Topic: Gamecube problems

Well today I decided to pull the old Gamecube out of storage to have myself a bit of retro Gamecube goodness only to discover to my horror my cube don't work anymore.

Everything works fine the picture on my tv is fine the memory cards work just fine but the controllers don't work. I believe it might be the ports themselves cause I plugged in a wired controller and tried two Wavebirds. Now the wired controller sometime the analog stick will work sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the A or X or Y button will stop working. As for the Wavebirds those wont even register any of the buttons. The lights go on on the Wavebirds and the sensors that are plugged in the port when a buttong is pushed but nothing happens on the screen.

Does anyone know if the Gamecubes have a history of bad controller ports or has this happen to anyone else? Just for reference I took really good care of my Gamecube it never was dropped, had liquids on it etc. The only thing is is collected some dust while in storage but gave it a good cleaning before I hooked it up.

Also any way I can fix this or am I s.o.l? I am guessing that Nintendo wont repair it, so besides trying to find a working one I am not sure what else I could do.

Any suggestions?

If you have a Wii, I suppose you could try playing them on there...

Might be cheaper to get a new Gamecube/controllers online than it would be to take it somewhere to fix

Gamecube stuff is super cheap on ebay

@DanMan82: I have a Wii that has the Gamecube parts but I dont know for some reason I want to play the games on the Gamecube.

@AlexSays: Yeah I did a quick search and saw what you mean. I saw a bunch of Gamecubes with 2 controllers going for less then 50. I might have to stop by my local retro game shop here in the next few days.

I'd suggest testing your current controllers on your Wii, just so you know for sure that they are the problem. Hope your cube is okay man. D:

Well I know the last time I used the GC controllers on the Wii which was a little more then a year ago they worked fine so that's another reason I am thinking its the ports themselves on the Gamecube. But yeah before I plan to get one I will do that just to make sure but first I need to hook up the Wii.

@CountWavula: I got the Silver one which I think they called Platinum. I agree with you on the Purple one but when I bought mine the only color that was left in the store was the Silver one iirc.

I didn't have to many games for it cause back during that gen I was all about PS2. I mainly got the cube for the Zelda Collection and Soul Caliber II. The reason I pulled it out of storage was cause of all the games I need to go back and play that I never did like Luigi's Mansion and Mario Sunshine.

I hear ya. I get the same feeling sometimes. I just like playing on my cube

@CountWavula: I still have all my cables and such like I said the picture was fine I just couldn't get a controller to work.

Might open it and make sure some of the connections don't need some touch up soldering done.

GCN was the best. I got it March 2002. I was playing Smash Bros and Sonic Adventure 2 for literally a year before I got more games for it.

I played the hell out of the GCN games on Wii, though, because I eventually got an HDTV and used the component cables to get that extra clarity. I'm sure you all know, but the GCN component cables are pretty expensive, so Wii BC was my only choice...

I'd say try cleaning the ports with computer safe compressed air. If you reall want to take it apart, that could be risky. I've seen GCNs for literally $5 sometimes, so there's always that.

@SCAR392: Yeah I used a can of air on the side vents and in the ports I just didn't take it apart to do so, but as you and a few others have points out GC are really cheap so I just might go that route instead of wasting the time of taking it apart and then hoping I can put it all back together again.

The GCN is pretty easy to assemble and disassemble. Not a lot to it.

If you have the tri screwdriver, then yes. You still need working parts, though. Unless you can find a GCN for $1 with other broken parts(and working controller ports), then it's not really worth it if you can find a full working one for $5, instead.

I actually got a fully working GCN at a garage sale for $1. Tore it down for the hell of it.

I took apart my GCN, too. Some kid I knew broke it by scratching the hell out of the laser lense(and he had to replace it), so I left it alone for a few years. Then I decided to take it apart and saw that it had that tri screw, so I just used a regular screwdriver and a hammer to get it open. That was after I threw it outside, though...

It still turned on after all that, but it couldn't read discs. I don't remember what happened to it, but it's gone.

All you need to get out the tri screws is a bic pen

@RancidVomit86
Oh. I did this years ago, but I'll keep that mind.