I don't know how many people on this site actually own a Wii U and have also had this problem, but I couldn't find anything useful anywhere else through google so KHV is my next best option. tl;dr version of my explanation after the following paragraph. I got my Wii U a little over a year ago, around Christmas time. During the first year, everything worked as expected (when the console was actually being used). However, just recently (about a month or two ago at most), I noticed that whenever the Wii U would be on for more than maybe 45 minutes to an hour, it would suddenly shut itself off. The power light on the front would be blinking red, and the console itself would be warmer than it should be, sometimes even really hot. After looking into what was going on, I found out that the fan located in the back of the console wasn't spinning when the Wii U was turned on, which explained the overheating. I know the fan isn't stuck, as I've manually (and carefully) spun the fan blades myself to check. tl;dr: My Wii U's fan stopped working and it makes the console overheat. Obviously the first solution one would think of would be to send it in for repairs, which I would be more than happy to do if this issue hadn't started just after my warranty ended. Has anyone else had this issue, and if so do you know of a less wallet-draining solution? I'd rather not pay $175 for Nintendo to repair it, but I will if there's no other solution.
You should try googling again / asking around to see if there' s a local repairer in your area. There' s one in the street across mine. His shop sells IT stuff, but he was already doing it back when the place was just a cyber coffee. There was always a couple PS3 lying around with their chips exposed. I asked him how much he' d charge to fix or replace a PS3 disc reading block, he said around 80/90 euros if he had to replace it, which I assume is cheaper than what Sony would charge.
Funny you should mention that. I was completely oblivious to it, but it turns out that as I was typing up this thread my dad was looking for some repairers around our area. He found a couple that had really good reviews online, so we'll be checking into them. Thank you for the response, though. I guess this could be considered a solved problem? We don't know with 100% certainty that these places are what we're looking for in terms of service quality and whatnot, so I guess this thread could be left open for now. At least until we decide on a place and have the console worked on. I'll let a mod be the judge of that, I guess.
It's quite possible the fan is unplugged from the mobo in some way, or otherwise dysfunctional. I'd recommend what Patman has said: see if there are any computer repair shops nearby who are willing to take a look. Obviously consoles differ from computers but a background in the former may help them troubleshoot, and they probably shouldn't charge you if they can't fix it. It would probably be a cheaper route than sending it to Nintendo. You could also try looking at some YouTube videos / teardowns of the Wii U if you want to attempt to fix it yourself, but if you're not very tech savvy that might be daunting.
