WiiConnect24 Update Causing Issues For Wii Owners

An anonymous reader writes to mention coverage on IGN of an ongoing issue with a WiiConnect update. A faulty update may be causing some Wii consoles to become inoperative. Nintendo is replacing affected consoles, free of charge. From the article: "Several error codes have been reported so far, but the most prevalent of them are 110213 and 32002. We contacted Nintendo about this issue, and they filled us in on what you should do if you find yourself in this predicament. Currently, Nintendo has two options in place to resolve the problem. If you do not have any data saved to your system that is important to keep, then you can contact Nintendo customer service and they will ship a new console to you in 3-4 business days. However, if you do have important data saved to your system, then things get a little trickier"

Similar, less severe problem

I didn't have that issue (luckily) but I did have similar problems. For one, as most Wii users have noted, starting from Sunday (11/19) the updating process takes a LONG time. What's more, when I got tired of waitng and turned off the power and back on again, it brought me right back to the same screen. The only way I could get back to gaming was to disconnect the wireless router's power so there was no internet access, forcing it to abort back to the Wii menu. Luckily, updates finished last night when I tried and didn't take forever then.

People say the delay was from the huge number of Wiiners coming online and downloading, but, uh ... isn't the same thing going to have to happen in the future, and with more people, since they have to do more similarly-sized updates then?

Don't misunderstand me -- I *love* the Wii, and I've had a lot of fun with it since Sunday. It's worth its purchase price several times over. I'm not trying to stir up anti-Wii fud.

Re:Similar, less severe problem

I had the same problem, and it got stuck that way for 5 hours. Try to update,fail,reboot,update,fail,etc.
My brother found a mention on the Nintendo.com site that their wireless implementation hates channel 4, and works best on 1 and 11 (?).
After switching the AP over to 1, it updates in less than 30 seconds.
So try doing that, even if you're not doing updates. It seems the connection is just horribly slow when on channel 4 (which was the default for my WRT54G router).

Uhm..

3-4 days to ship an entire Wii, yet 4-10 to ship a label?? They should be sending these things express and overnight/1-2 day them.
Luckily my Wii updated without issue, but I'd be raising holy hell if I'd camped out, laid down the money, then had to spend 20+ days without it because they want to save a few bucks on shipping.

Re:Uhm..

Except that it will still work in "offline" mode. You can play any games you want; you just can't go online.

If you called Nintendo customer service, they essentially give you one of two choices:

1) Give them your credit card number over the phone. They send a replacement Wii along with a postage-paid box to you, you put your old Wii in the box and ship it back. You won't have to spend a day without the Wii.

2) If you want to keep your original Wii, you can ship it back, they fix it, and overnight it back to you. In this case you WOULD be without your Wii for a few days.

My bet is most would go for Option 1. Option 2 is for if you have a lot of stuff on internal storage they can't live without (which is fairly unlikely this soon after launch).

I had this same problem

But I don't understand what the whole thing is with Option #2. I just backed up my save games to an SD card and I plan on copying them to the new system once I get it in the mail...

Quick

At least they are quick at trying to solve the problem and helping people affected by it. I just hope it won't still be a problem in 17 days when it finally comes out in the UK. I can imagine a lot of companies glossing over it, being troublesome with replacements etc.

What is wrong with this picture?

This is how computers modify data:

1) Copy current data to a backup file
2) Overwrite current data
3) Test new data
4) If okay, delete backup

Did IQs just drop sharply for this generation of consoles? If mandatory updates are bricking systems, the programmers have failed the basic aspects of design. Even the patchwork scraps which hold windows together will pop up a message saying "hay, something's fucked now." via safe mode if you screw up and give you a chance to revert it.

Re:What is wrong with this picture?

Computers do NOT do that for firmware except for a few high-end motherboards. In this situation, firmware is exactly what's being updated.

However, there is a catch to this particular story. According to the reports, Nintendo is telling Wii owners that it's not the firmware update itself or anything the owner did. Some of the units apparently have defects. When the firmware update is applied, it's exasperating the defect, causing strange behavior. The reports of the problem seem to confirm this, as the system doesn't completely brick. (i.e. it still boots into the menus) But since it is unable to play games, it might as well be bricked.

