Wii (no longer) Play

After more than four years of memories, the Nintendo Wii that we purchased as our own wedding gift - the one that we drove to Portage to purchase, during the hectic 4 day span between our wedding and leaving for our honeymoon when we closed on our first house - appears to be on its last leg.  I wasn't ready to say goodbye - we didn't even finish collecting all of the collectibles in the new Lego Harry Potter game and I only got about 15 minutes with Zelda.

I'm fairly certain that the Wii somehow detected the new connection between the PlayStation 3 we have had for a week and the TV.  It heard me talking about the incredible difference in graphics between the PS3 and the Wii and it could tell I was spending more time with Uncharted 3 than any of the Wii games I own.  When it started to feel neglected, it said, "I'll show these assholes.  Remember the NES grey screen of death?  I've got something even better in store.  I'll screw with them by turning on, acting like I'm going to play the disc, then give them this screen every time..."

"When they go to the Operation Manual, they'll find the computer nerds favorite solution - remove the disc, turn off the Wii and try again."  Why not just tell me to blow in the damn thing?  I'm seriously considering that as an option.  I feel like this lady.  So, I googled it - turns out I'm not the only one to experience this issue, but it looks like it's probably going to require sending it in to Nintendo - I can only imagine how much that is going to cost me.

So for now, I'll use my extra time to do something fruitful like watch 30 for 30 on the PS3 and determine how much I can get selling back my old Wii games.  Maybe my post will make its way to Nintendo in Jeff Jarvis fashion and they will have pity on me.  I really would like to play the Wii again.