PS4 Hardware Troubleshooting / Q&A Thread

Had a few scary one-two second freezes/hangs today, mostly when doing like three things- Ie installing/downloading/and playing a game at the same time, and going from the dash back and forth to the game. (BF btw).

Mostly been good, but I guess I'm gonna not push it so hard just because I don't want to risk anything.
 
WhatRobEats said:
Damn, hmm... to roll the dice or not? This was the one I was going to put either in the family room or bedroom unless Vita TV was westernized soon enough for that to be irrelevant.
Click to expand...

You "roll the dice" with every electrical item you buy, normally you don't have a million folk, most of whom are tech savy, posting each step of their personal launch day online.
 
My working PS4 was manufactured at Hongfujin Yantai China in August 2013, from FutureShop.ca Still haven't opened the other one.
 
Would just like to check in and say my Amazon unit is still on and running with zero issues. Been using it non-stop since about 1:30pm EST today; ~ 11 hours playing Killzone and BF4, now Netflix.

Not sure how you see where it was manufactured or whatever, but sorry to hear of the issues some of you are having. Hope you get a replacement super quick and get to enjoy the system with those who have functioning units. It'll be worth the wait! :]


Edit: Manufactured in Hongfujin Yantai China, August 2013
 
thebigmanjosh said:
So I have a console from Hongfujin Yantai China delivered from Amazon and I have been playing it almost nonstop since I got it this morning around 12. It's been updated to 1.5 and turned off to standby once, but should I be worried about turning it off completely or am I in the clear for now?
Click to expand...

Likewise no problems with mine either, but I'm a little worried now. Don't fail me Yantai!
 
Damaniel said:
I tried the vertical orientation trick that people were using to deal with the eject loop, and that fixed the disc insertion problem (I can actually put discs in now). However, the PS4 never tries to read them. The disc drive doesn't spin up, and nothing shows up in the menu for the game I insert. I've tried this with three different games now. I'd call up support but they close in 20 minutes anyway; guess I'll try tomorrow.

(I *really* hope I don't have to send my system back to Sony and wait a week...)
Click to expand...

For those keeping track, my console was a Amazon preorder, made in Hongfujin Yantai China, September 2013. It shipped from the distribution center in Sumner, WA.

(Are these consoles being made anywhere else besides Hongfujin Yantai?)
 
WhatRobEats said:
I checked the OP but didn't see the method for finding out where PS4 was manufactured.

I have a second PS4 that I haven't opened yet that I preordered from Amazon minute 1 after E3. How do I tell if it was manufactured at Hongfujin Yantai China? Can I do it without opening the box? I'd rather just return it straight away without opening it if possible.
Click to expand...

Underneath the console its the sticker under the PS4 symbol. Very small letters.
 
so i guess if your console was assembled by the 1000+ yantai workers that were not happy about their treatment then your ps4 is fucked
 
birdcity said:
Would just like to check in and say my Amazon unit is still on and running with zero issues. Been using it non-stop since about 1:30pm EST today; ~ 11 hours playing Killzone and BF4, now Netflix.

Not sure how you see where it was manufactured or whatever, but sorry to hear of the issues some of you are having. Hope you get a replacement super quick and get to enjoy the system with those who have functioning units. It'll be worth the wait! :]

Edit: How do you find out where it was manufactured?
Click to expand...
Can you check where it shipped from your tracking number please?
 
fade_ said:
Underneath the console its the sticker under the PS4 symbol. Very small letters.
Click to expand...

Thanks, like I said I checked my functional one and it's from the Factory of horrors and manufactured in Sept of 2013 but has been working flawlessly.
 
My system is from the hongfujin yantai china september 2013 batch.

I played for ~4 hours today, in Killzone and Resogun, and fooled around with Amazon Instant Video and Netflix, as well as the Playstation App. No trouble so far, everything ran fantastic and I was really impressed. Hopefully there aren't problems with that entire batch, just a few bad apples.
 
FairXchange said:
Did you properly format it?
Click to expand...
How would I know? It seemed to work, I could pull up the drive in Windows. Is there some kind of special process I have to go through in order to format it properly for the PS4? Like a specific sector size or something? Kind of disappointed that Sony offers no assistance at all for hard drive swaps.
 
Sean said:
So went through the thread to collect data and there's now 19 of us GAFers with broken units from the Hongfujin Yantai China plant, mostly manufactured in September 2013 (three were August), and the majority of which are suffering from the same issue (console arrives DOA - never boots up, just a pulsating blue light aka "BLOD"). Most of us have also purchased from Amazon so there's a clear pattern here:


- This is the same plant with the scandal of 1,000+ chinese students being forced to build PS4's
- Three neogaf users (ckohler, Timan25, alr1ght) have consoles from Hongfujin Yantai China Sept 2013 that are working fine thus far.
- Those who have posted about working units in this thread are mostly listing an August 2013 manufacture date so far (Y2Kev, Loudninja, Duxxy3, Indrid Cold, etc).
- A lot of people are reporting failures but not listing the manufacturer info so they are not counted here.
Click to expand...


