How To: Dissassemble the Wii

***Gung Ho Guns*** · 12-22-2006, 10:24 PM

Credit : Informit.com!

The Wii is a very tight system. There is little in the way of wasted space, which indicates an excellent design job. I am honestly impressed at how the creators of this device put all these pieces and parts together. If you are not the type to tinker with your electronic gadgets, consider the following as a front row seat into the world of the Wii. On the other hand, if you are reading this because you are the moding type or are trying to fix a broken part, this article will serve as a step-by-step guide to disassembling the Wii. Either way, we hope you enjoy!

TOOL NOTE

You will only need two tools to take apart the Wii. The first is a small Phillips screw driver, which should be easy to locate. The second tool you will need is a Triwing driver. This type of driver is not very common and might take some phone calls or internet searches to locate. Ours was purchased off of Ebay several months ago to repair a broken Gameboy.

To disassemble:

1. Flip the device upside down and remove the small silver Phillips screw. Once out, remove the battery tray from the console.
2. Next remove the rubber foot directly above this battery tray. Also remove the three square white stickers from the bottom of the Wii. The rubber foot and the sticker are covering hidden screws. Figure 3 provides a shot of where these screws are located.

NOTE

Hiding screws under stickers and rubber pads is a common method used by electronics manufactures to help increase the aesthetics of their devices, as well as prevent people from easily locating screws and taking apart their products.
3. Unscrew the two Triwing screws and three Phillips screws from the bottom of the Wii.

4. Flip the Wii over onto its right side. Locate and remove the two rear rubber feet and the two rectangle stickers near the faceplate.

5. Remove the two silver Triwing screws in the holes and remove the two black Triwing screws on the faceplate

6. Flip the Wii upright and carefully remove the two socket covers. They come right out with a little wiggling.

7. Remove the three black Phillips screws from the black plate (Figure 5). Note the one closest to the faceplate is the longest and will need to go back into that hole when putting the Wii back together.

Top black plate screw locations

8. With the screws removed, carefully pull off the faceplate of the front of the Wii. You will need to disconnect the red/black wire plug from the Wii to remove the faceplate completely. Figure 6 shows what is hiding under the faceplate.

9. Remove black plate from memory/controller socket area.

10. Remove two silver Phillips and two silver Triwing screws from memory/controller socket area

11. Lay the Wii on left side (with the ATI and Nintendo logo facing you) and slowly work the right side cover of the console off the device. This will take a little bit of force. If something appears to be stuck, double check to ensure you removed all the screws.

12. Locate and remove four screws holding DVD reader in place. Two are located in plain site in the middle of the unit. Two are located near the front of the Wii inside the DVD unit

The insides of the Wii

13. Slowly tilt the DVD player upward toward top of Wii. There are two wires that need to be disconnected before you can safely remove the DVD unit. One is a plug type of connector that only requires a little tug. The other is a circuit strip connector that requires you to lift the brown catch, which will release the pressure holding the strip in place (Figure 9). Do not break this!

DVD Connectors

14. Locate and remove two wireless antennas (Figure 10 and Figure 11). One is located near the bottom of the device and can be removed by carefully pushing against the tabs keeping the card in place. The upper card can be removed by unscrewing a silver Phillips screw. Once removed, unthread the wire from the Wii's body.

Wifi Antennas

15. Remove two silver Phillips screws holding the fan in place (one on each side of fan). Disconnect fan power wire and remove fan

16. Remove three silver Phillips screws from fan flow guide/black plastic piece. Lift away the black plastic piece.

17. Remove two silver Phillips screws from middle black plastic piece. Then remove the one center silver Phillips screw.

Fan flow assembly

18. Lift the black plastic pieces off the Wii. The rear piece will pull away fairly easily. The center black plastic piece will require some attention. Remove the DVD wires from where they are tucked, and watch the silver heat shield piece when lifting the center plastic piece off the Wii.

19. Remove three silver Phillip screws from front black piece and then remove the piece from the Wii. Be careful of the small square nut located on the bottom part of the piece, as well as the arm that is slightly inserted into the body of the Wii. To remove this, just lever the arm gently away from the Wii when lifting the black plastic piece out

Front plastic piece
20. Locate and remove numerous silver Phillips screws from silver heat shield where you see a small arrow or a small square. Then remove two black Phillips screws marked with a small triangle