Nintendo's simple but sure Wiimote fix: smacking the wiimote

After several bouts of playing with the Wii, which was given as a Christmas present, one of the Wiimotes suddenly stopped working properly. The father, who was quite experienced in dealing with gadgets, started to do troubleshooting on his own, referring to the steps outlined in the Nintendo support site, such as checking the batteries, re-syncing the remote and resetting the remotes, and so on.

However, troubleshooting steps didn't work, so the troubled father resorted to calling Nintendo's customer support. Here's a transcript of how their call went:

Nintendo Help Desk: "Okay - I want you to take the remote, button side down and smack it into the palm of your hand two or three times."
Father: "You've got to be kidding"
Nintendo Help Desk: "No sir, do it hard enough that I can hear it across the phone line but not hard enough to damage the remote"
Father: "You're sure?"
Nintendo Help Desk: "Yes, sir."

And guess what? After whacking the remote, button side down, to the palm of his hand, the Wiimote began to work again. Sometimes, the simplest solutions are often the best, especially in troubleshooting. Of course, stellar customer service doesn't hurt, either.