Shutting Off Wii U During Massive Update Bricks Console

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[citation][nom]djscribbles[/nom]Bios updates can brick your PC. No device is magic, if you are modifying boot stuff, you can brick it. It's questionable how Nintendo could release a product like this, poor system architecture to be sure, but every system can have this problem if, and there are real design tradeoffs in solving it.[/citation]

True but nowadays most MOBOs have some sort of recovery tool (ie. all Gigabyte MOBOs have dual Bioses for just this reason - if a bios update fails the secondary bios recovers the system and you can then retry the update so you don't get this type of problem !
 

razor512

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what ever happened to installing the update after it is fully downloaded. The internal flash storage is fast and major updates can be applied very quickly once the download is finished. (It uses the same kind of flash that you see in standard SSD's)

Streaming updates should never be done ona ny code that is required to boot a device.
 

whiteodian

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Whether Nintendo is at fault for not predicting this problem or users for shutting down during updates, I hope Nintendo does the right thing and offers as painless an experience as possible for the users - free shipping, free repair. It would be a good PR move on their behalf. Microsoft was pretty good about fixing RRoD errors. I got two repairs out of them and didn't have to pay anything.
 

nameon

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[citation][nom]DRosencraft[/nom]Do think it's bad that this happened to anyone, but at the same time, you are willingly taking a risk ignoring the warning. You're not supposed to speed. Everyone speeds and no one seems to ever get caught. Can't really be mad if you speed though and are the unlucky one to get caught. Not a one-to-one example, but the warnings are there for a reason. Beside, isn't there usually a way to cancel the update before just shutting the system off? Or just show some patience and let it finish updating. It's not like a computer that you likely have a dozen other things you can do o it. Do feel bad for those who now have shiny new bricks, but like I said, ignoring warnings is a gamble you take at your own risk.[/citation]
Are you kidding me, with just this Nintendo have basically shut themselves out the African market and a lot of other developing countries whose power grids always had problems!!! I just had 5 power cute in 3 days!!!!
 
G

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The sad truth about Nintendo is that they lost their visionary several years ago and have not been the same since.

There was a time when Nintendo consoles were bulletproof, and did not require online support before they were even up and running for the first time.

I've never seen a 5GB update to any system or game, in history. This even existing is already ridiculous, especially for a Nintendo product.

Then we come to how the update mechanism is designed - that the firmware is vulnerable during the download somehow, rather than left untouched until the update is at least downloaded and being applied.

Finally we have the whole communications aspect - that the stupid thing sits there for hours giving no feedback to the user.

Actually there is one more stupidity in all of this - that Nintendo actually found itself in a position to require a 5GB update to a brand new product that should have been fully functional out of the box.

Behind this situation, we have yet another issue - that systems simply because they have access to an online connection now somehow require it constantly, yet somehow in the past we survived without this.

Stupidity on every level, unacceptable. Did I mention the system is way overpriced?

Thank-you for your reading.
 

Darkk

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[citation][nom]JDFan[/nom]True but nowadays most MOBOs have some sort of recovery tool (ie. all Gigabyte MOBOs have dual Bioses for just this reason - if a bios update fails the secondary bios recovers the system and you can then retry the update so you don't get this type of problem ![/citation]

Yep. This happened to me once with an old ASUS motherboard during BIOS update. It said it was successful but soon as I rebooted it stopped working.

Ever since I switched to Gigabyte motherboards with Dual BIOS I never had this problem.
 

stevo777

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[citation][nom]nameon[/nom]Are you kidding me, with just this Nintendo have basically shut themselves out the African market and a lot of other developing countries whose power grids always had problems!!! I just had 5 power cute in 3 days!!!![/citation]
Yes, it's rediculous. You pretty much need a UPS backup system just to game anymore. I guess many other people here have an amazing power company and their power never goes out. I seem to have some kind of power disruption every 3 months or so on average.
 

biggiebody

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From what people tell me the update is 1gb not 5gb. Also I just watched a video on youtube about the wiiu where they set it up and when they go to the update while it was downloading they pulled the plug because they didn't want to wait.
Guess what, it still worked.
So from what I'm assuming this guy shut off his wiiu after it downloaded and installing the patch, which if it's installing meaning its replacing files. So it should be obvious that the files would be corrupt.
Just FYI for all those bashing the system with non-facts.
 

