First Wii U brick reported; Massive firmware update size revealed

GV: The Wii U will brick if you shut it down during an ongoing firmware update.

[SonyNGP]

That's freakin' huge o_O

[decrypt]

Its not a problem i am sure you can hit the Del key when the system boots up, load the backup bios ... oh wait nvm.

[AsimLeonheart]

Nintendo needs to learn about the online component of consoles. You just cannot release a 5GB update out of nowhere without any kind of backup to restore the console in case of any mishap. Not everybody can download 5Gb within an hour. Many people will need a whole day and anything can happen between that time to brick the console.

[dee-ecks]

There is no del key stupid.

[bumnut]

^^^^^ Dumb ass!

[ShinMaster]

It's more expensive than the PS3 and 360 and at least 6 years late and still behind.

I will wait on a better model.

[Lazyeye79]

Ya its big and will this even fit on the 8gb model, I mean isn't over 4 gigs already used by the system or is this supposed to be part of that already used 4 gigs?

[MikeMyers]

Of course it will fit on all models.

These are the joys of a launch for a new system. I imagine the phone lines for customer service will be long and frustrating.

Hopefully there is a backup plan if your power gets disconnected or you accidentally unplug your device while it's trying to update the system.

I said before that it will be awhile before everything on the Wii U is running properly. That's one of the reasons why I'm waiting. Nintendo's inexperience when it comes to online gameplay and apps is already being reviewed. It's slow and not everything is functional just yet.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

the 8gb model is really 3gbs..

[Starbucks_Fan]

Yeah, it's pretty big ;)

[ajax17]

Fu*k you Geoff! Being able to download 5 gigs in an hour! God, I hate time warner's slow internet!

[NoFanboyRequired]

Time Warner isn't slow. its just the cheap internet package you have. They have over 50MB/s so i can assure you, its just your package. Of course i don't have them. i have Charter with a 30MB connection. Its beautiful ;)

[NegativeCreepWA]

My power went out in the middle of the update and bricked it. So I'm already on my second wii u. lol.

[andibandit]

What is the friend code to download this update?

[boybato]

First Wii U brick reported: Do not shutdown during firmware update - this is common knowledge!!!!

[Snookies12]

Yeah that's what I was about to say lol! Why the hell would anyone shut it down during an update?

[Smurf1]

There's a backup state usually. PS3 updates again when you reset it during a firmware update.

[G20WLY]

If only life was that simple; where I live powercuts are quite frequent and now I'm worried it might happen during firmware update and leave me with an expensive door stop :(

Thing is, it being a new system, there are bound to be a fair few updates coming in for the rest of the year.

[neogeo]

power outage?

[esemce]

No one probably but what if there is a power cut etc? I hope there is a way to initiate a system restore.

[sincitysir1]

lets hope nintendo doesnt have control over our power then ;]

[mechlord]

You see, most of the time this is said as a general rule and common sense, like "dont use cellphones in a thunderstorm"...

but what also is common sense is that any hw maker worth their salt would know that million things can happen and a fail-safe is needed;

for instance, its unbelievable the wii u will brick while DOWNLOADING the update... i mean, what is it doing? downloading and writing the pieces as it gets? the usual (and tried-and-true) way is to download the file,verify it and only then start doing the update. No matter how you slice it, this is a flawed design. Lets not touch the point of an UPDATE with 5bg...not even microsoft puts out updates this big to windows

[abzdine]

cause it takes 4 hours maybe and nobody wants to stare at the TV in that case or just that they didnt know how big the update is and they regret.

[camel_toad]

Just cross your fingers you aren't hit with a random power outage.

[G20WLY]

Sorry Camel_toad, I just wrote the same thing then saw your comment. A very real concern though, until we know of any in-buit fail safe/back up.

[pr0digyZA]

I think it becomes more of a problem if your power goes off, especially as it is such a big update (some people take more than 10 hours to do that amount).

[Slapshot82]

Yes, it is, but it shouldn't brick if something goes wrong during an update that can take over an hour to download/install.

[TurkishKIng]

Depends on how big the freakin´ FW is correct? 5GB is a Joke. Who wants to sit and download a firmware for hours instead of playing games?

[GraveLord]

Things happen. You can lose power or something, there should be back-up plans in case someone does turn it off. Not everyone has the time to download a 5gig update. Not everyone wants to send Nintendo their console for repairs.

Nintendo really messed up.

[Rayansaki]

So what? If the console becomes unusable if you shut it down during the update it's fucking retardedly engineered. It's never good to shut down during updates, but it's not 100% avoidable, anything from a power outage, to internet outage or download stalling at a certain % can force you to do so. Specially if the update is freakin 5GB :X

Playstation also tells you not to shutdown during firmware update, but if you do, it retries after you restart, and if all else fails you can simply reset it to factory settings.

