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WiiConnect24 Update Causing Issues For Wii Owners 148

Posted by Zonk from the connect-for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy dept.
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"
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WiiConnect24 Update Causing Issues For Wii Owners More

WiiConnect24 Update Causing Issues For Wii Owners

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  • Similar, less severe problem (Score:4, Informative)

    by UbuntuDupe ( 970646 ) * on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @11:38AM (#16932666) Journal
    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: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Broken scope ( 973885 )
      I fully expect N to stagger the updates based on Serial number or some other thing, that or they increase bandwidth, alot.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Fozzyuw ( 950608 )
      I've not had any problems with this WiiConnect24 bug. I'm not sure if I've updated this content yet.

      However, the update on the night I used the Wii store was slow, but not that much. It took maybe 5mins to download the update. Perhaps that was before most people where doing their updates, but I didn't find it too bad. I can imagine it's just Nintendo's servers getting hammered all at once.

      I do find that it does take a long time to just log-into the Wii store. About 30 seconds to just load the store, whi

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by webrunner ( 108849 )
        if you are connecting to any internet features at all you have the latest update and you do not have the issue.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by UbuntuDupe ( 970646 ) *
        However, the update on the night I used the Wii store was slow, but not that much. It took maybe 5mins to download the update. Perhaps that was before most people where doing their updates, but I didn't find it too bad.

        Okay, give me a teensy weensy bit of credit here. I didn't give up after five minutes. I supsect most people didn't either, as the progress bar would be filling up rapidly. When I say slow, I mean: "Leave, come back 30 minutes later, it's 10% complete. Come back 30 minutes later, it's ...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Fozzyuw ( 950608 )

          Okay, give me a teensy weensy bit of credit here...Wait ... *gets out ruler* ... Damn!"

          lol, I'm not saying I don't believe you. I know how networks work well enough (web dev. here) and this isn't the first time I heard people having slow downloads. It felt really slow for me as well, and I'm still surprised how slow it does connect. I just was recounting that on the time I updated it worked fine (if waiting 5-10mins for the patch is fine), to help troubleshoot the fact this might be a 'WoW Tuesday' sor

    • I suspect part of the update issue is because people update all at once and hammer the system by doing it manually (qur the 'well duh'), but for future automated updates it should be more spaced out.

      I got mine home on Sunday morning, and had it connect to the internet before noon. Downloaded the update, maybe 5 minutes or so, and bam it was done. contrast that to those who started later in the day, and it was 'teh sloooooow.' The reason I suspect this won't be an issue is that part of the setup involes yo

    • Re:Similar, less severe problem (Score:5, Informative)

      by Bob of Dole ( 453013 ) on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @12:53PM (#16934644) Journal
      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).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by miyako ( 632510 )
      Try changing the channel on your wireless router to either 1 or 11. Took hours for me to get the first update, and numerous failures. Second update took less than 5 minutes.
    • Am I missing something? Either you all have Flash, or http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/assets/language_s elect.jsp [nintendo.com] is not the page I want for customer service.
  • 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.
    • Not to come to Nintendo's aide too steadfastly (not a fanboy, only barely even a fan these days), but the Wii *did* just launch, so it seems fairly like to me that the 4-10 day shipping is more likely a result of them being overwhelmed by current activity than sheer cheapness. My guess is that it's probably easier for them to just mail out a new system and say "be happy!" than it is to try to coordinate for bringing in everyone's Wii and repairing it. I don't disagree with your point of being angry if it ha

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by desenz ( 687520 )
        I think this is just the state of things in the industry right now. A friend of mine just had his 360 bite the dust, and he's been waiting a week (hopefully it arrives today) for the packing label to ship it back to Microsoft. That might be unusual, I'm not really sure. But 3-4 days from nintendo doesn't seem too bad in that case :P

