Wii U disc drive spitting out disk after making noises

My Wii U is behaving like the one in this video:

I have no idea why it's behaving that way, I have kept my Wii U in great condition since I bought it 2 years ago, and I have never had any problems with previous consoles. I have never dropped my Wii U and I always handle with care, which is my I'm really confused and I'm freaking out as to how it broke.

Any disk that I put in (Wii U or Wii), will be spit out from the Wii U (as seen in the video). However, my Wii U still works: the Wii U I bought came with Super Mario 3D World downloaded onto it, and I can play that game perfectly fine, so I have reason to believe it has something to do with disk drive in. My warranty expired (because it's been 2 years), and I wouldn't like to spend $120 to fix it, I'd like to find some cheaper alternative. Is it possible to fix it by opening it up? If so, what should I be looking for Also, if this isn't the place to ask this, what's a better site I can ask this question?

UPDATE: This is what I have tried. I tried a "cleaning disk", but my Wii U just spit out the disk like in the video. I opened up the disk drive and I didn't see anything abnormal (no dust in the disk drive, no small items lodged in), and I noticed whenever I put in any disk that the disk doesn't spin, again I have no idea why this happens. Right now I'm trying the reformatting method, and if that fails well the only thing to do is buy a new disk drive.

UPDATE 2: None of the proposed solutions worked, so I guess I'm going to replace the disk drive.

Solution 1:

Before you go and open up the Wii U or send it in for repairs, it might be worth trying a cleaning CD, as described here.

Based on the information given there, it looks like any CD-R will work as a cleaning disc. The Wii U will then clean out its disc drive, so if the problem here is a dirty disc drive, this should fix it.

If that fails to fix your issue, it might be worth opening up your Wii U and replacing the disc drive (assuming you are comfortable doing this, as I've botched some hardware operations in the past, myself). You can get a replacement disc drive from sites like Amazon (I found a listing for less than $30).

However, this also may not work.

Unfortunately, your best bet to get your Wii U fixed is to send it into Nintendo for repairs. I realize this is less than desirable, as you're no longer covered under warranty.

My personal recommendation would be definitely try out a cleaning disc, just to make sure the fix isn't super simple, then send it in for repairs if that doesn't work. I'm a bit wary on self-service, because according to Nintendo support, if you try to fix your Wii U yourself and are unsuccessful, they will not repair it for you.

Q: I opened my system to try to repair it myself, but was unsuccessful. Can Nintendo still repair it for me?

A: No. Any system that is found to have been tampered with, modified, otherwise altered, or counterfeit is permanently damaged and cannot be brought back to its original working condition.

Thus, unless you're really sure that you will be able to fix it yourself, I wouldn't risk it.

Solution 2:

As Vemonus said in his answer, the best way would probably be to go for a cleaning CD and to contact Nintendo in the worst case. Do not try to repair it yourself by opening it. I have read enough threads with people talking about how they tried to repair it and didn't succeed (or managed to make it worse).

Additionally to those propositions, there is another kinda extreme solution that seems to have worked for some: formatting the system memory of your Wii U. The idea is that you format your Wii U so that the system nearly gets back to the same state it was when you bought your console.

For this option, this tutorial would help you. Basically, you have to go in the Wii U "System Settings" menu, and then select "Delete All Content & Settings". After going through the system setup, it seems like the disk ended up staying in for some users, fixing the issue.

Do note though that you should go for this solution only if the cleaning disk option didn't work and if Nintendo has not been able to do anything for you. Do also note that you will lose your data by using this solution. Yet, if none of the other solutions seemed to have worked, this can still be a potential option to fix your Wii U and make the disc drive working again.

Another possibility might be that something else than dust or such is stuck in your disk drive. I read some topics about people ended up making it work after finding out there was a little leaf in the front of the disk drive, while others found a penny in it because of a kid who put it in there. While I do not think you stuck a penny in your disk drive, it might have happened than a piece of paper accidentally ended up there. Maybe you can then try to check if you can see something in your disk drive opening, and try to carefully remove it from there.