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Nyko Wii Charge Station Problem Controller doesn't Come On But Looks Charged

Thu, 2007-06-14 09:50 — Shayne

Sorry for the silly title but I wanted Googlers to easily find this if they are having the same problem. This is an easy fix for a problem many might have. I bought a Nyko Wiimote Charger last week on Amazon. I got it in yesterday and was sad to find that one of my remotes didn't seem to be working even though the green indicator light (LED) was on. I played with it a while and couldn't get it to work. About to give up and ask for a refund I decieded to see if the Wiimote itself might have broken. I put the old batteries in and it worked fine. Then I got to wondering so I pulled out my multimeter and checked the voltage of the Nyko Rechargeable Battery and sure enough it had almost exactly 3 Volts of power. I realized it must be in the connection. After careful inspection I realized how to fix it. The "+" connection on the wiimote is set in just a little and the "+" battery connector for the Nyko is gold and springy to make a solid contact. Unfortunately mine didn't make good contact so this is how to fix it.

  • Use a very small screwdriver or one of the points of a multimeter or some other very firm but very small metal rod to gently pop the positive connection on the Nyko battery out from the plastic lip that holds the unattached side in place. It is important that you don't pull out the side that goes into the actual battery. I think this is obvious but I don't want angry comments on my blog because someone was stupid.
  • Next You will not be able to put the battery pack in without the metal piece back under the lip so next your going to bow the contact over the screwdriver and tuck it back under the lip. You will have to apply firm pressure to bow the contact enough for it to fit.
  • Essentially you just removed it and put it back so It may not seem like you made any progress however when you put it back you had to bend it in the middle enough to get it back under the lip. This will cause the contact to stick out a little farther and make good contact. This should fix problems with the controller not staying on or not coming on even the the Nyko's Green LED is on.

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Tue, 2007-06-19 13:11 — webdox (not verified)

Thanks for the tip.  Saved

Thanks for the tip.  Saved me a trip back to GameStop to complain.  Worked like a charm.
Tue, 2007-06-19 20:43 — Shayne

Glad I could help someone

I knew that I couldn't be the only one that had this problem.  When I saw the design of battery and the wii remote.  My Nyko Charger has worked great now and I haven't had any further problems.

Shayne McKinney

Wed, 2007-06-20 16:05 — Drew (not verified)

The Second Common of Christ!

Thank you so much.  I knew buying this that some people had problems, but figured never me.  I was currently waiting for Nyko to call me back when I figured I would do some Googling to find my answer!

 Thanks a lot for this tip!  Many thanks! 

Wed, 2007-06-20 17:59 — Shayne

Thanks for the blasphemous complement

Laughing

Shayne McKinney

Wed, 2007-06-20 20:30 — A brick (not verified)

Ty so much man! Saves me a

Ty so much man! Saves me a lot less trouble.
Sat, 2007-06-23 14:14 — trunk8 (not verified)

You saved me another trip to Gamestop to return

Hey Shayne,

Thanks for posting this. I just bought one of these the other day, and ran into this problem. I returned it this morning and picked up another one, got it home and the same thing was happening. I was pretty mad considering that I know 2 other people that bought one and they didn't have a single problem. So before making another trip, figured I'd check around and see if this was a known issue....Found your post and your suggestion worked great. Thanks for saving me some time and trouble.

Sat, 2007-06-30 06:30 — Baijin (not verified)

thank you!

howdy and thank you! both of my wiimotes seemed to not be working with the station so i tried what you wrote on the first one and it worked awesomely.  then i decided to try something on my second one.  i got a piece of tin foil, about the size of a postit note and folded it up into a very small strip, about a quarter of an inch and doubed it over a few times.  i placed this in the right connector (just above the red syncronize button) and left a "tail" (little tab) so i could hold it into place while i put the battery itself in place and this seems to be working quite well as well.  This method with the tin foil seems to be a bit quicker, safer (because you arent risking using a metal screw driver to move a piece on a battery) and more convenient because there is no risk of voiding warentee or making the unti un-returnable.  Thank you so much the easy to find blog and the info~!  ^_^
Sat, 2007-06-30 12:32 — Shayne

That would work since you shouldn't be changing batteries

Since you don't change batteries with the Nyko Charger that seems like a good fix for the problem as well.

 

Shayne McKinney

Sun, 2007-07-01 13:39 — Mister Turtle (not verified)

Aluminun foil.

Aluminum foil method worked great for me, just as described above.

 I had one remote that would work, but lose connection sometimes.  The other one didn't work at all.  Swapping batteries between the two made them both not work.  WTF?  They were both charged up to green.

 Just make sure you cut off the tail if it is long...you don't want it folding back up when you put the cover on and somehow shorting the charge contacts.

