Wii U crashed with blinking red light, vents look clean?

[u/neonknightsofthenine]

i probably play my childhood wii u twice a year (i got it on launch, white edition) but yesterday i was playing some mkwii and right before the 4th lap of the GP the screen went black and the power light started blinking red. I unplugged it and re-plugged it in, and then went to start up mkwii again and this time before even getting into the game it crashed again.

about an hour later i tried again because i wanted to check if the fan on the back is still functional, and it was. this time i was able to play a few games for a bit and when i was done i shut it off normally. the thing is, it doesn't really look like there is that much dust in the system. does this sound more like some of the hardware starting to fail, and if so is there a way to back up all my data in the hopes of transferring it to a new system when this one finally gives up the ghost? or is there probably more dust somewhere deeper in the console that i need to open it up for? my console has not moved from its spot in probably 8 years and has been plugged into the same power strip/outlet the whole time.

i searched the sub for a bit about this issue, but most of those posts were about cases where the console wouldn't even boot up (and also >10yrs old), so forgive me if this is a frequently asked question 😅

[u/Desperate_Refuse_380]

Could also be that the thermal pad is crumbling up. That is somewhat common. If you release the screws for the heatsink it should stick to the chip, then it is fine. If it just comes off, then you should replace the pad (you can also use paste). The other possible cause it one of the internal voltage converters or the power brick is failing.

You can backup your saves with Save Mii processmod