Three Design Faults of the Vita that Sony Refuse to Recognise.
I’m sure many of you are currently enjoying your Vita Consoles with all the exploits we have been lucky enough to receive over the past year. We have been lucky enough to be given the ability to play all the classic games through VHBL, and more recently the ability to play PSP games through CEF. If you wish to know exactly what exploits are currently available, please read this article by Rashidsonic.
TN’s new exploit will also be a very nice addition to these with a plethora of features such as the ability to access PSN through the PSP Emulator Kernel. This will apparently be ported to all known exploits. If you wish to read more, please click here to read Jd’s article on the features of the new exploit.
The Vita however, is not without it’s problems or design faults. While there are few documented cases so far, it does have some issues. I will share the three I’ve noticed (and sadly have been victim to).
Seemingly Random Cracks in the Screen/LCD.
This is what happened to my Vita, sadly. I was playing it for an hour or two, then placed it down on a table and fell asleep. When I awoke the Console had not moved an inch however when I turned it on it had some purple colour across my screen. The colour changed a few times, and eventually the screen went entirely black. I then found that I actually had a crack in the Vita for no known reason. Due to this crack, Sony blame me as it apparently falls under the heading of “accidental damage”. Since I got this Console from a catalogue pay-weekly scheme; I still have to pay every single week for the next six months for a Console that I cannot play, nor really afford to fix as the repair cost is near enough that of a new Console.
There are other stories similar to my own. It seems that the unit’s sides place pressure on the LCD panel, and eventually it cracks. This is also incredibly rare, and horrid when it happens. The choice is to either replace the screen and LCD, or to get Sony to fix it (they also update the Firmware, or give you a replacement with higher Firmware) for the cost of a second Vita.
Here’s a video that has been enfuriating me since my Vita broke. These guys drop a Vita three times from four foot, and yet theirs is fine. Mine however sat on a table, nothing dropped, nothing touched it and yet I have to replace it.
Charger Burning.
There have been 23 documented cases of the Vita’s charger back overheating. The charger pack over-heats, and causes the lead to burn which can cause one of two things: The screen to crack or the charger cable being melted onto the Vita’s port. Since there has been so little documented cases Sony refuse to take the blame, even though it’s due to their faulty cables.
While looking into this issue, I found a quote from a user of the forum stating:
“my vitas screen cracked due to overheating, but because i didn’t take the accidental damage insurance, it will cost 175 dollars to repair the screen, plus shipping. i already have 5 games for the vita, and am basically forced to buy another one, since you can’t return games for anywhere near the price, and i really like the system.
i think it’s crazy that sony refuses to accept that they have manufactured faulty units when they are dealing with their customers.”
Vita Units Burning.
This can be linked to the Charger issues as there have been reported cases that the Charger overheating has caused the console to… well, melt. This has happened to a few users, and sadly will end up like this image if you’re unlucky enough to have this issue.
Ways to Prevent.
With regards to the screen randomly cracking, there is no way to prevent this. However, the other two issues are more easily avoided.
The best method to avoid this would be to simply turn it off while not using it to avoid overheating, and monitor as it charges. Do not leave it charging as you sleep, similarly do not leave it on overnight.
Anyway, I hope none of you suffer any of the issues listed above. Sony are pretty tyrannical when it comes to these issues and have often had design faults (Note the 2004 Slimline PlayStation 2 for instance). Yet they rarely take the blame. So, simply be careful with your Console.
Enjoy your Consoles, and feel lucky that you have access to the exploits, and amazing work of the Devs.
I’m lucky, no issues letting the console charging overnight LOL
Same here, I’ve charge overnight even on sleep mode and no problems so far.
My biggest complaint is with the OLED screen. It’s often blotchy and streaky depending on the video source. Really stood out and bugged me in Mortal Kombat.
I have Mortal Kombat for the Vita as well and I don’t think its the OLED screen, its the way the way the developers did it when moving the movie file from the console version to the Vita. The video may have been compressed to reduce file size.
Crack on screen ?
Screen will crack only due to physical force, internally OUT, or externally IN.
Panels do not self combust and self crack. Sorry.
Have your unit assessed by a repair agent. They will be able to determine the cause of the crack.
If the crack was caused by external pressure in. Sorry. Someone or some item cracked your screen.
If they dtermine internal force OUTWARDS caused the crack, follow up with sony.
Cracks do not happen by magic.
Hi there,
I appreciate your reply, and have already done this. When referring to seemingly random cracks, what I was referring to was an internal issue. It does seem rather random when you’re using it fine, then the next minute it has a crack.
And this explains why things crack when they suddenly change temperature? The other possibility.
When I received my Vita the screen was not aligned perfectly, and was very noticeable. I eventually broke it to pieces as I couldn’t play it at all at one point because of this.
My vita one time didnt get charge. I had to open it and unplug the battery to fix it. Sorry for the gramar
I’ve seen many PSP FAT working flawlessly since its release to actual days, and I want my PS Vita to be called fat in the future too, and still working.
Good luck
wow that guy really makes me feel like im talking to the *** customer service on sony’s website/phone. thanks for absolutly no help 😀 o and the dark spots on the vita screen is really annoying to
It’s not so much a fault, than it is a peeve – proprietary memory cards. Sure they have their reasons, but does it have to be so expensive?
No, not magic but cience can explain a random crack and can be linked to the temperature problem, an overheat by the charger can enlarge the screen and pressure on the design console by the other periphericals, with too much overheat and the console temperature droping, can cause a crack, it’s design fault.
@ MAlkson.
