PS4 WLOD (White Light of Death) Diagnosis and Repair
Does your PS4 turn on and show the white light but not show anything on the TV? This is what's known as the "white light of death" or WLOD. The bad news is that your PS4 is likely broken and in need of repair. The great news is that it can be fixed. First, let's look at a couple of things that you can try first to fix it yourself.
PS4 White Light Troubleshooting
The first thing to try is wiggling your HDMI cable or just removing it and inserting it back into your PS4. When your TV shows "No Signal" it just means that it's not getting the signal through the HDMI cable from your PS4 console. By wiggling the cable or removing and inserting it you are attempting to restore that connection. Sometimes the cable can get moved or hit and that can cause a bad connection.
Another thing to check is the connection at your TV. It's possible that the cable has a bad connection at your TV. Just try wiggling it or removing it and re-inserting it at the TV connection. While you're there you should also shine a flashlight into the HDMI port of the TV and have a look at it just to be sure that it is in good condition. You'll be checking to make sure the small copper pins are in place and everything else looks normal with the port.
If your HDMI cable plugs into any type of device between your console and the TV then you also need to consider that device to be a possible source of the problem. A great way to test it is to hook the PS4 HDMI cable straight into the TV. If it still doesn't work then you know that that device is not causing any problems with the signal.
If none of these help then there is one other thing that might work (although not likely). It is possible that your HDMI cable itself is faulty. While this is not likely it is possible so you may want to either purchase a brand new HDMI cable or use another cable in your house that you know for sure is working properly. Or if you don't have another cable, you can try using the cable with another device and see if it works for that device.
What If That Doesn't Work?
If you've tried everything above and it's still not working then one of several things is probably going on.
1) A bad HDMI port. This is VERY common. The HDMI ports on the original PS4 consoles are factory defective. They are a very bad design and, in my opinion, all of them will fail at some point... they are that bad. Usually it's pretty easy to tell if your PS4 HDMI port is bad because you can see the small copper pins inside that will likely be bent, out of place, or missing altogether. Also, many times the metal outer portion of the port will be bent as well. This will cause the cable to not fit into the port snugly. While the ports on the PS4 Slim and Pro are much better even those consoles sometimes need HDMI port repairs as well.
2) A faulty HDMI IC chip. This is the IC chip in the motherboard that processes the HDMI signal. When this chip burns out it will often cause the white light of death. Unfortunately, there is no good way to know if it's the chip that is bad. If the port looks good but you still get no signal and the white light of death then it could be the chip that is causing the problem. The only ways to know for sure is to have it professionally tested or to buy a working IC chip and replace the one on your PS4 to see if that fixes the problem.
3) Electrical Storm or Lightning Storm. If you've recently experienced any large electrical storms or electrical surges that could have caused the WLOD for your PS4. What usually happens is the electrical surge goes from your TV right into the PS4 via the HDMI cable. This electrical surge will usually take out the IC chip but it can also cause problems with the port itself and/or some of the resistors and diodes around the port that send signals through to the TV. If any of them are damaged it can cause the white light of death.
How Can I Get it Fixed?
The process of testing the hard drive and HDMI components is advanced and if you don’t feel comfortable with opening up your PS4 console and don't have access to the tools and parts required, it might be better to let an expert do it for you.
We recommend ShaneFix to help you with your PS4 HDMI issues. ShaneFix is run by one of the repair technicians who we trained and worked with us for over a year. Check out his website Shanefix.com
Should I Fix it Myself?
While this repair at first looks like it shouldn't be very hard to fix yourself, it actually is a very difficult to impossible thing for someone to fix it who has no soldering experience. Many people think they can just go buy a heat gun from a hardware store and use that to remove it. Unfortunately, this just leads to melted components and damaged circuit traces on the motherboard. Instead of saving money, failed DIY repair attempts like this usually end up costing 25-50% more to fix them than one that has not been tampered with.
But if you have a lot of microsoldering experience and high quality tools and feel comfortable trying to fix your PS4 yourself we have a video on YouTube showing how to an HDMI repair on an PS4.