 I wonder is some wii remotes are different, and have the positive contact more recessed?  Wonder how Nyko could ship this if that wasn't the case.

Sun, 2007-07-01 20:24 — Yamoto (not verified)

I don't know how nyko could let it ship with that problem?

Doesn't make sense unless some of the wiimotes are more recessed than others or something?  Nyko should know better.  Thanks for the great fix.
Sun, 2007-07-01 19:17 — Aiko (not verified)

I love you.

Omg, dude.

I'm so glad I found this. xD I was getting so pissed that my Wiimotes weren't even working anymore! But thanks to your genius, I didnt have to deal with Walmart's bullshit about me not having a box or reciept.
Everything works like a Charm now. You wouldnt believe my excitement when i saw my player one and player two lights pop on!

Thanks a million!

~Aiko

Mon, 2007-07-02 11:15 — Shayne

I love you too Aiko

 

Shayne McKinney

Sun, 2007-07-08 21:56 — Jim (not verified)

Thanks Shane for posting on

Thanks Shane for posting on my blog, I did not need try this. When I returned the second they gave me a third unit and both batteries work in all four of my controllers.

But again thanks for the tip 

 

Sat, 2007-07-14 11:05 — Eric (not verified)

Wow

The fact that this worked for me is retarded, yet not nearly as retarded as the fact that the product was sold with this as a necessary fix.  Thanks!
Thu, 2007-07-26 23:09 — Redman25 (not verified)

You are a genius!!!

Thanks for your post. Such a simple task, which has been driving me insane the last two days, all i could think about at work was why wont it work. I went to nyko support page, they had no info pretty bad!! I googled the problem and your the solution!!

again a million thanks, man!!!

Out

 

Sun, 2007-08-05 17:03 — Fred (not verified)

thanks for the heads up on

thanks for the heads up on this!   Definitely makes this pain a little easier.   Bought the bundle at Sams and returned one already because of this...
Sat, 2007-08-18 15:55 — Hefty (not verified)

Thanks so much

after half an hour of frustration, I found your post, and I want to say thank you for saving me an extra aggravating trip back to K-Mart.
Fri, 2007-09-07 17:05 — DT (not verified)

Outstanding!

Thanks!  We're still waiting on our Wii (free shipping = pony express) but we have controllers, games, component, cables, 2GB SD cards, EVERYTHING but the WII.  That includes the Nyko charge station (which we got after seeing the BIL's just suck down batteries).

 I'm usually pretty "tinkery" and was questioning the design of the battery contacts, but figured they wouldn't put something into production with this obvious flaw.

 Anyway, found your site from a post on a review site, saw the description was the exact same issue - so I applied the fix (just a tiny bend out is all it takes - used some thin tip needle nose).

 Fired them up!  We have blue lights (er, since we have no Wii, all I have to test is the LED's, hehehe).  Thanks from both myself and the wifey!

~DT

Mon, 2007-09-10 13:49 — Shayne

I hope you get your Wii in soon

Glad my site offered you some conformation on the Nyko controller problem. 

Shayne McKinney

Wed, 2007-12-12 18:12 — GUMMY (not verified)

Thanks!!

I was getting frustrated and thought I'd have to go back to buying AA's but this trick worked like a charm..
Mon, 2008-01-07 21:27 — Glassshrimp (not verified)

Thanks, this might finally

Thanks, this might finally fix all the problems I've had with this charger!
Fri, 2008-03-28 16:28 — 0078265317 (not verified)

No need for all of that.

Just turn the nkyo upside down on its back and remove the battery pack   and cover.  Sit the covers down so the whole shows and place the battery in.  No need for the remote to sit in.  Use the remote with AA white you charge your batteries.
Thu, 2008-04-03 10:52 — Doug (not verified)

Tried the screwdriver and alum.foil---neither worked!

I even tried the last method of holding the battery pack against the 3 contacts in the Nyko charger cradle...and the blue charge light comes on for 8-9 seconds, then goes green.  This happens on both battery packs and I've tried switching the batteries between cradles.  Could it be that the charger really is bad?
Wed, 2008-04-23 09:00 — Shayne

that sounds like it is possible.

The screwdriver trick works because it improves te connection the nyko charger makes.  Same with aluminum.  The thing listed above is just a way to charge if you are having problems.  I've never heard of anyone having trouble charging.  If you have a multi meter, or can get access to one.  Wal-mart sells them in hardware then check to see if your Nyko battery pack is putting any juice out.  I don't know the exact specs but it should be around 2.8 volts.  Just tuch the multi meter to the two contacts and it will give you the positive or negative number of volts.  If it is way low then you probably should call Nyko for a new charger.   

Shayne McKinney

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