I have 2 Wiis at the moment, and their dvd drives won't read discs because of failed disc motors. Last night I broke the Wii down to the point of the drive, and broke that down as well. I figured I could check to see if voltage was going to the motor, but it wasn't wired as I thought it would be (with two leads, red and black). By the time I actually got to the motor assembly I had already broken some wires and things, so no big deal. I still have another Wii with a drive in the same condition. Does anyone have an idea of what could be causing the disc motors to fail?
I've never even heard of a wii drive motor failing, you having 2 that did seems strange. But for now we'll work on the assumption that the motors failed.
You said yourself that you couldnt get into the motor assembly without breaking things, so I think your best bet is to just buy a replacment DVD drive. The DVD drives arent region locked, so any drive will work on any wii from any region and the drive chipset dosent matter either. I dont think I'm allowed to post a direct link to it but ebay has them for a little over 100 USD if you look around.
Theres also this thread saying some dead drives can be fixed by bridging a fuse. Since you seem bent on destroying the drives anyway maybe give that a shot. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/554806
Dude I had one that turned on but the dvd drive would not work at all. I left it alone for like a year, and recently found a post where it talks about repairing fuses to fix your dvd drive. All you have to do is open it up like normal. The fuse that the post showed was fine on mine but I just got a metal screwdriver and touched on some of the fuses with the wii turned on. All of a sudden I touched one and my drive started to work. So I just got out my soldering iron. Got a teensy bit of flux and just put it over the fuse. My wii has worked no problems since then. Sucks that you had to mess one up if this actually works for you. Just google wii broken fuse and you should find more info on it. You really shouldn't do things like that before you have at least some idea of what you are doing.
cletoz, what part of your drive didn't work? Did it not accept disks, not read disks, etc? I actually did know what I was doing; sometimes you have to do things to get an idea of how everything works.
Either the motor's not getting power or the leads to the coils inside the motor mechanism are broken. The coil assembly is stationary, so the leads aren't broken from a detached motor casing. I found this out by inserting a disk, detaching the drive, and flipping it over. I spun the disk through the holes in the drive case.
Measure the coil of the motor, if its open c'ct then its cactus. If you have a few ohms I suggest power it with a DC power supply starting at 0 volts (limit current to 500mA) and slowly wind it up until it kicks in.
Or, if you can measure the voltage going to the motor drive, power it independantly and see if it works.
Well I still don't know what's causing it. The drive controller could be out; the chip that controls motor speed, I'm not sure. The rotor isn't locked because I can manually spin a disc just fine. I've narrowed it down to a couple of reasons:
-No power. The motor is functional but for some reason it's not getting power.
-Broken coil leads. The coil leads soldered to the motor board might be broken.
There is a ribbon cable that connects the drive board and the motor board. Does anyone know how this cable is wired? What leads do what, voltages, that sort of thing? I don't want to do a voltage test myself because I could short something out, if the motor is even getting power. I've heard that dropping your Wii can cause the drive to fail...
Originally posted by dailun:DVD drive motors are not FRUs (Field Replaceable Units).
You will most likely need to replace the drive. (if you can find one)
Hey...any help appreciated...
My DVD drive failed (wouldn't spin at all) i was going to replace complete drive but when i went on ebay first thing which came up was replacement motor and it said something like "...if your DVD drive wont spin just replace this..." (good seller great feedback)
So i bought it and replaced it no problem. The replacement part was identical to the original in appearnce/name etc.
Now when i insert disc it makes all the right noises and spins but wont read (original) disc??
You say they are not replacable, should i give up and replace drive or may i have screwed something up replacing it?
Thanks for any suggestions..
