Hardware Possibly Shorted Wii U

[icandoodle]

my wii u has been disassembled before, as the disc drive was damaged after a couple of years of inactivity. i was unable to procure a new one, so i attempted to disassemble the disc drive to see any faults with it. fast forward 2 weeks and i gave up. (i then proceeded to not remember how to reassemble it, so i kept the bare minimum parts for it to connect to the system and let it work. fast forward again 2 years and i decide to pull it out again and softmod it. (the face of the system got lost somehow so i can only use the gamepad to power it on.) i finish the process, and then set down the gamepad. i then accidentally stepped on one of the components of the disc drive that was sticking out of the front, and it disconnected the ribbon cable. system does basic protocol and says that there's a problem with the disc drive. i then made the absolutely abysmal decision to pull the power cord instead of turning the system off. now it wont power on again. i've tried unplugging and waiting 2 minutes, switching outlet ports, and neither of those have worked. TL;DR: My disc drive disconnected and i unplugged the system instead of turning it off, now it won't power back on. is my AC adapter shorted or my system?

update one: found the face to the system, so now i'll have a visual indicator of if it's receiving power.

 

[QuarkTheAwesome]

I would try disconnecting the optical drive, it should at least boot enough to give you the "problem with the disc drive" error.
I um, "found out" recently that the Wii U *does* seem to have some sort of anti-short protection on some of the power lines going to the disc drive - it shuts down immediately, a bit like ATX power supplies. When that's triggered, the power LED blinks red.
Unplugging is unlikely to cause an issue like this, especially if it was displaying an error at the time - the system has basically shut down by that point anyway.
Re: procuring a new drive, note that they are keyed to the console, so you'll wanna keep the PCB for your old one. We could probably re-pair the consoles to new drives if there was any way to know what the key was for the random drives you can get on eBay...
What kind of softmod did you end up with, and does it coldboot?

 

[icandoodle]

I would try disconnecting the optical drive, it should at least boot enough to give you the "problem with the disc drive" error.
I um, "found out" recently that the Wii U *does* seem to have some sort of anti-short protection on some of the power lines going to the disc drive - it shuts down immediately, a bit like ATX power supplies. When that's triggered, the power LED blinks red.
Unplugging is unlikely to cause an issue like this, especially if it was displaying an error at the time - the system has basically shut down by that point anyway.
Re: procuring a new drive, note that they are keyed to the console, so you'll wanna keep the PCB for your old one. We could probably re-pair the consoles to new drives if there was any way to know what the key was for the random drives you can get on eBay...
What kind of softmod did you end up with, and does it coldboot?

i used the tiramisu method for softmodding, and what exactly do you mean by coldbooting? i apologize im a bit inexperienced with wiiu stuff lol

 

[BaamAlex]

and what exactly do you mean by coldbooting?

Is that so "unknown" for you? Coldbooting means, you have a cfw "activated" directly after turning on the console.

 

[shefben]

Im going to take a guess here and say that the wii u and 3ds hardware are 'similar'. with the 3ds, if something was missing or not connected or shorted; the system either: a.) didnt turn on; b.) turned on then off within 2-4 seconds.

if you have a multimeter you could always test from where the power comes in (just to make sure the power cord/supply is not damaged) then test the pins where the front panel led is supposed to be plugged in, You could also short which ever pins are used to connect the front plate power button in order to turn on the system without the button.

 

[icandoodle]

I would try disconnecting the optical drive, it should at least boot enough to give you the "problem with the disc drive" error.
I um, "found out" recently that the Wii U *does* seem to have some sort of anti-short protection on some of the power lines going to the disc drive - it shuts down immediately, a bit like ATX power supplies. When that's triggered, the power LED blinks red.
Unplugging is unlikely to cause an issue like this, especially if it was displaying an error at the time - the system has basically shut down by that point anyway.
Re: procuring a new drive, note that they are keyed to the console, so you'll wanna keep the PCB for your old one. We could probably re-pair the consoles to new drives if there was any way to know what the key was for the random drives you can get on eBay...
What kind of softmod did you end up with, and does it coldboot?

I plan to purchase a console on eBay (FPoR), replace the motherboard with mine and do the same with the disc drive because my system’s pretty dinged up anyway. (also yes my system does coldboot)

 

[icandoodle]

Im going to take a guess here and say that the wii u and 3ds hardware are 'similar'. with the 3ds, if something was missing or not connected or shorted; the system either: a.) didnt turn on; b.) turned on then off within 2-4 seconds.

if you have a multimeter you could always test from where the power comes in (just to make sure the power cord/supply is not damaged) then test the pins where the front panel led is supposed to be plugged in, You could also short which ever pins are used to connect the front plate power button in order to turn on the system without the button.

thanks for the advice, I’ll go to a hardware store and get a good multimeter.

 

[icandoodle]

update: it wasn’t the AC adapter, as i borrowed a friend’s and nothing changed. I do possibly have a lead though, I think the fuse may have blown (as indicated by the blackness surrounding it)

 

[BaamAlex]

(as indicated by the blackness surrounding it)

I don't see anything...

 

[NinStar]

update: it wasn’t the AC adapter, as i borrowed a friend’s and nothing changed. I do possibly have a lead though, I think the fuse may have blown (as indicated by the blackness surrounding it)

Why are the AC and sensor connectors black? Did you replace them?

 

[xoINARIox]

Why are the AC and sensor connectors black? Did you replace them?

A black power socket usually indicates it’s a later-made Wii U. For example, the Mario Kart 8 bundle from 2014 with the game pre-installed, had a Wii U with a black power socket.

 

[icandoodle]

I don't see anything...

the fuse right here, the grayish things around it are typically gold

 

[BaamAlex]

That's solder. Not golden.

 

[icandoodle]

That's solder. Not golden.

I can’t find any closeup images of it but this fuse is definitely gold/far more shiny than mine

 

[icandoodle]

I’m aware that it’s soldered on but the 2 connection points (which are typically gold-colored) are completely blacked out which makes me think it’s blown

edit: found an image of similar/possibly identical fuses

Edit 2: after using my brain I saw that the Wii U’s power supply uses a lf10a fuse, I’m going to get a bunch and replace the one already there to see if it fixes anything