Hello all, I've been having this issue since the launch of 5.0 and was curious if anyone else was having the same problem.
After the release of 5.0 I noticed when I would turn on my system in anyway the Gamepad would read "Cannot connect to Wii U. Turn off Gamepad power and move closer to console then turn power back on" (Most of the time it will do this however sometimes it will power up properly). I've tried this many times. I've tried it without the external hard drive plugged into the console, I've tried it when the system wasn't near anything at all, just sitting in the middle of the room away from anything that could interfere with the connection. If I hold the power button the the system for 4 seconds to shut it down it will start up and play just fine. Also it will only happen for the first tie I boot up the console that day. each time after that it will start up no problems at all.
I'm thinking this has everything to do with the 5.0 patch because nothing like this had ever happened like this before the patch was launched.