Red Line Of Death A PS4 Overheat Warning?

[dlevere]

By Christian Williams

A photo has surfaced showing a demo PS4 console overheating and displaying what has been dubbed “the red line of death.” The picture was taken at a PS4 event in Spain and posted by Elotrolado member Homer J. Simpson in his report of the event. Here are his complete updated comments (translated from Spanish)…

“In terms of sound, practically none, you can hear the fan if you listened closely but nothing exaggerated. they had ventilated consoles and others put in enclosures completely closed that were running from 9am without stopping (we got there at 18:00 in the evening). they were running fine and were quite warm on the surface but nothing like our current generation consoles.

The only exception to that was one console that was completely enclosed in an acrylic case , it was showing a red light (where there would typically be a blue light) and there was a message on the screen that said the console’s temperature was too high. the Acrylic case was opened and within minutes the error message went away and the light went back to its normal color.

These consoles were test units, they seemed fully capable in every way.”



UPDATE

Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida has responded to our article via Twitter.

@JoshEldridge016 not true

— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) October 15, 2013

We’re not entirely sure why he would deem the story “not true” since there is photographic proof. Maybe only devkit models of the PS4 contain the temperature monitoring features. We stand by this story and, hopefully, there will be further updates forthcoming.

[dlevere]

No death here

By Tuffcub

A PlayStation 4 has been pictured at a Sony event, allegedly overheating and displaying a red line down the console and a warning message on screen.

“It had a red light (where the typical blue LED light) and had a message on the screen saying that the console had a very high temperature,” explains an eyewitness “The security case was opened and in two seconds the error message was removed and the light had returned to its normal color.”

Some have described this as “The Red Line Of Death”, which it clearly is not, as the console recovered quite quickly once it had some air.

The red line and message seem like an excellent fail-safe mechanism, warning that your console is getting too hot before any damage occurs.

There is absolutely no indication that this is a production problem with the PS4, most things will overheat and turn red when placed in a small glass box. In fact, we are testing this theory right now.

[dlevere]

New PS4 Freezing Video Surfaces

This video and other similar incidents imply system has stability issues, and this is a situation Sony needs to address soon.

By Ryan Parreno on 17th Oct, 2013

Footage of PS4 freezing, apparently after heating up while running, has popped up online. The video comes from a French outlet called Gamekyo on live stream, while they are demonstrating the game Knack.

It is a brief minute and a half video, showing two presenters talking while a cut scene from the game plays out. At this point, the system is off screen, and has apparently been opened up. One presenter notices that the system is emitting heat and places his hands near it, and the other does the same and concurs. They talk to a Sony person off screen, and then go on a few more seconds like nothing happened.

And then, close to the middle of it, the game starts freezing. One presenter takes a long glance at the system, and then glances to the screen. The game starts moving again, but the framerate dips completely. They try to go home, and then enter back in, but this does not fix the problem. Finally, they leave the game completely and reenter, and this is where the clip ends.

A few days ago, when the Red Line of Death issue 1st came up, Shuhei Yoshida was asked about it and he curtly replied it was not true.

@JoshEldridge016 not true
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) October 15, 2013

Unfortunately, the phrasing of the question and the answer was such that the issue wasn’t really completely addressed. While it’s become clear that the PlayStation 4’s red light is not some Red Line of Death, it was an incident where the system overheated, and now we're seeing a similar incident caught on video.

Even if we accept that this is a demo unit, and there may be bugs in the game being used to demo it, we are still seeing overheating going on. Sony needs to address this as a legitimate concern and give an explanation on what has been happening on these demos, lest a PR disaster catches up to them right before the system's launch.

UPDATE: Gamekyo's Twitter account responded to concerns raised by this video. We're embedding the tweets for you to read verbatim below.

@elkewedi The PS4 was actually placed in a box under the TV. There was heat going out from the box, but the PS4 seemed to be OK.— Gamekyo : blogs (@gamekyoblog) October 17, 2013

@elkewedi the PS4 seems to have a good ventilation system, the environment becomes very hot though if it's in a closed box.— Gamekyo : blogs (@gamekyoblog) October 17, 2013

[MathUser]

RLOD? More like Red Line Of Overheating. The console didn't die.