... it doesn't happen to everyone. Just depends on the system. A bunch of the time, it's not the person' fault.

Well, the only thing I've heard about that would make this problem more likely is if anyone in the household smokes, but nobody in my house does. At first, the Wii only had trouble reading dual-layered discs like Brawl. I would have to eject and reinsert it to get it to load up, and eventually that stopped working too. As for the rest of the discs, that just happened overnight, all at once. If it weren't for Nintendo's tight-fisted policy on downloadable games, I'd just get a new Wii.

Glad to see i'm not the only one with that problem.It attacked me right when i was riding on egg in a minecart in DKCR. Not surprising since the poor thing has endured years of intense gameplay. Least its better than seeing your console go down in flames cough*Xbox360PS3*cough i suppose. My DSi has shared a similar fate...