Wii graphics chip overheating issue
Unfortunately, it appears as though I have a defective Wii on my hands.
About a week ago, I started to notice weird little pixel artifacts while playing Madden. This is funny: since it was an EA game, I actually thought: "Oh, that's gotta be on their end!" 
However, it not only started to pop up in other places, but it also started to get worse. The graphical glitches now look like little lines from "The Matrix," and are extremely annoying.
Surfed around in the Nintendo forums, and there are other folks experiencing this: apparently there are some fautly graphics chips that are overheating. Good news: Nintendo just sends you a new Wii in a few days (you send yours back within an 11 day time frame). Bad news: if you go this route (advanced repair, as they call it) I'll lose ALL MY FREAKIN SAVES AND VC GAMES @#$%@#$^@$%@#$!@#%@#$%@$%@$!@#$#!@%@#%@#$!@#%@%@$%@#$@#@#.
Or, I can send it in for repair and be "Wii-less" for ten days minimum, and still have the risk of losing my data. I haven't made up my mind as to what I want to do. I think my 32 hours of progress in Zelda will make me just send it in and use the time to catch up on some 360 gaming.
This totally sucks hard, and its hilarious that the media spent time covering the stupid non-issue of the strap while this was going on. Its probably pretty rare, but there seemed to be at least a dozen people on the Wii forums complaining about it.
-Rob
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