Help! Wii U Won't Detect Sensor Bar

I've had my Wii U for a few months now, and I'm tired of its sensor bar not working. I made sure to plug it in right, and everything else. I can tell it's an issue with the Wii U itself because taking a picture with a digital camera reveals that whether I use the Wii U's sensor bar or the original Wii's sensor bar, the lights don't show up in the picture. However, they both work when plugged into my original Wii. I can't seem to get the gamepad to work as a sensor bar either. Also, loading times are oddly long for me, and when loading Smash 4, it starts with a frozen picture of the loading screen, then it cuts to black for 20 seconds, and then the game loads. It's a shame that my Christmas Wii U had to be a defect.