Check Your WiiU

UPDATE: My WiiU is still not working, and Nintendo tech support doesn't open for several hours and I need to sleep. All information below is as up to date as I could gather as of 7:45am ET. All I can be sure of is that my WiiU is afflicted with some kind of malfunction that multiple other people's have been, and that said malfunction is not in evidence until you try to hook it up. I am NOT claiming that this is a "widespread" or even serious issue, but it's clearly effected a few people so it's probably a good idea for multiple people to check on consoles they might've bought to "hold" for gift-giving time.

ORIGINAL POST AS FOLLOWS:

So. I bought my WiiU (Basic model) on Launch Day yesterday. Didn't get a chance to try hooking it up until well after midnight, because of work and other engagements. System appeared to be in good working order, but would not connect to my TV in a way that was "recognized." Not via it's own included HDMI cable. Not in other ports. Not with other cables. Not even via the (compatible) Wii standard cables.

As you can imagine, I was not happy.

Since it's A.) a brand-new machine and B.) around 3am at the time, not much info was available. However, I did take notice that the system's blue "power-on" light was flashing on and off and that this wasn't typically how such lights work. Checking up on that yielding depressing information via an active thread over at GameFAQs: Apparently, other people are having the same problem and, evidently, the detail of "blue flashing light" leads Nintendo to immediate send them a shipping lable so they can send it out for repairs.

If this is true - if Nintendo now has it's own "Red Ring of Death" problem - it could stand to be a pretty dicey affair: Setting aside how annoyed I am right now, the family audience the Wii brand has such penetration with is not as "used to" dealing with issues like this as gamers tend to be from prior experience; and that would translate to a really bad situation for Nintendo this holiday.

Right now, though - if you bought a WiiU and are maybe saving it to give as a gift, you MIGHT maybe want to take it out and inspect it, just in case. If these things are rare now, they'll be really rare then. Either way, fingers crossed this isn't widespread.

I STRESS: AT THIS POINT, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THIS ISSUE IS WIDESPREAD TO ANY DEGREE. THIS POST IS NOT MEANT TO BE TAKEN AS TECHNICAL SUPPORT ADVICE, A "WARNING" OR AN "OFFICIAL" NOTICE OF ANY KIND. I AM NOT A TECH SUPPORT WORKER, NOR AM I AFFILIATED WITH NINTENDO IN ANY WAY. I HAD A PROBLEM WITH MY WiiU, OTHERS SEEM TO HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM, I FIGURED THE INFORMATION OUGHT TO BE KNOWN.