Sony Offers Troubleshooting Tips for Unresponsive PS4s

[StewShearerOld]

Sony Offers Troubleshooting Tips for Unresponsive PS4s

Sony has created a forum posting on the PlayStation website filled with tips to help get non-responsive PS4s up and running.

One of the occasional joys of buying a new console at launch is getting it home, breathing in that new console smell and then having the thing just plain not work after you plug it in. That in mind, while the launch of the PS4 has largely <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129714-PlayStation-4-Sells-a-Million-Units-in-24-Hours>been successful, some early purchasers are apparently experiencing an uncommon issue where they attempt to boot the console up and the only response they receive is a pulsing blue light. There have been cases of this both occurring straight out of the box and also while the console is in operation.

While Sony has yet to release an official statement addressing the "Blue Light of Death," as some have taken <a href=http://www.cnet.com.au/ps4-buyers-reporting-blue-light-of-death-out-of-the-box-339345981.htm?feed=rss>to calling it, the company has recently released some troubleshooting tips on its forums to try and assist consumers experiencing the problems. According to the forum post, there are several potential issues the company believes could potentially be at the root of the problem, including: TV compatibility, problems with the console's power supply or hard drive, or "other" issues with the hardware/software.

"Some users have indicated that updating the firmware on their televisions has resolved some cases of no audio/video being displayed," said Sony, in reference to the TV issues. For potential power supply problems, it recommends checking the power cord to see if there's any "damage or anomalies" at the connection point and even swapping the PS4 cord for a PS3 one "to see if that resolves the issue." In the case of the hard drive, the company suggests opening the console to see if it's loose or damaged. Users could apparently even attempt to replace it if they have the desire and a compatible hard drive. If everything seems in order and the PS4 still isn't responding, Sony suggests booting it in Safe Mode to try updating the software which could also be at fault. It included instructions for doing this in the forum posting. Of course, if all else fails, it recommends contacting its customer support to receive official assistance.

Source: <a href=http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-4-Support/INFO-Blinking-Blue-Light-PS4-Issues/td-p/42154071>PlayStation


Permalink

 

[josemlopes]

I think people dont really understand what "bricked" means, if it can be fixed by not buying and entirely new system then it didnt brick, bricked means that there is now way back and the device became something that is as usefull as a brick.

 

[StewShearerOld]

I think people dont really understand what "bricked" means, if it can be fixed by not buying and entirely new system then it didnt brick, bricked means that there is now way back and the device became something that is as usefull as a brick.

Good point. I've altered the title to be a bit more accurate to that. Thanks!

 

[AstaresPanda]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out. day one patch, loads of bricked consoles. You know i recall consolers saying they would never jump to PC gaming coz of all the patches and dealing with drivers, consoles just work out the box. Goes to show consoles have kinda lost their way when PC's are turning out to be more simpler/less stressful.

 

[Psychobabble]

Huh. I'm surprised they didn't offer the idea of whacking it with a big mallet.

 

[The White Hunter]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out. day one patch, loads of bricked consoles. You know i recall consolers saying they would never jump to PC gaming coz of all the patches and dealing with drivers, consoles just work out the box. Goes to show consoles have kinda lost their way when PC's are turning out to be more simpler/less stressful.

Apart from the damn push pins building my new rig was significantly easier and simpler than all the arsing about with day one patches and updates on a new console, noting my experience with the PS3 that needed a good 5 or 6 huge firmware patches on first boot.

 

[Kahani]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out.

They've shipped over a million of these things already, so of course some of them will have issues. The only reason it's news at all is because the thing is new and everyone's getting it at the same time. With electronics, a 5% failure rate is considered about the best you can ever manage, so assuming the PS4 is among the most reliable things ever made you'd still expect to see tens of thousands of failure reports. If there was just a steady trickle of occasional reports of problems with new devices no-one would care in the slightest, it just looks like a lot because they're all happening at the same time. Most of the issues appear to simply be due to damage - bent bits of metal, damaged cables, and so on. The majority will have been caused during shipping and storage, with plenty being caused by the customers themselves trying to jam plugs in the wrong way around and so on.

As for day one patches, why would that be a bad thing? The release hardware and software will have been finalised months ago so that the things could actually be ready and in shops. Having a patch ready for when people actually get their hand on them means that Sony have still been using that time to fix and improve things. Unless you expect them to have got every bit of code perfect the first time, which never has happened and never will happen in the entire history of computers, patches are generally good.