This is really sad by nintendo, hope they fix it fast or it's gonna be a horde of angry customers all over the world.

[Dark_king]

Actually the ps3 originally had this issue also.Was fixed some time ago though.Flashing the bios is always a risk.

[silvacrest]

i doubt it is really common knowledge, think about who were the vast majority who bought the original wii

[fanboydestroyer]

You know, most people don't power down during an update because they are curious, many, like me, had a system that locked up during the update. My system became unresponsive when the connection was lost, I let it sit for over two hours and it remained frozen. At this point, there is no option but power down. A lot of you need to stop being condescending pricks, there are people that spent hundreds on hard earned dollars to sit and stare at a brick. Nintendo failed to build in a fail-safe, that is inexcusable.

[Intentions]

Ummm... No shit.

[Godchild1020]

Why would you shut down the system when its updating? Something wrong is bound to happen. Report a brick when something happen when you don't cause it yourself.

[bubblebeam]

Or if the power goes out? Or if someone else turns it off mistakenly? A rat nibbles on the power cord? A herd of elephants comes into your house and trips on the power cord? Or if a T-rex................

You get my point. Fact is, Nintendo is at fault either way. Who else is there to blame? (Please don't blame me).

[Kos-Mos]

Land of the free and sue everything even if it`s your own fault.

[Baka-akaB]

90% of those listed are the owner's fault then .

And the way people usually complain about console prices , you'd think they'd learn by now to at least invest into UPS units and surge protectors .

How often do you experience over an hour long power outage ?

[Shadowstar]

Baka-akaB : Are you really saying everyone should have consoles on a battery back-up system as standard practice? Seriously?

[WildStyles]

5GB? Is this real life?

[SonyNGP]

Is this just fantasy?

[WildStyles]

LOL

[PopRocks359]

Caught in a landslide

[VonBraunschweigg]

lala-lala reality.

[neoMAXMLC]

No escape from reality.

[FunAndGun]

-

[Irishguy95]

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

[majiebeast]

Open your eyes

[Deku-Johnny]

Look up to the skies and see

[FunAndGun]

I'm just a poor boy

[monkey nuts]

I need no sympathy_____

[Mikefizzled]

From a Poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

[ronin4life]

I see..
Console launches...do this to people....

[Brian1rr]

Lol most Wii Games are not even that big

[MegaLagann]

...Why would you turn the system off while it's updating?

[TheRealSpy]

Because you just waited in line til midnight to get something you want to play, only to discover that you have to wait 2 hours before you can even do the initial set-up.

I thought about stopping it and letting it update later. Glad I didn't now.

[Deku-Johnny]

But if you get it at midnight why not just set it up and leave it to download while you sleep for the night then get up in the morning and play it.

[TheUndertaker85]

...Because it's 5GB and not everybody has the patience to wait for 5GB to download?

You can replace the word patience with time if you want. There's lots of substitutions.

[Plagasx]

Lol, what if they forgot to turn off that "Auto shutdown" feature and it even shuts down if it's updating...

[J_Cob]

Good point. My friend has the slowest internet I've ever seen. Downloading 5gb takes him a day and a half. I'm pretty sure he's not the only person out there with that problem. That is unless the "Auto Shutdown" feature is automatically disabled when updating the firmware.

[CoLD FiRE]

I'm pretty sure such a feature will be disabled during an update... unelss Nintendo engineers are a bunch of idiots.

[izumo_lee]

Hope people have bought an external HDD before updating the system cause that 5GB really eats up most of that basic model 8GB system.

Funny cause it should be common knowledge that when a system is updating 'YOU DO NOT TURN OFF THE MACHINE!". The PC, PS3 warns the user not to turn off the system so i wonder if the dude ignored a similar warning on the Wii U or if the Wii U does not have a similar warning on screen.

[BitbyDeath]

Well apparently the 8gb model only has 3gb left so it might now even be able to get this update :-s

[izumo_lee]

Wait since an 8 GB model will have 3 GB left over is it possible that this 5 GB update was predetermined already cause if you do the math...

8GB - 5GB = 3GB O_O!

[jon1234]

yeah and usually the amount any system has for space isnt usually what you get, so an 8 gb system might be like a 7.xx gb, so there's like 2 gbs left !

[BitbyDeath]

True, you are probably right

[Rayansaki]

@izumo, the update was predetermined, it installs access to nintendo network.

