When all these screws have been removed, the Wii case should lift off easily without any resistance. Nov 3, 2013 Price matching is only available for repair services listed on uBreakiFix.com, The price in question must be published (either print or online) by a local retailer with a brick and mortar store front within 10 miles of the uBreakiFix location, If the device you are seeking to repair is a repair service that uBreakiFix provides as an authorized service provider for an original equipment manufacturer, the local competitor must also be an authorized service provider and use original equipment manufacturer parts to repair the device. Also used Wiis are extremely plentiful and beyond dirt cheap. It's seen a lot of playtime over the years between the kids and myself and it's still going strong. Maybe I need to connect the sensor bar back up to it and test it out a bit? Theres really nothing else like it, before or since. Last but not least, well look at the Sonicer DVD Drive Replacement. Admittedly, mine probably never saw as much usage as yours. Remove the door, and set it aside. the experience is the same except for inserting the physical media, more like having a gotek over using your floppies. Well, at least its as easy as possible given the lengthy install process. Known as the "Tech Guru", he's an expert of current and trending technology. Get your Nintendo Wii Disc Drive repaired at eStarland. Thankfully, theres a healthy aftermarket for Wii U parts, including third-party parts. This offer does not apply to competitor's specials, coupons or other discounts. Stop by today to see how we can prevent future disc drive errors for you in the future! The Wii's save data is contained within either the system's internal flash memory or an SD card at your preference. Depending on your new part, you may have to swap out the four rubber grommets on the DVD drive housing. Note: Additional time may be required on holidays, weekends and / or unforeseen circumstances. Remove the two 8.3 mm Tri-Wing screws hidden under the covers you just removed. On the other hand, if you want to play your classic games on your Wii, youll be out of luck. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This was exact and awesome. Near the controller ports, youll see two remaining tri-wing screws. Repeat the procedure described in the preceding step for the second rubber grommet on the rear of the DVD drive housing. Just bring in any local competitors published price for the same repair, and we will happily match and beat their price by $5. And even if you dont own that model number, theres no savings. If you have a Wii you owe it to yourself to just mod it and not use the drive, i have a bunch of disc games for collecting and yeah they just sit on the shelf. As a result, we may earn an affiliate commission via the links on our site at no additional cost to you. And since you cant play Wii games without the drive, a dead drive is a serious emergency. Here at NerdTechy, he makes tech easy to understand for the average person. I love it but it's totally flakey, high maintenance, is always demanding more money I don't have, and I can't see it changing anytime soon. Looks like I'll bite the bullet and get the iFixIt one. The laser is fairly easy to replace and cheaper than buying a another drive. Or (ideally) find a high quality drive and replace it.. Or give up on the Wii (I don't think you should choose this option, but that's me) Or maybe see if you can find a High Quality replacement driveAnd then don't buy just oneBuy 2 or 3! My Wii stopped reading disks and there was a bad clicking noise when trying to read disks. When one replaces the drive, does it mean that all the games saves are lost as well? Being an Nintendo Wii user, you may have experienced errors while trying to play discs. Insert the tip of a long, skinny screwdriver into the hole in the center of the first grommet on the rear of the DVD drive housing. Inside the dragon's den just down the street. Remove the four 9 mm #1 Phillips screws securing the DVD drive to the bottom panel. It works with all Wii consoles except for the Wii U, including the RVL-001 and RVL-101. I got another one (black with GC ports) and i've never even put a disc in it the current mods are so good you never need to. I would assume so but I hope I am wrong. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. I'm sure it's common to find a lot of complaints online. You can now lift it up and set it to the side. When you say it is reading gamecube but not wii games, is it accepting the wii disc or rejecting it? Remove the single 5.9 mm Phillips screw under the controller port door nearest the faceplate. I still have my launch day Wii connected up. It didn't get much use after the first couple of years after launch, however. What I ended up with was a disc drive that gave me "The disc cannot be read" error messages every time I tried putting a Wii game disc in it, and when I put a GameCube game disc in it the same thing as before happened. Here at NerdTechy, we try to make tech simple for the everyday person. Suite C Put your tool into the lower grommet, and pull up just as you pulled the other grommets. NerdTechy.