Nintendo also offers free repairs for UK's 4.2-bricked Wiis

For whatever reason the PS3 is the only console not region locked by the console manufacturer. It doesn't even make sense to me why consoles should be region protected. Maybe you should look into a PS3 to have as a companion console to your Wii. I bet you'd like Little Big Planet a lot.

I think it's so that publishers/stores can charge different dollar amounts for the same game in different regions. So basically It's a passive-aggressive attempt to screw over the consumer.

God knows if it weren't for region locks every Australian gamer would just import from the US and save themselves $30-50 per purchase.

I prefer Wiimageddon.

Is it Wiinter yet?

You guys are wiidiculous....

Can't wii agwii that these wiipairs are a wiiseaonable strategwii for Nintendo to help wiiple out and--*HEAD ASPLODES

And Markez takes the trophy for funwiiest post of the night

Personally I preferred the Miillenium and the funny talk about the Wii2K bug.

Not broken, bricked. There's a difference.

Do they work?

As bricks, yes.

How utterly Wiin!

No, the difference there is that some Wiis break.

ALL XBOXS RROD.

SEVERAL TIMES.

A MONTH.

nowhere near it, i should say. It was certainly irresponsible of Nintendo to try and alter the boot code unless they were 500% sure they wouldn't screw anything up, but it really isn't affecting that many people

I would like to see some solid statistics, though. Just to see how widespread it was for the non-modded.

how is it even close to RROD...

why do Xbox owners always want something to be like RROD, first they blame Sony for the ~1% of YLOD and now Nintendo from an even less known issue.

Another noteworthy difference is that bricked Wiis can be easily unbricked in just a few minutes, it's a software issue unlike the crapbox's RROD.

The fantastic homebrew community have figured out how to unbrick a bricked Wii (through something called BootMii), and it could be embarrassing for Nintendo to charge customers for what the hackers have been doing for quite some time now (semi or full bricks usually happen when trying to mess around with Wii's system software.)

Long.Live.Homebrew (Channel)

I still have my launch Xbox 360 and no RROD yet.

@ Bane

I envy you. My first 360 succumbed to it, and my replacement might as well. It runs so poorly that I wish it would Red Ring so could get it repaired for free.

@ fikhl. It's a software issue, yes, but an irrevocable one. Rumor is the Motherboard needs to be replaced if it happens (which is only a $30 component without labor fees, if prices are to be believed), since once the boot is damaged, you basically can't run anything.

Reply fail, repeat, reply fail.

My kind message was originally destined for Cypher.

You can haz irony.

Just update, if you haven't modded your Wii.

Sounds to me like even unmodded Wiis are getting bricked by this update.

I say don't update. And just don't buy anything for a while.

I updated my unmodded Wii, and it did not brick. Still, if I were you I'd think about whether or not it would be worth the risk.

If you're confident in your wireless router's stability, i say go for it (or if you have a wired connection). The problem only happens when something fouls up the process. That would be the other thing. If it looks like the update's taking a long time, let it. Interfering with it has also led to bricking.

The first time I downloaded the update it failed for some reason, but didn't brick. After that it worked fine without any problems. I wouldn't worry about it too much since if something DOES go wrong Nintendo will fix it for free, and from the looks of it this isn't as widespread of a problem as the RROD and maybe not even as common as sony's failed blu-ray drives.

"The problem only happens when something fouls up the process."

From what I've read the update itself is what can sometimes foul up the process and not the actual conduit for downloading the update. I seriously doubt that all the bricking issues are because peoples internet dropped it's connection or behaved sporadic. Thats more of a blame the user mentality and there hasn't been any data to support that suggestion. There is a reason it's supposedly only havng an effect on older models and it's more than likely got nothing to do with the internet connection.

"from the looks of it this isn't as widespread of a problem as the RROD and maybe not even as common as sony's failed blu-ray drives"

I can say with 100% certainty this isn't anywhere close to the RROD epidemic. As far as the PS3 failed BD drives: both issues are essentially non existent (less than 1% of all users) so they are both equally minimal issues. For whatever reason 360 owners always want to grasp onto something that suggest the PS3 & Wii are just as faulty but there isn't a shred of imperical evidence to support this claim. Neither this update bricking issue nor the PS3's YLOD/BD failure (YLOD simply indicated a general hardware failure) are a concern for 99% of users. Both of them are the definitions of console reliability. Anecdotally I can speak to this as I've had all three this generation and the 360 had a total of 7 different hardware issues that required a warranted repair (RROD, Disc Read Error, Incorrect Region Coding, Power Supply Failure & Disc Scratching) from MS where as our PS3 (used a minimum of 7 hours total per day between gaming, blu-ray, streaming etc) and Wii (my kids console thats played a minimum of 2 hours during the week and 4-5 hours on the weekends) have needed a single repair or shown any signs of reliability issues.

I updated my launch day unit, no problems. Although I have not launched anything from the SD or any VC from the main page as of yet. I have launched the disk channel and news channel. No mods on my wii.

I can say w/ 100% certainty that it is the actual update and not just an interruption in the install process. My unmodded Wii was updated 2 or so days ago and the install went smoothly. Played with it a bit after that then turned it off. Yesterday I turned it on and it said "System files are currupt" in a messed up kind of font w/ parts of letters missing.

Just shipped mine via Fedex today for free repairs.

Good to know that at least Nintendo's customer service in Europe is just as good as it is here in America.

Here's to hoping they get this fixed before NSMBWii comes out, because if that update will be on the disc, this could be turn into quite the epidemic.

Whoops, that was not meant to be a reply to Flo's comment.

Just start your Homebrew Channel, and an update will be available... then proced to update the Homebrew Channel (and DVDx and BootMii if you want... they are available in the update too)...

After your Homebrew Channel is updated, you can update to 4.2... your Homebrew Channel will be intact.

I already did that... no problems at all.

I don't know the answer to the first one, but I'm pretty sure Nintendo keeps all the games on there.

If the update installed successfully, you should be fine. The bricking only occurs during the actual installation part of the update (the "now downloading" screen).

And should you have to send anything off to Nintendo to get fixed, the content you downloaded from their online stores should still be on there, and if not, then you'll be able to download them again for free.