HOW TO: Diagnose the PS4 Blue Light of Death + Bonus Rant on BGA Reworking 

Great to see you back Andrew, you really are the only one I would trust 100% on fixing and repair work tutorials.

Welcome back and congrats on your new addition :) I have been digging around the NOR dumps of a few constant BLoD systems and have seen corruption in about 70% of them so far - Sadly it has corrupted the data at critical points that cannot be copied over from another dump. So minor SMD component donors they have become :( I have done probably 10% of them via reball and the other 20% I am yet to figure out - There may be corruption of the NOR but maybe only a byte or 2 out so not as obvious to see. I have had a few 12xx series come through me now and again am seeing the top left pad oxidised. A couple were No Sync issues (NOR Corruption) and 1 was a bad PSU (Was actually a leaking electrolytic causing this problem)

I shorted a power rail by misaligning the blue ray drive connector. In the process, it took one of the fuse near the SATA controller (F5101). Symptoms were a 4 to 5 second BLOD (click, blue light for 4-5sec, click). Changing the fuse fixed it. I thought it might be worth sharing.

Congratulations and great video as usual and thanks for always replying to my questions.

Massive congrats on becoming a father. Great to see you back again, your video have been a great source of inspiration for me enter into the world of bga rework. I am looking forward to the learning curve that will be involved with reballing. Keep the videos coming.

Thanks for all your videos. I had the permant BLOD. It was sold to me as a WLOD. I replaced the HDMI chip by following your video and got lucky and the washer fix worked for the BLOD. It has lasted nearly 2 years and only cost me about £90. It has seen out all the games I wanted to play so can't moan. Wierd thing is that after being left for a while, I power it on and get BLOD first time but every time I power cycle it again it works no problem. Please keep it up.

Great video...i love it...thanks for sharing your experience 👍

Thanks for the informative video, Andrew. My PS4 has a short BLOD (couple of seconds, fan doesn't spin) UNLESS I apply pressure on the GPU, then it becomes the "endless" BLOD. It's a fun project so I am getting ready for an APU reball (I have like 30% chances of doing that right with my equipment). I couldn't find anything obvious on the board. I know the PSU is ok - rails are ok and it's the MB telling it to shutdown and not vice-versa. Do you have a gut feeling about that?

Thank you mate for this video,i subscribe and liked u,good luck forward !!!

the genius is back

good to see you back buddy.

My console beeps 3 times and has the blod every time time I turn it on and it will stay with blod until I hold the power for 8 secs or so. Any ideas on what can be causing this?

Once again great vide

Hi Andrew! What results do you have with blue light from the PS4 model 2016 or 2116? any video with these models of ps4? thank you already

Congrats on the new addition, I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us. Well done you, I am excited for the future of your channel.

hey mate. i believe that the 6 second blod can be caused by something else broken on the board as well. I know for sure it can be cause by improperly soldered syscon chip. it happened to me once when i had one pad unsoldered. right now i am trying to restore a scrap sab-001 board because i have a set of working chips which need a donor board. the board had one pad damaged which i repaired using unleaded solder, wire and solder mask so i believe it should hold quite well. i also found some missing components near apu. the fan was not working at all in the beginning so i replaced the SB. now the fan moves a little when powering up. the ps4 searches for files on the hdd and then just cuts off after 5.50 seconds. now i am thinking as you said it might be syscon related. however i just took the chips down from a working board with error su-30645-8. the syscon is properly soldered so it means that if this is the case, there can be a problem on the board as well as i have. probably the communication with the syscon can't be properly made because of who knows what reason. i am trying to figure this out since i need the board, but without any luck til now.

hi guys . i need some help. recently got a ps4 which has constant(infinite) blue light of death due to lightning strike. i have checked almost everything in my knowledge but need some expert advise to diagnose the problem. list for what i have checked yet replace psu checked all 8 hdmi fuses checked other fuses on board marked with F or Th. i noticed one thing that as the console start the red light of optical audio port on for 1 sec then off. sorry for my bad English help me please thanks in advance...

Hello I'll have a question for you I'll try to turn my PS4 it came on for a second and then it turned off but I'll heard a pop sound and now it's dead I'll have no power nothing what should I'll do to fix it

After jailbreaking the Ps4. It turned the display off and It was displaying white light for too long then I turned it off. When i turned it on, it was blinking blue light. How to fix this. Can this be caused by control unit?

