PlayStation 4 Firmware Update Causing Rest Mode Issues and Bricked Consoles

[Doom972]

I thought many people prefer consoles over PC to avoid such problems. I hope being able to play the next Uncharted and God of War is worth it.

Pretty soon, there will be a patch to fix all systems.

There are still video card and compatibility issues that will never be resolved on PCs without special actions by the users. There are entire games that will never be playable on some people's PC's because of specs while people will cram games into the consoles for their entire lifespan. So it's give an take.

(FYI, I'm both a console and powerful PC user).

I hope so because the thought of a single update making a gaming machine useless is really not a selling point. Consoles were advertised as plug and play machines not update and brick.

Since nVidia released the GeForce Experience this became entirely automated. I assume AMD provide a similar service. I can't say my PC ever got bricked, and certainly not to an OS update. Reading in this thread about problematic updates, disk-check, and safe mode reminds me of how PC gaming was back in the early 2000s.

 

[Lightknight]

I thought many people prefer consoles over PC to avoid such problems. I hope being able to play the next Uncharted and God of War is worth it.

Pretty soon, there will be a patch to fix all systems.

There are still video card and compatibility issues that will never be resolved on PCs without special actions by the users. There are entire games that will never be playable on some people's PC's because of specs while people will cram games into the consoles for their entire lifespan. So it's give an take.

(FYI, I'm both a console and powerful PC user).

I hope so because the thought of a single update making a gaming machine useless is really not a selling point. Consoles were advertised as plug and play machines not update and brick.

It still is largely plug and play. FAR moreso than PCs. For example, I had a monitor driver update that ruined Skyrim on my PC until I rolled back the update. I was only able to fix that because I'm a PC tech that knows to remember which updates are installed and knows how to roll them back if something goes wrong. Regular users though? A lot of them were out of luck until they did a significant amount of research.

You can't point to a firmware update and laud it as some grand evidence that people who enjoy consoles are wrong for doing so. Look, it's sad that people don't always like to enjoy things the same way other people do but maybe we should just calm the fuck down and not give a rat's ass how other people like to game. Doesn't hurt me any that you play games on whatever console or PC while I get to play games on either as well.

Since nVidia released the GeForce Experience this became entirely automated. I assume AMD provide a similar service. I can't say my PC ever got bricked, and certainly not to an OS update. Reading in this thread about problematic updates, disk-check, and safe mode reminds me of how PC gaming was back in the early 2000s.

Dude, I work as a PC tech and they get bricked all the time. Large companies even routinely do something dumb and BAM, whole network down. The difference with a PC getting bricked and a Console getting bricked is that we have the expertise to fix PCs and can just swap out components. Which is positive for consoles, but I also have a warranty on my console whereas my PC breaking is almost always going to be on me.

That one patch does something dumb doesn't wave off the significant number of ways PCs can be harmed nor the degree of expertise required to fix a lot of problems.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

I really don't get why people buy consoles anymore these days.

The days of 'Turn on and Play' are long over and every PC is easier to handle AND to repair than these.

Firmware upgrades - fuck that.

Because, when you buy a console, you are guaranteed to have a universal experience regardless of which console you're playing on. Being a PC gamer requires a lot more money, and everytime a new game comes out, if you want it to look like all the promotional material, you have to again upgrade your already expensive rig. Also, when you're playing competitively on a PC, you could lose simply because the other guy has more money than you and can afford a graphics card that processes a micro-second faster than yours,and that's not the case with consoles.

i understand i've grossly simplified the comparison here, but it doesn't make it any less true, to be a PC gamer requires much more expendable income than being a console gamer. see also: trading in games. and consoles are still very much more plug and play than PC's. i finally got access to my PC after two years of it sitting in a closet and spent two days trying to get the sound card to start working again, which it randomly stopped in that two years of inactivity. i'm going to buy a new sound card, but i'm still not sure that i need one or that it will actually fix the problem.

 

[Brittany Vincent]

Just as a note, this happened to me as well. Luckily, all I needed to do was turn off the PS4 completely and restart. It was a mistake to put it in Rest Mode to begin with, as I was tired and didn't think about it. Won't be making that same mistake again.

 

[Czann]

Again? Sony will never learn to make firmware that doesn't destroy their consoles?

