Topic: Power cut problems.

One of the reasons why I have still yet to get the Wii U is because of these darn power cuts my hometown has. I'd like to know how durable the Wii U is when there are frequent power cuts and can it have some standby or something? Like suppose its saving or downloading a game, can it be able to restore or something should there be a power cut? I'm really scared that my Wii U would be damaged if something like that were to happen.

I used to have problems with my Wii after power outages, so I bought a UPS for like $40 or $50, and I've never had an issue with my Wii or Wii U since. A few times I've had the power go out for just a second and been able to continue playing or could play off-TV on the GamePad during an outage to finish a level and safely power the Wii U down.

Yes, a UPS, or Uninterrupted Power Supply would work wonders in this case. Most even have a surge protector so it'll protect your devices from those dreadful power surges.

Wait a minute, you're saying that I can play the game in off-tv mode without the power?

@brewsky Do those surge protectors work well when supposing I have to make an update and that the Wii U says not to turn off power and when power is cut off during that period, does the surge protector prevent that damage from happening?

If you have your Wii U hooked up to the UPS and your GamePad is charged, then yeah, when the power goes out your Wii U will continue to be powered by the UPS so you can still play, but the UPS battery will only last maybe 15 minutes, so you should take that opportunity to just finish a level/save your game and then power down the Wii U before the UPS battery runs out.

I think the UPS has better surge protection than your average power bar with surge protection, so it's probably the safest thing to have your Wii U hooked up to so that it doesn't get damaged by a thunderstorm or power surge. Bricking usually happens just because your power goes out in the middle of an update, so even if you have your system hooked up to a power bar with surge protection, surge protection isn't going to help you prevent bricking the way a UPS can. I have my modem/wireless router hooked up to my UPS too, so just in case the power goes out in the middle of a system update, my Internet/Wii U remain on, and with any luck the power outage is brief or the update should finish before the UPS dies.

@Iphys so when I don't have the modem hooked on the UPS, and when doing the update and all of a sudden, the power goes off, what happens to that situation? Does the Wii U immediately recognize that the internet isn't there and stops quickly?

I'd hope it would give an error and give up, but it might just sit there stupidly waiting for the Internet. But I'm also not sure whether the bricking happens because it's downloading an update or installing an update when the power goes out. I'd think during the installation would be the worst, in which case you shouldn't need the Internet by the point, so it would be sufficient that the Wii U has power.

I knew I needed an UPS when I was playing the dreadful Metroid Prime 2 on Wii, with its "go out of your way to find a save point" saving system and the power went out, making me repeat around an hour of playtime.