Shutting Off Wii U During Massive Update Bricks Console

Though the Wii U's only been out for mere days, owners are already reporting problems with bricking their console.

This issue's caused by turning off the Wii U during the middle of a massive update—reported 5 GB according to GTTV's Geoff Keighley—required to access all of the Wii U's online content. Considering that this update would take most anywhere from an hour to five hours to download, it's understandable as to why some users would apply the update, see that it's taking longer than expected to apply, and decide to ignore the warnings of not shutting off their console during an update. After all, shutting off most consoles during an update is usually harmless, since the changes can usually be rolled back and the update can be re-applied.

LA Times's Ben Fritz was apparently one of the victims of Wii U bricking. After shutting off his console in the middle of the massive update, he found that he was unable to reset or reverse the damage.

"So is there some secret way to hard reset a Wii U? Cause mine is totally busted," he tweeted.

"Warning: don't unplug your Wii U during the 2 hour plus software update or the console stops working," he added, later complaining that the Wii U never warns the user of the long update.

For now, it doesn't seem like there's a way to reverse the issue. According to Venturebeat, the issue isn't something that Nintendo can resolve remotely. Bricking your console means that you'll be forced to send it into Nintendo for repair.

So if you recently grabbed up the Wii U, but haven't applied the update just yet, be sure to apply the update when you're absolutely certain you won't shut off the console or lose power to the console. Otherwise, you may just end up with a glorified paperweight.

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