Wii Broke It

Our first Wii didn't survive being cracked open for a photo shoot, so we went ahead and finished the job. See our full disassembly photos
By John Mahoney Posted 11.18.2006 at 6:04 pm 84 Comments
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Wiitopsy_ss_15It is with a heavy heart that we bring you this special weekend report. When PopSci's Wii arrived last week, it didn't spend too much time in the box. Ripped open without any hesitation, our little Wii gave us a long Friday's worth of furious Wii Sports and Excite Truck action at PopSci HQ. But then, it was time for it to go off to a photo shoot, where its fate would be sealed.

The plan was simple: carefully disassemble the little white box and controllers for a detailed inside look, then re-assemble it with ease and get back to where we left off, working up a sweat bludgeoning our little cartoon selves in Wii Sports Boxing. But the Wii proved to be one tough nut to crack. Due to Nintendo's special proprietary screws, we had to resort to brute force. And in the process of doing so, our precious white beacon of joy was rendered unplayable, forever.

But in the interest of making the best of a decidedly horrific situation, we figured it best to finish the job with a full, heart-wrenching disassembly. Here we bring you a visual record of our Wii's autopsy— put on your recording of bagpipes playing "Taps," get out your hankies, and click here to launch the gallery. Sniff. —John Mahoney

84 Comments

Comments

Josh (imported)
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 11/18/06 at 7:06 pm

You know, you *can* buy those screwdrivers for about $8 - if you know where to look.

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Nick (imported)
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 11/18/06 at 8:05 pm

I can't believe you didn't know that you should have stopped taking it apart when the screws weren't coming off easily.

That's the most idiotic way to waste a high amount of money, when you could go buy a cheap screwdriver to fix it.

Pathetic.

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anonymous (imp...
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 11/18/06 at 8:08 pm

why is it rendered useless? couldn't you just run it open-cased?

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INAFAN (imported)
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 11/18/06 at 8:58 pm

ISTED AND ANDY!

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neutrino (imported)
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 11/18/06 at 8:59 pm

is there anyway that i can get the piece that you destroyed it into i will take them off of your hands if you do not want them.

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Some Other Guy...
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 11/18/06 at 9:59 pm

I'm to pay to subscribe to PopSci, and it can't properly disassemble an electronic device without completely destroying it?

Shame on you, get some real technicians. I'll be looking to a real technical site like hackaday for my disassembly, in the future.

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Nick (imported)
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 11/18/06 at 10:53 pm

I'm sorry for being a total moron. I was being a pathetic emo fuck earlier and I want to apologize for my idiocy.

Please accept the apologies of this pathetic internet thug. :(

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lolnintendo (i...
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 11/18/06 at 10:59 pm

That looks like a nice 25 dollars worth of technology right there.

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jwigum (imported)
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 11/18/06 at 11:02 pm

I still don't see what the fatal mistake was. A "broken" ribbon cable or connector? Replace it...

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randy the sach...
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 11/18/06 at 11:36 pm

what the hell makes adam the skinner so damn special that he gets some of j.r.'s bar-b-que sause before me.... i am still very very upset aboot that

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