“To Start Please Step Off Me and Press A” – Broken Balance Board, a cautionary tale
Update: For the “real” solution, here’s Ferdi’s comment from August 15, 2010.
I’d still try the troubleshooting steps I outlined below first, but if (when) they don’t work, his solution works like a charm.
Thanks Ferdi, for saving a lot of people from paying Nintendo’s ridiculous fees to fix an engineering problem they refuse to acknowledge and for bringing new life back to their broken balance boards!
Here’s my original post:
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This is somewhat of a cautionary tale.
I’ve owned the Wii Fit since November 2008 and its worked flawlessly for 11 months. Then yesterday, in the middle of a game I got this message saying “To start, please step off me and press A”
Problem is, I would step off and nothing would happen. I’d try getting on and getting off, and nothing would change, the screen would just be stuck on this message. The balance board, to use geek parlance, is bricked.
After searching on the Internet, I found that this is not an uncommon problem. Those commenting have dubbed it the “white screen of death”. Nintendo has an FAQ on the subject, but it’s fairly useless if you’re in this predicament. Oddly, when you select “Settings” from the Wii Fit main menu, the diagnostics all check out okay.
And unfortunately there seems to be no solution. The warranty on the Balance Board is three months, so if you’re within that period you can call Nintendo at 1-800-255-3700 and they’ll repair or replace it for free. If it’s after that time, unfortunately, you’ll have to pay about $50 to get it repaired.
Here’s a compilation of all the tips I’ve found on the Internet on this subject. In some cases, people have reported that these steps have solved the problem. In my case I didn’t have luck, but maybe you will.
- Most importantly: if you are using a rechargeable battery (instead of standard batteries), STOP IMMEDIATELY. Evidently this is a common theme across Balance Board units that fail. It galls me, because vendors will push these products upon us at discounted prices, but in the long run Nintendo personnel have stated unequivocally that these things have caused problems and WILL invalidate warranties. Caveat emptor.
- Try a basic “reset” of the system. Here’s how:
- Disconnect the Wii from the wall outlet and remove all batteries from the balance board for at least 15 minutes.
- Plug in the Wii and power it on
- Open the front cover of the Wii and press the red “sync” button of 15 seconds. This should clear all controllers from your system.
- Take your primary Wii-mote and open the battery cover. Press the red “sync” button on the Wii-mote, and then quickly (while the front blue lights are blinking), press the red “sync” button on the Wii. Your Wii-mote will register with the system
- Put the batteries in the balance board
- Start up Wii Fit or Wii Fit Plus
- Once the game has started, press the “sync” button by the balance board’s battery cover and then quickly press the red “sync” button on the Wii. Your balance board will get recognized as the fourth controller.
- Desperation measures. Some users have reported success when they rotate their balance board. Presumably if there was a stuck gyrometer or something, this would unstick it.
. The one good thing out of all this is that I can give the extra copy of Wii Fit Plus I get to my nephew for his birthday. It was a tough $93.99 pill to swallow, but now I know NOT to use a rechargeable battery pack in the future. I also used a credit card with extended warranty.
Has the ”To start, please step off me and press A” white screen of death happened to you? Post a comment to report your troubleshooting steps, or just to vent!
I just had this problem with my balance board. Nintendo is fixing it for $55 so that's better than buying a new one but I bought a new one anyway since some of the fitness games let you use more than one. I was using the rechargeable battery pack. Nintendo told me on the phone not to use the rechargeable battery pack in the balance board or the rechargeable wii remotes so I've chucked all that stuff out. They said it was fine to use rechargeable batteries that were charged outside the wii devices (balance board and remotes). Funny thing is when I bought my new balance board what was sitting right on top of the display of balance boards at Best Buy? The rechargeable packs. Stop that Best Buy!
Just got one for Christmas and allready have that message….and NO…it's not on a carpet amd NO…I don't weigh 300 lbs and NO….I didn't neglet to try to reset EVERY BLOODY thing 20 times including removing batteries etc ad nauseum……
What makes me mad is that yet ANOTHER irresponsible manufacturer passes on their "cruddy' and untested junk on a willing and trusting consumer only to throw up their hands and say…we didn't know….send it back ( at our expense BTW ) and we'll fix what should never have gone out in the first place and…oh….hope you like our polite answer-girls.
