(Bricked?) Wii U After Memory Error

CobbleWalker · February 17, 2016

I made many attempts to covert my 4 brothers to the master race, however it was all for not. My parents *cough* I mean Santa *cough* bought my brothers a Wii U with which they mostly played Super Smash Brothers. Yesterday, before leaving home, I noticed a "Memory Error" screen being displayed by the Wii U, almost like a BSOD. After trying to start it up today, nothing works, and it's stuck on the Wii U's equivalent to a BIOS screen. Is my bros device bricked, or is there somthing I can do? All the articles seem to lead me to the conclusion that the device is bricked

Thanks for the help,

CobbleWalker

NeoFrux · February 17, 2016

Sounds like a brick to me. Regardless as to whether the memory error is RAM-related or flash-related, it's not user-serviceable. You'll likely have to ship the WiiU back to Nintendo for repairs. Is there a specific error code displayed? According to their site, Nintendo is apparently aware of an issue like this and is asking anyone with the specific error codes 160-0103 and 160-1710 to call them.

If, on the other hand, you're able to actually get the menu, then there may be hope. Indications that the issue can be caused by software overwriting save files are out there, and if you can get to any menu where you can choose a user, creating a new user may allow you to work around it. Check this Reddit thread for more info about that workaround (replace Smash Bros with whatever game was running prior to this happening if it wasn't Smash Bros, though by the sound of it, it's Smash Bros).