The Sound Effect That Still Haunts Nintendo Wii Users 20 Years Later

The Nintendo Wii was a pretty stable and solid system, but that doesn't mean it never crashed. Children and teens who grew up alongside Nintendo's motion-controlled console will remember a certain atrocious noise howling from the console whenever it froze up. The Wii crash sound sends chills down the spines of those who witnessed it firsthand, even today. And it might also be one of the strangest things about the Wii — aside from some of its weirder accessories. 

Unlike Microsoft's Xbox 360 and its "Red Ring of Death," Nintendo has never really acknowledged or addressed the reasons behind the "Horn of Death." While the 360's issues were down to bad soldering and cost Microsoft $1 billion, the issue on the Wii was a simple freeze stemming from software issues. In most cases, it wasn't console-breaking; it just required a power cycle to fix. The PS3 also had its own indicator, the "Yellow Light of Death," but Sony fought back on reports of how widespread the issue really was.

Explanations online are mostly guesswork based on information about the console's hardware. It's unclear if the information is pure speculation or based on the huge amounts of leaked information pertaining to the Wii, including diagrams for how the Wii was built. However, it appears that when the Wii crashes, it leaves only the video and audio drivers on, which is why you still see an image and hear that awful buzzing sound. 

One user on Reddit posted an explanation that is relatively in-depth. According to the user (as well as others online), the digital signal processor onboard the console will keep playing whatever sound has been buffered by the processor. Once it crashes, the buffer simply overruns and can't play that sound, leading to the dreaded screeching noise out of the TV. Additionally, as you can see from many videos compiled by YouTuber GamerRoy22 (who has compilations and playlists dedicated to Wii and Wii U crashes), the noises can differ depending on the sound being played at the time. It's still a horrid "EEEE" noise, but in some situations, it can become more pronounced. Some users online have even taken to deliberately crashing the console out of pure curiosity.

The noise lived on through to the Wii U, as the console had a "Wii mode" that allowed for practically full backwards compatibility — similarly to how you could play GameCube games on the Wii. Games exclusive to the Wii U would also produce a similar noise when it crashed. Users who hacked their consoles to put homebrew or modified games on would likely run into the noise more often than not if the software became unstable. Granted, if you can withstand the noise, running homebrew is a great way to make use out of your old Wii.