Gonna post this since it may be a good "preventative" process. It certainly shouldn't hurt peoples' systems...
I got my PS4 yesterday from Amazon. I didn't manhandle it or anything when unboxing it. I didn't toss things together to hook it up superfast to my TV and receiver. I did things slow, methodical and made certain to plug things in gently as I would with ANY other new piece of equipment. In so many of the videos and streams I see people manhandling and utterly forcing things into place and it drove me nuts. #1 thing to remember when setting up a new system, computer, anything: Treat it like it's expensive equipment and not a fucking baby toy.
Whatever you do, do NOT EVER move the system when it has any power to it whatsoever. When hard drives are spinning it's very easy to damage a platter in the drive if you "shock" it in any way. This goes for laptops and computers as well. Laptop drives are built to be a little more stable with this but it's better to be safe than sorry.
Now, here's the steps I did just to experience things and understand how the update process works. My plan here was to format the PS4 hard drive and do a full OS reinstall in case the hard drives had been mass imaged and weren't really set up per system.
1) Examined the HDMI port to see if there was anything off or any obstructions in it. It was perfectly fine.
2) Hooked the PS4 up to my audio receiver with my own HDMI cable that was attached to my PS3 previously (cheapie 12 foot $4.00 cable from Fry's Electronics I bought years ago)
3) Plugged in my controller using the USB cable that shipped with the PS4. I plugged it into the LEFT USB port, although it doesn't really matter which port you plug it into.
4) Did NOT hook up my ethernet cable. I didn't want it connecting anywhere or doing anything until I was certain I had a "clean" system that I had set up myself.
5) First time bootup -> Powered it on just by lightly touching the capacitive power button on the front of the system. There is no need to apply any pressure at all so don't try forcing it to move. It doesn't move. I listened for appropriate noises (Bluray Drive doing a head seek, hard drive spinning up, fans working - felt for warm air flowing) and let the system boot up.
6) System booted up fine and went into the PS4 OS Setup. I skipped everything and did not customize anything or let it connect wirelessly anywhere. I just wanted to get INTO the OS. I think the only thing I did was adjust time and Time Zone.
7) Once in the OS I held the PlayStation button down on the DS4 and turned the system OFF (Did NOT put it into standby mode). It takes a little bit to shutdown completely but you'll know once all the lights are off on the system.
8) Time to update the firmware. I had already downloaded both the 1.50 firmware "Update" and the "Recovery" (859MB) files so I freshly formatted a cheap USB drive with FAT32 and
set up the folders appropriately. X:\PS4\UPDATE\PSUPDATE.PUP <-- like that. I decided to do the Recovery method since it involves formatting the drive and I wanted that for sure.
9) I inserted my USB drive into the COMPLETELY OFF system and then I touched and held on the power button for over 7 seconds UNTIL IT BEEPED. Once it beeped I let go of the power button. The system went into Safe Mode.
PS4 Safe Mode:
https://support.us.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5044/~/ps4:-safe-mode
10) I chose option 6) Initialize PS4. My reasoning here is to wipe the HD while in Firmware 1.0 so I am absolutely certain it's clean before I attempt to update it. I then booted into the OS again and did minimal setup, skipping over account stuff and network setups until I got into the UI. I once again had the system turn completely off and not enter standby mode.
11) Once the system was completely shutdown I waited like about 10 seconds when all the lights were off and touch and held the power button again for 7 seconds until it beeped. It went into Safe Mode again and I chose Option 7) Initialize PS4 (Reinstall System Software). I then got the following error:
An error has occurred.
(CE-30776-3)
I didn't panic and calmly tried another USB drive. It was a Corsair USB drive (one of my most compatible flash drives for booting PCs and stuff) and it worked just fine. So REMEMBER: If you get that error above, just try a different USB drive that you know is brand-name. Mine was a Corsair.
12) I then went through the process with step 7 from Safe Mode and it worked this time. It spent time wiping/reformatting the hard drive and then it gave a new screw (higher resolution and with PS4 colors) and on that screen it said it was reinstalling the system software.
13) When it was done, I did the final setup on my PS4 and it has worked like an absolute champ with no system related issues at all. Any issues I've had have been due to PSN being hammered.
Now, this is not going to fix everyone's problems but it is a good way to test the system and set it up so that you KNOW you have done everything right from the beginning. I've got 30 years of experience working with computers and electronics and this is just a general process I feel should work well for folks who are just wanting to be sure they setup their PS4 in the most "stable" manner. I live this shit every day since it's my hobby and also what I do at work.