Re:Grammar check

The word you want here is "exacerbating", not "exasperating." Their similar, but exasperate usually refers to a person and exacerbate doesn't

The word you want here is they're [reference.com]," not "their [reference.com]." They're similar, but "their" is possessive while "they're" is a contraction of "they are."

just part of the equation

It's unavoidable for a new console launch to have a few bugs. Looking back at nintendo's super high quality products in the past i was really hoping to see few problems, but i guess they're just as vulnerable considering their recent entry into online gaming.

The real problem here

is that your purchases are tied to your console and not your account. Fine for nintendo, but what happens if your console is out of warranty. A much more reasonable solution would have been to associate your content with your account rather than the console. Similar to what apple does with it's iTunes store.

32002 is an easy fix

I had the 32002 for the first day. Their description for the error code says it is a problem getting stuff from the server, and to try again later. I figured it was due to release day overload. In the end, I followed their advice and changed my WiFi channel from the default 6 to 11 and now it works fine.

Not my problem

I haven't connected yet. I can get it to talk to my access point, but it won't get an IP address by DHCP. When I gave it a static one, that didn't work. I'm going to try having it connect to another AP in my house tonight. The one I've been using is an Apple Airport Express that I've never had a problem with. My error was 53010 or something like that (I looked it up on Nintendo's site).

I've heard about this problem, and it does make me worry some.

Then again, I also found the weird tip on Nintendo's web site that you can speed up downloads by making sure your AP is on channel 1 or 11. I've heard complaints about how "fast" things were, so maybe that's it.

Then again, none of this matters to me until they release Bonk's adventure, which I really want to buy. The games I own (Wii Sports, Red Steel, Twilight Princess) aren't multiplayer over the net.

No problems here.

I was a bit worried when I was hearing problems about it, but so far everything seems okay with my Wii. I was able to download the first, and second and am at firmware version 2.0U (the latest, I believe) with no errors. The updates took maybe 10 minutes to download. I can access the store, and the email thing seems to be working fine.

So I'm wondering what the specific problem is. Did Nintendo put out a bad update at some point that borked the system or did some have defective WiFi hardware?

I Haven't Seen This At All

I just wanted to say that neither myself, nor my friends that bought Wiis, have had any problems getting the updates, getting online, and downloading VC games. Also, although the download speed isn't necessarily super fast, no downloads have taken more than 5 minutes.

Of course, I have a more expensive wireless router, and experience networking Nintendo devices (DS)... I can see how your average soccer mom might have some trouble setting up the wireless network properly (after all, "WEP key" means absolutely nothing to most of them)

As if backups weren't hard enough...

This is a systemic problem with all these closed console systems with storage. Storage needs backup. Imagine what it will be like in 4 years when these systems start failing in mass and people realize they lost all their save games. Nintendo is on the good side since its storage isn't HDD based and you can rely on SD cards which are easilly backupable. I suppose the PS3 has Linux backup options but only a small percentage will be able to use it. Xbox360 has the advantage that the HDD is easilly replaceable but I'm not sure how easy it is to back up the data.

That is why open systems are essential for storage. But hey I guess people are weened on DVD and its ilk so they expect to be unable to back up their data.

Verrrrrrry Sloooooowwwww

After several false starts I got the Wii connected to my Wifi (many thanks to the Slashdotter who recommended 'mixed' mode rather than 'G-only'). Then I kept getting the 'Try again later' messages. Last night at 11:30 PM (Eastern) I got connected to the Nintendo server. It immediately did a download that took about 45 minutes. Next a screen popped up asking me to identify which country I was in. I did so, and it did a second 45 minute download. It looks like either installed a patch file (or more likely) that they re-flashed the firmware. After the upgrade I had access to the Wii Store, many of the menus had additional items and an intermediate screen had a new Nintendo logo background. The Weather and News still didn't work (perhaps the servers are not operational). Some new features (messaging) also appeared. Sounds like Nintendo didn't properly scale their servers or their network connections (or both) for the anticipated load. It will only get worse as they sell more systems before Christmas. Perhaps they need one of those Sun server farm in a shipping box (that was discussed in Slashdot a few weeks ago).

Nintendo Fixes it's problem at it's expense.

sWiit.

In stark contrast to Sony and MS.

OH NO! Quick!

