Hardware PS4 Slim stuck in Safe Mode

[Knight22]

Hi my Friends!

I am out of Ideas, currently. I appreciate any Ideas you might have

My PlayStation 4 Slim HDD died with many sector Errors (put it into my HP Server to read the smart values).
So I put a new (known good) wiped drive into the PS4 but i can not install the Operating System to that Drive.

- PS4 starts with 1080p and the PS Logo. It tries to find the OS on the Drive and gives up.
- PS4 reboots into 720p and welcomes me in Safe Mode but it does not show the 1-7 Menu, it immediately went's to option 7 (Inizialisation)
- Now it tells me that the PS4 can not start and i shall connect the Controller via USB and Press OK. Now it ask's me for the USB Drive with the Firmware on it.
- So far so good.

After I press X the PS4 displays „Please Wait…“ for hours.. The Animation is like 4 Frames over 2 Seconds, lagging and then halting. Interestingly is that the USB Drive is still read for like 30 Seconds. But i can not use the -> and X Button combination to initialize without the Video Signal, it simply does nothing.

What I tried so far

- check hash sum of the /PS4/UPDATE/PS4UPDATE.PUP file on the USB Drive with the file on my Mac
- same error without USB Drive
- same error without BR Drive
- swapped USB Drive with DS4-Controller USB Port
- new CR2032 Battery
- The replacement HDD is used but known good and wiped with 0000..
- No visible damage (liquid, short circuit, broken/bad cable, blown fuse, ..) on Motherboard. (Did not check for Open Loops on Fuses)
- The PS4 recognizes the HDD and reads from it (at least tries to find the OS, I can hear the HDD head moving). When i remove the HDD the PS4 complains about that, so SATA Port and Controller seems okay.
- BR Drive reads discs (Can not ultimately confirm that) but it spins up, reads and can eject discs.
- USB Drive is capable of bootstrapping another PS4 Slim.
- It is OOW but a try worth it anyways


What I plan to do
- Check for Open Loops on all Fuses.


Thanks for any ideas in advance!

 

[Dracari]

have you tried using another system (if you have one) to try and prep the drive? , i had to do that w/ one of the WD Blue drives i had when i had to replace my Slim's dead drive. (was just only lucky my brother left his PS4 Pro at home)

 

[Knight22]

Hey @Dracari

I put in another HDD from my other PS4 but nothing. Afaik the HDD is encrypted by unique Keys.
psdevwiki /ps4/Mounting_HDD_in_Linux

"[..], the ps4 has two perconsole keys for the HDD, one is handled by SAMU (we cannot obtain this key atm) and the other is handled by the South Bridge / AEOLIA / BELIZE (which we can obtain)".

Or is this me false reading this and the key should be the same for every console generation?

 

[magico29]

Hey @Dracari

I put in another HDD from my other PS4 but nothing. Afaik the HDD is encrypted by unique Keys.
psdevwiki /ps4/Mounting_HDD_in_Linux

"[..], the ps4 has two perconsole keys for the HDD, one is handled by SAMU (we cannot obtain this key atm) and the other is handled by the South Bridge / AEOLIA / BELIZE (which we can obtain)".

Or is this me false reading this and the key should be the same for every console generation?

you cant use the ps4 hdd from another console, unless you format it in the new console.Since his console is not booting, i dont think so he can does that.