Last night before going to bed, I went to recharge the batteries to the Wii Fit Plus board by plugging it into the USB port on the back of the Wii.  When I did, I heard a sort of sizzling noise coming from the long surge protector strip.  It wasn’t completely plugged into the electrical outlet and when I moved the Nintendo Wii equipment around, it moved the cords and I guess it caused a small power surge – a couple of times.

When I got everything settled, the Wii was not on.  I worked with it for 30 minutes and could not get it to come back on.  Upon waking this morning, the first thing my daughter wants to do is play the Wii.  I tried again, no luck.  By all appearances, the brand new Wii was dead.  I thought of everything and tried everything but nothing worked.

I decided to unplug everything from the system and take it in for repair.  It remained unplugged for a couple of hours.  Just before I got ready to take it to have it looked at, I tried plugging it in one more time just in case I missed something.  Shazaaam!   It suddenly worked.   Apparently, the box attached to the power cord has some sort of internal surge protector that turns off the unit if a power surge is suspected.  By unplugging it and leaving it off for a time, the unit is reset.

Whew!  Problem solved.  I just knew I was going to be out an arm and a leg on a new Wii unit since our family can’t live without it now.  However, once again, it’s Mommy to the rescue.  Now, let’s go bowling!

Step by step instructions to repair a “dead” Wii

1. Unplug all of the cords from your Wii unit
2. Allow it to sit for at least a couple of hours
3. Plug the cord into the wall first
4. Then plug the power cord into the back of your Wii
5. Plug in the other cords

If this doesn’t work for you, then you probably have bigger problems and should call Nintendo support at (800) 255-3700.