Archives: Video Games
Information and older arcticles from my original website.
Sony PlayStation Defects
I have heard reports of certain Sony PlayStations being defective upon delivery when the system was released. No one I knew of had any problems with the PlayStations they purchased, so I basically wrote off those reports as being an overblown misrepresentation of the facts. I don't really know what the big problem was with other PlayStation units, but the systems my friends bought all seemed to have sturdy, solid construction.
As far as I've seen, the build quality for the PlayStation should offer several years of gaming enjoyment without interruption. However, something strange happened this weekend that makes me wonder if I was correct in thinking that way.
My friend Firepower was playing KRAZY IVAN, which he had just purchased earlier the same day. He needed to go to the store for something, so he paused the game and left. When he came back, he found that his six-week-old puppy, Misty, had chewed through the cord of the controller he was using. He thought this was no big deal, that he just shouldn't have left the puppy unattended. Puppy is as puppy does, and puppies chew things constantly.
So, he plugged in another controller and tried to resume his game. The system appeared to be locked up, so he turned the system off, then turned it back on. Though the cinemas and demo screens played he still couldn't restart his game. He was beginning to get concerned, so he tried several different games with the same result. Even two player games couldn't be activated through the second controller port.
This was bad. Apparently, the PlayStation controller ports have a live feed of both power and ground flowing through them. When Misty chewed through the wires in the controller cable, there was a short-circuit in the wiring which led to a power feedback to the system unit. As a result, both of the controller ports were blown, so the system cannot accept any input from controllers.
When I learned of this, I was amazed. Firepower is not a person who would abuse the system, and he's only had it since November. How could this happen? Why was there so much power going through that port? Why are both ports on the same circuit? Hadn't anyone endurance tested the system to learn if this was a potential problem? Can the same thing happen to the Saturn or any other NextGen system? These questions are all left unanswered. If anyone else has had a similar problem, or knows the answers to these questions, please let me know.
So far as I know, Sony retailers have had no problem replacing defective PlayStation systems, at least that's what reports have said. Firepower hasn't attempted to return the system yet, but I will let you all know the end result of this fiasco.
Unta Glebin Gloutin Globin,
Red Ronin, The Cybernetic Samurai
(AKA Red Ronin, The Cybernetic Samurai)
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