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I hate being the guy that bumps topics but I had this same problem and believe I've found a fix.
For clarification:
When I booted up my console for the first time I followed the prompts as they came up, eventually leading up to typing the on screen symbols. I would type them in only to get an error message that my Wii U tablet could not connect so I tried and tried again to no avail.
In a last ditch effort I unplugged the Wii sensor bar that I had plugged into my Wii U from my older Wii and, to my surprise, it fixed the problem and I can now play the Wii U.
tl;dr
Try unplugging your sensor bar if you have one.
