Troubleshooting for Our Wii (aka Apparently I need to be more observant)

Admittedly, I don't know that this post is going to help any of my regular readers. Maybe it will, but I suspect the chances that any of you are running into Wii problems right at this moment are unlikely.

So, why post it?

Well, I'm hoping that if some desperate mother, like myself, is having some of the same problems we have had can find this post via Google and maybe I'll help her out, before her kids sad faces drive her to ruin.

Wii We have now had two different times that we have returned games that have seemed to be defective, only to figure out later that it was something wii we were doing. So, let me pass along the nuggets of knowledge that I have learned the hard way.

When we first got Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party, we thought it was pretty fun. (Now I think it's really fun, and it's great exercise as well! I definitely recommend this one -- it even has a calorie counter option!)

Anyway, shortly after bringing it home, we would try to play and it would just pop up "FAILED" before the song even began. Someone else would try, and the same thing would happen. After becoming frustrated, we put it away to work on the next day.

Lo and behold, the next day it worked. Well...for a while anyway. Then, it started doing the same thing. We contacted tech support for Konami (the game maker). They advised us that the game was surely defective, and to return it.

We did this, only for the problem to start up again. I knew then that I had to be a detective. Finally, I noticed that whenever the dance pad moved a bit (for lots of play), it happened to knock up against a toy box, making one of the corner raise up a bit.

Yep -- that was the culprit. So, lesson one learned -- even though tech support never said, "Are you sure that you have it on a totally flat surface?", that was what they should have asked. Now that we are more vigilant about making sure that it doesn't push against the toy box, we have never had that problem again.

Now, on to lesson number two, thanks to Jack picking up Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for his birthday.

The boys were SO psyched for this game! But, we could never get it to start. It didn't even pop up a start menu at us. It just kept showing for us to "Press + Button."

Let me tell you, I have never pressed a plus button so much in my life. Deep down, I figured this had to be some problem of ours. But, I still couldn't figure out what we might be doing. Just in case it was a game error, I took it back to the store and told them that we couldn't go past the start menu.

Of course, when we got the new copy home, we still had the same problem. Desperate, with kids with sad faces, I did even more searching online. Surely there was an easy answer.

And, finally, on Sega's site, I found a little tidbit of information that is probably not only helpful with Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, but probably with other games that may have problems as well.

They stated that although the game can be used with the classic Gamecube controller or the classic Wii controller, if you have a Gamecube controller plugged in and try to use the Wii remote, it won't work.

I thought, "Okay, well -- maybe we'll at least try the Gamecube controllers, if they'll work, since the Wii ones obviously don't for this game."

But, then imagine my surprise when I walked over to the Wii to find a Gamecube controller plugged in. Sigh.

Yep -- you guessed it. The moment we took out the Gamecube controller and pushed the + button on the Wii Remote, the boys were up and playing in just moments.

Hopefully, wii we won't have any problems in the future. And, if we do, I just hope that I can take a few moments to be a detective before automatically assuming the game is defective.


photo by el3enawe