Sad tale of a PS4 - no video output

[dicky96]

OK guys, firstly I am no expert one these games consoles. I fixed one PS4 slimline last month, which is the first one I ever looked at, but that obviously had a broken HDMI connector so it was just a microsoldering job.

This one is a PS4 Pro. it is two months old, bought from Game

Basically this slipped off a bed and landed on the floor. The only visible damage is to the LAN port. You can insert a LAN cable and it clicks firmly in place but it is a bit tricky to remove.

But since the accident the PS4 has no video output on the HDMI. When I turn it on the power button it lights blue, I hear the HDD spin up sounding normal, the button goes dim-blue-dim-white, and stays white - but I don't get any picture

As I recall this is what the one with a broke HDMI connector did, but this one looks fine.

I haven't opened it up and I suggest the customer attempts to take it back to Game to see if they will change it. She says Game are making it difficult to process the return when she phones the shop where she bought it they were generally unhelpful and said she has to use the website, but she is having problems doing that (I don't know the details)

So what do you guys suggest is the best option?

[stj]

her contract is from the place of purchase - if she got it from a store then that's where to take it back.
people must not tolerate any bullshit from these companies.

[diif]

I can't see Game wanting anything to do with it, with obvious physical damage.
It looks fine externally, but I'd check the connections with a meter.
Two months old from new or second hand ? look at all those scratches.

[dicky96]

No she has the receipt from the shop she bought it new a couple months ago - I already said take it back so I will tell her to try and if they refuse to accept it with the damage to the LAN port (which they probably will even though I don't think that is what causes the blank screen) then I guess I have to open it up and have a look to see if I can fix it.

[diif]

The only reason they would accept that back is if they don't see the damage to the LAN, as they will check the HDMI for damage as the customer is claiming no picture, they are sure to see it. At which point your customer either has to lie and feign ignorance or admit it fell on the floor. Even if somehow Game do accept it, it would be sent off for repair as it's after 30 days. At which point an "expert" looks at it, sees the physical damage and charges an eye watering price for repair.

There's a kiddie somewhere sat lost without his beloved console, save all that unnecessary effort, waiting and ultimately shock and trauma, let your inner hero out make a kiddie happy and crack it open

[dicky96]

OK that is kinda what I thought. It's up to her

[stj]

Game are a place to avoid anyway,
there are lots of vids of people buying "reCONditioned" consoles from them and then doing teardowns.
tronicsfix has done several.

[dicky96]

Well this sat on my shelf for some time until eventually the owner decided she could not be bothered going back to game and asked me to look at it. At the same time the replacement HDMI connectors turned up from AliExpress for another PS4 slimline that I was looking at which had a broken connector. The results are 'interesting'

OK so let's chat about the one with the broken HDMI connector first

This one turned up in the middle of lockdown with a broken HDMI socket. I was able to order parts but seeing as we had no postal service it was a waste of time, so I found a connector on a scrap TV mainboard and used that.

It was slightly different than the original connector, so I had to do a bit of work using the dremel on the HDMI connector to get the mounting pins to fit the PCB as they were too wide. It fitted OKish but I could not get the signal pins to sit properly flush to the board which made fitting it the devils own job. However I did get it to work wit ha lot of cursing and it give a picture. Unfortunately it only lasted a couple of day before some of the soldered joints gave up again so I ordered some proper PS4 slim HDMI sockets

These ones
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3238...77134c4dYaZRtY

When they arrived I fitted one of those. It did not line up with the PCB properly either, the signal pins were slightly offset so they sat directly between the pads on the PCB, but we are talking about a fraction of a millimeter,so but slightly bending the mounting pins I got it to sit right and soldered it just fine. However I no longer got a picture

I checked all the solder joints and they were OK so I couldn't figure out what was wrong now. I ended up cutting an HDMI cable in half and making a breakout board with veroboard and header pins so I could monitor the HDMI signals with the PS4 connected to a TV. To be honest i couldn't make head nor tail of what I was seeing.

I then decided to check continuity from the breakout board back to the HDMI connector on the PS4 board - and discovered it all looked backwards. Like the four shielded pairs of cable were at the wrong end of the socket.

Then I finally figured out what was wrong. Comparing the two PS4 motherboards, the HDMI sockets from Ali Express - despite being sold specifically for PS4 Slim, are upside down!!! DOH! FFS!!


I attached some pics of my lovely microsoldering and the stupid sockets!!! Guess I have to order some more sockets from another seller and do it all again,

I'll put the other PS4 on another post with it's own pics

[dicky96]

So onto the other one

This has a damaged LAN socket. It fell off the bed onto the floor. Since that incident, it poweres on, blue light goes white but no picture (exactly same symptoms as the other one I replaced the HDMI socket on)

So it is clearly booting up.

However the HDMI socket looks fine. Unfortunately it is a slightly different board to the other one and I can't check the pin continuity from the HDMI socket to the PCB, or for that matter how to fit a replacement one of the same type if needed.

The damage to the LAN socket looks physical, not electrical, so I am not at all sure what is wrong with this one

I don't have the experience wit hPS4, these are the only two I ever looked at. Are there some other known likely problems I should check for?

Cheeers

[stj]

a lot of times when people break the hdmi socket on ps4's it blows the hdmi driver chip - from what i have been told.

[stj]

go look on utube for "andrew paul"
https://www.youtube.com/user/lufcfan2004/videos

[diif]

Pro and slim HDMI ports are identical.

Why can't you check the pin continuity ? 8 of the pins go to the filters, 3 to pads to the side of the HDMI encoder, some are ground and the last few are easy to see and trace.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Originally Posted by dicky96

Then I finally figured out what was wrong. Comparing the two PS4 motherboards, the HDMI sockets from Ali Express - despite being sold specifically for PS4 Slim, are upside down!!! DOH! FFS!!

hoho! wow... it looks like whoever made the damn sockets in china couldnt tell a land diagram on the pcb apart from a pinout diagram on the component! that explains why the connectors are upside down! they were looking at the wrong schematic when making the socket!! sigh more chinese noob phails again!

and when things are connected wrongly in electronics, it tends to release the magic smoke and the device no longer works... look like a hdmi chip replacement is also needed like stj said.

[stj]

those mirror sockets are probably for xbox