Oh no! Quick! Everyone! For the sake of your Mii! Get them off of that Wii and put them on the Wiimote! It's every Mii for themselves! You don't want your Mii trapped inside that Wii if an update causes it to lose functionality! You wouldn't want that any more than you would want your babies trapped in a burning building, possibly even less!

Save the Mii! Buy more Wiimotes if you have to!

DON'T LET YOUR MII BECOME A STATISTIC!

Act now!

110213 != Dead Wii

...at least not in all cases.

My Wii arrived from Amazon yesterday (that still sounds weird, I know the Wii jokes were old months ago, but that still sounds weird). Setting up the wireless was simple and quick. Getting the updates from Nintendo took a while though. My first 2 attempts resulted in the dreaded '110213' error. I just tried again. On the third attempt (a couple of hours after the first) it worked.

But I have a feeling that the perception is going to be that if you get a 110213 error, your Wii is hosed.

I got the 110213 error

I was the only one to get this error out of my 15 friends that have the console. Yes, its been confirmed that this is a fatal error to the system, but only for online. The console, once it gets this error, will not be able to go online in anyway, BUT it can do everything just fine offline, I've already gotten about 20 hours into zelda (yes I'm loving it) and like 4 hours into red steel. In short the console does work fine, just no internet access. I called nintendo up and they fixed me up with a new console being shipped to me right away, they said there maybe a possible delay cause of thanksgiving but they don't expect it. They were very helpful and I even had a convo with the representative over the phone about zelda cause he heard the music playing in the background =p I know for sure that the 110213 error needs to be replaced, I havn't heard anything about the other error, and for the most part if anyone has problems with the net (some of my friends had things going a bit slow) change your router settings or input the ip and what not manually, I've only seen user error (and a little slow with the servers being bum rushed) besides my console. Though there is a post on the nintendo forums about this problem.

How Widespread Is It, Really?

It's fascinating to watch the hysteria surrounding the Wii and PS3 launches. 90% of the reports of online issues seem to be generated from fanboys from the "opposing" camp latching onto every shred of negative news and screaming about it to the rest of the web.

I picked up my Wii yesterday morning at the Nintendo Store in Manhattan. I got free coffee and stood in line for about 10 minutes before I got it. Last night, I had no problem hooking up and updating the system. I did have one moment where the system said it couldn't connect, but seconds later it was working fine.

Re:Wow Zonk

Nintendo arn't perfect, no one would claim so.

The difference is the rate of failure with Nintendo is usually much lower and they have an excellent returns policy. I'll give you an example.

About 10 years ago my SNES broke a week before Christian. We contacted nintendo and they sent us a new one no questions asked and you know what really sold me? They gave me a couple of t-shirts, a huge bag of badges and stickers. All because it died just before Christmas.

When Sony give a fuck about their customers like I saw Nintendo did then we'll talk about the bad press. Untill then I'll judge Sony on their actions.

Re:So what?

This is good press for N. They are replacing consoles pretty much no questions asked.

Re:That's too bad

Why would you hope that?

Re: WiiConnect24 Update Causing Issues For Wii Own

I know personally at least 5 people myself who purchased a Wii. Someone bought them, I can find one to buy right now :)

Re: WiiConnect24 Update Causing Issues For Wii Own

There's a lot more Wii owners than PS3 owners, that's for sure.

Re:Somehow I wonder about the validity of the repo

Perhaps you should read the article.

I never said these error codes were wrong, I said this exact error might not happen. Repeatedly getting the same two error codes? Of course instead of swearing a blue streak I actually thought about this, but then again we all play to our strengths.

Re: WiiConnect24 Update Causing Issues For Wii Own

There are 7 people aside from myself in my office who got Wiis on launch day.

I've been having a blast so far, and no update problems yet!

Re:So what?

Please, there are 100 good news for Nintendo for every 1 bad news, but you publish the bad one?

It's news, why not publish it?

Re:So what?

Exactly. Look how well Nintendo is handling this problem. No real questions, just cross ship a replacement. Failure rates at launch are common (or are reported more because so many go out at once and media attention is high) and Nintendo is dealing with it very well.

Compare this to the overheating issues the XBox 360 had, or the disc scrapping on the PS2.

Kudos Nintendo.