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After Hours

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

By Bill Detwiler December 6, 2006, 1:10 AM PST on Twitter billdetwiler

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Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii disassembled

Wii disassembled

ntAfter a week of trying, I finally got my hands on a Nintendo Wii. After taking it for a test drive, I began the painstaking and somewhat frustrating disassembly process. Come along as we go inside the Wii and see the hardware that makes Nintendo’s console tick.

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Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii system battery cover

Wii system battery cover

I started by removing the Wii’s system battery. This would be the first on many,. many screws.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Removing the Wii system battery

Removing the Wii system battery

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

GameCube controller and memory card port cover

GameCube controller and memory card port cover

Next I moved to the black cover that surrounds the GameCube controller and memory card ports.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Removing the GameCube connector cover

Removing the GameCube connector cover

Three small Phillips screws hold the Wii’s black GameCube controller and memory card port cover.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Triwing screws

Triwing screws

After removing the black GameCube port cover, I hit my first roadblock–triwing screws. Some argue that triwing screws make the manufacturing process easier, but these annoying fasteners are also designed to discourage people from doing exactly what I’m about to do–take this thing apart. Nintendo also uses triwing screws on the GameBoy Advance, GameBoy Advance SP, GameBoy Color, Nintendo DS, and GameCube controllers.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Triwing screwdriver

Triwing screwdriver

You’ll need a

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Mix of Phillips and triwing screws

Mix of Phillips and triwing screws

Once you remove the black GameCube port cover, you’ll find a mix of triwing and Phillips screws that should be removed.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii hides screws under stickers

Wii hides screws under stickers

Several screws are hidden under white stickers, like the two under the Wii’s front face plate.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Remove this sticker

Remove this sticker

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Hidden triwing screw

Hidden triwing screw

Removing the sticker reveals one of the triwing screws, that secure the Wii’s front panel.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Hidden screw removed

Hidden screw removed

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Hidden screw on side

Hidden screw on side

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Hidden screw on back

Hidden screw on back

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Removing the Wii's front cover

Removing the Wii's front cover

With the side and face plate screws removed, you can gently detach the face plate from the Wii.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Remove the rear case screws

Remove the rear case screws

With the face plate removed, you can remove the remaining two triwing screws that secure the wii’s plastic case. these are found under the two rubber pads near the back of the Wii’s bottom shell.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

More triwing screws

More triwing screws

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Top cover removed

Top cover removed

The the top cover removed, we get our first real look inside the Wii. A large metal shield still covers most of the Wii’s inner workings.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Top cover removed - Top

Top cover removed - Top

With the metal shield removed, we can see the wii’s optical drive, wireless two wireless antenna, cooling fan, and air intake cover.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Top cover removed - Front

Top cover removed - Front

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Top cover removed - Left side

Top cover removed - Left side

You can see the heatsink under the black intake cover.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Top cover removed - Right side

Top cover removed - Right side

From the right side, you can see the GameCube memory card and controller ports.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Top cover removed - Back

Top cover removed - Back

The Wii has two wireless antennas (green boards) mounted at the back of the machine.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wireless antenna 1

Wireless antenna 1

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wireless antenna 2

Wireless antenna 2

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

DC power, Sensor Bar, and audio/video ports

DC power, Sensor Bar, and audio/video ports

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Cooling fan, USB ports, and wireless antenna

Cooling fan, USB ports, and wireless antenna

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Optical drive screws

Optical drive screws

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Optical drive screws

Optical drive screws

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Ready remove the optical drive

Ready remove the optical drive

The optical drive is connected to the main PCB by a thin ribbon cable and larger power cable. By disconnecting the power cable you can set the drive flat.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Optical drive connected to main PCB

Optical drive connected to main PCB

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Optical drive Panasonic chip

Optical drive Panasonic chip

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Optical drive PCB

Optical drive PCB

The optical drive PCB contains an Elpida chip offering 16MB of SDRAM–only viewable from the underside.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Air intake cover and wireless antenna

Air intake cover and wireless antenna

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wireless antenna cords

Wireless antenna cords

The two wireless antenna cords run under the motherboard protective metal shield. Take care not to break these small wires when removing the shield.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Air intake cover

Air intake cover

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii optical drive, air intake cover, and chassis

Wii optical drive, air intake cover, and chassis

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii chassis support

Wii chassis support

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Optical drive removed

Optical drive removed

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard cover

Wii motherboard cover

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard

Wii motherboard

With the metal shield removed, we got our first look at the Nintendo Wii’s motherboard.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Broadcom 802.11B/G wireless card

Broadcom 802.11B/G wireless card

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard heatsink

Wii motherboard heatsink

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard - GameCube controller and memory card ports

Wii motherboard - GameCube controller and memory card ports

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard - Underside

Wii motherboard - Underside

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Samsung NAND flash memory

Samsung NAND flash memory

Samsung 512M x 8 Bit NAND flash memory

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard - Audio/Video encoder

Wii motherboard - Audio/Video encoder

According to a forum post on wareu.org, this chip is the Wii’s audio/video encoder.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard - System Battery connection

Wii motherboard - System Battery connection

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard - Underside GameCube controller ports

Wii motherboard - Underside GameCube controller ports

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Bluetooh chip

Bluetooh chip

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

USB ports and GameCube memory card slots

USB ports and GameCube memory card slots

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii Mothboard - Back

Wii Mothboard - Back

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii Heatsink

Wii Heatsink

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii motherboard - Heatsink removed

Wii motherboard - Heatsink removed

Removing the heatsink reveals the Wii’s CPU and GPU.

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii CPU and GPU

Wii CPU and GPU

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

IBM Broadway CPU

IBM Broadway CPU

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

ATI Hollywood GPU

ATI Hollywood GPU

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Samsung 16Mx32 GDDR3 SDRAM, 700 MHz

Samsung 16Mx32 GDDR3 SDRAM, 700 MHz

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Sharp chip

Sharp chip

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Macronix RTC Firmware?

Macronix RTC Firmware?

Cracking open the Nintendo Wii

Wii completely disassembled

Wii completely disassembled

It took another hour or so, but I managed to completely reassemble the Wii. It even worked. There will Wii tennis for many weeks to come in the TechRepublic game room.

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By Bill Detwiler
Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show.
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