I say unique because I inputted the code on the support site to find nothing about it. I made sure to put it in, pick Wii U, and then English, and I've tried it with the dash and without it, but Nintendo apparently has no records of this error. Just in time for Christmas!
Ok, without being too stressed over being unable to play certain Wii games after owning the system for about two months, I think what might have happened was I was playing Zombi U and something came up for me to do, so at the loading screen for multiplayer, I decided to hit the home button on the wii u game pad and close the software. When I got back, I realized that it's been stuck at that loading screen to bring me back to the Wii U menu. Then it just waits, and waits, and waits, and it's been over an hour. Almost two hours I think. The power buttons for the console and the game pad did not respond, so I decided to unhook the power cable to my console, much to my hesitation of doing so. So today, I go to play my console again, and while the console turns on just fine, everything is normal, the gamepad then informs me that an error occurred. The enclosed error code: 165-3423, which cannot find anything, even on google, besides a couple of posts where two people had the same problem, but never quite went into detail about it (http://techforums.nintendo.com/message/79435).
Theoretically, I could just try playing with my wiimote and nunchuk and classic controllers for the time being, but there lies another problem. My Wii U account is password protected. How do I input the password? With the game pad. What happens when the game pad is not working? I cannot do anything about it, which means I cannot enjoy Wii U games that use the other controllers, nor can I even use the Wii functionality. I consider this to be a major design flaw, especially considering that the wiimote is even an option and is indeed capable of using it to type on a virtual keyboard (something to consider for the next update, please). So I need the game pad to do everything. I could attempt to make a new account, but that too requires the game pad for input. How did the people at Nintendo not see this coming? Make it completely unplayable just because I wanted to protect my account from unwelcomed access and I do not have the necessary controller to access it, let alone make a new one?
I am sorry if I came off ranty, but this is how I feel about it. I really do consider this to be a flaw to prevent other people from playing a system that advertised being able to use older controllers and original Wii functionality, and it needs to be addressed on it's own.
My point is: I am left with a unique error that rendered my game pad unusuable, and there fore my console unusuable despite still being fully functional. Only way I can think of fixing it is to let the batteries dry out and recharge it and hope it works then. I could also try taking the battery out and put it back in, but I'd rather not risk that unless I absolutely know that it will fix something. Until then, I will try Nintendo Support as soon as possible, but if anyone is able to help me out now, I would really appreciate it.