Topic: Gamepad screen messed up

Just got a major issue with my Wii U (32 Gb PAL launch model). The screen suddenly went all yellowish, with a pattern of yellow lines over the actual screen contents. Touch control didn't work anymore. A reboot seemed to solve the issue but then it happened again. I will call Nintendo Customer Support on Monday but in the meantime does anyone have any idea what could be causing this strange behaviour?

Sounds like hardware failure to me. You may have to send it in for repair

Yeah, i'm afraid i will have to. But i live just a few blocks from Nintendo's local HQ so i can probably drop it off in person.

UPDATE: just got back from Nintendo HQ. My Wii U is now officially pronounced dead. Probably due to clogged-up airvents which fried the motherboard. Im disappointed that they won't replace it under warranty. Now I will have to buy a new console from them (over 180 euro) or buy an entire new set in the shop. To be honest i can't really afford either option. Woe is me!

Why isn't it covered by warrenty? Unless you had the Wii U on the heater or wrapped in a towel the motherboard shouldn't have fried.

You may want to give them a call with your warrenty agreement in hand.

They might think something covered the airvents, which would not be covered under warranty

Nintendo customer service pisses me off these days... It's actually pretty difficult to get them to honor a warranty. In the past, the warranty would cover everything with Nintendo. Now it's hardly worth dirt.

Feel for you, man.

I'm probably in a better position being the owner of a certain website which I can't say any more about here, they would likely try to work with me on the issue, but I agree that for ordinary consumers Nintendo's customer service has gone downhill over the past 4-5 years.

To be honest, Nintendo customer support and their tech guys have always helped me very well on previous occasions. But i'm very disappointed right now and wil try to take it further up the food chain. I've been an extremely loyal supporter and avid collector for the past 20 years and feel i deserve to be treated a bit better. I'm the guy who bought four Wii's just to get them in all colours, they should not p me off. [/rant]

True but unless they can prove it the warranty has to be honoured (at least here in the UK). If the examine the Wii U and discover the damage was caused by the owner they can choose not to honour the warranty by law, however if the death of the console was caused by a known hardware issue they are bound to give a new console.

@ Mk_II If you're sure you didn't cause the problem then ask Nintendo one more time to honour the warranty. If they don't write a letter explaining that you will be taking them to small claims court if they do not honour the warranty. The company have to respond to the letter within 31 days (in the UK, not sure about your country). If they say yes which they probably will to skip the hassle then you're fine, if they say no then they need to prove in court that your Wii U died due to your own negligence or sabotage. If you played no part in its death then this will be very hard for them to prove and you're likely to win the claim and get extra for the time lost gaming and stress of going to court etc.

Did you have your Wii U registered on Club Nintendo? If you know your Wii U's vents weren't being hindered, you need to tell them that.

Out of curiosity, how old is your Wii U (to the OP)?

His post says that he got it on launch(I think). As long as he did the Club Nintendo registration and he had nothing to do with a "vent problem", his system should be replaced.

Yep, i got it on launch day... November 2012 if i remember correctly. It should be covered by warranty but they don't want to honour that

So you did register it on Club Nintendo? If you didn't, then the warranty is expired. My warranty expires in about a week, after the 3 months registration extension.

I would go back and tell them. If you didn't block ahy vents or anything(like they said was the issue), they need to replace it.

If the vents were blocked by gobs of dust or something like pet hair then that could technically not be covered by warrenty as that can be seen as neglect on the owners part.

The consoles are sealed deliberately so the owner don't screw things up. Beyond that, the staff and parts are by no means "already paid for," they need to fix the consoles that are under warranty or are being paid to be repaired.

We still don't know for sure if the topic creators system actually is still under warranty, or if it was neglected, or what have you.

Hmm.. * checks Wii U air vents *

To clarify: i'm in the EU so European consumer law applies. This clearly states i have TWO years of warranty. Problem is that this puts the obligation on the seller and not the manufacturer. And the shop won't repair it of course, they just refer to Nintendo if you have any hardware problems.

Well then the shop would need to either replace it or pay for the repair, wouldn't they?