PS4 becomes a brick once CMOS battery dies

[Mavrick]

Long story short you need to be able to access Sony servers if/when your battery dies otherwise you can't even play Disc based games.

If you want proof of the #cmos issue with ps4's then heres video. I took out the battery and put the ps4 back together. The result, no physical or digital games work offline without connecting to Sony's server. ALSO may cause game install data corruption
@dark1x

@Dachsjaeger
pt1

https://twitter.com/Forest_Reviews/s...95899982008325

Pt2 After reinstalling Toukiden 2, the same thing happens. Without the #cmos battery installed both Atelier Ryza 2 and Toukiden 2 must connect to the server in order for them to work, even though these are physical disc. gives error CE-30391-6
@dark1x

@Dachsjaeger

@Food4Dogs

https://twitter.com/Forest_Reviews/s...98626124480512

PT3 I decided to connect the #ps4 back to Sony's servers to see if the games would start to work again. It would work but only after logging back into the account. just to recap, this ps4 has no battery installed as I removed it for testing. #cmos #cbomb
@dark1x

@Dachsjaeger

https://twitter.com/Forest_Reviews/s...05384465190912

[supersix4]

Damn maybe I should sell my launch edition

I still have my launch edition ps2,ps3 fat 60, ps4 all still working with boxes but maybe I should cut the ps4 loose.

[Musashi]

I thought Sony distinctly said you can play the PS4 and its games even if it never goes online. Thus I have trouble believing this article.

[Mavrick]

Originally Posted by Musashi

I thought Sony distinctly said you can play the PS4 and its games even if it never goes online. Thus I have trouble believing this article.

Technically the truth. As long as the CMOS battery isn’t dead sure you can because that’s what tracks the date and time when you aren’t connected to the internet so the games licence is validated even when you aren’t connected to the net.

But once that CMOS battery is dead it forgets everything so can’t check your licences with the current date unless you log in online. But as soon as you log out it forgets again.

You can replace the CMOS but then you have to connect to Sony servers to set everything again.

It’s still a ticking time bomb though if you’re someone who likes to keep consoles and revisit them decades from now when there might not be any servers remaining to unlock everything.

[CrowKiller]

Originally Posted by Musashi

I thought Sony distinctly said you can play the PS4 and its games even if it never goes online. Thus I have trouble believing this article.

It's legit. People have even tested it by stimulating what will happen and sure enough. Even effects physical copies, not just digital. It doesn't have to do with being online per say, it's about time/date matching the purchases you made. There's videos out there going into detail about what's going on. PS3 is effected too, although physical copies of PS3 games seem to still work. I wonder if you can replace the battery and connect it to the internet before stuff goes down? Might delay the process another decade or so. Also apparently if you have custom firmware, this isn't an issue. Go figure.

[Derb]

CMOS Battery can be swapped.

You will then need to do 1 of 2 steps.
- Reset clock manually.
- Reset clock through PSN. (Until Servers are Gone forever)

PS5, PS4, PS3 all use a CMOS battery to keep track & time stamp whenever a trophy is unlocked. It’s function is to prevent trophy unlock cheating. All 3 systems will not work without this battery.

[Blaze_Chamberlin]

The tweets are showing up as unavailable.

[Zivouhr]

What a bunch of junk from Sony allowing this flaw to exist. Jerks whoever designed and/or allowed this weakness if it's true that the PS4 will become a brick/unplayable.

Guessing it'll still play blu rays and blu ray 3D.

I'm relieved I have a PS5 that can play PS4 games, or does that also have a hidden weakness that will brick the console too?

I'm not panicking but it sounds corrupt or negligent to allow such a major console busting feature to even exist.

So how long can a clock battery last? 10 years for a watch battery like Timex I know. That gives my PS4 until 2023 of November.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

It is my understanding that on PS3 you can manually reset the internal clock but on PS4 you need to use PSN. Therefore after Sony has shut down their servers PS3 will continue to work just fine but PS4 won't.

Whenever Sony linked Trophies to the CMOS is when consoles became a risk. If you have PS3 trophies & they have an unlocked time & date, that data gets carried over with your personal account from PS3, PSP Go, PS Vita, PS4 & PS5.

I’m not entirely sure when Sony started the link. I do believe it was done during the PS3 era.

