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Cracking open the Wii

Summary

See what makes Nintendo's console tick.

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Bill Detwiler at ZDNet Asia's sister site TechRepublic got his hands on a Nintendo Wii a while back and took the thing apart piece by piece for readers' enjoyment. Here is an excerpt.

TechRepublic runs a regular series called "Cracking Open" in which they take a look inside a variety of gadgets. Follow along as Detwiler documents the carnage and reconstruction in his own words.

Credit: CNET Networks

This is what the Nintendo Wii will look like when we're finished with it.

After taking the Wii for a test drive, I began the painstaking and somewhat frustrating disassembly process. I started by removing the Wii's system battery. This would be the first of many, many screws. Some are hidden and some are even sneakier. Next, I moved to the black cover that surrounds the GameCube controller and memory card port cover.

Come along as we go inside the Wii and see the hardware that makes Nintendo's console tick.

Credit: TechRepublic

After removing the black GameCube port cover, I hit my first roadblock--tri-wing screws. Some argue that tri-wing screws make the manufacturing process easier, but these annoying fasteners are also designed to discourage people from doing exactly what I'm about to do--take this thing apart. Nintendo also uses tri-wing screws on the GameBoy Advance, GameBoy Advance SP, GameBoy Color, Nintendo DS and GameCube controllers.

Several screws are hidden under white stickers, like the two under the Wii's front face plate.

Credit: TechRepublic

The Wii has two wireless antennas (green boards) mounted at the back of the machine.

Next I exposed the DC power, sensor bar and audio-video ports; the cooling fan, USB ports and wireless antennae are all visible at this stage.

Credit: TechRepublic

The optical drive is connected to the main PCB by a thin ribbon cable and larger power cable. By disconnecting the power cable you can set the drive flat.

Credit: TechRepublic

Not for the faint of heart: disconnect the optical drive's ribbon cable to completely remove the drive.

Credit: TechRepublic

With the metal shield carefully removed, we got our first look at the Nintendo Wii's motherboard.

Credit: TechRepublic

In this view, you can see the GameCube controller and memory card ports revealed.

Credit: TechRepublic

According to a forum post on wareu.org, this chip is the Wii's audio/video encoder.

TechRepublic/b>

After the heatsink has been removed, you get a good look at the CPU and GPU.

It took another hour or so, but I managed to completely reassemble the Wii. It even worked. There will be Wii tennis for many weeks to come in the TechRepublic game room.

To see the full TechRepublic gallery, click on this link: Cracking Open the Nintendo Wii.

Click on this link for CNET's complete coverage of the Wii: CNET Hot topics: Nintendo Wii.

Credit: TechRepublic

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