Probably the system's operating system was not ready when the console went into mass production so they left it to update day 1.

[r21]

Oh, those poor 8Gig owners :C

[Pathosverdes3]

One does not simply unplug a WiiU during update.

Nintendo should have prepared for this kind of scenario, especially when the updates are this big.

[Summons75]

there is nothing in the world that can prepare for idiots doing stupid things....like unplugging a machine during an update.

[TheUndertaker85]

The other systems are prepared... And they're over six years old.

[BlmThug]

x'D Day one patch for a console

[Schawk]

Seems by this video the Auto Power-Down may be disabled by the console itself during update?

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[No_Pantaloons]

OK ppl, yea he shouldn't have turned it off, we all agree on that, can we move on now.

That really sucks for him and other potentials, for that large they should have included a disk with the firmware on it.
5gb is a lot, not everyone has super fast internet, and at the very least it takes your bandwidth.

[AusRogo]

Well no shit, isn't that just common sense not to do it?

[chukamachine]

Easy come Easy go.

[BananaEatingSquid]

5GB?! What the hell is going on?

I'm sitting here with my newly purchased Wii U and am not looking forward to any massive updates.... but I'm certainly not going to shut it down during said updates.

ZombiU here I come 8)

[Zechs34]

The biggest problem I see is with an update this size, what about people with no wifi or even Internet who buy this console? Are they stuck having to purchase a game and hope the 5gb update is crammed in there?

[fanboydestroyer]

If they don't have internet, they don't need the update, it's for internet features.

[claud3]

Nice size and they seem to be getting bigger. I have heard

[OneAboveAll]

The best they could do was release a console with 32gb max? I don't understand this trend?

[AzaziL]

especially when SSDs are going for a dollar a gig and sinking, makes no sense to me to even have a 8GB model.

[NYC_Gamer]

Well,it's common sense not to shut down the console while its updating...

[Nevers0ft]

Although the update is 5GB it doesn't appear to eat into the Wii's internal storage. RichIGN tweeted about it earlier:

"Rich ‏@RichIGN
So here's something interesting. Before the Day One update, Wii U said I had 25GB free. And then after: 25GB."

[kma2k]

any reports on niny download speeds from there network? For me the psn is capped at 1mbps just curious

[DeadPixel]

Think people need to rememeber how many problems the 360 had when it was first released, i went through 3 or 4 consoles in the first couple of years due to poor build quality and rushed production, ms even extended the warranty because of this. The ps3 is still riddled with problems to this day and struggles to handle most games, but yet it does well we need to give the wii u a fighting chance not slamming it from day one because of a few problems...

[monkey nuts]

Wait, so your the reason ms extended the warranty on the 360? I'd just like to say a heartfelt thank you from all the other 360 owners who benefitted from this, including me. Thanks blud.

[DeadPixel]

Your welcome.

[TheUndertaker85]

First couple of years and first day.

Do people really not see a difference? If your system is brickable from day one from such a minor problem, that's not reassurance for the future.

[mechlord]

DeadPixel, Im gonna be very civil and avoid any insults towards you while saying:

The 360 had build-quality related issues like overheating, spinning discs (yes, every disc spins, but you know what im talking about) and you say it yourself; The PS3 was never RIDDLED that word feels like youre saying the PS3 has/ had LOTS of hardware problems - which is downright a false claim. A simple measure of that would be the number of first gen PS3s vs first gen 360s vs first gen Wiis (if you decide to add the wii) and we can settle that the general consensus is that the ps3 had a better build quality;

The PS3 doesnt struggle to handle most games, you discredit yourself by making such clearly unfunded accusatory remarks (which almost everyone can spot righ on). Ive had problems playing Uncharted 3, as my PS3 is the OG 60GB model, cant finish it to this day, had troubles playing Skyrim but these are two separate problems but generally the PS3 has no more problem in handling games than the wii/360

The problem with the Wii U is that this behavior, that it bricks if, as the article ultimately says, power gets cut while its updating. You see, there are lots of pieces of hardware that update their firmware these days so Ninty had everywhere to look for inspiration or simply copycating...because, bricking a console WHILE YOURE DOWNLOADING (remember the firmware wasnt even being applied, its was still being downloaded) is just ridiculous. There is no need for us to defend an incorrect behavior on a console; Ninty got it wrong, period. It will sell, we re not slamming it, we joust found out Ninty committed a crime in doing this and obviously people cant understand why

[DeadPixel]

Mechlord, you're clearly a sony fan boy and can't read properly I never said the ps3 had hardware problems but it has had and still has software problems, with ports and problematic updates, a console launch will always have problems be it major ones or minor ones. Everyone should stop pissing and moaning about something they probably never intended to buy in the first place!!!

