PlayStation 4 BLUE LIGHT OF DEATH blamed on power cords, TV sets, butterflies in China Sony has, er, narrowed down the mysterious Blue Light of Death issues plaguing some of its new PlayStation 4 consoles to possible issues with the hardware, software or firmware. The entertainment giant has issued a troubleshooting guide for gamers who have found their $399 (£349) consoles suffering from a nasty case of the …
No doubt Microsoft's box of tricks will have its problems too.
I'm not a fan of either company or any other for that matter, i
just find it strange that a company like SONY, who design
and manufacture their own Hardware should have problems
with an HDMI port...this is their bread and butter isn't it?
In any case i give you upvote, cause i like to think that we're
all winners here.
Seriously... "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" That's their first piece of advice.
Still, at least they have narrowed it down pretty well to one or more of the "hardware, software or firmware". Although in true Sony fashion, their next piece of advice may well be "Sorry guv, you're gonna want to upgrade to the PS 5".
"The PS4 uses a single HDCP encoded HDMI slot to connect to the TV. The TV compatibility issue might be that the HDCP on the TV is out of date or not configured correctly and the firmware update on the TV set may be a HDCP update."
You mean the TV that already works just fine with my BluRay player, PS3, Xbox and Cable TV box?
Surely HDCP should only be active when copy protected content such as a BluRay disc is being displayed?
"Have you tried turning it off and on again?" That's their first piece of advice.
Work tech support for very long and that's ALWAYS your first advice. It seems obvious, but few people try it before they call for help.
c'mon, it's always the user
Not always, but more often than not.
I'll be over here, thanking God that I managed to get promoted away from the hell desk way back when.
0.4% is just the number logged with Sony as faulty - and likely in itself is understated. Thousands more will be returned to vendors, or not yet logged. And yet more will remain unopened until Christmas - likely this is a few percentage points of failures for such widespread complaints...Sony have real issues here.
And then PoSN can't cope either lol. It's not like they were aware of the PS4 launch or anything?!
"0.4% is just the number logged with Sony as faulty - and likely in itself is understated. Thousands more will be returned to vendors, or not yet logged. And yet more will remain unopened until Christmas - likely this is a few percentage points of failures for such widespread complaints...Sony have real issues here."
Okay, I've read comments like this more than once now. The rate of manufacturing defects has nothing whatsoever to do with when the boxes are opened. Nobody is cherrypicking broken-but-unopened PS4s to save them for Christmas. For the people that do end up with a broken PS4 on Christmas, they will probably exchange their hardware at their retailer or Sony at the same rate they are today.
There may indeed be a bump if retailers' returns aren't counted in that 0.4% yet, but waiting until Christmas to open the box will not change the rate at which PS4s are returned. It may increase the absolute number of returns, but there will also be at the same time a corresponding increase in the number of working consoles that are not returned.
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It would be made a lot more interesting by the addition of a single word beginning with the letter 'O', so that it can be reduced to the acronym 'BLOOD'...
So, perhaps Blue Light of Outrageous Death?
Blue Light of Obstreperous Death?
Blue Light of Ominous Death?
Blue Light of Obdurate Death?
Blue Light of Overwhelming Death?
Blue Light of Obfuscating Death?
Blue Light of Odious Death?
Blue Light of Orgiastic Death?
So many weird and wonderful options!
They mean "We didn't sanitize the return we get on the some of the HDMI version and capability requests, so a TV with a bad implementation can cause our console to crash"
Or perhaps they mean "Your TV isn't a Sony. Screw you!" It's probably the former though, where the problem actually is a 'TV compatibility issue'.
Would it be that hard to have couple old school seven segment LCDs to show a two digit numeric code to help pinpoint the issue? They could leave it off when there is no trouble to avoid spoiling the look, or even locate it inside the case. What would that cost, a nickel?
Ah, but that would assume that they *want* you to know details of what's wrong. Except they definitely don't. Not so much as any sort of protection, but rather as an ultra-pragmatic need-to-know doctrine, based on "What do we want the user to be able to fix himself? Nothing? Then nothing is what he needs to know." Simplifying support (one pathway branch instead of 99), avoiding liability (users messing with stuff that might become no longer safe-as-certified) etc. It's just the Brave New World we live in.
I personally preferred that other time when my first computer actually came with schematics (included with the manual) - but hey that's just me...
But at least for the cost of a $10 cable and some free software, you can do some minimal diagnosis yourself of what "check engine" entails.