 

[AstaresPanda]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out. day one patch, loads of bricked consoles. You know i recall consolers saying they would never jump to PC gaming coz of all the patches and dealing with drivers, consoles just work out the box. Goes to show consoles have kinda lost their way when PC's are turning out to be more simpler/less stressful.

Apart from the damn push pins building my new rig was significantly easier and simpler than all the arsing about with day one patches and updates on a new console, noting my experience with the PS3 that needed a good 5 or 6 huge firmware patches on first boot.

By the sounds of it, hours of updates. You could build a gaming rig and install windows 7 and prob be able to be ready to game online faster then waiting for your CONSOLE to update and be ready. I mean thats still sounds weird to me, "CONSOLE UPDATING"

 

[Guffe]

Huh. I'm surprised they didn't offer the idea of whacking it with a big mallet.

That would be so cool!
xD

Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo today released an urgent message on their website telling the consumers, that: "in case your new console doesn't work, a good, hard, blow with a blunt object of minimi size of 2kg on the power button, just might do the trick"

More on topic:

I think it would be weird if every single of the million PS4s bought inside the 24 hours of the release would work.
THAT would be an accomplishement!

 

[The White Hunter]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out. day one patch, loads of bricked consoles. You know i recall consolers saying they would never jump to PC gaming coz of all the patches and dealing with drivers, consoles just work out the box. Goes to show consoles have kinda lost their way when PC's are turning out to be more simpler/less stressful.

Apart from the damn push pins building my new rig was significantly easier and simpler than all the arsing about with day one patches and updates on a new console, noting my experience with the PS3 that needed a good 5 or 6 huge firmware patches on first boot.

By the sounds of it, hours of updates. You could build a gaming rig and install windows 7 and prob be able to be ready to game online faster then waiting for your CONSOLE to update and be ready. I mean thats still sounds weird to me, "CONSOLE UPDATING"

Took me maybe two hours to fully update windows and everything. It did then take eternity to move all my data around properly but thats because hard drives are terrible.

 

[AstaresPanda]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out.

They've shipped over a million of these things already, so of course some of them will have issues. The only reason it's news at all is because the thing is new and everyone's getting it at the same time. With electronics, a 5% failure rate is considered about the best you can ever manage, so assuming the PS4 is among the most reliable things ever made you'd still expect to see tens of thousands of failure reports. If there was just a steady trickle of occasional reports of problems with new devices no-one would care in the slightest, it just looks like a lot because they're all happening at the same time. Most of the issues appear to simply be due to damage - bent bits of metal, damaged cables, and so on. The majority will have been caused during shipping and storage, with plenty being caused by the customers themselves trying to jam plugs in the wrong way around and so on.

As for day one patches, why would that be a bad thing? The release hardware and software will have been finalised months ago so that the things could actually be ready and in shops. Having a patch ready for when people actually get their hand on them means that Sony have still been using that time to fix and improve things. Unless you expect them to have got every bit of code perfect the first time, which never has happened and never will happen in the entire history of computers, patches are generally good.

No patches are not bad, always good to patch up and make stuff better. BUT its a console, part of the sales pitch is consoles are meant to work right out the box. It shows an incomplete product that they needed ready for the holidays(to me) And some people have been planning on enjoying time with their new consoles but cant coz of either it bricked or waiting around for patches. Either way ive dont recall this much problems with the ps3 or the ps2 launch. Why should it be any different.

 

[Akisa]

Wait, enter safe mode, opening up and replacing parts, is the PS4 a PC? ;p

 

[josemlopes]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out.

They've shipped over a million of these things already, so of course some of them will have issues. The only reason it's news at all is because the thing is new and everyone's getting it at the same time. With electronics, a 5% failure rate is considered about the best you can ever manage, so assuming the PS4 is among the most reliable things ever made you'd still expect to see tens of thousands of failure reports. If there was just a steady trickle of occasional reports of problems with new devices no-one would care in the slightest, it just looks like a lot because they're all happening at the same time. Most of the issues appear to simply be due to damage - bent bits of metal, damaged cables, and so on. The majority will have been caused during shipping and storage, with plenty being caused by the customers themselves trying to jam plugs in the wrong way around and so on.

As for day one patches, why would that be a bad thing? The release hardware and software will have been finalised months ago so that the things could actually be ready and in shops. Having a patch ready for when people actually get their hand on them means that Sony have still been using that time to fix and improve things. Unless you expect them to have got every bit of code perfect the first time, which never has happened and never will happen in the entire history of computers, patches are generally good.

