PlayStation 4

Original PlayStation 4 Model

This page covers the original PlayStation 4 model which released on November 15, 2013. For pages on other models, see PlayStation 4 Slim, PlayStation 4 Pro, or DualShock 4.

There are 3 different models of the original PlayStation 4:

• 10xxx
• 11xxx
• 12xxx

The 10xxx and 11xxx series are the only ones that have a red LED to signify overheating.12xxx and later models do not have the LED.

This series is also the only one to have a daughter-board inside the disc drive, to the exception of the 12xxx, which has the hardware integrated into the main board itself. The daughterboard has a chip made by Renesas that is married to each console and cannot be swapped. Be Careful!

The last 3 characters signify locale and hard drive size, so they're not applicable to repair.

If you're for in-depth tear down guides for console cleaning/maintenance or just want to know where a part/screw goes, check out the console teardown guides:

• Ps4 10xx Teardown (WIP)

• Ps4 11xx Teardown (WIP)

• PS4 12xx Teardown

There are mainly 8 different kind of faults. Those 8 are Blue light of death (BLOD), Pulsing BLOD (pulsing blue forever), White light of death (WLOD), No light, disk drive issues, hard drive issues, software/firmware issues, and other issues.

Blue Light of Death (BLOD)

The Blue light can tell us many different fault conditions if observed properly. The BLOD is a general term for a blue light upon turning on that shuts off without going to a white light. There can be many sub-manifestations of this. One example is a blue light that does not pulse, that goes off after 6 seconds.

For a BLOD, you will need to time how long the light stays on, any noises, clicks, beeps, and note if the fan does spin or not.

Problem and Solutions

Problem

Solution

2 Second BLOD

Can be caused by bad power supply, dirty or damaged power supply prongs, lifted pads under APU, shorted 12v rail, possibly more? One way to test if it is APU or power supply is to turn it on, and try to turn it on again. If it doesn't respond after first turn on, without unplugging and replugging it into the wall, you most likely have a bad PSU or a shorted 12v rail. If you can turn it on an unlimited amount of times, the APU has an issue.

Power Supply (No power, or BLOD):

If your console does not have any power, or attempts to power up, then shuts off (BLOD), there may be an issue with the power supply. It is helpful to test the 12V output of the power supply to help narrow down console power issues to the power supply itself, or to the main board.

Avoid opening your power supply

When checking your power supply, be mindful that parts of the board will be live at mains (110v-240v) voltages when plugged in, and that there are high voltage capacitors inside that will hold a charge long after the supply is unplugged! Don't electrocute yourself, damage expensive equipment, or burn your home down. Repairs to power supplies are done at your own risk.

Switch mode power supplies

PS4 (and many other) consoles use what is called a 'Switch-mode' or 'Switching' power supply. Here is a generic overview of how these work.

When you can't remove your power supply

Note that when removing the power supply from the console, some models will have screws holding in the power supply from both the top, and from the bottom sides of the console. If you are unable to pull the power supply up and out of the console, you may have missed a screw holding it in from the bottom.

Checking your power supply for 5V and 12V output:

Power supplies for PS4 consoles output two different voltages: a 5V standby voltage, and 12V. If your console attempts to power on, then stops, the 5v standby section of the board may be fine, but there could be an issue with the 12V section. You can check for these voltages with the power supply removed from the console. The supply's output can (and should) be checked without disassembling it.

Checking for 5V standby:

The connector for 5V is a small, white or beige 4 pin connector at one corner of the power supply's board. It has a ground ('GND') pin, a 5V output ('5VSB' ), and an 'ACIN_DET' and an 'ACDC_STBY' pin.

To check for 5v, remove the power supply from your console, and plug it into a wall receptacle. Measure between the 5v and GND pins, and the 'ACDC_DET' and GND pins. There should be about 5V present on both when the supply is plugged in. The pinout of the connector may vary between models. Search for an image of your particular model's main board for the pinout (model numbers are moulded into the power supply shell).

Checking for 12V:

The connector that outputs 12V is the large plug on the bottom of the power supply that plugs into the two large metal blades that come off the console's main board. The power supply will not activate its 12V supply unless it receives a signal to do so. This signal normally comes from the console's main board, but we can tell the power supply to turn on by bridging the 'ACDC_STBY' pin of the connector to the 'ACIN_DET' pin (there should be 5V present on this pin). You can avoid accidentally shorting pins by plugging the wire assembly into the power supply, and bridging pins at the plug instead of the directly at the connector's exposed pins. Bridge the appropriate 2 pins at the plug with a small wire, or fine point tweezers, and probe the 12V connector to see if outputs about 12V.