Put me in the list of people with a 100% working Sept. 2013 Hongfujin Yantai China PS4. Guess I got lucky?
 
TheOMan said:
what firmware?
Original, now at 1.5

purchased from where?
FutureShop.ca

what is your A/V set up like?
HDMI, Optical Out, Wired Lan

what resolution do you want to output in?
1080p

were you able to get any video signal or none at all?
Video signal would flicker in with snow and then go black intermittently, my guess is the handshake was failing.

can you hear audio?
No

So, the way I "fixed" this was by switching cables (using the Sony provided one) and ports on my tv. Now after doing some experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that my HDMI port 1 and the PS4 do not play nice together.

HDMI Port 1 + Aftermarket HDMI cable == Failure
HDMI Port 1 + Sony HDMI cable == Failure
HDMI Port 2 + Aftermarket HDMI cable == Success
HDMI Port 2 + Sony HDMI cable == Success
HDMI Port 1 + Aftermarket HDMI cable + Receiver == Successful television output

So - I'm not sure why Port 1 works with my receiver but not with the PS4. Also of note is that Port 1 with the Aftermarket HDMI cable was working without issue with my launch PS3.

Please feel free to ask any questions or if you want me to try something else, I'm happy to experiment. Also, if you can explain why port 1 and the PS4 will not work, I'd love to know why.

Oh, the TV being used is a Toshiba Regza, 40 inch, circa 2007 (I think?).
Click to expand...


The TV is from 2009 and the firmware talk made me curious so I went and updated my firmware. HDMI Port 1 now successfully handshakes with the PS4. Everything works now. Anybody with suspected HDMI issues should make sure they are on the latest firmware for their tv.

Edit: I also just confirmed that the latest firmware fixed my 160 GB PS3 flickering issue! Wow!
 
flipswitch said:
Would the PAL models be any different from the US models, such as slightly different internals and manufacturing plant?
Click to expand...

They will be technically a different model, but its too early to say if they are being made elsewhere. I bloody hope so.


Edit: The NSTC model is CUH-1001A. Following the same naming conventions as the PS3 and Vita, the PAL model will be either CUH-1001(B/C/D) or CUH-1001(2/3/4)A.

Considering there is only 14 days in between launches, there is a good chance the PAL consoles were made elsewhere.
 
It's probably a bad batch of one of the components that was used by this particular factory. That would explain why most failures come from there, why they're mostly manufactured the same month, and why at the same time some work and some don't.

The other failures being just the standard rate we can expect.

I can imagine how they just received a certain amount of bad hdmi sockets.
 
Yeah but the bigger problem is all the doa systems with the blue light seems like it won't even give you the opportunity to update
 
My system hasn't arrived yet, but anyone have any rough estimate how big and widespread these problems are? How big is the chance I'm in for one hell of a ride?
 
CyberpunkGod said:
Damn, hate to see so many people having problems, I've luckily been ok thus far (knock on wood) and mine came from Amazon. Here's hoping it holds out and doesn't have any issues in the next few days. Only problem I'm having is trying to get it to work with my Kinivo HDMI switch, sometimes it works flawlessly, sometimes it doesn't.
Click to expand...

Well, I spoke too soon. I'm getting a white light but not getting any video at all now. I can move the PS4 around and it will flicker on and off so I'm guessing I've been struck by the same issue some others are reporting from the Amazon ones. My HDMI port looks perfectly fine on the outside, so maybe it's something internal.
 
I think my console is toasted. I got home from work pretty late but still hooked it up to the TV, turned it on and it worked fine. Next thing I did was apply the update. The update went through til the end and the console turned itself off. After waiting for 5 minutes thinking that the console would reboot by itself I tried pressing the power button but nothing happened. The PS4 didn't react to anything. So I pulled the power cord, put it back in after 30 secs and turned it back on. The LED turns blue but the TV doesn't show anything. I've looked up possible solutions and tried almost everything during the past 2 hours such as getting into safe mode and playing around with the HDMI, nothing happened.
Now its 2:30am and I'm going to hit the sheets, i'll try and see if there's anything I can do to fix it tomorrow. I am really annoyed about this, I read reports in the past days about possible issues but I thought it would never happen to me. Especially since I have a launch 360 and PS3 and never had any problems. How are the chances I get a new PS4 if I return this to Amazon? Do they have a stock of spare replacement units or will I have to wait until March or whatever until they get new stock?
 
So how many different manufacturing plants and batches are there?
I'm guessing they were really pumping them out in the last month or 2, I just wonder how many from this batch are in the wild? What percentage of launch units are from this batch?
 
When I try to start Resogun it says "This application can be started only by a user who has a license for it."

What do I need to do?
 
BrokenEchelon said:
Hope this is a good place to ask, since there's so many topics about the PS4 right now:

Does streaming games seem to hinder your local performance in any way? Frame dips, freezing, slowdown, etc?
Click to expand...

Not that I've experienced.I've streamed while playing Resogun without any perceptible performance loss.
 
kneePat said:
Well...I'm sorry but at this point this is pure FUD.
Click to expand...

