Wii Remotes not being picked up

Icemopper

So this has been a complaint of many, and I would've posted in the Wii thread but it no longer exists so:

Does anybody have a good solution to a Wii remote no longer working/being picked up by the console? I was playing Trauma Center fine last night, put in Red Steel for some killing goodness, and thats when the controller stopped working. I've tried syncing, turning everything off for a while (since last night) and changing batteries...

any suggestions?

Nswyers

Well this isn't what you want to hear, but the same thing happened to me, concluding in a returned Wii.

When I first bought my Wii on launch day I brought it home and hooked it up, only to have trouble syncing the remote. The manual explained that the remote should be automatically synced already, but I tried syncing anyway since it wasn't working. I then tried the second remote I purchased, thinking the included remote was borked. No luck.

I got the remotes working maybe twice for several seconds, then they stopped working. What would happen is whenever you push a button on the remote, the 4 LEDs flash on and off for a while and then shutoff. Syncing is impossible. I relunctanly returned the console to the store and got one the following week on the next shipment (after some complaining I was able to reserve one).

Now, my new Wii works perfectly but I had a bit of a scare when the forecast channel came out. When I updated and launched the new channel it asked me to confirm the time/date of my system. I went to press the big OK button and realized my remote wasn't synced. Uh oh! Same problem with my first wii, but this was weeks later! I tried both remotes, tried turning off, etc etc etc. All the things you explained. NOTHING worked. Finally, in desperation I unplugged everything from the Wii and plugged it back in. For some reason, that worked.

If you can't get anything to work, I suggest calling Nintendo. My assumption here is that the bluetooth receiver in your console has taken a dive and you've gotta send it in for repair or simply return it to the store if thats possible. (You'd be surprised how long holiday return policies are at most stores. "Yes sir, I got this as a Christmas gift and it doesn't work.")

Veevee

Icemopper wrote:

So this has been a complaint of many, and I would've posted in the Wii thread but it no longer exists so:

Does anybody have a good solution to a Wii remote no longer working/being picked up by the console? I was playing Trauma Center fine last night, put in Red Steel for some killing goodness, and thats when the controller stopped working. I've tried syncing, turning everything off for a while (since last night) and changing batteries...

any suggestions?

Happens to me occasionally. First I try resynching, then I try taking the batteries out and putting them back in. If those fail I get off my ass and hold the power button on the Wii and then turn it back on by the remote and it has worked fine for me after that.

Icemopper

Wow, it just randomly out of nowhere started working.

This is crazy. Scared the crap out of me.

Phew!

Mr_Grinch

Ok, it's working now, but if it does it again I've found:

1) Power off everything, leave off for ten seconds.
2) Power on console
3) Flip down the little panel on the front
4) Hit the red sync button
5) Turn on the controller, take off the battery cover, hit the sync button
6) Cross fingers.

Tends to work

peterdevore

WiFi and Bluetooth work on about the same radio frequencies. Especially for syncing, bluetooth needs a good signal. It might be an idea to switch off all nearby WiFi and bluetooth devices (routers, laptops, PDAs, telephones), just for syncing with the remote.

This holds for a lot of (non bluetooth) wireless keyboards and mice as well. If my dad is using wifi on his laptop, it decimates the range of the wireless keyboard we got set up, which kinda sucks.

xzzy

peterdevore wrote:

WiFi and Bluetooth work on about the same radio frequencies. Especially for syncing, bluetooth needs a good signal. It might be an idea to switch off all nearby WiFi and bluetooth devices (routers, laptops, PDAs, telephones), just for syncing with the remote.

That's kind of at odds with the Wii's "always on" wifi connection. Like hell I'm gonna shut down anything in my house just to get my wireless controller to work.

I got this glitch once the other day, after a week vacation I come home and the Wii didn't want to recognize either of my controllers. Couldn't even get the four flashing blue lights on the wiimotes.

After about 10 minutes of randomly pulling batteries and pressing the sync button, everything started working. I still couldn't tell you what I did to fix it, except maybe utter a few curses.

PikaPuff

When you take out the batteries, make sure you leave them out for a long enough time for it to actually make a difference (5-10 Seconds). Maybe hit a few buttons to ensure the charge is gone.

Heir

I suddenly just started getting this problem in Madden '07 a couple of days ago. It'll work, but when I point the controller away from the screen and then move back onto the screen, the pointer will only stay in the corners.

If I wave around my wiimote a bunch it tends to fix it. It may just be a low battery though.

LavaKnight

It happened to me, too. The wiimote took advantage of me. It was so horrible.

But yeah, it has happened to a lot of people, but in most cases doing a combination of the advice above fixes the problem. I just waited a few hours and voila! It's kind of troubling, but nothing to return your system over.

Tal

Had the same thing happen to me the other day.

I thought it was just that the batteries were low, so I replaced those. No luck.

