We have been getting some reports from the Wii faithful that the 4.2 update is causing problems for Wii units. We suspected that these were illegally modified Wii consoles that were causing the grief, but a closer look at the complaints seems to suggest that some Wii consoles that are not modded are being bricked by the update.

From what we have been able to uncover it seems that the update freezes during the update process. It has been said that the update suggests that the console has been modified and then it fails to start. Also, some suggest that if the update is successful users are also reporting read errors with discs that they never had any problems with prior to the update.

It seems that at first Nintendo thought the problem was limited to modding lawbreakers, but now it seems that they suggesting that this might not be the case. They are asking owners of unmodded Wii consoles that are having an issue to call Customer Service if they can’t get their system working properly after the update. (We guess that when you hear that customers applying the update on new Wii units right out of the box are having problems, you have to do something.) Nintendo claims that they will fix your console at no charge if it is found that the update caused the Wii to no longer work.

While it is great that Nintendo now thinks that a problem might exist, one has to wonder after calling 800-255-3700 and shipping their Wii back to Nintendo just how long they are going to be without a working console. While we are having a hard time confirming how widespread the problem is; it would seem that it might be bigger than Nintendo first thought.