PS5 goes dead if I don't use it for a couple of weeks!?

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ASDR
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PS5 goes dead if I don't use it for a couple of weeks!?

Post by ASDR »

Maybe somebody here has an idea, I have no clue what's going on.

If I don't use my PS5 for a couple of weeks it won't turn on anymore. No beep, no lights, no AV, nothing. Can't be turned on from a controller, wired or wireless. Can't be turned on with the Power/Eject button. Holding either or both buttons for 10+ seconds does nothing. Unplugging power, waiting 1 minute, replugging doesn't help. It's completely dead.

What seems to help every time is to unplug everything. Then it turns on. After that, no error message, nothing about a crash / unsafe power off, no error message in the log.

I never put the console in rest mode, always turn it off completely when I stop playing.

This is super annoying and I found absolutely nothing searching the web. Any ideas?
fernan1234
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Re: PS5 goes dead if I don't use it for a couple of weeks!?

Post by fernan1234 »

When you say you unplug everything, you mean just unplugging the power cord and HDMI cable from it? And it's not enough to unplug the power cable only, it has to be both?

I'd suspect something about the power situation going to the console rather than the console itself. Have you tried plugging it somewhere else at your place to see if it has the same behavior?
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ASDR
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Re: PS5 goes dead if I don't use it for a couple of weeks!?

Post by ASDR »

My first troubleshooting idea when this initially happened was to just disconnect the power coord, let it sit for a minute, reconnect and try firing it up again. This didn't work. I suspected that maybe the cable/power strip had an issue and I connected it with an extender to a different outlet, same thing. It happened again yesterday and I wish I would've been more methodical and maybe tried to find out which cable(s) I had to disconnect in addition to the power coord.

I don't think it's the power situation for various reasons. First, the console is plugged into the same power strip & outlet as a computer, router, modem, Nintendo Switch, monitor, speakers, two Raspberry Pi's, two CRTs, etc. and those have been working fine without incident for years. After I do the whole disconnect/reconnect dance the system works fine again in the exact same circumstances. Also, once it's working it'll keep working if I keep using it. If I play on it every day it'll work just fine. Every time. It only goes 'dead' if I don't use it for ~2 weeks.

I always turn the console off in the menu, never use rest mode. But obviously it still is on to a certain degree otherwise you couldn't turn it on with the controller. But I suspect something freezes up or goes to sleep or gets wedged in a bad state after ~2 weeks. It's just I've never heard anybody else having this issue. Rest mode crashes, sure. But nothing where the console wouldn't even turn on after holding power for 10sec.
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bobrocks95
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Re: PS5 goes dead if I don't use it for a couple of weeks!?

Post by bobrocks95 »

Have you contacted Sony? Seems like quite a conundrum and I'd think it might still be under warranty.

I wonder if there's a self-resetting fuse or something that's getting tripped. Or some damage to the HDMI port shorting a pin sometimes (any CEC settings on? That's often a source of problems).

Definitely try one cable at a time next time it's screwy. If say unplugging HDMI fixes it that lets you know what to focus on.
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ASDR
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Re: PS5 goes dead if I don't use it for a couple of weeks!?

Post by ASDR »

Haven't called Sony, generally any hotline you call here is staffed by a bunch of teenagers with 2h of training, so I wouldn't have expected any help from them. It should be under warranty, I wonder how it'll work since I imported it from a different EU country last year during the shortage :/

I disabled CEC & rest mode & anything else I could think of. I've heard that PS5 HDMI ports are seemingly fragile, so I really hate unplugging that stuff. The self resetting fuse seems like a solid idea, I just can't wrap my head around why it would only happen if I let the console sit idle for a while. I swear I didn't touch or move anything. I banished it to the corner of the room under the desk because of the coil whine and it sits completely undisturbed.

Next time this happens I'll do things step-by-step. Right now I have power, HDMI, ethernet and a USB-A2C cable for charging the controller connected.
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