I’m playing Soul Calibur II – with no memory card, so if I turn the Gamecube off, I’ll lose everything I’ve unlocked. Will I lose the unsaved data if I just take out the disc and leave the console on? (I ask because I ordered SSBM before I ordered a memory card, and I would really prefer not to have to wait until the card gets here to play it.)
If you’re planning to switch games while leaving the console on, I’m going to go with yes, you will lose your data, because even if the Gamecube doesn’t wipe the game data clean when you change games, it’s a near certainty your new game will overwrite the bytes in RAM that are holding your SC II game information.
So, wait, you’ve never turned off your Gamecube since you bought SCII? 
As for taking the disc out, I don’t think the GC will lose the data - the next time it tries to access it, the screen might go blank and give you a “close disc cover” or “reinsert disc” type message. Once you do that, the game will continue playing normally. I don’t think you can swap discs in the middle like that; the console would require a restart in order to run the new game.
Well, I turned it off once or twice, and lost the profiles that I had unlocked. Currently, it’s been on since yesterday noonish, and I got the game on Sunday.
And now it won’t turn on. And before anyone asks, yes, I checked all the connections, and power-cycled it a few times, and looked at the manual, and looked at troubleshooting at Nintendo.com. Nothing worked. Dammit, this is not fair! I’ve had this thing for five days, and I couldn’t even play the first day! Do I have a warranty, or does eBay somehow invalidate that?
Sorry for the triple-post…
Okay, get this: I switched the plug for the TV and the plug for the AC adapter in the wall outlet, and that didn’t do anything, so I gave up, unplugged everything, and left it alone for awhile. After I posted, I went back, switched the plugs again – twice – and apparently the Gamecube outlet just stopped working. So the console itself is fine, but that particular jack is not. Which is great for me short-term, but now I have to figure out how I’m going to get it set up again, because there are virtually no spots in my house that can fit a large TV (and it’s the only one with an antenna jack, so I can’t use a different one) and that are sufficiently close to two working outlets (one for the TV, on for the GameCube.
On the other hand, I could try using an old power-strip…
Is it possible that the breaker for that circuit has simply been tripped? If any nearby outlets are also nonfunctioning, that would seem a likely scenario. Check your switchbox and see if any of the breakers are in the “off” position.
Hey Captain Carrot, you know that light switch that doesn’t seem to do anything? Try turning it on.