Hey there, I have a ps4 that will play normal from anywhere to 1 minute, up to 6 hours, but randomly shut itself off. I have tried a new hdd and new software installs. I have cleaned and reset ed the power supply and fans. What are some of the next steps I should take to try to get this fixed? Would it be an apu issue acting so randomly? Most hardware problems I woukd think would be continuous and repeatable.. This one makes it seem as though there's a short somewhere, or could it be a heat issue? The fan spins normal from what I can tell and the outside if the system doesn't seem too old warm. I'm just wondering if this is something I can try to fix or should I just move on. Any help or advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

I've got a PS4 with Beep - Click - Half Pulse Blue Light and off.. But sometimes the ps4 turns on and i can play with it.. Bad PSU?

hello friend, I write to you from an electronic technical service in spain, we are currently doing reballing to first generation PS4 consoles, CUH1000 but with the CUH1216A we can not fix the blue light fault, we are doing the reballing with the same machine that we do for the rest of consoles and with the same profile, but we can not repair the BLOD, could you tell us that it usually causes this damage in these consoles? this fault has occurred in several consoles and we can not repair them with reballing, thanks

I have 2 1001a units and one long blue lights, clicks and goes off. the other one did the same thing but after putting pressure on the one edge of the CPU (through washers) it has been working for YEARS now. no issues. I suspect the broken one I have just needs a Reball but I do not have a way to do that myself.

I would love your input please. I have a slim 21xx with sae-004 board. It turns on 1 second and off. The power supply is perfectly ok. I saw this video and i understand it must be apu, but what i would like to mention is the apu mosfets are never turned on. There is 12v on the input side coil though during the 1 second ON time. Southbridge? I checked all capacitors and fuses on the board nothing is shorted.

Myn wil go on mayby after 12hr what is problem

If i try a bga refloww...what you would recommend max temperature? I heard betwenn 120 - 160 c ...its better to try first 120 c and if its not work you reflow again 10 or 5 degrees higher step by step? Thanks for help... 🙂

hey Andrew. love your videos! you are a very smart repair tech! I was just wondering if this applies to the cuh-1215a ps4s, or if you have fixed any? I have a couple here that start to pulse a blue light, fan spins up and they shut off completely after 2-3 seconds. no signs of physical damage. and have tried know working power supplies with no change

Reballing APU is can be a permanent fix? PS3 / 360 / laptops Reball = 1-6 months / reflow = 9-12 months. You have any PS4's come back after reball????

are you willing to fix my ps4 for a video of yours? i have tried everything and cant seem to get it to work at all. ps4 turns on for 5 seconds then turns off. i have tried new power supply .tried the whole book except the real fixes witch needs reballing

ok i need help for me m ps4 slim has working fine but when it showed the home screen of the accounts it frozze and woudnt move then i switched on another controller but it was still frozen then it went black and got the blod any ideas?

i have blod the one were you cannot cicle it once you do it but before i put some force in the top and it worked but i had to reset it and the it got fucked again im confused help

Spi ROM scripting would be interesting done other devices but not the PS4 like editing corrupt sectors ... Congratulations on the new addition 😀

Hi, friend. I have a big problem with this ps4 fat sac001. It is flashing blue light, it does not show anything through the uart port, I have changed the south bridge and it remains the same, I have also changed the RT5069A start regulator because I am missing 3.3V in the capacitor that I sent in the photo. Could you help me? I can't get it to show anything through uart and it is essential to know what type of damage it has.

i gotta ps4 yesterday but its a blod will a new board fix it

With you all the way, thanks for all your help. I hope to be doing my first ps3 hdmi replacement when all my rework and soldering materials come in and I will be following your vid step by step. Thanks again keep up the good work.

Hey Andrew, I've watched a lot of you Videos trying to repair my PS4. I got it cheep with a constant BLOD. Seems that the previous owner ripped out the power connector for the disk drive, that I've managed to repair, but the data cable connector on the MB also took some damage so my concern is that the data connection is not stable . Could this be the problem? I also tried putting pressure on the APU, doesn't seem to help so my guess is that the APU is fine. Also checked the HDMI Port and any other chips on the MB, they seem to be fine. Would the "broken" disk drive connection be the source of the BLOD?

nice video... and keep fighting

congratulations bro!! keep up the good work and great video :)

Andrew genial haces tu trabajo un saludo desde España eres grande👍👍👍👍👌

Hi Paul! iike you say in blue light "it can be ANYTHING!" I have a SAE-003 ... I turn on .. blue light .. and then about 20 seconds it turn off without any beep...It is a pain in my a... !! :) i try another power suply but is the same, i dont find any short in the board, it was working on netflix and turn off witout any reason!

so i have a system in my shop right now that has what i suppose is a constant pulsing BLOD ( i havent noticed it to turn back off on its own) i suspect the APU or southbridge but have also noticed i have no power to the USB ports nor to the HDD. any thoughts off the top of your head to save me some time? the system was a victim of last nights thunderstorm, it caused a power surge of some sort that killed also their soundbar and a couple other things.