 

[Veldel]

Hey look the lowlife elites came out to bash stuff because they want to feel superior.



OT: Just got got my ps4 and glad I disabled rest mode before I saw this or I'd be worried

 

[irishda]

This is why I never buy new technology right out of the gate. I'm sure Sony will refund those who had their consoles bricked by the update.

 

[LaochEire]

I've been on many PS forums as it's my go to platform of choice (personal preference, nothing more) and I've not heard a single thing about it bricking consoles. I've heard the other complaints and experienced the "Rest Mode" issue personally, but can I see a link as to where it says it's bricking consoles The Escapist?

Edit: Before posting this I decided to do some research of my own in order to not appear lazy and it turns out that the update is not in fact bricking consoles, but that the Rest Mode issues makes it appear bricked you just do a hard restart.

The Escapist news articles has published this news piece with the following: "placing the console in Rest Mode now appears no longer works correctly, with users reporting the need to reset the entire system to get it back up and operational. In some cases, systems have even been bricked."

You're reporting it as two separate issues leading people to the conclusion that the update will brick the console when in fact it does not. There are no bricked consoles from this update. People are saying the Rest Mode issues makes it appear the console is bricked until they unplug it. Even your Reddit link says so. The mentioning of bricked consoles is only coming from hypothetical questions raised over what would happen if it corrupted the HDD permanently.

Nothing more than poorly researched article or simple sensationalism.

 

[Arina Love]

Glad i never put mine in rest mode, all ok with my PS4.

 

[Irridium]

Heh, makes me feel better about turning it off and then unplugging the AC cord. I do that because I have the other consoles and these things together suck down a not-insignificant amount of power. Plus I have a bandwidth cap and doing this helps manage what the consoles download and when. I know I can set them to not download automatically but... eh, this works for me.

Sucks for the people who are affected though. Hopefully Sony replaces bricked PS4's for free like MS did for the 360's Red Ring and E74 errors.

Also, will the update to address these issues also address the sub-account issues of not being able to upgrade them or remove restrictions? Because I'm pretty tired of having to go through my step-dad's account to add funds to buy things with my own damn money that I make at my job because I'm an adult now Sony. Not a teenager like when I made my account. I would really love an option that isn't "delete the account that has 7 years worth of purchases and friends and make a new one".

Would be real great.

 

[COMaestro]

I nearly always put my PS4 in rest mode, as I like it to download updates automatically and I can have games I purchase online install so they are ready to go when I get home. I guess I'm lucky (or at least not one of the unlucky) in that after the update I've experienced no problems, and in fact was unaware anyone had problems with the update until reading this article. I wonder what percentage of systems are experiencing this issue.

 

[Lightknight]

Do we have any numbers on the frequency of bricking? Like back at launch when a few people screamed wolf at a handful of people reporting DOA machines when that scare turned out to just be a product of the information age where 100 people can make you think something is happening to everyone just because they're the ones that are going to go online and post.

 

[LaochEire]

Do we have any numbers on the frequency of bricking? Like back at launch when a few people screamed wolf at a handful of people reporting DOA machines when that scare turned out to just be a product of the information age where 100 people can make you think something is happening to everyone just because they're the ones that are going to go online and post.

There is no reported bricking from any links I've seen. When people first got the Rest Mode issue they thought their console was bricked. It wasn't, you just have to hard reset it. I have no idea why The Escapist is reporting it as bricking consoles, it's clearly not.

 

[Lightknight]

Do we have any numbers on the frequency of bricking? Like back at launch when a few people screamed wolf at a handful of people reporting DOA machines when that scare turned out to just be a product of the information age where 100 people can make you think something is happening to everyone just because they're the ones that are going to go online and post.

There is no reported bricking from any links I've seen. When people first got the Rest Mode issue they thought their console was bricked. It wasn't, you just have to hard reset it. I have no idea why The Escapist is reporting it as bricking consoles, it's clearly not.

Click bait is the world we live in I suppose. I went home for lunch and my sleep-mode PS4 came alive right away, so I'm not even sure how many machines are impacted by this.

 

[COMaestro]

Do we have any numbers on the frequency of bricking? Like back at launch when a few people screamed wolf at a handful of people reporting DOA machines when that scare turned out to just be a product of the information age where 100 people can make you think something is happening to everyone just because they're the ones that are going to go online and post.

