Any advice for the owner of a broken Gamecube?
 

I get home last night, pop in Mario, work through a couple of shines and all of a sudden the screen goes black with a "Cannot read disk, consult your manual" error message. I turn it off, turn it back on, play for about 2 minutes, and the same thing happens. I turn it off, wait about two hours, try again, same thing. Go through 3 other games, each one does the same thing. I received my GC as a Christmas gift and I really doubt that they bought any kind of extended warranty for it. Plus, I moved recently and looked for my GC box & manual last night for about an hour and couldn't find it anywhere. I was almost positive I packed it when I moved, but I'm starting to think it might've accidently been thrown away. Anyway, does anyone have any advice on what might fix it or what Nintendo's stance might be on the matter? I've never had a console crap out on me before and really can't afford to go out and drop a bunch of cash on replacing it and getting an extended warranty.

I've never had a Nintendo product crap out on me but I've heard that their customer support is excellent. Maybe you can find their phone number on their website. Good luck.

Buy an XBOX :D

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=172249

That was completely unhelpful. I've seen as many threads in this forum with people having broken Xboxes than Gamecubes. Neither system is invulnerable.

Nintendo does have excellant service, only problem is did you send in your registration? Even though there is a limited warenty Nintendo has gone outside that to help me in the past.

Beat everyone to it... ;)

Anyway - except for the NES, all Nintendo's stuff has been fairly kid proof... even broken, then NES would work. You just had to slap the cart in. This being their first foray into discs, that may be why there are problems? I hear their customer support is good from some people - bad from others... If it were me, I'd just buy another one since GCs are so cheap - they seem like little disposable game devices. If I was feeling really sneaky, I'd just buy one and do a switcheroo, but that's frowned upon so I wouldn't do that if I were you.

I don't think that I sent in the registration. It was a gift from my parents and they keep receipts for everything, so I can probably at least get that. Do you think not having sent in the registration will make a big difference? Also, when you've dealt with Nintendo, is it better to call or e-mail their support center? I sent them an e-mail this morning and didn't know whether I should call too. Thanks.

I would call also if it were me.

Dear Mr. Max Fisher,

My name is Goldberg74, and I believe that I have your answer.

I took my gamecube with me this summer to my parents house since I went on an extended vacation. While my family was there (I meanwhile was in China), my GCN broke. My wife told me (one of the only times we got to talk on the phone) that my son went to go play it and the power light would come on but the disk wouldn't spin. They tried again later and the machine worked, but then it didn't. It repeated like this for awhile until I finally got back to the states and decided to do something about it.

My box, manuals and everything were back in Texas, but I gave it a shot and called Nintendo (the number is on the inside of the disk tray). They I got the number of the nearest fix-it place and gave them a call. I explained to them that all I had was the cube, and no of the boxes and stuff. They told me to come in and they could help me.

Since I didn't have a receipt with me, while I was there they called one of NES's numbers and all they did was enter the serial number and it told them that it was purchased at a WalMart in San Antonio, TX, in Nov of '01. After they had that infor mation they took my personal info and said that Nintendo would take care of it. According to them I would back up and gaming in the next 5 days.

Seems what they do is that Nintendo drop-ships you a refurbished unit with a warranty (that lasts as long as the original machine you purchased) and then they fix the old and put it in line for someone else to recieve.

Anyway, I gave to them on Tuesday and UPS delivered one to me on Friday. That was back in June, and I'm still playing that one to death. (Just got 3 games this week.)

Call Nintendo. They will help. It was one of the best CS experiences I've had in a long time.

DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Sincerely,

Goldberg74

P.S. Don't you love it when people actually answer you inquiry!

Considering the nightmare my Xbox has become that is bad advice. I just got it back from being repaired by Microsoft with a note that they could find nothing wrong with it. Naturally it stopped working again two days later, but after I left it off for an hour it started working again. I'm going to try to send it back again and have them check the fans. I think the thing is just overheating.

As far as the Game Cube goes the advice to call is very good. Nintendo has pretty good customer service. Chances are that unlike Microsoft they might actually try to fix your Game Cube for you.

The lens may be dirty. I wouldn't know how to clean it, so do what Goldberg74 said.

Wow his Mario will work in that?

Goldberg, thanks especially to you and to others for the advice. I'll be calling them tonight. I would've called them over the weekend, but figured that they'd be closed for the holiday. This morning, I received an e-mail from a rep stating my cube would be covered under warranty and to call them to set up getting it repaired/replaced. I'll update this again once I've gotten the issue resolved if anyone will be curious how Nintendo takes care of it. Thanks again.

Or Monkey ball, or metroid, or smash brothers, or animal crossing, or eternal darkness, or starfox, or resident evil, or....

Or Halo, or Quantum Redshift, or Panzer Dragoon Orta, or Blinx or.. oh wait..

profanity removed. -namja

I wasn't aware that those games were all even available.

Anyway, no need to stick your head in this thread. Our comments were to rebuke Fonman's post that was of no use, there is no need to continue talking about the xbox in this gamecube thread.

Nintendo knows how to make quality products. That is why they offer a one year warranty on their Gamecubes unlike the lame 90 day warranty offered by other console makers.

FonMan, YujiNaka:

EDIT: Discussion via e-mail.

namja
Moderator, DVD Talk

You are very welcome, just be sure to let us know how it turns out. I've had my refurb for 3 months and its still working great!

I just got a new Game Cube couple days ago. After I setup the system setting, I tried the load Smash Bro., but in the intro screen of Smash Bro, I've got the following error message:

"An error has occurred. Turn the Power Off and check the Nintendo GameCube Instruction Booklet for further instructions."

I turned the system off and back on again, then it couldn't detect the game disc inside.

Then I turned it off and back on again, then everything was working. It's been working for a couple days, and I never see that error message again.

Do you think it is something I should worry about?

Did it turn out all right? If your parents bought it on a credit card then one of the benefits should be an extended warranty from the card issuer. Check out www.visa.com , www.mastercard.com , or www.americanexpress.com for more info on the benefits.

Ok, I finally got the chance to deal with this and get it resolved. As suggested, I contacted Nintendo a while back and they advised me to contact a local authorized Nintendo repair center. My sole problem in the ordeal was the fact that the local place is only open from 8 to 5, Mon. - Fri. and it took a couple weeks before I could leave work early enough to get there and drop the cube off. I finally made it in before 5 last Thurs. I gave them my cube and a copy of the original receipt and the lady did some quick paperwork, printed up a receipt and said I should have a replacement by the following Tuesday (yesterday). Sure enough, I arrived home from work yesterday to find a package containing a refurbished Gamecube on my front porch. I hooked it up and played a couple hours of Mario & so far it's working great. Anyone who has any problems with their cubes, definitely call Nintendo and let them know, they seem really dedicated to keeping their customers happy. The lady at the repair center said that the problem I was having has become very common. She also said it was a fairly easy fix for Nintendo and that she's had no complaints thus far from anyone who've sent their cubes to Nintendo to be replaced. Thanks again to Goldberg and the others who originally posted help in this thread.

That's cool :up: I'm glad they're standing behind their product.

I would probably feel uncomfortable with a replacement refurbished one. It's not mine. What if it smells like the person's house that it used to be in? What if someone put a gypsy curse on it? I had that problem with a Panasonic phone I got replaced.

It had a gypsy curse on it?

:lol: What tha...