Nintendo Wii Fanboy

I standby. In fact, I never even thought about it not doing it but now with your post, I am starting to question it myself. I mean, whats the point? If there is a system update I find it out online way before I even see the slot blue.

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Did you ever think that if the red light is on, then the system is still doing something? If you unplug the system, the light goes out, so with the red light on, the system is still on standby, just not connected to the internet.

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I leave my wii in standby but I've turned off the wii connect 24. It was sucking 30k of my bandwidth at any given time. I only have a 150k connection. I'm not worried about my wii bursting into flames. I leave my computer on 24/7. but I hate the loss of bandwidth with the wii connect. Anyone else experience this?

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What kind of question is this? Are there people out there that actually shut down the Wii completely? That is just retarded. So for people that shut it down, do you physically walk up to the Wii every time you're done with it and press the power button to shut it down? Do you same people also shut down your computer every time you're done with it? And if so, what's wrong with you?

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I personally have so little trust in my wii that I sleep with a shotgun next to my bed just in case it tries something.

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Sorry to sound like a treehugger, but remember you're burning electricity when your kit is on standby. You've got to pay for it, and it's got to be generated...

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I shut mine down, simply because my wife and I will play it maybe once or twice a day. So theres no need for us to leave it on and waste energy. And Loban are you seriously that lazy that you cant get up to turn on or off a console? Maybe youll think about paying your energy bill when you grow up and move out of your parents house, then stuff like this might make sense to you. Till then good luck.

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http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/standby.ars

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Standby mode makes sense. Power consumption is negligible while in standby. Boot up is faster from standby mode. I can get alerted that I have a new message while in standby mode. And hopeful Nintendo will create an automatic update mode that will allow the console to grab updates while in standby mode.

The only reason I shutdown my computer at night is because of the light and noise it makes, not the fact that it’s using power or connected to the Internet. The Wii makes no noise while in standby, so I have no problem with it.

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tards ... its obvious we need some new games now that we finished Zelda and got everyone and our grandmother to bowl ... the wattage needed to keep the average nic card running in "standby" is so miniscule that its physically impossible for it to generate the heat needed to cause a fire .. same goes for that clever LED enhanced by fiber optic wire ;)

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You can turn it off?

Yup, totally didn't know that...

I'm all for this standby thing, when Nintendo really gets the ball rolling on WiiConect24 and hopefully starts pumping me updates in my sleep, it's going to be awesome.

I just hope they get some multitasking though, I shouldn't have to sit there for the few minutes it takes to download a VC game, I'd understand not being able to play Wii games, but I should be able to serf the net, play VC games or use other channels while it's going.

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I just got my Wii yesterday, and I'm surprised how hot the thing stays when it's on standby. I'm not sure I trust it. I'm also upset that the thing refuses to read my Wii Sports disc, but I guess that's a different problem. At least the Wavebird support is pefect.

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I just started turning the power all the way off on mine. Yes, it doesn't use much power, but it still uses power. Updates never happen without me knowing about it elsewhere first (and Nintendo doesn't auto-update anyway) and the message system is slow and annoying (My first step was turning off the annoying slot glow).
But the main reason for turing mine off - the heat. When I'd take a disc out to switch games, the disc that sat in "low-power standby" would be blistering hot. Yeah, not hot enough to damage the disc, but still uncomfortably hot for my peace of mind.

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4. What kind of question is this? Are there people out there that actually shut down the Wii completely? That is just retarded. So for people that shut it down, do you physically walk up to the Wii every time you're done with it and press the power button to shut it down? Do you same people also shut down your computer every time you're done with it? And if so, what's wrong with you?

Posted at 9:54AM on Jan 31st 2007 by Loban



First of all, here is this thing called energy, and when the systems are off, it saves energy. Second, have you ever seen the power button on the top left of the wii-mote????? What's wrong with you?

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I'm with you Brok3n Halo; I didn't even know you could have it all the way off. Might as well, it's not getting played when I'm sleeping or at work.

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Waste electricity. Anyone want to look up the energy usage and do the math? My guess is that the Wii uses very little energy in standby mode -- and by turning it off you're likely saving only pennies a month.

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Saving pennies is not necessarily the issue. If we can afford a total luxury like a new gaming system and games none of us are hurting for money. It's more the general wanton waste of resources. Yes, you use electricity when you are playing, but at least it's for some purpose. Standby though? It's just gluttonous.

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i always switch it off at the plug. No matter how little energy it's consuming, it's still unneccessary wasted electricity. Any updates i'll read about online when they come out and switch the wii on to download it.

Aside from the environmental concerns of leaving things on standby, the led is supprisingly bright and since my wii is in my bedroom, i find it distracting at night.

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I don't see the point of Connect24. It doesn't appear to download system updates while active - it just makes the system flash to let you know when one is available. Which you would know once you turned it on, anyway. Basically, it seems pretty worthless.

And somehow I doubt the power usage is as negligible as most seem to think.

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Well, I never thought much about leaving my system on standby, even after noticing how hot the console got in standby mode (the fans don't run in standby)...until I had to send my Wii in for repairs this week b/c I started seeing overheating artifacts in my video output.

