Whoops...posted this in the wrong forum:
OK, so I bought a Wii last Spring and I love it--no I don't play it all the time but whenever I've got friends over we hook up Madden '08, Wii Sports and MarioParty. Good times. Well fastforward to a few weeks ago, when I notice that while playing Bowling and Tennis there are a few graphical glitches showing on the screen. The glitches look like vertical dotted lines, and the dots are "sparkling" between green and pink colors. Its a minor annoyance, and I figure maybe one of the cables is loose or there's some noise.
Last week I noticed that the issue got worse. There are more lines, and the effect is similar to what one might see if one overclock's their graphics card past its' limit. I adjusted the cables, and it didn't help. I tried changing resolution from 480p to 480i (using the component cables on a Sammy LCD TV) and turning widescreen on or off, but nothing helped. Then I switched out to the standard composite cables. No help. I tried a different game, Zelda, and noticed that it was a LOT WORSE. Around this time I suspected something was wrong with my console--like the graphics processor/scanline converter on the board had gone bad. But before jumping to conclusions, I tried it on another TV. My 32" Westinghouse LCD. Again I tried both sets of cables, but nothing helped.
So today I call up Nintendo Tech Support. I'm impressed when I get to a tech within 30 seconds of making the call. I describe the problem, he asks me if I've tried different cables, different input, different TV etc. and I tell him yes, yes, yes. Within another 45 seconds he escalates me to a Senior Tech. Again, I'm impressed. But this is when things go wrong.
As I'm describing my issue to the tech, she asks "are both of your televisions HDTV?". "Yes", I answer. She then tells me "well the Wii wasn't really designed to work with high-end HDTVs." I say nothing, but a vein in my head starts to protrude. She continues, "these new TVs are designed to draw things very fast, and the Wii can't keep up, so that's why on these TVs you'll see these issues." Now that vein is big-shit-poppin, but I remain calm and kindly tell her "you can't be serious". Now she tells me she's reading off a technical bulletin, and the bulletin says that post-processing on the TV and various picture quality settings might cause what I'm seeing. So I explain that this is definitely NOT an issue with my TVs, and if it were I would've noticed it MONTHS AGO.
She won't budge, and her final resolution is for me to take my console to a friend's house and try it on another TV. At this point I'm livid, and I'm trying to explain things in technical terms but obviously I'm speaking a different language. So now I'm supposed to take it to a friend's house and test it? How the fvck does that help ME? Am I supposed to "downgrade" my TVs so I can play the Wii?
The best part though--the last thing she said to me was "Please understand we don't want to waste your time. If you send it back to use we'll need to use it for evaluation and you won't be able to play your Wii for some time. And if we take it back and find nothing wrong with it, it's just a waste of time".
Thanks for the tip Nintendo Customer Service.
Anyone else had similar problems? How did you get Nintendo to repair/replace your console?
UPDATE: Screenshots
zelda_1.jpg
zelda_2.jpg
zelda_3.jpg
zelda_4.jpg
UPDATE 2: Nintendo gave me a repair order # on the 2nd call, sending it back for repairs now. Youtube video of my issue below
Wii glitches
OK, so I bought a Wii last Spring and I love it--no I don't play it all the time but whenever I've got friends over we hook up Madden '08, Wii Sports and MarioParty. Good times. Well fastforward to a few weeks ago, when I notice that while playing Bowling and Tennis there are a few graphical glitches showing on the screen. The glitches look like vertical dotted lines, and the dots are "sparkling" between green and pink colors. Its a minor annoyance, and I figure maybe one of the cables is loose or there's some noise.
Last week I noticed that the issue got worse. There are more lines, and the effect is similar to what one might see if one overclock's their graphics card past its' limit. I adjusted the cables, and it didn't help. I tried changing resolution from 480p to 480i (using the component cables on a Sammy LCD TV) and turning widescreen on or off, but nothing helped. Then I switched out to the standard composite cables. No help. I tried a different game, Zelda, and noticed that it was a LOT WORSE. Around this time I suspected something was wrong with my console--like the graphics processor/scanline converter on the board had gone bad. But before jumping to conclusions, I tried it on another TV. My 32" Westinghouse LCD. Again I tried both sets of cables, but nothing helped.
So today I call up Nintendo Tech Support. I'm impressed when I get to a tech within 30 seconds of making the call. I describe the problem, he asks me if I've tried different cables, different input, different TV etc. and I tell him yes, yes, yes. Within another 45 seconds he escalates me to a Senior Tech. Again, I'm impressed. But this is when things go wrong.
As I'm describing my issue to the tech, she asks "are both of your televisions HDTV?". "Yes", I answer. She then tells me "well the Wii wasn't really designed to work with high-end HDTVs." I say nothing, but a vein in my head starts to protrude. She continues, "these new TVs are designed to draw things very fast, and the Wii can't keep up, so that's why on these TVs you'll see these issues." Now that vein is big-shit-poppin, but I remain calm and kindly tell her "you can't be serious". Now she tells me she's reading off a technical bulletin, and the bulletin says that post-processing on the TV and various picture quality settings might cause what I'm seeing. So I explain that this is definitely NOT an issue with my TVs, and if it were I would've noticed it MONTHS AGO.
She won't budge, and her final resolution is for me to take my console to a friend's house and try it on another TV. At this point I'm livid, and I'm trying to explain things in technical terms but obviously I'm speaking a different language. So now I'm supposed to take it to a friend's house and test it? How the fvck does that help ME? Am I supposed to "downgrade" my TVs so I can play the Wii?
The best part though--the last thing she said to me was "Please understand we don't want to waste your time. If you send it back to use we'll need to use it for evaluation and you won't be able to play your Wii for some time. And if we take it back and find nothing wrong with it, it's just a waste of time".
Thanks for the tip Nintendo Customer Service.
Anyone else had similar problems? How did you get Nintendo to repair/replace your console?
UPDATE: Screenshots
zelda_1.jpg
zelda_2.jpg
zelda_3.jpg
zelda_4.jpg
UPDATE 2: Nintendo gave me a repair order # on the 2nd call, sending it back for repairs now. Youtube video of my issue below
Wii glitches