Reports of various PlayStation 4 issues have been coming in this week as the final hardware has made it into people's hands. Some of these issues involve the system not outputting video, but in at least one case, the solution has turned out to be fairly simple. If you encounter your own issues or can offer solutions, please visit
https://go.ign.com/ps4problems.
Kotaku reported this week that one of the systems it received refused to output video. More specifically, it seemed as though something was wrong with the HDMI port on the system, which wouldn't allow for HDMI cables to be fully plugged into it -- a problem different from the ones experienced by IGN and Reddit user Arogon. Kotaku's system was sent off to Sony for repairs and, before long, the cause of the issue was identified.
As it turns out, a piece of metal in the HDMI port that should have been flush with the bottom of the port was sticking up. This prevented the HDMI cord from being plugged in all the way and damaged each of the cords (in identical fashion) that had been plugged in. The solution was to, simply enough, press the piece of metal down so that it was no longer in the way. With that done, the system now works as it should.
The cause of this problem is unclear at this point, and we don't yet have any indication that this specific issue was anything more than a fluke. However, just to be safe, if you get your hands on a PS4 today or in the coming weeks, you'll want to examine the HDMI port to ensure your system doesn't have a similar issue.
In response to some of the other issues that have been experienced this week, Sony issued IGN a statement which read in part, "There have been several problems reported, which leads us to believe there isn't a singular problem that could impact a broader percentage of systems. The number of affected systems represents less than .4% of shipped units to date, which is within our expectations for a new product introduction."