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking nerdtechy.com to (amazon.com, amzn.to) As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Flip the drive over and repeat the process for the other grommet, and youre all set. Please consider sharing: iDeaUSA 4D Gaming Headset (iDeaGamer S408) Review, How-To Guide: Best Replacement Xbox One HDMI Port, Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Wireless Gaming Headset Review, Best Mouse and Keyboard for Steam Deck (Wireless, Autel MaxiCharger Review Home Level 2, Best USB to eSATA Adapter Cable: Helpful. But I can tell you that I haven't fired it up and actually played anything on it for probably 2 years now? By Feb 19, 2013 Skippy B. Coyote, November 1, 2018 in Nintendo Wii / Wii U. I decided to start this thread to try and get a better idea of what the reliability of the original Wii's disc drive is going to be like over the longterm by asking you, my fellow AtariAgers who currently own or have previously owned an original Wii, if you've ever had the disc drive in yours fail and stop reading discs? Being a vacuum drive this is an issue as your only real option is to disassemble it, and I don't typically recommend that with any disc drive. No reason one couldn't still use a Wii short of the unit itself being physically destroyed. This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff. Click here for tips on how to package your Nintendo Wii unit or accessories! 2016 All rights reserved. Let it down carefully, and youll notice that its still connected by a cable. After these past few weeks I wouldn't trust any Wii's disc drive to keep working any farther than I could throw it, and I sure as heck don't want to plunk down $50 or $60 on something that could very well break down next week. the other alternative that works well for wii only is a wii u. Not because I have any sort of personal attachment to this particular Wii, but because it's been soft modded with a variety of custom configured emulators and homebrew software and modding a new Wii to do all the things that this one does would take a good 6 or 8 hours worth of work that I just don't want to have to do again. Use a metal spudger to remove the three highlighted screw covers stuck to the side of the Wii. Was this helpful? Carefully pull the DVD drive power cable out from under the plastic shroud near the heat sink. Remove the two Phillips screws still remaining in the grey controller port faceplate, and remove the plate. Also probably not what you are looking for, have you considered soft modding? There are hard-drive, letterbomb, and SD solutions for those cases. Remove the 8.2 mm Tri-Wing screw that was hidden beneath the battery door. I don't buy games to look pretty on the shelf, though it's totally fine if that's your thing. Yeah I figured I needed to get one that specifically accepted GC games; doing some research I saw that some replacement drives physically do not accept GC games. So I don't know what to do. Store Phone: (224) 521-0089 mod your wii, put all your gamecube and wii games on the shelf where they will be safe. Beneath the door, youll find another tri-wing screw. The eBay seller (who has thousands of sales under their belt and 100% positive feedback) who sold me the refurbished disc drive that started giving me "The disc cannot be read" errors after 3 days of use did send me a replacement disc drive at no charge. This gives you the flexibility to play your entire game library on one console. And that really sucks, because I love the Wii game library and I've had a ton of fun hunting down and collecting games for it over the past year, but it's like a bad relationship or something. Mail your system to the following address: eStarland.com so i don't see they will be reliable in future but i still want to play the games "as intended" on original HW. That said, there are a couple of things that set it apart, and make it a bit of a better value. It's just not how I like to collect and play. Reply, billyf0486 - Now its time to remove the outer case. It comes with a tri-wing screwdriver, so you may not need to buy any other tools. If this is the case, you need the Nintendo Wii disc drive replacement service. Your previous content has been restored. If you already own all the other tools, youll appreciate not needing to buy a separate screwdriver kit. Pull the DVD drive power cable away from its socket on the DVD drive. The HongLei Original DVD Drive Replacement is another drop-in replacement thats easy to install. Need some help or have a suggestion? To do this, youll need to remove the screws along the edges. Learn More, Home | About Us | Disclosure | Privacy | Contact. up to you but this isn't emulation or anything like that it's protecting your original media from drives that will potentially destroy your discs. Reply. I had the drive swapped in 10 mins and my son is over the moon. So I suppose what I'm trying to figure out at the moment is if I'm just having a temporary run of bad luck or if Wii disc drive failures are going to be a common and frequent enough occurrence that I might want to reconsider collecting for this system. It may still be that the laser is dieing. By another Wii (or Multiple Wiis)Maybe just get a console only, hopefully cheap on ebay or at a pawn shop. These are concealed beneath a couple of plastic screw covers, so youll need to pry the covers out. Reply. Pull the screwdriver straight up until the grommet is free. So far so good. Open the controller port cover until it is perpendicular to the black controller port bezel. This is a good time to change the CR2032 battery if it hasn't been changed recently. Good Remove them, and the DVD drives aluminum shield will be loose. Collector of Fine Atari and Sega Antiquities. Also mine has always had one of those grinding noisy disc drives since day one, but can't recall ever having a read error with it. Insert the end of the skinny screwdriver into the hole in the center of the lower rubber grommet along the front of the DVD drive housing. Remove the small Phillips screw securing the battery door to the bottom panel. Most games would play fine, but I first noticed a problem with Super Smash Bros. Melee. best of luck with trying to keep a wii going as i said earlier i had a drive die and it was barely used. My original Wii bought new, near launch has been fineRock solid. Doing a Google search for Wii disc drive failure error messages makes it seem like everyone and their grandmother (sometimes literally their grandmother) have had their Wii's disk drive go belly up, but reading the replies here makes it