I say….SHOVE IT NINTENDO…you haven't done anything right since the damm 8 bit and let's face it….even that was so breakdownable it made us resort to a hundred different home-remedies to fix YOUR problematic console….
Got wii fit for Christmas and haven't been able to use it yet because all I get is "Step off me and press A". I'm becoming really annoyed with it as I've tried all the disconnecting/re-syncing etc that everyone suggest.
I'm going to have to contact the shop I got it from but if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know!
Yes, I've only had the board two days. The first day it worked. My daughter put the silicone sleeve on last night and sure enough… today we have the white screen of death. Glad I bought it at Walmart and they'll take it back.
Easily fixed by reseating stress sensors.
If anyone needs a detailed fix post a reply here.
it has happened to me but i am gonna try some of your tips and see if this works. will let you know the outcome. thanx
unfortunately this did'nt work so i'm gonna have to buy another. thanx anyway
My husband just bought me the wii fit. Today is the first time I've tried to use it and all I keep getting is the "please step off me and press A". It will let me select a mii, choose my height and birthday and then when it says now it's time for a body test all I keep getting is "step off". And I've never even used it before nor have I ever stepped on the board.
I have this problem too. How do you reseat the Wii Balance Board stress sensors?
I like your blog. Thanks for a great web site!
How do your reseat the stress sensors?
Please let us know what the stress sensors are, and how to reset them.
thanks
I have a brand new one and it was bad out of the box. I understand that these are junk but they are all there is. I would like the instructions for reseating the stress sensors. Information is a two way street and I would greatly appreciate this information. I am an electrical engineer and I have designed test equipment. I asked them for a calibration procedure but they told me there isn’t any. I believe they may just be getting these boards back and doing a simple five minute recal and sending them back out.
It looks like “anonymous” who posted on February 5, 2010 is not responding.
From the comments on this blog post, I can see this is a widespread problem. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but Dennis, I think I agree with you. From the consumer’s perspective, we all probably give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt, in some cases even taking the blame upon ourselves. But bottom line, Nintendo shouldn’t be selling a product that has such a high failure rate and then not own up to it.
I ended up selling mine on eBay, and I presume that people are figuring out a way to fix them, because people are buying them. Search for Broken Balance Board
and you’ll see a bunch from week to week…
If anyone out there has a solution, please post a reply here, and I’ll gladly dedicate a blog post to it…
I just had this problem happen yesterday. Am going to try the fixes here before calling Nintendo. Why isn’t the rechargeable battery warning on the product? I never would have bought one if I knew.
Does anyone know if NIMH batteries are okay to use with the Wii Remotes? It says on Nintendo support that they are, but now I kind of don’t trust what Nintendo says
Thanks!
Well, none of the fixes worked for me, so I have to take the board in for repair (luckily, I work close enough to the repair center that I can drop it off and save $10 on shipping and weeks of being without my board). The support person said, though, that the rechargeable batteries were okay to use with the board. Hmmm. Will have to ask the repair folk about that and will post here with what they say, if anyone is interested.
Yeah, I can’t think of any possible reason rechargable batteries or a plastic cover could possibly damage the balance board.
I can see, perhaps, how the Nyko Energy Pack or any other unit that remains plugged in constantly may possibly cause some kind of power surge that might damage the unit. For what it’s worth, I’ve used Sanyo Eneloops
on my Balance Board and my Wii remotes and have been very, very happy with them.
I get the sense that Nintendo support is just using these as excuses to cover up a more chronic problem. I hope they are monitoring this and the many other boards and blogs discussing this problem and are working on a solution. Blaming a widespread problem on one’s own customers only goes so far.
Anyway, definitely keep us update on how it goes. And if anyone out there has a DIY tip on how to get into the balance board to fix this problem, please let us know!
Ugh, I have the Nyko Energy Pack, which I will never use again now. I did ask the tech about the battery packs, and he said he’d heard of this problem being caused by them before. He didn’t think it was a good idea to use rechargeable batteries in the board (although the instructions say NIMH are okay). He said that the silicone covers shouldn’t do any harm at all, though. He also didn’t know about the Wii Remotes & rechargeable batteries.
