Topic: How worried should we be?

I've heard lots about Wiis bricking thanks to the 4.2 update.

Has anyone NOT been bricked?

Should one be worried if they haven't done anything funny with their Wiis?

If they have to get sent back, do WiiWare games, VC games and Saved Files get lost when repaired?

Is Nintendo working on the problem?

Millions of Wiis have not bricked. Mine didn't brick. As long as nothing goes wrong during the download of the update, everything will be OK. Do NOT turn the Wii off just because the download pauses for a minute or two. Leave it alone. Let it finish.

Never had any problems with updates myself, so I'm not worried at all.

Has anyone NOT been bricked?

Um, yes, lots of people have not been bricked. It's very difficult to get any sort of estimate, but it seems that only a very small percentage have been affected adversely at all. I'm not even sure if we have a single regular member here whose system was bricked by this (do we?).

Bricked?

I have not experienced any problems with my Wii, still works perfectly fine!

Inoperative. Effectively dead due to corrupted firmware or data.

"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Do you personally know anyone whose Wii was bricked by 4.2? I don't.
Do you personally know anyone who's updated successfully? I know many, myself included.

I have not heard of a single member here on Nintendo Life whose Wii was bricked by 4.2, and, rumor has it, there are quite a few Wii users here.

I believe it was Sean Aaron who mentioned that this update to 4.2 takes a particularly long time, and this got me thinking... I wonder how many un-modded Wiis were bricked by impatient users who either powered off, or otherwise tinkered with their Wiis during the process. I'd not be surprised to find some causality there.

Bottom line: If you've got an un-modded Wii, go ahead and update. Just make sure your internet connection is solid, and don't mess with the power or reset buttons while it's updating, and give it all the time it needs.

I've successfully updated, and you shouldn't worry about getting your downloadable games back but worry about your save data.

not me not yet

The update took a little longer than usual for me. At first I thought it messed up my Shop Channel but it turned out my internet was on the verge of going out for a bit. Its been almost a week since I updated and I am having no problems.

If your Wii does, in fact, brick due to the new update, and you have installed no modifications whatsoever to your Wii, Nintendo has promised to fix/replace it free of charge if you call their customer service line (because reports of bricked Wiis are coming from users who have never installed any mods on their Wii whatsoever as well as users with mods). I'd imagine Nintendo would help you by linking your old shop account to any replacement Wii they may have to send you so that you could redownload your stuff, and if you're worried about losing your game saves, back them up to an SD card beforehand.

That said, I do have homebrew installed on my Wii, and not only did it update just fine (though i will agree with Dante in that it seemed to take longer than usual), the HBC survived intact thanks to instructions you can Google yourself if you're interested.

Oh my god this is ridiculous, why do people love paranoia and hearsay so much, I really hate the tinterweb some times. Seems the hackers and modders are having lots of fun posting nonsense around the web, just cos Ninty messed with their homebrew.

I must be the only person who's Wii didn't brick, unbelievable!!!

I didn't get bricked, because for some strange reason Nintendo never sent me a message that tells me to update.

Is your Wii not connected to the internet?

It is my firm belief that the vast majority of bricked consoles resulting from any firmware update on any system are caused by improper handling by the consumer. As has already been said above, just make sure your internet connection is stable, start the update, and leave it alone until it's done! That bit in italics seems to be the part that people have the most difficulty understanding. The progress bar not moving does NOT automatically mean that your system froze and you need to restart and try again. You turn it off in the middle of updating something essential, and you get bricked. Heed this warning and you'll be just fine.

@Vendetta - you're quite right, and the speed of the sensational headlines was quite impressive. Evaluation of the actual information available was taking second place as doesn't sound as dramatic I suppose.
Yep, Sean mentioned it I think, and I also posted about the Wii taking a while to update and nearly switching the thing off. I made a cup of tea instead and no problems, was just slooow.

Not too worried, I'd say. The internet is a sensationalist place. I was really worried about my update because of all the stories, but it went through fine and I wasn't bricked. Just let it take its time updating and you should be golden. :thumbs-up:

Very worried!!!!

It is connected.