Nintendo Wii Drive Board Fuse Replacement

Die Abdeckungen sind geklebt, stecken also nicht.

Don’t mistakenly remove the rubber case feet

Thanks I almost removed the rubber feet

Before you start, get a small plastic tray with at least 15 small bins in it, and put the screws you take out in each step in the bins in order. It makes reassembly a LOT easier.

NOTE: You need a Y1 screwdriver. Be careful when buying the little red screwdrivers on Amazon that claim to fit the Wii - they don’t!! From personal experience.

Just to add to Robotai’s comment, if you do get the little red/orange screwdrivers on Amazon, file off the tip. It if’s mostly blunt, it fits the tri-wing screws much better.

1/16 x 1 craftsman Phillips mini screwdriver works for this if you don’t have the tri-wing driver

How do you make one ? If you don’t have the screwdriver

I am using a 18ct empty egg carton to hold the screws/parts removed in the steps.

All of the rubber feet on my very old Wii had literally melted into a gooey mess and just needed to be scraper off and cleaned with alcohol.

please help! my lil sis got a disc stuck in my wii while it was off!!! please help fast!!!

surprisingly, this was the trickiest step for me. I almost completely mangled the wires when my tweezers slipped as I was attempting to remove the connector.

I ended up using needle nose pliars on this step.

Awesome detailed guide made this very easy, thank you author!

Can someone direct me to what I need to do? My tweezers slipped and I cut one of the wires on the connector. Where can I find a new Y plug for the wii?

I also broke my wire trying to use tweezers. I should have known better. I use (normally do) a spudger on one side and my fingernail on the other to gently pry these types of connectors out. I ended up buying a replacement faceplate on ebay.

I also broke off the flimsy wires at the connector. To NOT break the wires, alternate pressing on the right and left sides of the connector with a small flathead screwdriver. Be patient, it will eventually work itself free. There isn't enough to grab onto with the tweezers and you'll only succeed in having them slip off, grab the wires, and yank the wires out.

Good news is that if you do rip out the wires, no worries... I didn't reconnect them and the unit works just fine. I have no idea what those wires are even for. Power LED continues to work no problem.

I used two small flat head screw drivers, one on each side to pry out the connector. This created less pressure from me and reduced my chance of cutting the wires.

This guide is really marvellous - works a treat. But I would definitely recommend needle nose pliers for this step rather than tweezers. It's really easy if you use pliers and potentially damaging if not, and you get it wrong. I had one sniff at it with tweezers then immediate nipped out to the garage for my pliers!

Definitely a tricky step with that connector. I also cut broke the wire accidentally and was going to just give up trying to fix the Wii. However, as others stated the Wii works just fine, including the lights. I do wonder what those wire are for.

I also had a lot of trouble trying to get the connector off with tweezers. Ended up leaving it attached. It does not really get in the way of remaining steps.

Needlenose pliers did the trick for us!

Needlenose pliers did it for us!

You can save yourself some trouble at this point and skip the rest of the disassembly: See that green tab to the left of the sd card slot? THAT’S the wifi board (and that green tab, in hindsight, seems designed to make it accessible without taking apart the whole device, don’t you think?) A little careful spudging, and you’ve got it out, ready to replace! (There’s a guy who shows the process on youtube, if you want to review first)

I got the connector out ok thanks to the suggestions here, but I couldn’t figure out how to reattach it. In the end, I just kind of threw it in and it worked fine.

Very clear instructions - thanks! Faceplate needed replacing after one of my son’s friends accidentally kicked it across the room. $10 bucks to fix, thanks to ebay and these instructions. I’d never heard of a “tri-wing” screw before.

I just left the connector alone and kept it connected while working on it. There is enough wire to allow you to do what you need if you are just careful not to snag it on anything.

This was the trickiest part, I almost broke the wires using tweezers and pliers, so instead use a flat end screwdriver to pry it out, when putting it back in use needlenose pliers to start it then use your fingernail to go the rest of the way.

had a little trouble with theses screws. they were just barely too deep for my 54pies bit driver kit to reach. I ended up inserting a small wad of paper into the shaft of my driver so the tri-wing bit stuck out far enough to engage the screw. (I used the tweezers to remove the paper when I was done) :)

Thank you rbelknap, this is excellent advice for those using the ifixit branded driver.

You could also use the 4mm nut driver in the iFixit kit to turn the tri-wing driver. This will give you a little more reach.

This paper wad trick totally worked for me too!

