*sigh*

[Lezta]

I've never had a console break on me before. Ever. (except that one time my mum through my Gamegear through the window...)

I never really expected it to happen, I mean... you just don't!

I declare my Gamecube dead. Or at least terminally ill...

She's developed this habit of locking up when I turn her on. Usually, the first time I boot, she gets about half way through the games loading screens and just stops. I turn her off...

And almost every attempt at trying to turn her on again after that it just freezes at random points during the actual gamecube loading screen.

Sure, if I try it about 50 times it will eventually work and let me play the game.... but the amount of time needed to make it work is getting more and more. I'm not sure what I've even done to it. Most of my consoles have gone flying through my dads room (where they live) at some point, usually when someone trips over the controller leads when I'm playing. None of THEM have broken. As far as I'm aware, the Gamecube has never had that happen to it... so I'm clueless as to why this would happen. Both air vents are clear... I look after the CDs...

Blah. I don't know why I posted this. Someone who can help? Someone who can tell me I'm not alone? I dunno...

EDIT: It might, or might not, be worth mentioning that it only freezes when I normally try it. Just stops when it's making the purple cube logo.

However, if I fiddle around with the wires (Mostly the SCART) it tends to make the freeze turn green when I next turn it on. Maybe, just maybe, this means I need a new/different cable.... What do you guys think?

EDIT2: Ok, now I can't get it to go beyond the Gamecube loading screen... Hurrah for things just getting worse. Leads me to believe it's a problem with the laser, because it's spinning the CD... and I can't think what else could break it.

EDIT3: I know it'll probably need repairs. Question is, where the **** do I take it for such a magical thing?
You know, I really hate the fact nobody posts on TPM speedy quick these days. I miss the old days where you couldn't post ANYTHING without a reply within a few minutes...

[kurai]

It probably doesn't have anything to do with the connections, just make sure they're connected tightly and that there is no damage to the connectors and the wires themselves. I'm assuming you've tried multiple games, and tried removing all accessories and anything else non-essential, but if you haven't that could help you see if any components are causing problems (in most of these instances the console will display an error message though). You can't get into the system menu, right?

If you can't find any solution, the console has a 12 month warranty on it (at least it does in Canada), you may have to send it to Nintendo for repairs. After looking through the Nintendo Europe site, it seems the nintendo service center for the U.K. is:

Nintendo Service Centre
Codestorm House
Walton Road
Farlington
Hampshire
PO6 1TR
Telephone: 0870 6060 247

..but I have no idea how useful that is to you.

[Lezta]

Gamecube is over a year old now... so no warranty. *sigh* And no it doesn't load the system menu. It crashes just the same way. It did a couple of days ago... but now it just refuses. It's basically been a downhill spiral; started with minor problems (ocassionaly refusal to load) which have got pretty major (pretty much complete refusal to load).

[Andrew]

How cheap. I remember back in my day, NES and the Super NES, Gameboy and N64 came with Lifetime Warrenties. What's changed Nintendo?! WHAT'S CHANGED!?

Oh yeah and good luck Do what Kurai says.

[Razola]

Just ship it to Nintendo's repair place nad get it fix for like 20-50 bucks. It's either that or you have an expensive paperweight.

[Strider]

Originally posted by OzAndrew
How cheap. I remember back in my day, NES and the Super NES, Gameboy and N64 came with Lifetime Warrenties. What's changed Nintendo?! WHAT'S CHANGED!?

Answer: more moolah. Nintendo is getting greedy.

Anyways, I have a something problem with my GC as well: disc errors. When a game starts up and is about 20 or so seconds after the logo screen, the screen goes blank and the disc error message comes up. This happens with any game, too.

Not sure what causes it.. might be either that the lense is worn out or something went screwy in the console's innards. Either way it acts up quite a bit.

But yeah, sucks to what happened to your GC, V99. I have no idea what could be wrong with it, other than something going awry with its components. If sending it in to Nintendo to fix it is out of the question, then it seems that the only recourse left is to get another GC.

[Heald]

Hah! Had my PS2 for over two years and it still runs at Warp 9!

...

Well, good luck on getting your Gamecube fixed. I blame cheap third-party products. My N64 exploded a couple of months after I put in a third-party expansion pak. See where your $99 is getting you? Might sell loads but probably why it has a 1 year guarantee. Tsk tsk. No wonder Nintendo bragged about how it could sell GameCubes for cheap.

[Lezta]

Haven't had time to send for repairs or not yet. I know there must be some independant places I could just take her to. Will do some investigating...

Even if she IS broken, I don't like the idea of sending her through the postal service.

[classy_cat18]

I know how you feel, 99. My first Gamecube hardly lasted a year. I blame last year's roommate; she dropped it on hard tile floor and said that it was okay, like nothing happened. I should have dropped her DVD player and see what she would have said about that.

[en0miz]

Well, there is that European-only release of Gamecube+Mario Kart+Zelda disk coming out later this month... :O

I would wait for that (it's what I did when my GBA broke after its warranty... I just saved up for the SP). But if you don't want to pay all that money for a whole new 'cube, I guess you'll just have to find a repair center of some sort in your area.

That Zelda disk is pretty slick though.

[red13n]

Heh, I am in worse of a position than you were. I had 2 games(Both for my PS2) to finish before the release of FFXI the next day, Disgaea and Jak 2. I was almost through with both of those. Then, with about 6 hours left in the day, my PS2 died on me. I was in the middle of playing Jak 2, the game wouldnt autosave, forced me to manual save. After saving(Which I have no idea if it actually did it correctly now), I was forced to shut off my PS2 because I wasn't getting any sound. I tried to turn it back on, screen loads up, "Disc read error". Try again, "Disc read error". Switch to Disgaea, "Disc read error". Now, I try 3 or so other games, all "Disc read error". Now, I call sony, they say they will email me information on how to send in my PS2 to get it fixed. They say the email could take 24 hours to receive. About 36 hours later, no email. I now call again, they say the same thing, email on its way. Right now, still no email. I have called an additional 3 times, each time they say they will send the email. I have yet to receive it, and with FFXI now, I am not really in the mood to care. My PS2 failed me when it was in its most useful moment, leaving me very very pissed for 6 hours. Luckily I have FFXI now to keep me occupied, but still.

[Ultimate Pikachu]

My controller acts as if the control stick keeps moving left and right. It gets annoying. I don't want to replace my first controller. My Gamecube is fine.

[Lezta]

Originally posted by en0miz
Well, there is that European-only release of Gamecube+Mario Kart+Zelda disk coming out later this month... :O

I would wait for that (it's what I did when my GBA broke after its warranty... I just saved up for the SP). But if you don't want to pay all that money for a whole new 'cube, I guess you'll just have to find a repair center of some sort in your area.

That Zelda disk is pretty slick though.

It's already ordered (yes, I am too lazy to leave this seat and go to a shop). I kinda figured it was an excuse to do that. Plus I had the money just lying around... so yanno.

PLUS my mum said she MIGHT be willing to refund me some of the money I spend on it.

Life isn't so bad after all....