The 1215a models started to come in... seen a lot of these with the power supplies going up and ones where they just randomly shut off for no reason.. and its not a power supply issue.

Do you think in the case of Ps4 it is only possible or not at all to reball big chip with heatgun or NO. DON'T WORRY, I'M JUST INFORMING. i KNOW BUT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHY IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REBALL IT WITH HEATGUN, THE REASONS? is it precision, heat, distance of heatgun? In the case of the ps4 i told you about, dead BLOD, is it a big risk to try heatgun or you are gonna tell me to NEVER REBALL WITH HEATGUN AND WHY? I Know if the chip is dead it's a waste of time but just if not? Thank and keep your good info.

Great channel

what happened to me is I couldn't get any video (constant blue pulse), was able to boot into safe mode and update the software from Sony. then I had video, started playing Madden, and then about 30 min into playing, video vanished, and then this weird constant siren like noise started sounding off. I tapped the top of the PS4 ad the sound went away and from there on out, no video and can't boot into safe mode. just constant blue pulse. hard drive issue? or just get a new PS4?

Hi Andrew! I have constant BLOD blinking and will not go into safe mode. But randomly sometimes the system does go into safe mode. It will reinstall the software on the hard drive and I even managed to get into the system. Once I tried to switch USB ports (movement) the system stopped showing the picture. Feels like something is loose or not connecting properly. Do you have any tips?

my mate has a PS4 and it was stuck on system storage and its happened about 3 times and he put the framework back on it and it keeps going back to system storage is there a way fixing that or he needs a new console. thank you for your help

I have owned my PS4 for 1 year and the previous two owners who played this thing nonstop from the day it was bought in 2013 and a month ago my PS4 started with issues, first it randomly shut off and then I turned it back on and it booted up and did the same thing again, only when I turned on it said it needed the latest update. So I thought I could squeeze by with out following those instructions and it booted back up and ran for 3 mins. And then wouldn’t turn back on, so I thought it over heated and disassembled it to replace thermal paste and found legit dryer lint in the heat sync and then cleaned and replaced thermal paste. After that I reassembled the PS4 and turned it back on and it booted up like normal and after an hour or 2 it shut off randomly and since then after I’ve let it sit it would turn on for 5-10 mins and then shut off randomly. After it shut off it would BLOD(the infinite blue)and now it constantly BLODs so I am going to get a new PS4. (Edit) if this helps, the screen would glitch out first and then it shuts off, the first time it acted up it said the database was corrupt so I rebuilt the database from safe mode.

my ps4 turns on for about 3to4 seconds then beeps 3 times and turns off, would you have any idea what it could be?

got a strange one here, psu fault symptoms (need to remove lead and plug back in after 1 second blue light). It is not the psu, apu, southbridge or any of the fuses.

So I've been having a weird variant of the second type of BLOD you mentioned in the video, where any attempt to wake the ps4 from sleep mode or turn it on normally gives you the pulsing lights indefinitely. But I am able to get it into safe mode and restart it through there if I unplug it or hold the power button for like 30 seconds and then wait around a minute for it to completely discharge electricity. But what I find really odd is that the ps4 sometimes starts normally if it's only been in rest mode for for a few hours, but will always require unplugging and restarting through safe mode to turn on if left alone for an extended period.

Mine turns on shows ps4 logo thenit goes away like it should but then jus stays on a blank screen and blue light just flashes on and off and does so for a while and shuts off after like 5/10 mins

Would the PS4s that turn on for only half a second click and turn off probably be APU related? The power supply has been confirmed to not be the issue. Just curious if reballing is the best option and if it's pretty much the same as the 1-2 second blue light units or if you've come across some and that almost immediate shut off is related to something else.

Could you help me with a problem with the PS4 I turn it on it goes straight back off then no power at all I have to unplug it to get the power back what could be the problem

Hy guys, my PS4 PRO is with BLOD for 50 seconds and shutdown, help me please..

Hey Andrew, I was wondering at what temperature and air flow settings do you work with when doing SMD rework?