Considering all 3 of my Xbox 360`s failed and the rumours from Cboat I think there is a right to be fearful. I guess all this new pc like hardware brings the age old problem of high failure rates. Of the 5 desktop pc`s I purchased, two were doa one failed a year later, one was constantly problematic and one worked :). I am kinda worried now about my ps4 but I kinda understand, they are at the mercy of factories which maybe look ok and initial units are made to look decent but the main production run isn't up to scratch I'm sure if it's that bad, Sony will rectify it.
 
Got mine this evening. This was going to stay in the box until Christmas as a family gift, but now thinking I should probably break the seal and check it out.

I'm in Los Angeles, and my PS4 shipped from the Amazon Warehouse in Phoenix, AZ. Anyone else here in LA get theirs the same way? And is it working/bricked/doa?
 
6vaVvf6.jpg
 
jizzlobber said:
So how many different manufacturing plants and batches are there?
I'm guessing they were really pumping them out in the last month or 2, I just wonder how many from this batch are in the wild? What percentage of launch units are from this batch?
Click to expand...


Well Foxconn have 13 factories in China, but there is no way of telling what is coming from where in terms of percentages.
 
robs99 said:
I think my console is toasted. I got home from work pretty late but still hooked it up to the TV, turned it on and it worked fine. Next thing I did was apply the update. The update went through til the end and the console turned itself off. After waiting for 5 minutes thinking that the console would reboot by itself I tried pressing the power button but nothing happened. The PS4 didn't react to anything. So I pulled the power cord, put it back in after 30 secs and turned it back on. The LED turns blue but the TV doesn't show anything. I've looked up possible solutions and tried almost everything during the past 2 hours such as getting into safe mode and playing around with the HDMI, nothing happened.
Now its 2:30am and I'm going to hit the sheets, i'll try and see if there's anything I can do to fix it tomorrow. I am really annoyed about this, I read reports in the past days about possible issues but I thought it would never happen to me. Especially since I have a launch 360 and PS3 and never had any problems. How are the chances I get a new PS4 if I return this to Amazon? Do they have a stock of spare replacement units or will I have to wait until March or whatever until they get new stock?
Click to expand...

Sorry about your problems. Feel for all of you with duds. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise though? Who knows, ours that have working units could break down a day after the warranty ends while you guys will most likely be getting replacements that are hopefully more reliable.
 
CyberpunkGod said:
Well, I spoke too soon. I'm getting a white light but not getting any video at all now. I can move the PS4 around and it will flicker on and off so I'm guessing I've been struck by the same issue some others are reporting from the Amazon ones. My HDMI port looks perfectly fine on the outside, so maybe it's something internal.
Click to expand...


If you are getting a white light, you are fine. You either just need to change HDMI cable or update your tvs firmware.
 
Just out of curiosity, since removing the HDD has resulted in some activity, has anyone with a failed unit tried swapping in a different hard drive?
 
Are Sony stores replacing consoles with proof of purchase? my disc drive is driving me up a wall, it sounds like nails on a chalkboard every time I put in or eject a disc.
 
Weird that firmware is fixing it for TVs. Wonder if it has to do with the old tv ports being older hdmi 1.2 and doing the handshake with newer ones.
 
aly said:
So what is the general consensus on this? Have there been any official statements or anything?
Click to expand...

Sony did release a statement about hardware failure issues, but they said something like only 0.0004% of systems had problems.

And I tend to believe that, even though I'm angry as all get-out at the moment. I mean, if the number was something like a full 1%....GAF would explode, financial analysts would already be predicting a sharp drop in Sony stock, and the streets would run red with Sony exec blood.

But look at me....my Launch is ruined, my (working) PS4 won't arrive for at least two weeks - realistically three weeks what with Thanksgiving and all - and yet I still just purchased the additional two-year warranty after finishing up my recall order. Yup....I'm a sucker...
 
Got mine, was working fine for many hours. I was watching Netflix and then backed out to play some COD. I didn't realize just backing out of it left Netflix in the background (kept saying Netflix verified as I played).

Played a bit..too long really...then turned off CoD. Shut down the application and realized Netflix was still "up". Went into that to shut it down and as I did, the whole PS4 locked up.

Freaked a bit, did a hard reset, and then re-booted. Seemed fine...turned on a stream on it to watch some guy play NBA 2k4 and the PS4 rebooted itself.

So I'm going to bed and hoping it heals itself haha.

(Amazon PS4, firmware updated fine).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

RTX 5070 | Review Thread
Analysis Hardware  2 3
144
10K
Gubaldo replied
  • Poll
Are Microsoft quitting the console hardware market?
2 3 4 5 6
271
506
Crayon replied
9800X3D review thread
Review Hardware  7 8 9 10 11
500
33K
winjer replied
No quick resume on Switch 2
Opinion Hardware Platform  2 3 4
195
554
damidu replied
[Digital Foundry] Switch 2 Unveiled - Games, Hardware, Specs + More - A DF Direct Special
News Analysis Hardware  2 3
122
6K
Robb replied
Top Bottom