My Wii seems to be dying. 

First, the cdrom has started making a lot of noise, it's pretty much as noisy as an xbox 360.... before a few days ago it was silent.

Then last night the wii wouldn't even turn on.

So has any of you had to send your wii in for repairs, get it replaced, etc?  What should I do to prepare, is there any decent way to backup everything?  Do i risk losing all my purchased/downloaded games?  How quick does nintendo repair and replace the wii?  I was planning on calling them this weekend.

Also.. is it possible it's just dusty/dirty?  Is there a way to clean it that may fix these issues?  I've had many nintendo products and never had a problem with them, so i'm a little surprised, but I have used the wii pretty much every day since launch day so i'm not very surprised.

Check the status of your game discs. Ive found that once in a while it'll be real noisy and making odd noises. Removing the discs, cleaning them and putting them back in seems to fix the issue. Also, make sure you dust around wherever you store your wii. it doesnt like dust at all.

have you ever drop your wii before?

Contact Nintendo for repairs. In all likelihood, it will cost less, and be easier, than getting a new Wii.

You watched p0rn on the Wii! didn't you?! there is the source of your problem....

they are only two fifty at the store

If you don't I'm pretty sure they transfer all your wii shop purchases to your console(they did to mine.) Game saves are another story, they do recover them but sometimes due to corruption they are not savable and they get excluded sadly. If you have them backed up on an SD card that will work fine. All your friend codes will transfer as well.

If it's making loud noises I have a feeling the motor is going, it could be a manufacturer fault but I dunno, have you ever dropped your wii or hit it or bumped into it?

Nintendo will tell you exactly what you have to do and they'll send you the appropriate mailing lable, sometimes the repair may even be free if the console is out of warranty, Nintendo C.S. rocks.

Quick, give it mouth-to-mouth!

Nah, that only worked on the NES...

Yeah its no big deal. Just call Nintendo and they'll send you a shipping label. Package just the Wii in a good box w/ stuffing and mail it off. In less than a week you will have your new wii with all of your memory copied. You will probably have to redownload some channels, vc and wii ware titles but that doesn't really take much time.

The only negatives are that you will be without your wii for a week and you mii's you created are no longer considered yours. This only means you can't put them in the check mii out channel and you can't edit them. You can still use them in any game.

Ok, this is great news. I will try vacuuming it. And if that fails i'll contact nintendo. We have cats and dogs.. so i suspect some hair may have got in there and is creating this problem.