Second Hand Smoke May Hinder Nintendo Wii Operation
Blame smoking for Super Smash Bros. Brawl issues It’s undisputable that smoking is hazardous to one’s health, but who could have expected that the smoke from cigarettes could also be harmful to a videogame system? Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released last Sunday, and will likely be one of Nintendo’s biggest Wii titles for 2008. Several of those who purchased the game found that their Wii consoles had issues reading the disc, preventing it from running. According to the Boston Herald, second-hand cigarette smoke could be one of the culprits for giving the Wii trouble in reading the disc. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the biggest Wii game yet, and requires dual-layer DVD media in order to contain all the data. The slightest bit of smoke residue on the optical pickup inside the Wii could be enough to stop the console from reading the dual-layer disc. Although Nintendo would not comment on what the precise causes could be for a Wii to be unable to read Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it did erect a support page that read, “A very small percentage of Wii consoles may have trouble consistently reading data off this large capacity disc if there is some contamination on the lens of the disc drive.” Wii owners not willing to part with their consoles for cleaning have attempted to take matters into their own hands. Some have reported that using compressed air to blow into the disc drive has helped their consoles run the software, though Nintendo advises against any user-performed maintenance. The Nintendo support note continued, “Nintendo has specialized cleaning equipment that can resolve this problem. (Please do NOT attempt to clean the lens yourself, as you may damage the system.)” The idea of preventing smoke inhalation by a console’s cooling system may not be entirely crazy. Japanese peripherals maker has developed a dust and smoke filter accessory for the PlayStation 3 – though no accessory exists yet for the Wii.
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