It seemed like, rather that sort through the mess in forum, Nintendo was trying to encourage customers to call into the support line and troubleshoot their console.

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

@tmlfan81: Meaning that in a group setting, it is very easy for several people to turn what could be a rational discussion about an issue with the upgrade into "Nintendo broke my Wii and now wants to take my money!"

@tmlfan81: Yeah. Forums are great for discussion and technical troubleshooting, but also for mass panic and outrage. All it takes is one guy to call up Nintendo, get "no" as an answer (nevermind the circumstances) and come to a forum to report the details and stir up a frenzy.

To me, it just sounds like they want to deal with the failures on a case-by-case basis. This article speculates too much.

By the way, I have homebrew installed on my Wii -- it has many legitimate uses -- not just playing pirated games. There are many freeware apps and games that I am able to run from the HomeBrew channel.

I'm still curious, how exactly is a Wii hardware "modified" when all necessary file for homebrew is on SD Card.

My wii is in storage right now until I move in November. I'm scared to play anything online for fear that they will break my system.

@eaglearcher: It's not. You have to patch the system bootloader in order to install the Homebrew Channel.
That's what caused the problem, Nintendo went and modified the bootloader, and something got screwed up (even on non-modded Wiis).

So, the moral of the story is: Don't install firmware updates for equipment out of warranty?

Great....so there goes being able to play new Blu-Ray discs in the older players.

There goes fixing camera problems via firmware after the warranty expires....

What else? Oh yeah - the Palm Pre will force a system update after a certain period of time. But I guess after the hardware warranty expires, it's the customer's fault if it bricks the phone, huh?

I think a judge won't look too kindly on a company that charges to fix a system that is broken by software issued by the same company....

@pecan 3.14159265: Yeah, all it takes is the forum goes to exaggerate a little, or leave out some key details (or just lie) and suddenly they've whipped up this angry mob of people.

You have to counterbalance this when you think about it. We've had what, one report of a dissatisfied customer. How many other customers walked away satisfied with the help Nintendo gave to resolve the problem on their console? It's something they tell you in retail, people are over tenfold more likely to bitch and complain about the one time they received bad (in their mind at least) service, but never mention the dozens of times they received good or exemplary service.

I'm not blaming the OP here, but they decidedly light on details with their history interaction with Nintendo. I mean, one call got a No. Well, look at MS's call support, you can call 10 different times and get 10 completely different answers to the same question. I'd like to think Nintendo has a slightly higher standard for their tech support call center, but someone's always bound to slip through. I would at least call once more and see if they give the same answer, maybe they just got a dud support person.

There could always be unmentioned issues, though I'm not at all sure how they might play into the situation.

@ShruggingGalt: Not really. We read about the extreme cases, but for each of those, there are loads of people who are not having problems. We have had no problems, and we've updated the Wii, PS3, and XBox to the latest firmware. I don't think this is happening in the majority of cases, so living in fear of it is not really the moral of the story, I'd say.

@tmlfan81: @pecan 3.14159265: @Kogenta:

Anyone else notice the irony here?

@ShruggingGalt: You make good point -- this is new, seemingly uncharted legal territory.

My Dish DVR and T-Mobile VOIP router both get new firmware pushed to them automatically. The DVR is opt-in, but the router is forced. I've asked both companies what will happen when my device is out of warranty but their update hoses the system. Neither company has replied.

I know I still need to get the update done for my Wii, so we'll see what happens. I expect that if for some reason it bricks, Nintendo will fix it, and if god forbid that doesn't happen, I think my extended warranty still is in effect.

@subtlefrog: The latest 360 update bricked my buddies console, mine got through it just fine. There were scattered reports of the latest PS3 update screwing people's consoles up, mine got through it just fine. I didn't bother to update my Wii (It's not online...), but I've heard from more folks who have had success updating theirs than I have folks who have had theirs bricked by the update.

Which is to say that I agree with you. I don't think it's as huge a problem as it has been made out to be.

@ShruggingGalt: Sounds to me like companies ought to be forced to reissue some sort of warranty support following mandatory software upgrades. ('mandatory' being 'it's not strictly mandatory to install this, but you will not be able to play newer content on your device without it'.)

Think of the uproar it would create if computer companies forced out BIOS updates that bricked their systems.