Pulsing Blue Light of Death

A Pulsing BLOD, signifies a hardware failure that is not terminal to the process. A normal BLOD would shut down, because for example, there is a short on the 12v rail. A Pulsing BLOD, however, is still a severe failure but the console is able to stay running. One example of this is RAM amnesia, in which the RAM does not keep information, but still acts normal otherwise.

UART Method

For more information, take a look at PS4 UART Guide.

For this, you can use the UART method, to listen to the console, and see what it complains about. The pin is a debug pin coming from the syscon/southbridge, that can be accessed via UART.

Firstly, you'll need to dump the flash using a programmer, then you'll need to use BwE's program to change the flag for UART functionality, reflash it, then you have unencrypted information coming out of the debug pin. If this step is not done, you will see nothing, except for a bunch of spaces in serial monitor.

White Light of Death (WLOD)

For more information, take a look at the PlayStation 4 WLOD Repair Guide.

A White light of death, is a console that turns on to a stable white light, but has no output from the HDMI port. Most of the time, this can be attributed to the HDMI circuitry. In some cases, the console can shut down from a white light.

No Light

Some consoles may display no light at all when pressing the power button. Example would be a bad Southbridge causing the console to turn on from controller only, but not the power button.

NL solutions

Problem	Solution
No light & No beep	Test with a known working power supply unit (PSU). Check standby voltage at step down convertor. Southbridge possibly needs to be replaced. Try inserting a disk and see if it turns on.

Disk Drive Issues

Disk drive malfunctions are a general term for a disk drive that is not functioning as intended. Not reading, grinding, no disk feed , and no power are all examples.

Problem	Repair Route
Slow insert or eject	Check the condition of the rollers inside the drive. Over time the rollers can become dirty, get stuck, or wear down. Check the tension spring underneath the rollers. If the spring is not providing enough tension the rollers will slip on the disc.
Does not take disc	Before anything, check the cables connection. Check fuses first. some model like CUH-10XX or CUH-11XX comes with daughterboard for disc drive control, check the fuse label i.e F203, F201 on the daughter board with multimeter for continuity. Check the motor inside disc drive The easiest way to tell for the rolling motor goes bad is check resistance of the motor two big pins/legs. If the resistance is around 10ohm, meaning motor should be good. Most case when motor go bad, you have about Mega ohm or Kilo ohm normally.

Hard Drive Issues

Issues that signify a dead or failing hard drive. Examples are: freezing in home menu, crashing when loading games, games taking very long to load, very long boot up time with black screen after PlayStation logo, very long hard drive check time.

HDD can be removed and tested for faults (e.g. failing sectors) on a computer with software such as GSmartControl, CrystalDiskInfo, DriveDx, or HDDScan. If the "Reallocated Sector Count" and/or "Current Pending Sector Count" are non-zero, the drive is failing and should be replaced.

Software/Firmware Issues

Anything to do with software, like error codes, problems with update, etc. Example would be a CE-34878-0 error caused by failing RAM modules.

Prefixes:

SU = Software Update

CE = General error

Error Codes

Problem	Solution
CE-35888-2 upon starting game	Mismatched disc drive daughterboard, blown fuses on daughterboard/motherboard, failing hard drive, and broken ribbon cable from disc drive to motherboard.
CE-34878-0 during game or starting game	Only a concern if accompanied by graphical glitches, or if it happens profusely, and on all games. Caused by bad ram modules, bad hard drive, and sometimes bad APU.
SU-42118-6	Renesas communication failure. Most likely caused by blown fuses, bad disc drive parts, bad ribbon cable from daughterboard to motherboard, failing hard drive, and sometimes bad Renesas chip, which is married unfortunately.

Bluetooth/Wi-Fi module

Problem	Solution
Bluetooth/Wi-Fi module, Controller to work in safe mode, but not be able to sync in boot.	Replace Bluetooth/Wi-Fi module, it is desirable to replace it with an identical one, if you do not have an identical one you can use another one (from the same series of consoles, fat to fat, slim to slim), in that case after replacement Bluetooth/Wi-Fi the console must be updated (basically the drivers from for new module to install ).

USB Issues

This is for USB related issues

Problem	Solution
Controller wont connect over USB normally or in safe mode however other USB devices such as flash drives work fine	Replace southbridge
"Too many USB devices connected" or does not respond to any USB device	Check ports for debris, dust tends to get pushed in and prevent a connection, pins sometimes get damaged Check differential pair filters CUH1000/1100 Replace USB HUB IC GL3520 CUH1200 Replace southbridge