No patches are not bad, always good to patch up and make stuff better. BUT its a console, part of the sales pitch is consoles are meant to work right out the box. It shows an incomplete product that they needed ready for the holidays(to me) And some people have been planning on enjoying time with their new consoles but cant coz of either it bricked or waiting around for patches. Either way ive dont recall this much problems with the ps3 or the ps2 launch. Why should it be any different.

Exactly, the biggest advantage of consoles for the mass consumer is the fact that they are plug and play but with this generation there have been a lot of steps that the user needs to follow to make it work properly somewhat countering their biggest selling point. Remember how all you had to do back then was connect it to the TV and put the game on the tray?

If you have to do all these steps you arent really that far from doing the same on a PC.

 

[AstaresPanda]

Abit shameful. Its very cool of them showing a way to fix it. But come on its just come out.

They've shipped over a million of these things already, so of course some of them will have issues. The only reason it's news at all is because the thing is new and everyone's getting it at the same time. With electronics, a 5% failure rate is considered about the best you can ever manage, so assuming the PS4 is among the most reliable things ever made you'd still expect to see tens of thousands of failure reports. If there was just a steady trickle of occasional reports of problems with new devices no-one would care in the slightest, it just looks like a lot because they're all happening at the same time. Most of the issues appear to simply be due to damage - bent bits of metal, damaged cables, and so on. The majority will have been caused during shipping and storage, with plenty being caused by the customers themselves trying to jam plugs in the wrong way around and so on.

As for day one patches, why would that be a bad thing? The release hardware and software will have been finalised months ago so that the things could actually be ready and in shops. Having a patch ready for when people actually get their hand on them means that Sony have still been using that time to fix and improve things. Unless you expect them to have got every bit of code perfect the first time, which never has happened and never will happen in the entire history of computers, patches are generally good.

No patches are not bad, always good to patch up and make stuff better. BUT its a console, part of the sales pitch is consoles are meant to work right out the box. It shows an incomplete product that they needed ready for the holidays(to me) And some people have been planning on enjoying time with their new consoles but cant coz of either it bricked or waiting around for patches. Either way ive dont recall this much problems with the ps3 or the ps2 launch. Why should it be any different.

Exactly, the biggest advantage of consoles for the mass consumer is the fact that they are plug and play but with this generation there have been a lot of steps that the user needs to follow to make it work properly somewhat countering their biggest selling point. Remember how all you had to do back then was connect it to the TV and put the game on the tray?

If you have to do all these steps you arent really that far from doing the same on a PC.

Yeap and the benefits for pc gamers, you might as well just spend alittle abit more and build a new pc. Lets see.

Games are cheaper on PC, also include a longer life span plus mods (Counter-Strike STILL most played FPS 10years on)
Steam sales.
Im just paying for my internet connection. Nothing more to play games online.
Online community is alot nicer and helpful next to console cousins.
RTS games are only on PC plays best with mouse and keyboard along with FPS.
graphics are better and your pc is easily upgraded to boost if wanted/needed.

Im still not seeing much of a benefit to buying a console this generation.

 

[Akisa]

Wait, enter safe mode, opening up and replacing parts, is the PS4 a PC? ;p

I'm more wondering if this affects the warranty in any way. Normally, tinkering on a brand new console and trying to return it afterwards results in laughter and a gesture involving the middle finger.

Not true, if you ^%$@ enough you can return anything!

 

[Strazdas]

Huh. I'm surprised they didn't offer the idea of whacking it with a big mallet.

No, thats not how you fix Japan things, that method only works for things built in Russia and China. (true story btw, due to poor assembly conditions often some things are left unhinged and hitting the thing pushes it in place and it starts working)

If the rumored Foxconn protest of sabotaging consoles is actually real, and Sony confirms that as the cause of broken PS4s, console makers might have a huge problem later down the line with the xbox and every other item Foxconn makes.

Wait, they did what now? not that it woudl be unexpected considering Fixconn, but that could spell doom for modern electronics (ok, not really, but foxconn does A LOT of stuff)
Also i think its very hard to be the new Xbox360, after all the reports so far arent that numerous in comparison, and Xbox 360 is allegedly 40% failure rate.

I'm guessing at this point, the difference between a Apple Mac user and a Console user is that the console user has to fix it themselves.

Whereas MAc simply does not work by design.

Wait, enter safe mode, opening up and replacing parts, is the PS4 a PC? ;p

Yes, a standartized, underpowered, limited PC with OS that is probably not better than Xbone one.