[fanboydestroyer]

Totally different, couple of years vs out the box...

[MadMen]

wiiU a failure out of the gate

[TemplarDante]

Iwata, I dont live in Japan. If my internet DC's or my router cuts out, are you saying Im basically F@%?%d?
Cuz.. I wouldnt mind if it was 500mb... but 5GB...?

[nikoado]

I'd speculate that you'll be able to continue your download if your internet connection drops out.

If you are installing the update, after the whole thing had downloaded, and THEN the console goes off, it'll probably brick.

Maybe Nintendo should have a backup state so that you can re-do the install when you turn the console back on.

Can anyone confirm if the download and install stages are separate, or does it install as it downloads?

[rainslacker]

Mine took about 90 minutes to download and then it had a separate install screen that took about another 20 minutes(speculating because I went to make dinner before it started).

[fanboydestroyer]

Nope, mine froze after the connection was lost with about %15 percent downloaded and never responded again.

[nikoado]

@ fanboydestroyer
That really sucks man.

If there really is no way to continue if you drop your internet connection, Nintendo should enable us to download the update on another storage device and then transfer over. That way you only have to worry about the power going out during an install.

I wonder if updates come on game discs like do with PS3?

[gpturbo81]

if router cuts out, download resumes from where it left off. download took 55 mins for me.

[nikoado]

Oh, that's good to know, thanks.

[auragenz]

Sounds more like Nintendo's problem when stores begin to be inundated with returns because there is no failsafe when updating system.

Users shouldn't have to live in fear of bricking their console if an act of god cuts out their power during an update, but I guess Nintendo figures this is what a receipt is for.

[Orionsangel]

Haha!

[Darkspade]

I just hope they Release a USB Version.. I'd rather download on PC then Wreck a Wii U

[TVippy]

Why on Earth can they not think of way for consoles to be able to restore FW when they've been shutdown during flashing? It's fucking easy and it's dumb not to do it.

[3GenGames]

It's because the tech is different. Xbox has the on board one, with a back up. I believe most do. But when you're talking 5GB, you will NOT cheaply be able to include that on the board and have a back up, just not easily doable for any reasonable price. You can do it with SD cards, but then loading the dash and features would take forever compared to a HDD. Could have had another hard drive in it that was small for it, but still it's more money. They don't want to have it cost more.

Besides, just HOW often does your power go out? Often? I hope not! It's such a rare occurance. And the excuses like random power outages (don't upgrade in a storm ffs!) and people tripping over the wires (don't upgrade around morons and have your coords loose!) are crap. Just don't be a moron and your system is fine.

[TVippy]

The FW itself is 256-512 megs max, it CAN'T be 5 gigs.

[3GenGames]

The download is 880MB and installs to 5GB. It is 5GB.

[bumnut]

How can a firmware update be almost twice the size of a windows 7 iso?

[lfclee]

Lucky i got fibre optic yeah lol .

[DA_SHREDDER]

I'm gonna wait for the WiiU to drop in price and have a storage bigger than 32 gigs for the standard issue. I can totally wait considering there isn't any must have software on the system yet. Sorry but a 2D mario game and Nintendo Land doesn't justify me buying the system.

[kesvalk]

lot's of errors on wii-u launch eh?

i still boogles me why they thought it was okay to release a 5gb firmware update...

did no one saw that and thought "hmmm, maybe this is a bad idea..."?

now it doesn't even have a backup state i case it have some problem in the middle of the update...

damn Nintendo, learn how to make a good on-line infra-structure already!

i was thinking on buying a wii-u because of the Digital sales of retail games, but if this is what we gonna get, then i think i will pass.

[gpturbo81]

another poof formin opinions without even having the console. pffft

[kesvalk]

So, you're saying that the update is not 5gb and it doesn't brick if it shut down at the middle of the update?

Stop being a sheep vomiting what other ppl say on other threads, i don't need a console to form opinions on the facts the news we have are reporting.

I prolly love nintendo more than you will ever do, and i really want a Wii-U, but i will not buy one until they fix all these absurd problems.

[tweet75]

nintendo should have just spread the update out over the next few weeks on several smaller updates.

[Voyevoda]

I love all the comments about not shutting down during an update lol. The whole situation with the update is outrageous though.

[Shnazzyone]

good thing nintendo has fantastic customer support

[Hicken]

Yeah, that really lets em off the hook.

[Shnazzyone]

Sure does for me. Have we determined if turning off a ps3 mid firmware update would result in the same effect yet? Wonder how sony would handle that by comparison.