Wii fully ejects discs til they fall out

[jinxmitchell]

I have a Wii that works just fine, accepts discs and reads them, but when it ejects the disc it (the disc) falls completely out. Functionally it's not a big deal, but it bugs me and I'd really like to fix it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to take care of this issue? I don't know my way around the Wii hardware at all, so I'm not even sure how to start.

Full disclosure: I got this from a family that had kids, and I had to remove a penny from the drive for it to work properly.

[Ziggy]

Haha. I'm sorry, but I laughed when I read the thread title. I just pictured the Wii spitting out a disc, and of course my mind personifies it and the Wii goes "pbleh" as the disc comes out.

I don't mean to be condescending, but I wouldn't recommend tinkering with the drive unless you're pretty good with taking things apart and putting them back together. Being the type of drive that it is, it's made up of a lot of parts. Lots of tiny screws. Very annoying. I know this from my own personal experience taking apart a Wii drive.

While I don't have any advice specific to your exact problem, I can offer you this thread: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=26498

I dumped all my findings in that thread, so there should be a lot of useful info in there. I have lots of pics and links to other sites and a couple YouTube videos. All the info and links in that thread should give you a head start in understanding how the Wii drive works.

What I basically did to fix my problem is opened the Wii and examined the drive with a disc in it. That and some YouTube videos is how I figured out how it worked and how to fix it. I'd imagine you could do the same for your problem. Only instead of examining the disc spinning, you'd be watching what happens when you eject it. I highly recommend using a blank CD-R or some other disc that's worthless. When you have the console opened up, one wrong move could destroy a disc while it's spinning.

Hope this info helps!

[Retronomy]

Think of it as another feature. Motion Gaming doesn't have to end once you hit the eject button! A hidden mini game so to speak, catch the game disc. Problem solved.

[Hobie-wan]

Maybe some friction pads that should be holding the disc by the edges aren't doing their jobs or are missing? I haven't been in a Wii drive, but I kid of maybe remember some from tinkering with my car player years ago.

[Ziggy]

Maybe some friction pads that should be holding the disc by the edges aren't doing their jobs or are missing? I haven't been in a Wii drive, but I kid of maybe remember some from tinkering with my car player years ago.

Yes, they do have pads. It'd be pretty noticeable if they were gone, but perhaps they were damaged. jinxmitchell did say he had to remove a penny.

It's the black that you see.

edit: The front black pad is just a dust cover. I just recalled when I was playing around with my drive, I had that front part removed and the discs didn't fall out when I ejected them. So that front black pad plays no part in that.

[Cronozilla]

Have you attempted to try a game other than Hotel for Dogs?

Seriously, though, it sounds like either something that's meant to keep the disc in place is damaged, or even something like a stopper for the ejection mechanism could be broken. Especially if you found stuff jammed in it.

You could try all sorts of different types of discs to see how it ejects them. Does it do the same for CD, DVD, Bluray, or GCN disc, for example. They all have different weights and thicknesses.