There is no reported bricking from any links I've seen. When people first got the Rest Mode issue they thought their console was bricked. It wasn't, you just have to hard reset it. I have no idea why The Escapist is reporting it as bricking consoles, it's clearly not.

Click bait is the world we live in I suppose. I went home for lunch and my sleep-mode PS4 came alive right away, so I'm not even sure how many machines are impacted by this.

I'm wondering if it's the same as the 1% or whatever small number it was at launch that had faulty systems or if it is more widespread. From what I'm seeing, I think it's going to turn out to be a vocal minority, but I would really like to see some hard numbers.

 

[Harry Mason]

Escapist... Escapist... Guys... "Myriad" is not a noun. Please stop. Please.

OT, I haven't had any issues whatsoever. All I know is the new YouTube app has a much better UI than the old one.

 

[LaochEire]

Do we have any numbers on the frequency of bricking? Like back at launch when a few people screamed wolf at a handful of people reporting DOA machines when that scare turned out to just be a product of the information age where 100 people can make you think something is happening to everyone just because they're the ones that are going to go online and post.

There is no reported bricking from any links I've seen. When people first got the Rest Mode issue they thought their console was bricked. It wasn't, you just have to hard reset it. I have no idea why The Escapist is reporting it as bricking consoles, it's clearly not.

Click bait is the world we live in I suppose. I went home for lunch and my sleep-mode PS4 came alive right away, so I'm not even sure how many machines are impacted by this.

I've had the issue. When I first used Rest Mode it was fine, but that's because it wasn't downloading something as it reset the settings for connecting to the internet during Rest Mode. When I changed it and put it in Rest Mode to download something I couldn't turn it back on and had to hard reset. The issue exists. I'm not doubting that, but the bricking consoles in the article is misleading and sensationalist.

I'm wondering if it's the same as the 1% or whatever small number it was at launch that had faulty systems or if it is more widespread. From what I'm seeing, I think it's going to turn out to be a vocal minority, but I would really like to see some hard numbers.

There's been no reporting bricking at all from this update. Bricking was only used as an adjective to describe the state the PS4 appeared to be in when the issue occurred. In the link cited in the article I can't see a comment saying their PS4 was bricked.

 

[GAunderrated]

I thought many people prefer consoles over PC to avoid such problems. I hope being able to play the next Uncharted and God of War is worth it.

Pretty soon, there will be a patch to fix all systems.

There are still video card and compatibility issues that will never be resolved on PCs without special actions by the users. There are entire games that will never be playable on some people's PC's because of specs while people will cram games into the consoles for their entire lifespan. So it's give an take.

(FYI, I'm both a console and powerful PC user).

I hope so because the thought of a single update making a gaming machine useless is really not a selling point. Consoles were advertised as plug and play machines not update and brick.

It still is largely plug and play. FAR moreso than PCs. For example, I had a monitor driver update that ruined Skyrim on my PC until I rolled back the update. I was only able to fix that because I'm a PC tech that knows to remember which updates are installed and knows how to roll them back if something goes wrong. Regular users though? A lot of them were out of luck until they did a significant amount of research.

You can't point to a firmware update and laud it as some grand evidence that people who enjoy consoles are wrong for doing so. Look, it's sad that people don't always like to enjoy things the same way other people do but maybe we should just calm the fuck down and not give a rat's ass how other people like to game. Doesn't hurt me any that you play games on whatever console or PC while I get to play games on either as well.

Your example was sadly not applicable. Consoles cannot be plug and play if they require software updates in order to play a game. I have seen longer load times for consoles over Steam for example. Your example for PC gaming was for a single game. However, I have yet to see a common windows update to brick entire PC. The firmware update for the PS4 makes the entire system unusable.

On a second note, never in my post did I say you shouldn't buy or use a console because of the firmware updates. You completely interjected an opinion I never stated to go on a rant that was personal and uncalled for. I stated that firmware updates that could possibly brick a system is not a selling point and I doubt you are saying that it is. I hope that someday people can actually have a rational discussion without someone taking it personal and having to defend their opinion irrationally.

Best of luck to you sir.

 

[vector_zero]

It's kinda sad when you have to avoid updates so they won't break your system/program.

http://i.imgur.com/YOmDuDV.jpg

Thank you, that is now my desktop background and I work at a technology company.