Sony Confirms PlayStation 4 Blue Light Of Death, Offers Troubleshooting Tips

We discussed over the weekend of reported issues with Sony's new PlayStation 4 that has been plaguing some of its not-so-fortunate owners. Dubbed the "Blue Light of Death", the result of turning on the console is reminiscent of the Xbox 360 with its famed "Red Ring of Death" - essentially, a non-functioning console.

For those demanding answers, there's a bit of good news: A Sony representative has posted a detailed how-to of diagnosing a BLOD'd console, along with possible fixes. But, don't get too excited - there are few reports of successful recovery currently.

Sony details the BLOD as when the console is turned on and A) The blue light blinks; B) There's no output to the television; and/or C) The console turns off after the light turns blue (and not white afterwards like in normal operation). The company believes either of these issues can relate to one of four problems: A) TV compatibility; B) Issues with the power supply; C) Issues with the hard drive; and D) Issues with other PS4 hardware.

On the TV front, it's said that updating the firmware (or perhaps even overwriting it) could (I'm sure that's a big 'could') fix the issue - though this is mostly pointed at TVs that might have built-in Internet functionality. Further, it'd be worth testing out the same port that the console is connected to with another device to make sure that it's operational.

To see if the power supply is the culprit, you're encouraged to shut off the console entirely (requiring you to hold down its power button for 7 seconds), and then unplug the cable from the wall. At this point, like the above problem, you should look close at all of the connectors on the back of the console and their cables to make sure that things are a-OK.

With the console turned-off, the hard drive can be inspected. Once again, it's recommended to hold the power button down for 7 seconds to make sure the console is completely off, and then unplug it from the wall. Then the console can lay flat so that the smallest top portion can slide off to the left. This will reveal the hard drive, which you're free to inspect, remove, and reseat. It's mentioned that an improperly-seated hard drive will prevent the console from being turned on.

If none of these solutions work, other tips are given, such as booting the console into Safe Mode to change various parameters to see if you can get further with the boot process, including the ability to reset the console to stock. Otherwise, your last option is to contact official Sony support, while explaining the exact issue. It'd be worth mentioning in the report everything you did to diagnose the issue, in order to help expedite your ticket a little bit faster.

What's unclear at this point is just how widespread the BLOD issue is, but there's little doubt we'll be learning more about that over the next couple of weeks.