[PS4] WARNING: POE Broke my PS4

Hi, frustrated fan here.

TL;DR downloading PoE on my PS4 Pro made my console unusable.

I'm creating this thread because this is indeed a really disappointing circumstance and certainly a financial issue.

Occurred at approximately 10PM EST April 24, 2021.

If you've had a similar issue, I'd like you to contact me about forming a group to settle damages. Thanks for your time in advance, this is unacceptable for a product to damage hardware.

So, I love POE and have played it on and off for years now. Every new update is spectacular. Usually play on PC. Figured, hey, I might give the PS4 version a try. Boy did I choose wrong. Instantly after installing I noticed a significant decrease in all processing. Very akin to when a computer overheats; latency and frame rate is fine, then everything freezes and tries to catch up. Also, all audio files stagger. I did no other action other than install POE. Nothing. I tried other applications after installation and it is certainly not a latency issue, nor is it a specific application issue. It is broad across any game. Also, my PS4 pro is very clean of dust and cool to the touch. I purposely take care to keep my consoles in great shape!
I've tried everything. Rebuilding database after uninstalling (defraging the hard drive), initialized, and initialized along with completely factory resetting/installing the base software over again using a clean external hard drive. Many hours spent on this. How is that possible? Installing POE permanently damaged my console's ability to process information.

The system has only continued to degrade over the past 3 days and now I can't even get past the PlayStation PS logo without needing to re-initialize. And even if I re-initialize, I'm able to use my PS4 but only for about an hour before it starts up with the original symptoms again. It is clear to me that the installation of this game has RUINED a console I cherish and which has helped me stay connected to friends during a painstaking pandemic. Really disappointing.


I know for a fact other people have had this problem on Reddit and can find posts if you need. In my eyes, POE is a product that has permanently damaged my property. One could consider a group of people filing a type of lawsuit. It's no longer usable. GGG is a big company. One I consider to listen to the players, and is very good to them re new updates and bug fixes. A great company, I thought. One of the last good ones. I love the game and love my PS4. POE broke it - and possibly my friends and I's faith in the game.

Also messaged someone directly at GGG and was only met with "sorry, make a support post about it!" Felt like garbage. They also asked me to provide video evidence. Great, could totally do that if the game didnt already break my console. I'm not going to re-download the game only to brick my PS4 further.

Thanks for reading my sob story and I hope this reaches every last PS4 owner as a quick warning before thinking about downloading POE. This will probably be censored in some way.

As someone with a lot of programming experience, I can tell you that simply downloading an update to a PS4 game literally can't break your PS4 (in a hardware way).

Running a game can't break it either, unless there are flaws in the OS, which would be Sony's fault, more than GGG's.

What happened to you was coincidence. Some piece of hardware happened to fail while you were downloading a PoE update.

The fact that ONE other person had a very similar issue doesn't really mean that much.

I searched, like you said, and found ONE thread about this issue, and all the replies on it describe different issues, only the OP described this specific issue.

The game itself has NOTHING to do with the update process -- all that code is written and maintained by Sony.

I'm sorry this happened to you, but it's not a GGG/PoE problem, it's a Sony problem.

Good luck getting support from them if your console is more than a year old.

There was some speculation on the Reddit thread that the problem is actually the HDD.

You could try replacing that and reinstalling new system software from USB, but of course then you risk having an HDD or SSD that you don't need if it turns out the problem was elsewhere.

As someone with also a lot of programming experience, I can tell you that installing an application and having it on your system can absolutely corrupt the operating system, as the two need to function together. Also, an application can absolutely damage hardware. Overheating is a thing and CPU get damaged pretty frequently. I didn't install an update - that happened to other people. I installed the entire game.

It was not coincidence. Things don't just magically happen. It is a new console, and it has been running fine - I would say over performing. Don't get me wrong I love the game. I don't want GGG to get any slander. What I say is accurate and happening to other users. There are many. If it were truly an issue with the operating system, than I would be able to factory reset and reinstall the original system software to get rid of the problem. That isn't the case. Because I've completely wiped it several times and I have also viewed the inside of the console, which is very clean and always in a ventilated area. It is not a Sony problem. I have basically returned it to it's initial state, software wise. I installed the game, then my console started to diminish rapidly. You haven't searched hard enough, either, because if you search for posts similar to mine even on this support you can find other people submitting crash reports to the point where their ps4 continues to degrade until it breaks. It's here.

The initializing and restoring I'm talking about is exactly the process you mention in the final sentence of your reply (reinstalling system software). I've done this 3x. I appreciate your good luck but gonna need more than luck, haha! Thank you for the reply

"

Beashman a écrit :

As someone with also a lot of programming experience, I can tell you that installing an application and having it on your
system can absolutely corrupt the operating system

The OS is not hardware, and having it corrupted has no effect on the hardware.

"

Beashman a écrit :

Also, an application can absolutely damage hardware. Overheating is a thing and CPU get damaged pretty frequently.

Not with modern hardware.

There are protections in the BIOS/EFI that prevent any software -- including the OS -- from issuing any instructions that would cause hardware damage.

And modern CPUs and GPUs both have built-in overheat protection, preventing them from overheating unless there's a pre-existing hardware flaw.

PoE didn't brick your console.

It was coincidence, and you probably need a new drive.

Coincidence of what exactly then? So i can fix that instead.

Also, people burn out their CPU all the time. I know the OS is not hardware, but applications on the hardware can damage it. Pre-existing protections in software including BIOS can absolutely malfunction when an application is not installed properly or is not up to snuff in general. IE a bad port can damage your console by causing errors so things dont close correctly or even forcing shut down, which ultimately causes the system to receive damage. This is well known. It is not a hard drive issue, as I've stated I have used other ones. This is an issue that occurred literal seconds after installing the game.

After all the crashes, blue screens and shit we all went through last year with this game and so far this is the first post iv seen of someones console breaking... sounds like you just got a dud to me.

Literally minutes before downloading the game I was playing other games at near perfect performance and have never had any issues. My Pro is about 2yrs old and it did everything just fine. It's really frustrating to have people respond just rejecting my experience that I have witnessed in real time rather than try to provide solutions. There are others out there that have had severe enough crashes repeatedly from this game that their system becomes unplayable. It's just a fact. Even if there hypothetically is just one other person, that's 2 too many.

I remember way back on my Plsystation 3 I booted up God of War and my PS3 got the "red light of death" never once did I think some game fried my console. There is a certification process mandatory for patches and games for a reason.

Some hardware just fails.

"It's just a fact" lol