Topic: Wii pauses while starting up games . . . is it dying?

Lately I'm finding both WiiWare and disc games are sometimes taking up to 30 seconds to start after I start them. The screen just goes black and the Wiimote LED goes off before the game will finally start. I don't recall these long pauses happening before, and it seems to be totally random how long they last, but they seem to be getting longer on average. Anyone else have this issue? Is it a sign that my Wii is failing? I'm trying to remember how long this has been happening, and I think it might coincide with the last system update but it's hard to say exactly because it's only gradually become apparent as a problem.

I've noted this as well, however I think it's possibly network-related (on Nintendo's end). In my case I have standby connect turned off, so when I start up my Wii it eventually seems to do some kind of background connection to determine if there are any messages. The reason I think this is when I've had some the blue light comes on prior to the remote notice screen appearing. It's normally only with the first game that I've seen this; subsequent game starts are better.

Of course you could always try going to Nintendo's official support page and raising the query over email. Unless you're seeing error messages, I don't know that you'll get a satisfactory response though...

I've noticed that about mine too. then again, i haven't played any older games recently, just new ones i've bought. i don't know if it's just the latter System Menu updates that are slowing things down somehow, the games themselves just loading slowly because they're new, or what, but you're not alone, dude.

Phew, glad to know I'm not alone. I did just turn off the standby a few days ago because I was worried my system was overheating and that was causing it, so I wonder if that actually made the pauses longer if it is doing some sort of background connection. I'll try to watch the connection light on my modem next time to see if it starts flickering during the black screen.

the exact same thing thing was happening to me and i kinda got worried ... and then got a black Wii but after the System Update for the black Wii it was starting to happen again...

This is happening on my wii too with various games, I hope it's not dying.

Same here, and I have standby on. It seems to be random. Usually the screen stays visible but sometimes it does go black. Not exactly great user interface.

This happens to me as well occasionally. Every once in awhile, it'll go black as if it is loading, but then it just freezes like that. So, I would have to unplug the Wii and then plug it back in. This only happens rarely though, so it's not a huge deal.

Only happened once for me. I was starting up Brawl and it froze. I had to unplug the system. Never happened again after that. This was last year after the 4.0 update came out.

I have never had to unplug or reset. If I wait long enough, it always comes back to life. It's potentially risky to unplug or reset because if it happens to be writing to flash memory at that moment, the file system could be corrupted.

That happened to me sometimes while I was using the Internet Channel or returning to the Wii Menu. I don't think that this is a sign of the console dying, as my Wii is just fine. Just give it some time and it will be good. Either that, or turn it off (preferably holding the Power Button on the console itself) and turn it back on.

@Zaphod: Same here -- if I leave it alone for long enough, it always comes back to life. The only problem is having to wait a minute or three sometimes, wondering wtf is going on with my Wii, lol. It's kinda unpredictable.

I find that happens when I have WiiConnect24 on sometimes. I usually keep it off, and it never happens

Well, I got my Wii back from getting its optical drive repaired and it's not happening (though I've only tried disc games). I'm not saying that means possibly the pause is a sign of drive issues, but it's kind of interesting. My system date was September 2007 for some odd reason, but there's no evidence they formatted my machine (network settings, channel layouts, save files all intact) - who knows what else they might have done?

When I turn off my Wii the screen goes black for about 3 to 4 seconds and then the TV says no signal. Is this normal?

Sounds like it if it was receiving a signal from the Wii before and now it's not, but I think that's a question for your tv manufacturer.

Happens to me sometimes. Sometimes the Wii sounds like a lawnmower when it is loading.
Although, the wii has been dropped tons of times, and is probably gonna self destruct any second now.