Topic: Do DS games cause lockups/freezes?

I've been playing my first ever DS VC game on my Wii U, the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. I don't use my console extensively, but my Wii U has always been very reliable with any game I've played. But this game has caused a lot of hard freezes and lockups where the only way to unfreeze the console is to do a hard power off (hold down the power button). Is there something about DS or VC games that would cause such hard lockups?

I haven't experienced this with any Virtual Console games, but I also don't have any DS titles in my Wii U library.

Have you tried re-downloading the title? It could be a corruption issue from when it was first installed.

I'd double-check with other games just to be sure it isn't the console itself.

I played DS games for many many hours on my WiiU and it never behaved like this.

One possibility is your system's graphic chip. It incorporates an ARM9 cpu as a secondary processor, which normally on the Wii U handles some background tasks when in games. When playing a DS game though, it is (was?) believed to be utilized to natively run Nintendo DS software downloaded from the Wii U eShop, since the DS also utilized an ARM9 as its main cpu.

I'm no expert and I'm not saying that there's anything broken with your Wii U, but I do wonder if perhaps something is off with your ARM9. Its duties in Wii U software are relatively unimportant and perhaps might not yield noticeable issues, but perhaps when powering a DS game, it's just off enough to be noticeable, causing these hiccups for you.

Just a theory...

I'm playing through spirit tracks right now and I just experienced the same issue. I'm at the part where I'm bringing carben to the ocean sanctuary and it froze. I've done hard resets and nothing works. All my other games work fine but this isn't. What's worse is I never save the game. Only did restore points so nOw if I go back to my file I'm at the beginning of the game. I spent 8 hours up to that point and I really don't want to go through it all again if it happens again. I suppose I can try re-installing it but I've seen a few people say it hasn't worked for them. This is a real bummer. Wonder if contacting Nintendo will do anything.

@cwong15 did you try redownloading the title yet and did it work? I spoke with Nintendo support and they said making sure i have the most up to date update which I'm pretty sure I do. And also doing a reset of the Ac adapter on the console itself. I'll probabaly try when I get home but I wasn't sure if you figured it out. If I can't figure it out they want me to send in my Wii u which seems like overkill considering it's just 1 game causing an issue.

For my part, I'm guessing it was a corrupted download. After I got past that problem section of Spirit Tracks, the freezes stopped and the game played fine thereafter. It also seemed to help if I did a save from the menu then quit and restarted the game, loading the saved game. I'm playing Phantom Hourglass now, over halfway through the game, and have yet to experience a freeze.

@cwong15 that's good then glad it's working. I tried deleting the file and redownloading from the eshop but that didn't help. The only three options were send in my Wii u which didn't sound logical honestly considering it's only that game with a problem. Have Nintendo offer a credit. Or start the game over and if it doesn't work get at that same point they'll refund me. Being that I was more than halfway done with the game I'm not about to start over just yet. I'll let it breath and get back to it in a month or two and try it again. But this time I'll do in game saves to have a back up just in case. Just sucks I'm SOL right now as I really was loving it and wanted to finish it

Have you tried just saving the game (using the in-game save), quitting it and resetting the game? That way, you can reload your saved game instead of starting from scratch.

@cwong15 that's the problem. I didn't save it in game once. I did all save points( restore points). Once i go back to my loaded restore point I can't do anything , no pause no select no buttons no nothing. So i can't even save it in game then reset my restore point. Really blows

Sorry to hear that. I don't think we're experiencing the same kind of freezes. In my case there's time to open the menu and do stuff before things freeze up. Hope you get to finish this game some day.