[Zivouhr]

If in the next 40 years the console no longer works due to this, that's a bad move by Sony. I still have consoles from the 80s that still work perfectly like my Sega Master System.

Now if the battery is like the kind they put into the NES gold cartridge Legend of Zelda to save games, I think that battery still works after all those years. Or does it?

NES cartridge battery replacement | Memories in 8Bit - YouTube

This is What Happens When Your PS3 CMOS Dies and PSN Service is Gone. (Raw Video Evidence) - HM - YouTube

Here's when the battery is gone in a PS3 apparently.

So if all this is true, then Sony could potentially release a PS4 firmware update to resolve this concern so it doesn't rely on the battery.

Next, how would one replace the battery in a PS4 or PS3?

[Mavrick]

I chuckled

[JurassicBD]

Originally Posted by Musashi

I thought Sony distinctly said you can play the PS4 and its games even if it never goes online. Thus I have trouble believing this article.

If so, we know they haven't honored that claim when most these days arrive incomplete on the disc, requiring a download from the get-go.

The gaming industry has been even more desperate than the movie industry to take control of their properties away from consumers for years. So, it wouldn't be too surprising, if they've built in an effectual expiration for physical too. It's unlikely that by the time that comes there will be enough of us around that actually care to cause them any trouble. Not endorsing digital distribution with our wallets is the ONLY way to ensure these corporations still have to act like they care in 10-20 years.

[Zivouhr]

That's true, they could set up discs so they expire in so many years unless a person gets a subscription to their service to keep their discs activated. That would be very corrupt. But that's pretty much what's happening with digital games in some ways.

For big games, I'll always buy the disc version. For small indie games or arcade type games or PSVR games, digital is sometimes the only option so I buy those versions. Plus PSVR in particular benefits greatly by being digital, keeping you immersed in the headset so you don't have to remove it to search for the next PSVR game disc. It's all in the console already.

But look at the music industry. It's a shadow of its former self in terms of how musicians and rockstars make money. Concerts were their biggest source of income, but now even that's gone. Digital sales are dwindling too, considering anyone can watch/hear a whole new album on youtube a mere day after it's released. The artists themselves release the full album on youtube in a playlist, linking it to commercials.

Okay, I'm way off topic here.

Back on track, I personally can do without trophies, so if there's an option to drop all trophies to keep playing PS4 games on a PS4 and PS3 on PS3, I'd do it tomorrow, since I'm an offline gamer and don't care about trophies much. If that is part of what's causing this potential nightmare for Sony's consoles if this is all real and not BS.

So no word from Sony or Mark Cerny about any of this yet?

[emailking]

Do we have any idea how long, on average, the CMOS battery will take to die? They can last decades now, right?

[CrowKiller]

Looks like Sony is possibly working on a fix, at least for PS4 and PS5. No word on PS3. Although, PS3 is pretty much dead. You can jailbreak that and be fine if the battery dies and is replaced with no way to "check in". At least the PS3 and Vita stores are here to stay for now.

[Vincanws]

I'm sure Sony will figure out a firmware patch to manage the issue.

[Zivouhr]

That's good PS3 can still play discs at least without a battery clock, which is the majority of my games for it other than some digital demos.

Good, Sony needs to figure out how to fix their own design problem so their consoles aren't useless years from now, if they care enough. It'll be a good move if all this is true and they resolve it with updates. Such a useless, unnecessary console breaking glitch to engineer into the PS4 and PS5 possibly. Sony's design team and Mark Cerny aren't as sharp as they might think they are to let something like this slip by.

[CrowKiller]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

PS3 can play disc games without a CMOS battery.

Yeah I know. I meant the situation in general.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by CrowKiller

Looks like Sony is possibly working on a fix, at least for PS4 and PS5. No word on PS3. Although, PS3 is pretty much dead. You can jailbreak that and be fine if the battery dies and is replaced with no way to "check in". At least the PS3 and Vita stores are here to stay for now.

A firmware update could change that though I imagine.

[CrowKiller]

It indeed can. It's already been shown custom firmware, at least on PS3, can make it a nonissue. Not sure Sony cares about PS3 enough to push another update for it to stop it from happening. I got custom firmware on one of my PS3s (mostly offline) and have another one 100% normal with my account tied to it. At least one of them will be okay in the end. lol