@jokono:

In these cases, though the firmware update isn't something you are forced to do without control, you are forced to do it to access certain content you were promised. In many cases, the updates come in future games, in which you are required to have at least that version to play the game.

Now if you take this the court, this is how it could be looked at. First and foremost, you had a working product. The company required that you update the firmware to access certain content. Their update instead makes your product unusable. This can not be seen as the consumer's fault, even if they were running homebrew. Though the homebrew was not specifically allowed code, it is clear that the product was working fine before the update was applied.

If Nintendo is back peddling on its earlier response, they will likely find themselves in the same boat as Sony, with people beginning to sue them. It could certainly hurt their reputation for sure.

@Brain.wav: I think I am like 4 or 5 system updates behind schedule for exactly this reason. Once I Homebrewed, there was no reason to update the Wii.

That's what happens when you push out buggy firmware. The pirate community has already disassembled the lasted firmware update, found the bug (not the copy protection code, but the actual "bricking" bug), and fixed it.

Get with the program big N!

@Brain.wav: No, the "bootloader" (which is actually boot2) doesn't need to be modified in order to install the Homebrew Channel. Team Twiizers created a boot2 hack called BootMii that makes the Wii "brick-proof" by installing an application in the boot sequence that can rewrite the entire NAND memory based on a backup. What's ironic here is the "brick-proofing" failed when Nintendo tried to overwrite the exploit in boot2 to make BootMii impossible. What's even more ironic is that Team Twiizers has already released an update to the BootMii hack, and will always be able to do so on Wiis that have a serial number starting with LU63-.

It seems like a Nintendo rep Zeke is helping the OP now:

"I was sorry to hear about your experience so far. I've sent you a Private Message requesting some additional information so that we may discuss your situation. To check your private messages, please click on the yellow envelope icon in the upper-right corner of this window. Thank you."

@Xerloq speaks Portuguese, too...: You mean that we're basically doing the same thing?

@tmlfan81: High Five for the MIB refrence.

I swear whatever happened to turning on a system and then just playing the damn game? Seriously.

At least Nintendo is stepping up, admitting it was their firmware's fault, and fixing the consoles.

As opposed to SONY who is suggesting that thousands of previously normal consumers all must have shoved a steak knife in the disc slot and jiggled it around while their systems were downloading the latest firmware.

Another call this morning got me a completely different response. Unlike some of the posters here seem to assume, I did call more than once.

Anyways, I must have gotten some folks with an older call-script, because I sailed right through the process this time. Nintendo was really proactive, they contacted me several times, via several different methods before this post even went live on the main page too.

I'm mailing my Wii out tomorrow.

So while I can't say the experience was perfect, Nintendo did apologize, was proactive about contacting me and the issue will be resolved, just not as fast as I originally expected, but that's certainly way better than the alternative and better than some of the other stories I've seen on here!

@JamieSueAustin: One of my favorite lines from that movie, and I find it relevant at least once a week.

Everyone who's going on and on about the issue being moved off the user forum and onto the phones...where they choose to address this is not the point. Whether they handle them en masse or evaluate each one individually, their update has apparently caused equipment failure, and if that's the case, they should correct the problem free of charge. This would be true even if no employee had made any posting to the forum regarding the situation. It's not about the "free repair" post; it's about a customer being told he must pay for breakage which he allegedly did nothing to induce.

@golddog: you mean we're not suppose to do that? I always thought it made it update faster :)

UPDATE: The Nintendo forum link provided now show "Problem Solved" next to he post,
2 relevant posts here.

NOA_TECH_ZEKE
Message 13 of 16
Viewed 205 times
PATHIATAWNER,

I was sorry to hear about your experience so far. I've sent you a Private Message requesting some additional information so that we may discuss your situation. To check your private messages, please click on the yellow envelope icon in the upper-right corner of this window. Thank you.

AND

PATHIATAWNER

Message 16 of 16

Viewed 40 times

Thanks for the response on here Zeke. I've already called the help line again. Sending off the Wii tomorrow. I believe, and the person I spoke to recently, believe that the people I had spoken to before had an outdated call-script/wrong information.

All should be well, as long as they don't detect any mods when it's being repaired, it will be at no charge.

@MarvinMar: that sounds more like nintendo. I sent an request through the website when the SSBB disc messed up my Wii. the Initial email response said no, but that I could call for repair quotes. I called and by the end of the conversation they agreed to repair everything for free.