I think the most common source of this fault could be due to drop damage of the PS4 unit, either accidentally or in a fit of rage during a COD multiplayer match where you're being pwned. Could this cause the mainboard to momentarily flex, causing the connections under the APU to become prone to issues? As you say though, it could also simply be due unlucky random fault due to manufacturing that got through QA. I'm also wondering if APU faults could also be due to overheat issues. I've often seen friends and family with a PS4 placed under the TV on top of another hot device such as a satellite set-up box or DVD player etc, or even on the carpeted floor. When churning out graphic-intensive visuals in a game that's putting the APU through its paces, a lot of heat is generated. If the PS4 is in a poorly ventilated position on top of another hot device or on a soft surface where it can gather dust that blocks vents, it's going to get hotter than normal and maybe the APU connections under the chip become more prone to damage or misconnects? What do you think? Moral of the story is everyone should situate their consoles on hard surfaces with plenty of space around any vents and not on soft surfaces or other hot devices.

Hi Paul, it's good to have you back, I'm always watching your videos, and congratulations on your new addition too! (",) I was wondering if you might be able to help me with an issue I'm having with a 1216A model PS4? This particular console arrived to me with a "switching itself off in standby mode" issue, the console powers up fine, and stays on quite happily for hours, but if you put the console in standby mode, and then try to power it up, it instantly turns itself off, (and then of course tells you off when restarting it for not powering the console off correctly), you also have to disconnect the power supply for several seconds or the console remains "dead" when you try to power it back up. So far I have replaced the console's PSU with a (known to be healthy) one, which (surprisingly) made no difference, so I reballed the APU chip, (just in case the issue was being caused by bad solder connections), but this also made no difference, it still turns itself off when attempting to bring it back out of standby mode, do you have any idea what else I can try? I would really appreciate any advice you can give mate (",)

Used an infrared camara and one of the ram chips do but heat up near the apu can this be my problem?

Also looking forward to the video on flash corruption. Awesome work

Hi Andrew do you have any idea what can be wrong with ps4 totally dead?no sign of life t all i replaced power supply but no luck any advice will be greatly appreciated.

after reballing apu still stucks in blue light blinking plz help me 🙁

I have the constant blue light of death, yet I can turn it off using the power button. Good sign? Could simply reballing the APU solve the issue?

hey can you do one for 2020

One question, what if my PS4 blinks for around 10 seconds while the fan sounds like a jet, then turns off?

I have a model: adp-240cr. My console powers on for half a second, shows a blue light and beeps, then powers off and will not cycle again until I unplug and reconnect the console. I have tested the psu and it seems well. If I leave the console unplugged overnight it power in and play fine, but if I power it off or go into rest mode it will not reboot. Does this seem to be an apu issue?

do you do ps3's Andrew? got a ylod..power supply OK. think it needs reballing. are you anywhere near scarborough

My PS4 pulses blue for like 8 seconds then goes to a white light and it sometimes gets audio but no video what should I do

thanks again for the vid and congrats on the new baby. is that your new work place (mates garage)? looks nice anyway. quick question please, a ps4 that only shows picture at 480p and pixelates or black screen above 480, is that ic issue?

Hey Andrew; I've got a weird affliction in a PS4 I'm working on; it had a faulty HDD causing neverending BLOD and I played about 4 hours of a game after replacing the HDD. Fast forward to today (it's been sitting about a week) and I powered the system on, fiddled with menus for a little bit and the screen crashed (solid blue background with coloured lines running up and down the screen), the audio crashed (constant loud beep through my speakers), the controller powered off however the system stayed powered on with a white light. It powered off normally but then wouldn't reboot, just a constant BLOD. Sometimes I can get it to boot normally, sometimes I can boot into safe mode and restart the system and sometimes it doesn't do a damn thing except the constant BLOD. Forgot to mention, at one point when I had the BLOD I applied pressure to the casing above the APU and it started to boot until I removed the pressure, then it crashed again. And when it booted normally it displayed for about a minute or so before crashing again. Have you any ideas of what I should look for? Thanks in advance.

I find it most difficult to solve the blinking BLOD's. WLOD's easy and can always be solved. But with the blinking blue light of deaths, it is another issue. The nicest ones, are the ones which dropped when the console was turned on. I found out that you absolutely need another ps4 motherboard of the same type, which is working. And then it comes down to comparing, comparing, comparing, endlessly...... And when you have found the defective component, it is not the only component which is defective. I try to find out, what actually really happens when a console which is on, what happens when you drop it. Somehow voltages will peak and damage several components, especially voltage regulators. What is your opinion about blinking BLOD's and how to deal with them ? Of course, reballing the APU and southbridge is the first thing to do and of course with replacing only HDMI connectors, the most easy money can be earned. It is defenitely true, that blinking BLOD's are the most time consuming, when you want to solve them. But, when we learn, we can reduce that amount of time.

