PS4 loses date/time settings every time

[Dannyx]

Good day folks. Pretty difficult problem here and I was hoping those more knowledgeable with consoles can provide some input, since the internet was of no help and I couldn't find this issue anywhere else, plus I haven't exactly messed around with PSs before: I've got this PS4 (slim?) here which can't hold on to its date and time settings. It loses them as soon as you remove mains power, like a cheap digital clock when it's unplugged. If you leave it plugged in, everything's fine. Checked and replaced the CMOS battery inside - no luck. Measured the resistor+diode assembly that follows directly in series with the battery, but that was as far as my knowledge got me there. It all looks good - battery voltage makes it into the board. The board says SAE-004 on it.

I took some pics as well, but haven't got a cable to upload them right now A colleague of mine also suggested the SPI chip might be bad. We managed to identify it, it's a 25Q256, but it's a flat SMD package and we don't quite have what it's needed to read/write it....plus I'm not sure we'd have something TO write to it in the first place, unless we could get away with copy/pasting the contents of the existing chip onto the new one in hopes the current one has got bad blocks. I think what's happening is the date/time is stored in some sort of flash memory when power is available and when mains power is removed, it's supposed to get stored somewhere, but this is not happening for some reason. Interestingly, the time ZONE settings remains intact to what you set it to - presumably it's stored in some other place and it's only the RTC part that's busted in some way. Any ideas ? Thank you.

[stj]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

did you check that the power from the battery reached the chip?

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

No, must admit I haven't done that. I didn't quite get to mess around with it at my own pace - my colleague did most of the work, but now that I think about it, what you suggested makes perfect sense. I'm guessing I should see battery voltage at the VCC pin of the Flash SPI.

[stj]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

um, no.
why would you have battery power at the flash?
the clock is in the main chipset.
it will go to a big bga chip - a givaway is it usually has a 32.768Khz crystal.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

My bad...
This might mean the bug lies in a much "bigger" component after all...

[stj]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

the timezone etc is stored in the o.s.
the callender, clock and some extra cmos ram are integrated into the chipset itself.
i'v seen this with a few industrial motherboards that are used in contaminated enviroments and it's always been a corroded track, via or small part like a resistor or capacitor.
just follow the track from the battery till it reaches the chip with your meter set to ohms/buzzer

btw, if you set the time, and when you power up again, it's not reset but shows the time you put in then suspect the crystal or it's capacitors.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

if you set the time, and when you power up again, it's not reset but shows the time you put in then suspect the crystal or it's capacitors.

Yes, if I leave it plugged in and reboot, the time is still corect.

There's also some other issues with this console: one of the USB ports is not working and it's also got some issues connecting to PSN - some error code shows up every time despite setting the correct date/time.

[stj]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

then check the usb port tracks too - there maybe be damage in a common spot.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

G, my much older colleague who's been in the Sony business for years now, already looked into the USB issue some time before while I was there. He thought he found an open inductor in series with two of the data lines for that port (the tracks were clearly visible), but even after replacing it with jumper wires, the port still didn't work, so the problem is in the controller chip and possibly also related to the date/time issue and PSN error as well. I think I'll volunteer to have a look at it myself on my own. Trouble is I need to make sure I don't make it worse

[stj]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

does it use a standard chipset?
i'v not looked at one.
just thinking on datasheet availability.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

I don't have it in front of me right now, so I don't know what the chip was (the one to which the traces for that dead USB run). I couldn't find any high-res pics of a SAE004, so this was the best I could do (the part circled in red). THIS video show a similar problem, but for a different board, so the chip here is a GL3520.

Trouble is not even Sony provides any sort of info on its assist platform for ANY, repeat, ANY ! of the PSs currently on the market, so we're pretty much stuck and at the mercy of the internet and other folks who might know more about these things. I'm not sure how they expect service centers to work on these things if they don't provide even the most basic of info on them.....

[stj]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

the GL chips are shity usb hub chips,
you see them in £-land / $-store hubs!!

