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Is your Wii power supply broken?

I just got a brand new 40" LCD TV (which, by the way, is awesome) this morning and started testing it out. First the PC, then the Xbox 360, then the PlayStation, and finally I tried turning on my Wii and nothing happened. No lights, no sounds, nothing.

So, I started troubleshooting:
  • Check the connections to the Wii; looks good.
  • Change the surge protector socket it's plugged into; no change.
  • Reset the surge protector; still nothing.
  • Measured the voltage in the socket (any excuse to use my fancy new volt meter); a solid 110V.
  • Measured the voltage from the power supply; a solid 0V. Bingo.
At this point I was releived to find that my Wii was most likely not dead. This evening I started looking into repairing power supplies. I found a couple sites that gave me hope, so I decided to crack it open and see what I could find. That's when I discovered that my BX-100 bit set was missing the appropriate bit for the screws Nintendo used. Flabergasted, I found Chris Meyer's site which suggest just using needle-nose pliers. I found that wire snips actually worked best since I could grip the dimples easily with the sharp edges. The hardest part was actually popping apart the plastic pieces (I suggest a butter knife or a metal plaster spatula/scraper).

However, what's more interesting than his instructions are his results. He and I both found nothing wrong, put the brick back together, and then discovered it was magically working again. This could be a coincidence, but I think it's more likely that simply leaving the power supply unplugged for long enough allows it to reset.

With that, here is my suggestion if you find that your own Wii power supply has suddenly stopped working: before you tear it up trying to fix it, just unplug it and go outside to play instead. Maybe when you come back, it will love you again.
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