Tried to re-sync. No luck.

Tried turning the power off / on, re-syncing. No luck.

Started to pray (it's my roommate's wii and he was still out of town for the holidays)

The re-sync finally worked when I ejected the game disc and powered off / on. I don't know if that's how it need to be done all the time, but it worked.

Nswyers

All of these crazy methods to fix the problem, yet none seem to make full sense or are 100% accurate. It sounds like this is the Wii's version of blowing into the cartridge.

El Viento

Pulling the power cord out the back, waiting 30 seconds or so, reconnecting then resyncing has worked for me so far when it's done this.

Gino

I've only had my remote lose sync once and I just resynced and everything worked.

xzzy

Nswyers wrote:

All of these crazy methods to fix the problem, yet none seem to make full sense or are 100% accurate. It sounds like this is the Wii's version of blowing into the cartridge.

You know that scene in UHF when the guy shakes the ant farm? I bet that's what the Nintendo hardware engineers are doing.

"They reeeeeely hate it when you do this!"

Except in Nintendo's case, they put impossible to isolate hardware flaws into their consoles that trigger at random intervals.

Couple weeks ago, my GF's DS got "stuck". The touch screen was convinced the stylus was pressed at some point about two inches below and to the right of the screen, and caused real touches to work intermittently (the problem was isolated in pictochat, tapping would result in lines extending towards the bottom right of the screen).

Couldn't figure out WTF had happened with it, hadn't been dropped, abused, anything. After about 10 minutes of fucking with it it started working again. DS has been fine since.

Nswyers

xzzy wrote:

Nswyers wrote:

All of these crazy methods to fix the problem, yet none seem to make full sense or are 100% accurate. It sounds like this is the Wii's version of blowing into the cartridge.

You know that scene in UHF when the guy shakes the ant farm? I bet that's what the Nintendo hardware engineers are doing.

"They reeeeeely hate it when you do this!"

Except in Nintendo's case, they put impossible to isolate hardware flaws into their consoles that trigger at random intervals.

Couple weeks ago, my GF's DS got "stuck". The touch screen was convinced the stylus was pressed at some point about two inches below and to the right of the screen, and caused real touches to work intermittently (the problem was isolated in pictochat, tapping would result in lines extending towards the bottom right of the screen).

Couldn't figure out WTF had happened with it, hadn't been dropped, abused, anything. After about 10 minutes of fucking with it it started working again. DS has been fine since.

I just hope these are all isolated incidents and not signs of slowly escalating problems. If so, it might be wise for everyone to ship out their wiis for repair on day 179 of their warranty :P

peterdevore

xzzy wrote:

peterdevore wrote:

WiFi and Bluetooth work on about the same radio frequencies. Especially for syncing, bluetooth needs a good signal. It might be an idea to switch off all nearby WiFi and bluetooth devices (routers, laptops, PDAs, telephones), just for syncing with the remote.

That's kind of at odds with the Wii's "always on" wifi connection. Like hell I'm gonna shut down anything in my house just to get my wireless controller to work.

I'm sure they timed it inside the Wii like such that it doesn't interfere with each other, but other devices have no such discretion of course. You'd probably only have to turn the interfering devices off for the syncing part, since that needs a strong signal. Putting the remote right next to your Wii :winky: might help as well.

Although, reading what other people said about it, it sounds more like it's caused by a hardware hiccup on the Wii's part than by interference.

Darlan

Nswyers wrote:

xzzy wrote:

Nswyers wrote:

All of these crazy methods to fix the problem, yet none seem to make full sense or are 100% accurate. It sounds like this is the Wii's version of blowing into the cartridge.

You know that scene in UHF when the guy shakes the ant farm? I bet that's what the Nintendo hardware engineers are doing.

"They reeeeeely hate it when you do this!"

Except in Nintendo's case, they put impossible to isolate hardware flaws into their consoles that trigger at random intervals.

Couple weeks ago, my GF's DS got "stuck". The touch screen was convinced the stylus was pressed at some point about two inches below and to the right of the screen, and caused real touches to work intermittently (the problem was isolated in pictochat, tapping would result in lines extending towards the bottom right of the screen).

Couldn't figure out WTF had happened with it, hadn't been dropped, abused, anything. After about 10 minutes of fucking with it it started working again. DS has been fine since.

I just hope these are all isolated incidents and not signs of slowly escalating problems. If so, it might be wise for everyone to ship out their wiis for repair on day 179 of their warranty :P

"It like...tripped and fell on a bullet."

apotheos

I had difficulty taking 3 of my wiimotes over to a friends wii, however they re-synced back at home just fine - except player 1. I had to reseat the batteries for it to sync.

Delzhand

I had a similar problem - the 4 lights flashed as if it didn't recognize that the console was on. I have WiiConnect 24 turned on, so in order to fully power down I had to unplug it. When I plugged the power back in it worked fine.