But I see your point, if that wasn't required by law I'm sure some/most automakers would be happy to keep us ignorant and forced to go to a dealer and pay $100 to find out that the check engine light is a spurious warning from the O2 sensor.
How can you possibly know that without numbers?
As quite clearly with a million consoles sold (not shipped), there will always be problems. The fact is, the vast majority of users have no issues whatsoever.
It's a shame that so may people and writers have no concept of proportion.
I think the issue here is that the previous generation suffered from numerous cock-ups and lapses of QC and attention.
You would have thought after all these years, this time around things would be monitored with a higher level of scrutiny and testing.
But no....
So you really believe when you are shipping a new product in the millions (soon to be 2-3 million with Europe and asia launches) there won't be any failures?
The sad fact is, the few units that do have problems get a much louder voice than they deserve thanks to the internet. Microsoft know this and actively manipulate this. Expect a large % of those problems to be fake.
Having spent several years doing projects with consumer electronics and HDMI I can tell you that it isn't a reliable standard. Everyone has their own opinion about how it should be implemented and the "test tools" don't assure you of compatibility. My technique for getting around this problem is to rent a facility where I can use every product currently in circulation and test as many as possible in the time allowed. However even then you can't be assured that you covered all scenarios, combinations and all products.
The biggest challenge for Sony here is that their own arrogance likely failed them. I know from personal experience that they believe that the way they implement anything (especially HDMI) is the right way and that if anyone else's HDMI doesn't work with their products then it can't be Sony's problem (which is why they say to do a firmware update on the TV).
Seems to me this is the way of things to come. The market drives games console manufacturers to produce hardware as cheaply and quickly as possible in order to meet demand, and as the hardware itself becomes more powerful and complex, it's inevitable that the failure rate will increase.
Microsoft and Sony seem equally plagued by this when releasing any new system, with Nintendo only slightly less affected (apparently less media attention, but from personal experience I've had to self-repair a seldom-used 1st generation Wii twice now for the same fault; failed optical drive). Unless we're willing accept lower volumes of hardware available at launch, and/or higher prices, I don't see the trend changing anytime soon.
I do think it's worth keeping this in perspective, insofar as the relatively small 0.4% of affected units Sony is claiming. Although I'm sure if I were one of the unlucky 4000, I'd take to the internet to voice my frustration. I wonder how many similar complaints went unreported during the www-free 8-bit gaming era, and earlier?
Oh yeh that company that people love to hate ... Microsoft!!!
And yet many will make some random excuse for Sony because they are not Microsoft ... brilliant !!!
It sounds to me like the ps4 is suffering from xbox 360 syndrome ... so lets keep an eye on xbox one issues because the ps5 will likely have them in a few years time.
You gotta love how a reputation once acquired is seldom changed ...
"TV compatibility issues"
My HD TV is about 6 years old and not a sony and I almost bought a PS4. Glad I've waited now because I'm fairly certain I can't upgrade the firmware on my TV and if it didn't work and I was essentially told you need a new TV for a device that might not even do 4K gaming I'd be furious.
This looks like a major screw up on Sonys part and it would take something monumentally bad from Microsoft to top this. It looks like despite being bigger bulkier and worse on paper that the xbox is going to win purely based on PR spin. This bad publicity could damage sony
You could be surprised.... if you had an actual service manual.
ALL recent HD TV's have the power of a small formfactor computer running some kind of Linux variant. Some more recent ones are dual core. There is likely a service port that could be USB under the cover on that TV and you may not know it.
The most recent HDTV's (2-3 Years old) DO have USB and Network firmware upgrade paths as do many Blu-Ray players.
Yes, but how many TV manufacturers actually release firmware updates for old TVs? Or even new ones?
My previous TV had fundamental firmware flaws but no updates were ever released, and eventually it went back as not fit-for-purpose.
My current TV had one firmware update during the first year, and it's had no more at all.
My set-top PVR has had five or six firmware updates over the last four/five years (not sure as they mostly happen by the magic of OTA updates)
TV manufacturers simply don't support older TVs, and barely support new ones! They might work on firmware fixes while it's still on sale, but they drop them like hot potatoes not much longer than a year after they start making them.
Why didn't they do it in the factory?
If I paid £hundreds for a console (a PC essentially) I would damn well expect Sony to do such a basic test themselves. Have you ever bought a PC without the hard drive connected? This level or stupidity just doesn't happen in other industries.
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