Now, I can't say the two things are related, but it'll make me think twice about leaving WiiConnect24 on when the machine is in standby.

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I think it's all good but I'd like an option to be able to make it so you don't get the blue light in standby mode or something.

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well, i dont have one but wiiconnect24 is too cool for me to put my future wii in off mode

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I keep mine in standby, with WiiConnect24 so that I can access the News Channel and Weather Channel quicker. I figure it uses less power than leaving my desktop on all night, and it boots up faster than any of my computers so I use it to check the weather and international news when I get up in the morning.

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I always leave mine on. Not just in standby, but on the Wii Menu. Just in case. I don't trust that power button to keep functioning, better to just leave it on...


But seriously, in Standby mode it uses about the same energy as a night lite. I'm sure that leaving my router and modem on is using astronomically more energy than the Wii. I'm more than happy to spend an extra 10 cents per month to wake up to that glorious glowing blue light when I have a message.

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I got me Wii on launch day (not rubbing it in, just giving some background). I initially placed it inside my TV cabinet behind a glass door (but with, what I thought, was plenty of ventilation). After the first week, the Wii started crapping out on me and I noticed it was getting wicked (I'm from New England) hot. I have since moved the Wii to the top of the TV cabinet, next to the TV. I never turn it completely off (and sometimes will leave it on throughout the day to get a quick weather or news check). I have not had a problem since the move.

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I've had mine on since I got it in October.
I have noticed it getting quite warm, which is worrying, and a sure sign that it is consuming a fair bit of power.
(When I say a fair bit, I'm talking less than a light bulb but it all adds up doesn't it?)
I think I will switch the little blighter off from now on.

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Interesting read about other consoles: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/console-power-usage-181610.php

One source I found (http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2006/11/wii-and-vampirism.html) lists the Wii at 17 Watts running and 10 Watts in standby.

If we take what we learned from the first article and apply what we found in the second, the Wii would use 87.6kW a year if it spent the whole time in standby mode. (I'm not checking facts, just re-using them).

87.6kW per year x $.15per kW = $13.14 per year x 4mil Wiis = $52,560,000 per year spent on standby mode by Wii users.

Kinda pricy.

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Gotta say, if the Wii has a continuous power usage in standby mode with WiiConnect24 enabled, Nintendo is doing something wrong. In standby, it should power down *everything* for a set amount of time (say 15 minutes), then boot back into a minimum-functionality mode just long enough to check up on whatever it needs to do, and shut back down. I don't feel like 10 watts is a lot (I don't think you could even find an incandescent night light rated that low), but there's no excuse for being online literally all the time, when a client-pull polling model would look the same to the average user and be much more efficient.

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fools, you can change the setting so that the blue disc-slot light doesn't illuminate during updates.

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The Wii uses 10 Watt with Connect24 but only 1 Watt in standby mode without it.

Read the Ars Technica article that Chocolate Starfish posted, they argue that standby is a waste because most devices are using way more that they should, but also say that 1 Watt is totally acceptable.

In short: if you care about energy saving, disable Connect24. Unplug the Wii completely will not change your energy consumption significantly, because you already have a lot of devices (TV, VCR, alarm clock, microwave, refrigerator...) that are consuming much more than that (even more than the 10Watt of Connect24) in standby mode.

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Does anyone else's Wii get a little bit hot? Like mine heats up while being in standby mode. It's not enough to burn but... it does get quite hot.

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Nintendo has already said that when it is in standby mode, it uses “about the same amount of power that a miniature light bulb uses.” Which I assume is like a Christmas light?

Anyway, I connect to the Internet using the Nintendo USB WiFi adapter. One of the cool things about the USB adapter is you can see EXACTLY when the Wii tries to connect to the Internet, and when it logs off.

When the system is in standby mode, it only pops on about every 15-20 minutes and usually for only 10 seconds. It’s very minimal.

And to whoever said, “I wish you could turn off the blue light” YOU CAN… its in the options. Go look at it.

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Hot Wii's in standby? Well I've never....

Right after I've been playing, the Wii is warm to the touch. It is significantly cooler than the 360's power brick, though. After about 15 minutes the Wii is luke warm, and soon after that it feels like a cool piece of plastic. Maybe my Wii is water-cooled? ;)

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I didn't have time to read other comments so I apologize if someone already mentioned this but I think its important to mention regardless:

The overwhelming popularity of the Wii is actually a double edged sword from a security standpoint. I think it is only a matter of time before the right (or wrong as the case may be) person decides to write a virus that renders the Wii or all your saves (or worse, VC games) useless. This would not be hard to do and honestly there would only be two ways to guard against it. 1) Turn off the Wii connect 24 feature and 2) make sure all of your devices are behind a good firewall.

I run my own stateful inspection based firewall on my home lan so I do not feel very bad about leaving Wii connect 24 on at all times but if anyone out there only runs a firewall on their windows pc and has their Wii essentially directly connected to their broadband internet connection then I guarantee you will eventually have problems. The Wii is just too popular for its own good now from an internet security standpoint, this makes it a target, as ridiculous as that may sound to some.