InvalidError

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Most competently designed devices on the market these days have a bootloader in their firmware to provide recovery options in case the normal firmware gets corrupted. However, the bootloader envionment may require a 'trick' to enable access.

Ideally, for network-attached devices like consoles during updates, the bootloader should have everything it needs to handle the network connection and resume firmware update where it got interrupted.
 

stevo777

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"For now, it doesn't seem like there's a way to reverse the issue. According to Venturebeat, the issue isn't something that Nintendo can resolve remotely. Bricking your console means that you'll be forced to send it into Nintendo for repair."

Huh? Why not just bring it back to the store and get a new one? I doubt the Wii U will sell out and you won't be able to find one. It would at least be faster then shipping something out to Nintendo--probably getting charged by them--waiting for it to get rapaired, and then waiting for it to come back.
 

sna

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[citation][nom]TheViper[/nom]It's only 1 GB (882 MB to be exact)And removing the power from any device while installing a firmware update can render them bricked. This is not a Wii U problem but an electronics device problem.That's why they have warnings on all of them.[/citation]

not really .. there is the USB port and usually you should be able to flash the device from USB back to factory reset. IF the people who engineered the device were REAL Engineers. not stupid people.

also there should be auto back up option b4 any update as well ...


 

mayne92

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What a garbage account of the issue by the author. The lack of actual detail is more entertaining than the context of the article itself.
 

invlem

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I doubt its actually bricked, people jump to conclusions way to fast, give Nintendo a day to figure it out, there's always some sort of back up protection to stop things like this from happening.
 

RADIO_ACTIVE

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[citation][nom]DRosencraft[/nom]Do think it's bad that this happened to anyone, but at the same time, you are willingly taking a risk ignoring the warning. You're not supposed to speed. Everyone speeds and no one seems to ever get caught. Can't really be mad if you speed though and are the unlucky one to get caught. Not a one-to-one example, but the warnings are there for a reason. Beside, isn't there usually a way to cancel the update before just shutting the system off? Or just show some patience and let it finish updating. It's not like a computer that you likely have a dozen other things you can do o it. Do feel bad for those who now have shiny new bricks, but like I said, ignoring warnings is a gamble you take at your own risk.[/citation]
What if your power goes out dummy...
 

memadmax

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Proper way of this?
First small update to fix update unproper shutdown recovery.
Then, instead of one big ass update, break it down into smaller pieces.
Wash rinse repeat
 

darkavenger123

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5GB update??? Somehow, i suspect this not to be correct....even major PC Windows update doesn't eats up that size....does the WII U even have the resources (enough RAM and disk space) to handle such massive update. Heck, i doubt even the entire OS has 5GB as console OS are pretty streamlined and bare minimal. Anyway, it's not like i am going to buy a Nintendo anytime soon...so not my problem. :p
 

boju

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This is very uneconomical and considering the update is of 5gb, seems to me this was planned for sometime.

Console just being released with such a pathetically large update straight off the bat is a tone of bullshit.
 

leandrodafontoura

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[citation][nom]s3anister[/nom]Didn't even know it was out. Oh well, I still don't care; just another underpowered console.[/citation]

I dont think you are aware of the situation. Wii is the current generation champion, selling more thatn PS3 and xbox 360. The Wii U is an upadted consloe giving 1080P graphics. Wii is awesome
 

kellybean

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I miss the good old days of the Nintendo, plug it in plug in a game and it just worked, no updates no advertisements built into the OS.
 
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