PS4 Woes: HDMI and Blue Light of Death plaguing some launch consoles

[nsane.forums]

It appears that some of the first batch of PS4s are experiencing issues with the HDMI cable and some will refuse to boot having been tagged with the âBlue Light of Death' acronym.

The launch of any console is an exciting time as next generation hardware is generally pushing the boundaries of current technology and is designed to keep consoles relevant for years, if not a decade. Because of the way consoles are designed, typically most of the components are custom, which means there is a lot of room for components to fail, if not properly tested.

The Xbox 360 is likely the most relevant case of new hardware failing as the infamous Red Ring of Death (RROD) was such a pervasive issue, Microsoft took a massive-chargeback to fix the issue. While Microsoft was able to overcome their initial launch woes, it looks like Sony may be about to face similar issues with its newly released PS4.

The current issues seems to be related to the HDMI port, where users are reporting that the screen is flickering, or in severe cases, the console will not turn on and only shows a blue light of death or BLOD for those who like nice acronyms.

It is hard to gauge how widespread the issue is, as we all know the Internet tends to blow things out of proportion to their actual impact. But, a search on Twitter, using the hashtag #PS4broken, pulls up quite a few users who are reporting their console is DOA.

If you check out the reviews of the console on Amazon, it also appears that many users there also are facing issues with their new device.

It’s a tough issue for Sony as negative press at launch, especially before the crucial holiday shopping season, can be devastating to a product. While they will likely work quickly to fix the issues with those units out in consumers hands, admitting the first batch has a fault may have put off a lot of shoppers this year.

Sony has stated that they believed the PS4 incidents mentioned above are isolated. But the complaints about the console have persisted and it appears to be more widespread than Sony may be leading consumers to believe. We have heard of users whose consoles are working fine, so it's certainly not every console, but the problem is likely limited to a single run or manufacturer and we would hedge that Sony is diligently trying to track down the specific location.

Microsoft will be launching its console next week and you can bet that many will be watching closely to see if their console is plagued by any issues like the Xbox360 experienced at its launch.

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[insanedown58]

Ohhh... I bet M$ is already preparing some slogans like "This one still works after 15 Minutes!" or "No weird lights on this one" :lol:

[alaindc]

There is also the red blinking power light problem.

It mean the PS4 overheated, and many users have this.

Who knows, maybe Sony will regret putting the powerbrick IN the console (already smaller than the competition)

[MidnightDistortions]

This isn't anything new, especially since there's always a bad batch. With so many PS4's sold it will seem like the PS4 will run into problems. I don't buy launch day systems for the reason you can't just walk into the store where you bought it to exchange it since most likely the system would be sold out. If there was places where you can get the system repaired for no cost that would be better but you pretty much have to deal with an exchange. Launch day buyers should already know this and i'm pretty sure it has happened with every console. Sony did a better job at this launch then the PS3. I think it took several months before stores had a steady supply of them. I assume Sony tests these consoles before shipping but something could go wrong during the shipping process and make the system brick. Plus not all defects are found during the manufacturing process, iv'e heard of consoles that only work for a month then crap out. It just seems more widespread most likely because of a bad batch of systems that may have been built badly or the shipment wasn't properly secured.