    • Re:Uhm.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Black Pete ( 222858 ) on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @12:07PM (#16933488)
      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 ahve to give Nintendo credit for how they are handling this. Anyone remember how long it took microsoft to even admit the possability of defective 360s? For Nintendo to stand up and say that a few people have had issues and then to cover instant replacement and shipping for free is a really respectable move. These days many people don't distinguish vbetween brand loyalty and 'fanboyism', but there are real reasons to respect one company over another.
        • You have to remember that Nintendo has had allot of practice in this. The only reason the Nintendo suceeded really was because Nintendo came right out about problems with the NES intially. For those who don't know: The original NES in Japan had faulty soundchips. What did Nintendo do? Replaced every console without question and took a huge financial hit of course. If not for that the console would have been a non-starter for the dead console industry videogames would probably be PC & Arcade centric stil
    • When my Gamecube's video card malfunctioned, Nintendo paid for the shipping of my Gamecube to them and shipped me a new Gamecube back, for free, after declaring the old one to be unfixable. The entire process took only about 4 days. Nintendo Customer Support is top notch. Who cares if they save on shipping if you're not paying for it, and they send you a brand new console free of charge.
  • 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...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by crossmr ( 957846 )
      You can't back up any virtual console games you've purchased and they are tied to the console itself. So any points you'd bought and any games would be lost. Nintendo is requiring you send in the unit, and they'll work some magic to ensure you don't lose that.
      • Well, with the 110213 problem, the virtual console and the online store won't work. So you couldn't have purchased any games....
      • I'm not exactly sure about it, since I was playing on my brother's and I didn't dig too deep. But I thought that the VC games were tied to the console only if you didn't tie your console to your Nintendo.com account. I thought I had read something saying that certain downloaded items would move to a new console if you attached the account to it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hurfy ( 735314 )
        So once these are out of warrantee and they break , then what?

        Tough shit? Buy the games again after you buy a new console?

        Hmm, that would kill most of my online purchasing.
        • Buy the games again after you buy a new console?

          Isn't that what you're already doing? Those were originally NES/SNES/N64/whatever games, you know!

          Me, I'll just stick to an emulator and get a Wii when I want to play some new games (e.g. SSB Brawl).

    • The licenses, so to speak, for the games stay on the console though. No idea how it's implemented, but you won't be able to play those games you bought on the new console without buying them again. Which is ridiculous, if you ask me. Nintendo should be able to push something down to the new console that gives it the licenses from the old one.
    • The joke is on you. You can't copy games from the SD card to another console. You can't copy them back if you format your Wii either.

      Great feature, eh?
  • 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.
    • Well, unfortunately, they probably will still have that problem. Since the update is only adversely affecting a percentage of consoles (no idea how many yet), it is likely an issue with that specific hardware. Since they will probably still be shipping systems that were manufactured before launch. But that's the risk you take being an early adopter.

      For the record, I have my Wii and it's is entirely filled with Awesome. No error messages so far.

  • What is wrong with this picture? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by voice_of_all_reason ( 926702 ) on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @11:47AM (#16932926)
    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.
    • 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: (Score:3, Informative)

        by webrunner ( 108849 )
        Actually most reports CAN play games. Most of the time, the only thing that breaks is the online functionality.
      • Article is unfortunately blocked from work, so I had to interpret "Wii consoles to become inoperative" as "bricked." Thank you for correcting me.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ivan256 ( 17499 )
          "bricked."

          The call just came in from marketing. Apparently they would prefer you to refer to it as 'Boat Anchor Mode'. Apparently that evokes a higher valued mental image.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by TeleKawaru ( 639739 )
        The only thing you can't do if you run into this problem is the online functionality. Everything else works just fine EXCEPT copying save data from the SD card TO the console. When I first had this happen to me, I checked online and a lot of people said doing the full wipe on the system fixed it, so I copied off my save games and tried it. Well, that didn't fix the problem and it wouldn't let me copy my save games back on the system. When I called nintendo after reading that the 110213 problem required my s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ivan256 ( 17499 )
        Most embedded systems with updateable firmware have two copies of firmware around at any given time, or a socketed memory chip.