I don’t know yet what was wrong with the board, but I received a replacement today, so whatever it was was not fixable. I’m very impressed that I received a new board today when: 1) I only dropped it off yesterday and 2) they shipped it UPS ground. Now that’s customer service
Hi…. I had the same problem after 10 months of very light use….only option was to send it in for repair. Had a letter back from Nintendo saying that it would cost £50 to repair…however found out that this was the cost for a new board from Nintendo. All sounds good …I thought…..apart from the fact that the kit fails after only using it a handful of times….quality workmanship and rigorous testing eh??? ha ha
any way I paid the £50, and they sent me a wii balance board by return of post…. great …. here we go …. oh no…..no no nono straight out of the box the exact same error message !!!!! I borrowed a friends board to check out the system and theirs worked fine on my Wii…. my guess is that they have sent me back my old board….not bad for £50 eh? Nice one Nintendo – get your act in gear eh?
I have the same problem and I used only the standard batteries that nintendo provides in the balance board package. I not even had the chance to replace them.
So the problem is not the batteries.
Nevertheless rechargeable batteries doesn’t work fine in the wiimotes. Playing Metroid Prime I’ve noticed that if I stand more than 5 or 6 feets far from the sensor bar, the main character gets the syndrome of Zoolander and can’t turn left.
That doesn’t happen with standard batteries.
I’m in Argentina and there’s no a Nintendo Representative in this country. So I’m fckd
Hi All,
Here is what WORKED for me!!!!
I encountered the same problem. Tried to sync. Removed silicone cover. Used good batteries. No result. After reading Anonymous post of “February 5, 2010″ it tried “reseating stress sensors”.
Here’s how:
- Remove the foots from each corner using a normal Phillips Screwdriver.
- (keep them in the right order to put back later)
- Loosen (remove) the “stress sensors” small metal plate you see now at each corner using a “torx” screw driver.
- Re-seat the small metal plate by putting it back but don’t screw too tight.
- Put the foots back on.
This should do it. You can also test if it worked before putting the foot back on. If not try again.
Good luck to you all, and safe $50.
Ferdi, thank you so much for posting these details!
I don’t mind giving money to Nintendo when they put out good games, but it just seems wrong to pay them when they not only refuse to acknowledge this is a problem, but also throw red herrings like rechargeable batteries and plastic covers around as excuses (placing the blame on their customers) rather than admitting the problem.
I hope your fix works for a lot of people! For someone whose Balance Board warranty has expired, it is certainly worth a shot.
Can’t believe it worked but it did! I “reseated the sensors” which isn’t really reseating anything just taking it apart and putting it back together….
here’s my tale… Had the same annoying message step off the board over and over..tried everything..no luck..read the “reseat the sensors and thought why not try..so it took it in the kitchen took off each of the plastic feet one by one (three philips screws) removed the plastic foot, unscrewed the big torx screw that holds the small metal plate on the accelerometer (rectangular piece of metal with tape on it an wires coming out) I tapped on each accelerometer also gently with the handle end of the screwdriver, also wiggled each set of wires a bit…then i screwed the plate back on and put the plastic parts back on and repeated for the other 3…plugged it back in and unbelievably it worked right away!! Can’t believe it but i’m so glad..i hope it works for others!
..and yes…like the previous poster i did not put the plate back on real tight..they are very tight from the factory!\
Reseating the sensors (as jim says above) worked perfectly.
Unbelievably the ‘re-seating’ worked for me as well! Nice work Ferdi!
Got the message this morning after not using the board for over a month and a half. Searched the internet for help and did all the resyncing stuff. No joy. Got to the reset the sensors stuff and took one foot off, loosened the torx screw and put it back together. Either I was really lucky and got the “bad” one the first try or maybe they all need to be done but mine worked right after doing one foot. Seems to be great now. Thanks for the help. GREAT POST.
I tried the approach of removing the feet and loosening the sensors found there and it WORKED! If you run into this issue give this a try before throwing out your board. Good luck and I hope that you can revive your dead board. Thanks to Ferdi and the information provided. Have a great day all!
Jonas here. Finally somebody with the same problem! But now I’m hesitant, I’m not sure if I should be bothering with the gyrometer, can’t you completely ruin the balance of the mat? Mine works again sometimes if I just unplug and replug everything and fresh restart my machine.