Bro i have ps4 original blue light of death. 👍 What is the reson???

Hi Andrew, good to see you back! Hope all is well, with the new addition too the family :) I have a strange one here, it's a 2 sec BLOD, however, there is no 'click'. There is a beep, blue light for 2 seconds, then off, no click. tried reballing APU, no change. Have you ever seen this before?

Thank you so much for helping Please can you advice me with SU-39176-6 wile install new hdd with last frameware , i changed 5 hdd and with deferent usb update

Hello Andrew, I have a strange BLOD ps4, namely it switches off (with hdd click) after 5 seconds. The shortes time I have measured with stopwatch was 4.87 seconds every time. Model number is CUH-1116A with SAB-001 mobo. Did standard troubleshooting in beginning with taking out hard drive, replaced PSU, but it's mobo related. Also when I checked the fan behaviour, the fan only moves a little bit the first let's say 0.1 seconds, then nothing. Checked fuses (all ok), reflowed Southbridge chip, but that did not fix the problem. This is the first time I got a 5 second BLOD. In your case, what would you do to continue with ? Should I check components in the surrounding of the Southbridge chip ? Or install a new Southbridge chip ?

can't wait for all the horrors we'll be facing when the "Next Next Gen" consoles come rolling into the store. We've just begun scratching the surface of these first "Next Gen" consoles...and soon we'll have a whole new set of headaches and rabbit holes to deal with. Glad to see you back mate! Congratulations on the new family member and the new house. whatever room you're in looks like a nice workplace environment for you 😁.

no bga cpu socket

Are you in an interrogation room?

Hi Andrew, thought this might interest you, and you may be able to help me.... I have a PS4 which was "squashed" somehow and had the BLoD, but it now powers up fine after a reball, and works great in every aspect, but, sound output in the standard factory setting "linear" mode doesn't work at all, (ouput in "DTS" and "Dolby" work fine though, strangely), do you have any ideas what might be causing this fault and if it's fixable? I've searched through your videos and online too but can't find a thing to point me in the right direction, so any advice you could give will be much appreciated mate (",)

Had a weird one this week. PS4 Slim would give blue light for about 20 second, fan would only give a quick spin then stop, then power off. Tried power supply and fan but no dice. Disconnected the Main ribbon from the blu ray drive and the fan stayed on? Reconnected it and put it all back together and it just started working fine. Proper bizarre

Hi, when i plug in the ps4 i get a solid blue light but nothing is working, no fan spin and no hdd spin, also it won’t turn off with the button no matter how long i keep it pressed in.any ideas?.

I have a PS4 that comes on and plays games and does everything normally,except for glitches or white dots or different color dots throughout the screen only when playing a game or videos any ideas?

i had 4 of those with constant BLOD, fixed two: one with APU the other with the Samsung Ram near the SB

Damm the hard reality that my ps4 is most likely dead forever. The blinking blue light of death really got the best of me.

Any chance you could fix my ps4? (Wlod) tnx

Hi what do you charge for repair of apu ps4

My ps4 stays blinking blue 4EVAR!!

you are cool 😎

Hey My blue light just came on today and I can’t figure out why. I’ve tried to put it into safe mode but it won’t and just shuts off. When I hold the button I only get one beep that comes after holding for like 15 sec. and then shuts off. I’ve checked all my cords and everything is fine. Please help if you can.

Hello, thank you for the help you bring to the comunity thish should be an positive example for others. I would really appreciate if you could make a video or help me understand how to repair broken pads on ps4 or ps3, xbox etc. Thank you

Are still making new content or have you stopped now??2019

How do I contact you buddy ??

Andy did you take down a ps4 controller video? Congrats on the baby.

Bro do you solved ps4 slim pulsing blod?

yeah, i repair electronics for a living i have seen some interesting ps4 issues lately i have seen a lot of southbridge problems recently i had one that wouldn't boot up at all tried changing the power supply and it did nothing..replaced the southbridge and the thing booted up perfectly...oh i wanted to ask you what are you thoughts on using .50mm solder balls instead of .55 mm on the APU? i have had other repair guys suggest the .50mm i am just hesitant...oh one last thing i made a small video on creating a replacement drive for an xbox one without the original was hoping you would check it out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VIUCMN2qJn0.html i know you have shown how to scan an XBONE HDD for errors but with this you should be able to make them from scratch...helped me salvage a few XBONES i picked up for parts

im freaking deal with the 2nd uncharted conole blue light issie come on then off wtf sony

Hi my friend best of the best with returning

Where is the usb fix video

Hi Andrew are you from north cheers sounds Yorkshire lol

spanish please