@CheritaChen: I think it would be appropriate to pay special attention to the word "allegedly". For all we know, he might be capitalizing on the panic surrounding the latest firmware update in order to get his console fixed out of warranty. His issue may not even have been caused by the update for all we know.

I'm not saying that's the case, it's just that we don't have much to go on here one way or the other. Sorta makes it difficult to know if Nintendo is really in the wrong or not.

@MarvinMar: So in other words, the issue was that the phone reps had the wrong information. Good to know.

Nintendo are good people.
I called them once because the mic on my wife's DS Lite was not working right.
The girl I talked to said I was 2 months out of warranty, but she is sending me a box, repairing it for free, and extending my warranty 1 year. This is without being upset or mean to her at all.

I guess I'm part of the silent majority that downloaded and installed 4.2 without any problem. I personally don't see the need to hack my Wii (which is a painful phrase for a guy to type), so I guess I don't get all the fuss and celebration about what Team something or other did.

If people with "stock" Wiis have issues, it sounds like Nintendo is fixing them.

@ShruggingGalt: If you don't update your firmware, the terrorists win.

@larrymac:

Sometime, I like playing games that never make it to the States. Disaster: Days of Crisis and Taiko no Tatsujin (the drum game) came to mind. For a time, it was also the only hope for people wanting to play Capcom vs. Tatsunoko.

@Zclyh3: We have had a Wii for two years. I've never done any updates or anything. I didn't even know you had to until reading this post.

@larrymac:
Also, the Wii has the hardware capability but not built in software functionality to play DVDs.

Some people like to consolidate the number of items hooked up to their TV. So, a person adding the homebrew channel to their could play DVDs with their Wii.

But the point in talking about Team Twiizers is mentioned, because not only have they found the buggy piece of code that is bricking consoles and written a better version which is installed in hacked wiis, but they have already found ways around the new update.

So, Team Twiizers has not only quickly found the thing bricking consoles which Nintendo missed, but the entire reason Nintendo released this update, to combat wii hacking, has now been worked around.

Nintendo haphazardly pushed out a system update which bricked some non hacked wiis and didn't stop people from hacking their wiis for very long.

We're trying to point out Nintendo's idiocy that a community group can just flash dance their way around anything they do while calling them stupid.

I updated as well. In fat, I was a little scared since I bought my Wii used on eBay, and who knows what the previous owner did to it.

System updated. no problems, not in the slightest.

@lannister80: There was no copy protection code. You wanna know what they did to "stop" the "pirates"? They deleted the installed items with the title ID of HAXX (the homebrew channel) and whatever the DVDX title ID was (Probably DVDX, just because it'd make me look amusingly stupid). All it required was the changing of the title ID.

It's pretty much the equivalent of Microsoft building all future versions of Windows to refuse allowing download of "Windows 7 cracked.iso" to completely shut down all piracy of Windows 7. Uhh...sure, that'll stop that from being downloaded, but you realize that within an hour, pirates can have "Windows 7 CrackedV2.iso" uploaded, completely bypassing your new, amazing piracy protection, right?

That's pretty much what they did here. Nintendo checked for HAXX and removes it and disallows installation. Within less than a day, Team Twiizers already had a new installer and an HBC with a new title ID to bypass it. It's the stupidest anti-piracy fix ever pretty much.

@changed my name: Then you clearly don't play it very often, or at the very least, don't play any Nintendo titles. Nearly every first party title will always have the latest firmware on disc and require update before allowing you to play.

Haha, that is my cat Moxie. I forgot all about submitting that to some site a couple of years ago. Anyway, on topic, I had a gamecube die to a powersurge years ago and despite power surge damage being excluded from the warranty, they replaced it with no hesitancy.

@jokono:

You and me both. I downloaded the 4.2 update. It took out the homebrew channel but I can have it back if I do the indiana pwns hack.

bannerbomb won't work anymore.

My Wii died after an updated, and I payed the money to get it fixed, the only good thing about getting the system repaired is you get a new 1 year warranty for your $90 bucks. So at least now I know the system will work for at least 1 more year without me having to pay for repairs again.

I have all 3 consoles, my Wii is the only one that's needed repair, and I even dropped my xbox once.