sound a bit less common. Pull the grommet straight away from the DVD drive housing until it is free. Disclosure Statement: My main concern is with backwards compatibility - is it tied to the laser/disc drive itself or is it baked into the system OS and it won't matter what replacement drive I put in? Three more are located on the side of the Wii, under a set of screw covers. Then, they will simply lift out. Repeat the procedure in the preceding step to remove the second rubber grommet along the front of the DVD drive housing. This subject has been on my mind quite a bit lately since the original Wii that I got at launch just had it's disc drive fail a couple weeks ago. Set them aside, remove the screws, and move on to the faceplate. The Wii is the only disc based system that can't read cd or dvd, so I've found no easy way to clean them. So whatever model number is on the back of your system, you wont have trouble with installation. Your Rating Just request the price match right at the register while checking in a device for repair. It just makes some spinning noises for a few seconds then drops the GameCube disc to the bottom of the drive and takes a dozen attempts to eject it.Since that didn't work I then tried soldering the logic board that I took off the replacement drive onto the first drive I was sent and what ended up happening then was that the drive would read and load Wii discs properly with no error messages, but every time I tried putting in a GameCube disc the drive tried spinning up then quickly shot the GameCube disc back out after a couple seconds. Very Poor. For me the whole point of collecting games for any system is to be able to play them off the original physical media, so a system modded to play games off a USB drive would kinda defeat the whole purpose of collecting. Lift the DVD drive shield upward and remove it from the Wii. However, some replacement drives dont come with the rubber grommets inside the plastic drive housing. Remove the foot, remove the screw, and youre ready to pry the faceplate off. Upload or insert images from URL. I've never head of a Wii Drive failing, and I have dealt with a lot of them over the years. We do limit quantities to one-per-customer, per repair, per day, Repair Prices from auctions or retailers requiring memberships, Prices from mobile repair providers, or any repair provider without a brick and mortar store front, Repair services that uBreakiFix provides as an authorized service provider for an original equipment manufacturer unless the local competitor is also an authorized service provider for the same original equipment manufacturer, Repair prices that are dependent on add-ons, other items, fees, or charges, Bundle offers, instant rebates, mail-in offers, or offers that include financing, Prices that require minimum purchases amount or quantity, Repair prices that other retailers have listed as clearance, close out, liquidation, special hour/flash/limited quantity offers, Repair prices that utilize damaged or used components. I just use those instead because I don't have anything very expensive downloaded to the original Wii. Lift the side of the DVD drive opposite the controller ports enough to access the cables on its bottom face. Finally, theres screw beneath the rubber foot closest to the DVD drive. Jun 9, 2013 Please contact us if so. Set the DVD drive on its side, with the two rubber grommets along the front of the drive facing you. Perfect The abcGoodefg Nintendo Wii DVD Drive is probably worth avoiding. Then, carefully pull sideways to remove them from the drive. For most people, the Wiis appeal came down to the motion controls. Mine has not failed. all that said, hey you could just keep buying wii's they're a dime a dozen. 2022 iFixit Licensed under Creative Commons Privacy So what do you guys and gals think? Lift the outer case straight up off the body of the Wii. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); They call me TechGuru. Use your fingernail to flip up the retaining flap on the DVD drive ribbon cable socket. I notified the seller and they suggested that it sounds like the logic board on the replacement drive had failed and the disc reading lens on the original drive I was sent had failed, so if I knew how to solder I should try de-soldering the logic board from the original drive and install it on the replacement drive. For now I'm just waiting to hear back from the eBay seller who sold me the refurbished disc drive that died after 3 days to see about getting it replaced or refunded, then I'll figure out what to do from there after that matter is taken care of. But odds are good youve never even seen a triwing driver before. Accessibility. Nintendo Wii Repairs: Disc Drive Replacement Service, Nintendo Wii system disc drive replacement, Fast turn-around service: See below for additional information. Its still attached by a few cables. Yes it is plugged in, but not actually powered up as it is on one of my several Eco smart power strips. Pasted as rich text. Get a Wii RVL-001 replacement disc drive from Amazon. In both cases of drive failure I opened up the system and cleaned the disc drive's laser eye with 90% isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip to make sure it wasn't dust buildup causing the problem, but it did not solve disc reading problem. Long story short, my old Wii finally croaked in the middle of playing Dance Dance Revolution today and I reckon the disc drive has met its end. The DVD drive will last a lot longer that way. markstewart73 - The Wii has been the main system I've been collecting for over the past year or so and I've amassed a pretty substantial library of 65 games for it, but I really don't want to have to deal with frequent hardware repairs and am starting to wonder if I might be better off focusing my collecting efforts on cartridge based systems without moving parts due to recent events.