There aren’t any gyrometers in the balance board. It may sound too simple, but it really just has four pressure sensors and nothing else! If you open one up you can see for yourself, it’s got one small circuit board and a lot of empty space. It’s surprisingly easy to get opened, AND put back together. It sounds like you don’t even need to go that far to fix it…
Thanks everyone who found and confirmed this solution!
+1 for the removal of and reseating of the sensor fix. works fine and was sorted in 5 minutes.
I just got off the phone with Nintendo withthis same problem — after they had me re-sync it …he said hmmm…looks like I need to send it in for repair ata cost of $45.00 plus the shipping cost. I am so glad that I came across this because the reseating WORKED!!! — Thank You!
Thank-you so much Ferdi!!! Spent 30 minutes on the phone with Nintendo who could not help me. They recommended repair for $55 and sent me a FedEx label. I decided to check online again to see if anyone else had this problem. Unbelievable. I came across this site and read each comments and decided to try Ferdi. It actually worked!! Thank-you!
Thanks Ferdi; My wife’s Wii Balance Board went out today and I followed your advise and that of many who have had the same problem – and it worked. To show’s how sensitive the board is, one side affect we found is that it does not to read the weight correctly. Maybe I can adjust (tighten) the sensor’s more, I didn’t tighten down as you suggested and I thinks that was the key. Thanks again.
Genius! Borrowed wii fit and there was panic when I thought we had broken it. Fix worked a treat … thanks for the help and saving me a small fortune and a friend!!
Ferdie, you rock!
I thought I was done with my board until I read this.
I appreciate the total awesomeness that is your post!
Thank you!!!
Another very satisfied reader. Found this information and successfully got my board working again. You rock indeed!!
Great advice. Another satisfied customer. Earned me some brownie points from the wife!
Worked for me too! I just received this used unit from an ebay seller. I’m not sure if it was damaged in the mail, or if they sold it because it had stopped working, but I did the fix above, and all is well now. Thanks!
Ferdi’s solution worked like a charm! I used a size 30 Torx wrench if that helps anyone. I did not replace the silicone cover but I did go back to using rechargeable batteries and so far so good. I also placed the board directly on a harder surface…not the carpet on carpet that it was on when it failed.
THANKS FERDI!!
Here’s what Ferdi recommended:
- Remove the feet from each corner using a normal Phillips Screwdriver.
- (keep them in the right order to put back later)
- Loosen (remove) the “stress sensors” small metal plate you see now at each corner using a “torx” screw driver. (per Cindy: size 30 worked for me)
- Re-seat the small metal plate by putting it back but don’t screw too tight.
- Put the feet back on.
Ferdie
You just saved my £75! Was all set to buy another board after the white screen of doom, but you solution absolutely worked. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can continue with with fitness regime now, hurrah for Ferdie
Add one more to the tally…works great! Someone should get this posted on the Nintendo Support site…bet they’d love that!
Thanks for the info. Ferdi’s solution worked perfect. It took me 5 minutes!
Well that’s just made my Christmas. The Wii board hasn’t worked for over a year, and was just considering buying a new one! But with one final desperate troll of the internet for a solution came upon the re-seating fix.. and hey presto!!
Kids are jumping up and down with excitement, and I just had a celebratory hula hoop of joy! Wow I’m out of breathe now and need to start using the Wii fit again!!!
Thank you so much
After two years, we are getting this error. After reseating, and cleaning the sensors (looked fine before I did so though), the wii board now works, but only if you lift it up and press “a”, then quickly get on. But doing so causes the board to read 10 pounds too heavy (I assume the weight of the board). Tested on a hardwood, not carpet.
At least games now work again.
Fergie is the bomb, works like a champ.
I did not think that this would work but it genuinely was as simple as taking the feet off and putting back on – try this first before trying re-synching the wii and board as this was a waste of time for us! Christmas just got better as we have saved having to buy a new board! thx for the posting
I guess I am one of the unlucky few. I tried reseating all my sensors and still had the one bad sensor. Tried again and same result. I guess I go to plan B now, that is “B”uy another board.
Another happy poster. Worked like a charm!
Ferdi’s solution from August 15th worked!!!! Thank you so much! I thought I was gonna have to buy a new one, you saved me a lot of frustration, time and money! thanks!!!!