Standard Tri-Wing bits will NOT fit into the holes. Make sure that you get one of the tool kits from iFixit (I just ordered the Mako Driver/Bit kit with 64 bits ) - the Tri-Wing bits in this kit have a narrow shaft that allows it to reach deep into narrow holes like these on the Wii . (Disclaimer - I have no association with iFixit).

This step could use at least another picture from the backside so it's clearer what comes up and what stays down.

I used a spudger around the edges of the outer case to gently ease it upward since I could not lift it out with my fingers. Then it came right out.

hey marko that really helped me thanks\. als if you need help figuring which side is up, its the one with the nintendo engraving on it

A fan filter fell out at this step how do you put it back?

Edit: I figured it out it was from the side intake vent. Just line up the two notches with the pegs in the case to hold it in place

The screw on the battery door of my Wii required a Phillips #000 screwdriver, which is not listed in the required tools.

Note - this screw is a machine screw (e.g. not self-tapping). It screws into a hex nut, and that nut is captive in a slot in the case. When reassembling, ensure that this hex nut is still captive, and has not migrated out to other areas within the Wii.

For the two screws at the front of the chassis, use a three-pronged parts retriever to lift them out after you unscrew them.

Helpful tip: Use a magnetized screwdriver for the 2 screws nearest the DVD face because they are set in deep sockets

Another method for getting the front screws back in is to insert a small pair of tweezers through the DVD slot to guide the screw in. I just dropped the screw in between the tweezers which held the screw just above the hole. Then I was able to use the phillips screwdriver to guide the screw into the hole and screw it in. Done in just a few seconds.

Another option would be to stick a dab of hot glue on the screw to your screwdriver and then when the screw has been driven home either the glue stays on the driver and is easily removed or it stays on the screw and you just pull it off with tweezers or needle nose pliers.

The screwdriver provided in the kit by ifixit is a magnetized screwdriver and works perfectly!

If you are disassembling your Wii because, say, a two-year-old has shovelled pennies into it (yes, that was me) you will also need to partially disassemble the drive itself, which is not covered in this guide. Luckily it's really easy. Unscrew the 4-5 larger Philips/cross head screws on the top of the frame (NOT any of the smaller darker ones) around the edges, and the frame on top of the drive will lift right off. Be careful as there is cabling running to it, so don't yank it or pull it too far off. You will now be able to get any coins or other foreign objects out.

I didn't have a magnetic screwdriver, so I applied a tiny amount of fabric glue to the head of each screw, waited a minute for it to start to harden, inserted my non-mag screwdriver into the screw head, and the screw stuck to the screwdriver long enough to insert it into the hole.

Be advised that the posts that these screws go into are very fragile and may even break. Make sure to get the little plastic pieces out if you over tighten them or they are just brittle and broken to begin with. The screws seem to be long enough to work if you do break the posts off completely.

Be careful with these screws - they seem to be quite malleable and easy to strip.

When reversing these steps to reassemble the Wii, at this point it is possible to do a quick test before screwing the drive to the case. This will save you a lot of time if something is wrong.

Don't touch anything you don't have to while the case is off.

Carefully plug the power cable into the back of the Wii, then use a screwdriver to gently press the white button next to the glowing yellow LED on the front. You should hear the DVD drive power up and whir. Then press the white button again, wait for the yellow light to come back, and unplug the Wii.

If you didn't hear the drive start up, most likely one of the two ribbons isn't connected to the drive correctly. Doublecheck the previous 3 steps.

When reversing this step, make sure the ribbon is all the way in. For some reason I found positioning it with my replacement drive was much harder than with my old drive. The gentlest tug after lowering the brown clip would show that the ribbon was not actually being held tightly. I thought for a while that the clip itself was broken, but eventually I got it to hold the ribbon correctly.

Be careful with this step. I too had difficulty re-inserting the ribbon. I even popped off the brown clip and thought I broke it. Thankfully it snapped back into place.

It is difficult to tell, but be aware that the brown piece is the retaining flap, not the light piece , which is the actual socket.

I had to use Kapton tape. I couldn’t get the clip back on.

This was the trickiest step for me. Take note of how the ribbon is configured before you loosen the clip to help you replace it with confidence in the right way.

My drive is similar but doesn't look like this so I don't know how to find the microscopic fuses

How do you measure across the fuse? Does the fuse need to be removed from the circuit board? Is there a special continuity meter that needs to be used? The fuses are so small it’s hard to tell what needs to be done. Any specifics or a video would be helpful. Thanks, I’m new to this kind of fix.