        Regardless, if there's a manufacturing defect with with the memory hardware for the firmware, no update architecture is going to save you from failure.
    • 1) Copy current data to a backup file
      2) Overwrite current data
      3) Test new data
      4) If okay, delete backup

      Now why the hell would you do that when you could just 1) Write new data, 2.) Test new data, 3.) Delete old, 4.) Rename new? You save a write.
  • 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 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by earnest murderer ( 888716 ) on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @11:54AM (#16933150)
    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 (Score:4, Informative)

    by gaminRey ( 569220 ) on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @11:56AM (#16933210)
    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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Daetrin ( 576516 )
      Same here. I don't know if it went away because i switched my router channel from 6 to 3 or becuse when i did that and tried again it was about 36 hours after the launch and the rush had died down. It was still a little slow with the download but it seems to be working fine now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Surye ( 580125 )
      Ditto to the above. I thought it was a WPA bug or something, but it was just the channel set to 6. At 11, it worked great, updated in about 2 minutes.

  • 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 si

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jkerman ( 74317 )
      for some reason the Wii wont pick up the gateway settings from my airport express. i had to manually configure mine (including dns) for it to work properly.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DaveJay ( 133437 )
      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.

      Out of the box, Linksys, DLink and other routers run on channel 6, and it's relatively unlikely that new owners will change it. As a result, you would expect to find areas with multiple wireless APs all running on 6, and causing interference (and slower speeds.) In my experience, this has been the c
      • Wireless channels are a bitch.

        I configured mine on 11 because I knew 6 (default) would be slow due to overuse. It worked fine for YEARS. Then some asshat down the street configured his AP to use 11. Mine started going nuts, dropping connections and generally not working. So I switched it to 1. Now, occasionally, the guy on 11 drowns out EVERYTHING, including 6 and 1, and there's no apparent reason for it. So I have to put up with some asshole that has out-of-spec equipment that kicks me off my own connectio

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tadrith ( 557354 )
      My Linksys access point doesn't work with the Wii in G-only mode. I have to leave it in mixed mode to make it work.

      Maybe I'm missing something, but if you're in G-only mode, try switching.
  • 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?
    • Mine went through two update cycles once I got it hooked up...both seemed to go through okay. However, I did notice a couple weird things...if I go into the wireless config and use "test connection" from there, it tells me that it was successful, then asks if I want to do a firmware update, with code 62112. If I say ok, it doesn't even try and immediately fails. However, if I go to the main firmware update option, it works fine, it tells me no update is necessary as I have the latest version. I cannot a

  • As if backups weren't hard enough... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by John.P.Jones ( 601028 ) on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @12:23PM (#16933914)
    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.
  • 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 like

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by frieked ( 187664 )
      FYI the weather and news don't work for anyone at this point.
      Those Wii channels officially launch on 12/20 and 1/27 respectively.
  • sWiit.

    In stark contrast to Sony and MS.

    • ??? Microsoft mailed me a box, I put the 360 in, they sent it back. Total cost? $0. Total time? 2 weeks.
      • 2 Weeks. Good for you.

        How much did you pay for your console?

        Nintendo sends you a new Wii you send yours back. See a difference? You have 3 days without online capability. But no real downtime.

        How much is a Wii? How is it possible that Ms can't afford the same capability as Nintendo?

        • The consoles that didn't switch from a totally awesome name to something that conjures up images of urine cost more because the people who buy their games are early adopter types who have more income so they can pay for a system with better hardware(which still doesn't work as well as just getting a better PC, IMHO)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cheapy ( 809643 )
      Yeah, I mean, Microsoft never shipped anything like power cords out to anyone who requested one due to a defect in the old ones!

      Your rampant fanboyism is started to affect your ability to remember. Be afraid.

  • OH NO! Quick! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Jace of Fuse! ( 72042 ) on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @01:49PM (#16936142) Homepage
    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!
  • ...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 Wi
    • Your 110213 error sounds different from the one that kills the system's ability to get online. The Wii will initially connect online without error and download the first update. After this every time you try to do anything online it says that you must setup and successfully test a connection before going online. The connection test will then always fail with the 110213 error. A system format does not fix the problem and the customer support representative jump right to the option I have to getting my co

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