[diif]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

Trouble is not even Sony provides any sort of info on its assist platform for ANY, repeat, ANY ! of the PSs currently on the market, so we're pretty much stuck and at the mercy of the internet and other folks who might know more about these things. I'm not sure how they expect service centers to work on these things if they don't provide even the most basic of info on them.....

They don't provide it but there are service manuals for the, PSP, PS1, PS2 and PS3, so there's probably one for the PS4 somewhere.
Sony don't make any money if their stuff is fixed by a third party so there is no incentive to release anything.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

Sony don't make any money if their stuff is fixed by a third party so there is no incentive to release anything.

That's just it: we ARE an "authorized" Sony center, hence why we have access to the support platform and hence why there should be material available to work with for us techies I can fully understand not making anything publicly available....actually no schematics or resources are SUPPOSED to be publicly available anyway, but they eventually "leak" onto the internet.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

BTW, the error code it throws when trying to connect to PSN is Ce30391-6...

[diif]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

That's just it: we ARE an "authorized" Sony center, hence why we have access to the support platform and hence why there should be material available to work with for us techies I can fully understand not making anything publicly available....actually no schematics or resources are SUPPOSED to be publicly available anyway, but they eventually "leak" onto the internet.

Support platform ? And authorised to do what, I very much doubt they want anything other than boards/whole assemblies swapped when under warranty and out of warranty they get no money and possibly their name damaged by poor quality repairs, hence no schematics are supplied.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

Support platform ?

I don't know how you'd call it exactly : it's a sub-domain of Sony where partners like us receive a username and password to log in and get access to schematics, diagrams and what they call "technical bulletins", which are quick solutions to specific known issues with certain products, such as "No power = replace this part" to speed up the repair process. Not all models have schematics though - some have no resources at all, or they're very brief and useless, mostly listing part numbers.

And authorised to do what, I very much doubt they want anything other than boards/whole assemblies swapped when under warranty and out of warranty they get no money and possibly their name damaged by poor quality repairs, hence no schematics are supplied.

True, a more appropriate description would be a Sony "warranty center", where all products under warranty end up. Unless Sony posts a technical bulletin for a specific issue and instruct you to replace a specific component, the only solution is to replace the whole board, as you pointed out. No need to waste time trying to fix it at component level, plus they would no longer accept it back if you've done anything to it and you end up having to pay for it yourself ! That's not to say you can't hop on that assist website for schematics and other stuff for out of warranty products as well, but like I said: they're not THAT helpful sometimes....just a bunch of part numbers most of the times, though other times I WAS able to find stuff which wasn't available anywhere else, or at least not for free. Trouble is I get a watermark with our username all over the PDFs, so if anyone needs anything, I'd have to send them privately which I did a couple of times so far.

[diif]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

Ahh, Partner Portal (their speak), I knew what you were referring to, I was interested in what they supplied apart from service bulletins.
Some but not too much in case they give away any secret sauce.

I don't suppose there's anything on their SRS-X55 speaker, in particular I need to identify the 8 pin IC that takes input from the DC jack. I have one and it's burnt up. A long shot, but worth an ask.

[Dannyx]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

I don't suppose there's anything on their SRS-X55 speaker, in particular I need to identify the 8 pin IC that takes input from the DC jack. I have one and it's burnt up. A long shot, but worth an ask.

Unfortunately no - nothing of use there. Just two pages with part numbers for the adapter and junk. Same goes for any PSs: NO resources AT ALL - not even an exploded view or something. I have no idea why this is. Naturally, when people see a big SONY logo on your building AND learn you're an "authorised" repair center (I keep putting that in quotes because I find it sounds stupid ), they'll bring in their out of warranty Sony products like PSs and Vaio's and expect them to be fixed without a question....which half the time is not possible due to the lack of resources. This often leads to harsh reviews and criticism from customers because they believe we ARE Sony, yet were unable to fix their problems - "how is this possible ?!" By contrast, an independent shop like the one I used to work in, which was not related to any brand (though we were planning on making a move on Samsung at one point, which never happened) can get away with simply saying that they could not fix something and that is that - end of story.

[diif]

Re: PS4 loses date/time settings every time

Thanks for looking, I guess the upside of having a big Sony sign is it gives some credibility to the business and it brings in other work.