Protect your Wii!

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31. Does anyone else's Wii get a little bit hot? Like mine heats up while being in standby mode. It's not enough to burn but... it does get quite hot.


a thousand times yes. wii is the warmest console ive owned for that matter, my 360 is cool as a cucumber by comparison (as is its power supply, oddly enough) but the wii feels like a miniature heater, especially considering its size.

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PS: Does anyone know what the ACTUAL power draw of a Wii in standby with WiiConnect24 running is? I'm interested in seeing how it compares to computers and other appliances.

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My unit gets warm on the left (underside) part of the unit, while in standby. This is because Nintendo aimed to save on noise and power consumption by keeping the fans turned off. I doubt Nintendo would engineer their system knowing this and still leave it at a risk for breaking down. According to Nintendo, Wii's power consumption while in standby is about the same as a small christmas tree light, also.

It's nothing to really be concerned about.

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like my PC and Playstation3, I always leave the Wii on standby (or in my PC's case, always on). The power comsumed by it on standby isn't enough to matter and I like the idea of the blue light teling me there is an update.

BTW, I do pay my own electricity and own my own home, and the electric bill for the month I have had my Wii on standby is no different than the previous one when I had no Wii or PS3 for that matter.

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My Wii doesn't get warm in standby mode... and I won't ever turn it off completely... I love my Standby mode... love the red light that is smilin at me every day. It's so nice to look at it when you had a bad dream or so... i like it... well, i love it.

"5. I personally have so little trust in my wii that I sleep with a shotgun next to my bed just in case it tries something."

You made my day! XD

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wow, your getting worried over nothing, they wouldn't have put a stand by mode if it wasn't safe. this is ridiculous the stand by mode will not harm anything, stop scaring other people

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My only fear would be the heat to my GC Memory Cards, since its right around there where the Wii seems to be hot, but i leave it on

I prefer to run the Wii under the optimum conditions, actual WiFi connection, Wii Connect 24 on, Component Connected, 480p, 16:9, and i'm happy...

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Yes, you are loons ;)

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Excerpt from wwww.kotaku.com
"Wii:
- In Standby Mode: 10w, Idle @ Wii menu: 17w, and Running a Wii Game (Test with Zelda / Trauma Center) in 480i: 17w

XBox 360:
- In Standby Mode: 2w, Idle @ Dashboard: ~140w, Running a Game: ~160w, and Playing a DVD: ~110w"

or just compare this with a lightbulbwhich is 6-7.5x as much.

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"Anyway, I connect to the Internet using the Nintendo USB WiFi adapter. One of the cool things about the USB adapter is you can see EXACTLY when the Wii tries to connect to the Internet, and when it logs off."

I was going to try that, but I get worried if I don't remove the adapter after 10 minutes, it'll catch fire. I can't believe how warm that gets..
But considering how much of a pain it is connecting to the internet through that piece of shit, I rarely use WiiConnect24.

"So for people that shut it down, do you physically walk up to the Wii every time you're done with it and press the power button to shut it down? Do you same people also shut down your computer every time you're done with it? And if so, what's wrong with you?"

Jesus..who thinks like this?

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This article deserved a repost:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/standby.ars

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IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION

It's not wise to turn sensitive equipment completely off every time you use it. The *jump* from 0 volts to normal operating voltage isn't direct current; it's transient alternating current. This is the sort of thing that wears down a console's life; and I'm willing to posit that people who've worn through multiple PS2s tended to flip the switch on the back of their systems to "turn it all the way off." There's a primary reason there's a standby mode, everyone, and it's not WiiConnect24.

Because I don't play very often, I leave my system in standby mode and remove the disc when I'm done playing. It's not good for optical media (even pressed media) to stay hot for long periods of time.

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i leave mine connected simply because i like to see that blue pulse on the rare occasion it downloads something or i get a message. i get this great sense of satisfaction when i walk in the room and my Wii looks happy to see me. but other than that, i really see no point in leaving it on since ill see watever update on here almost as soon as the Wii would tell me neway.

o and my Wii does this weird thing were it wont sync my wiimotes if i leave it connected in stand-by too long. gets really annoying cause i have to unplug the Wii power source to reset it.

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You remember how teh plan was to release the news channel on sunday or saturday, it arrived just that morning. I knew about it because I leave my Wii on standby.

The best part part of waking early,
are new updates on your Wii!

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Sometime ago, with the announcement of the WiiConnect24 feature, Nintendo stated that the Wii in standby mode consumes less power per day than a 40W lightbulb. I don't think energy conservation is an issue.

You have to remember that one of the major stated goals of the Wii was produce a small, quiet, efficient machine in order to facilitate the development of features like WiiConnect24. The hardware runs cool, draws little power, and makes almost no noise -- this wasn't an accident. They designed it to be powered on and online 24 hours a day.

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*sixtyfps: "The *jump* from 0 volts to normal operating voltage isn't direct current; it's transient alternating current."

Uh, only if it is designed improperly. The Wii has an external power supply and solid capacitors. It should last a long time.

The unit does use an awful lot of power in standby mode, though. The CPU is obviously running at full speed, which is dumb.

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