OK, so get ANY repair agent to assess that and put it (assessment of defect) on paper. Contact the manufacturor saying you have a third party job report showing manufacture defect. If they (manufacturor) don’t come to the party. Threaten legal and media and comment on their FB page regarding your bad experience and their lack of professionalism. Now watch them change your unit!! Speak with your gov consumer dept also. (All first world countries have good consumer law, third world have no law)
I haven’t experienced any of these issues myself, but then again I’ve charged my Vita only 3 times over the year I’ve owned it. 99.9% of the time I have it completely powered down, sitting in its protective leather case in my closet. This is due to another “design flaw” of the Vita which is the lack of RPG’s (remakes and ports don’t count) for the system, which are all I play.
Real napkins say word.
My vita screen has black blotches all over it and one dead pixel. Nothing too annoying since they only show up while watching certain tv shows. But still Im disappointed.
Dead (black) or stuck (red/green/blue) pixel? I have two stuck pixels (red and blue)
@Jonathon
Follow above advice. Especially FB page. Especially legal / media threats if problem not resolved. Try it. Thank me later
Why the heck would anyone buy |ANYTHING| with a pay weekly scheme o.O????????????
BAAAD IDEA!
These sound like isolated incidents of manufacturing errors. It’s unfortunate, but I think calling them “faults” is kind of uncalled for as I think these issues are extremely low.
Guys my point is. Speak badly that SONY are not resolving your problem. on their consumer FB page. this is PUBLIC. and keep doing it until they swap your unit. it makes them look bad. IT creates scenarios where MANAGERS want you ( the customer ) to go away. they will replace your vita!.. Now gogogogo! Brand damage is corporate biggest fear.
the screen crack will happen if the screen experiences super hot and sudden super cold…its like when you heat a glass then immediately submerge it with cold water…
You forgot to mention the first batch of 3g ps vitas bugging the heck out… Almost every FEB bundle with 3g seems to have that problem, they fixed it with firmwares but it caused a lot of trouble for me… I tried to fix it once with a workaround and was ok, but later on the firmware didnt load the keyboard and that was the point of no return… Search youtube and youll find it… Sucks to buy from US and no warranties in my country…
This is strange… I almost always leave my Vita on in sleep mode overnight to charge, and rarely turn it off. I got mine around a week after launch day.
I’ve never noticed the charger getting hot, let alone overheating.
There are a few tiny scratches on my Vita, but nothing that bothers my OCD, let alone the whole OLED screen cracking. And I find my self dropping it quite a few times, nothing major though. Good thing the analog sticks protect the screen in a way by elevating it…
Wonder if these are merely isolated cases.
Same here. Got the one I won from taco bell and bought the first edition.
I have not had any of these problems.
no prob here 🙂
PARA EVITAR SUPER AQUECIMENTO SO CARREGAR NO PC (=
i actually somewhat work for sony. i do call center work for centerpartners who is contracted by sony. basically no matter what if something like this happens, no matter how far you decide to take it, or how much you scream at the rep you have you will not get it replaced without paying the out of warranty service fee to get it replaced. sony, center partners, and sitel (who are also contacted by sony) are horrible companies. i personally love my vita and im glad i have one but i do wish it was made by a company that would actually care about it
…. what the heck are you doing on this hackers website then? .. (spy) and yes this is a hackers website, psvita hacks mainly.
I knew it, i knew it, this site swarms with sony spy.
Hey sony is not samsung, actually samsung cares about its customers and replaces defective devices no matter what happened to them.
Sony has to many customers so they have to behave like assh*les to shy them of. (`_´)
I like Samsung. Last week my Galaxy Player 5 stopped powering on and they said they would fix it for free or have it replaced (Free shipping and everything).
Yeah I know what you mean. My sg3 was one of those 16GB versions with memory corruption/failure. I had mine flashed with a custom kernel and a few weeks later it stopped booting. I thought the custom kernel was at fault, tried to boot in download mode, nothing. I somehow got wind of that memory failure and sent mine in for repair. Week later I got it back working, of course the custom kernel was gone, due to a mobo replacement, but hey its fixed and working again. 🙂
Quickly, BAN this guy! He’s a spy! He’s the reason our exploits are geting fixed!
You guys are friggen idiots if you think this guy comes here to ‘spy’. He doesn’t even work for Sony, he works at a call center company that Sony CONTRACTS them for. Jesus Christ you guys are stupid.
@jack. Not sure your country, but I’m confident I could get a vita with an internal crack replaced by Sony by :
a) Spamming your corporate facebook, in a way that depicts “customer” as reasonable and your customercare “unfair” over and over again on Sony’s corporate Facebook Page.
b) Telling your call centre supervisor that I seek a FAIR resoltuion or will liase with my lawyer and collecting their name, and details where I would issue a summons to.
c) Threaten bad publicity on stupid *** like forums, blog, youtube and talk back radio
d) Collecting Sony corporate email contacts and spamming their emails with my terrible customer service horror story, when all I am seeking is replacement.
^ The above customer type is “critical risk”. Sony will replace their vita. Believe that.
Nice article! I didn’t even know about the melting issue, but I did experience something like it that bricked my first vita.
“bricked”? o.o
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bricked ^^
Not in that sense!
lol 😆
This thread is a waste of everyone’s time. I’m sure you can find more cases of random GS3 and 3DS screen cracks than the few Vita’s that you’ve managed to round up.
It’s called a margin of error within product testing. No mass production process is perfect, there is room for standard errors in any production line, and there are bound to be a few units that fall outside of a “functional sample” and fail to become detected. Simply put, you were unlucky. It’s like buying eggs– if you buy a million of them, you’re bound to find a few bad ones.
The adapter heating up can be caused by various external factors such as poor electrical work in the house or unstable power sources. Your 27 cases of “reported issues” also represent too small a sample for it to be significant. Your statement therefore lacks both internal and external validity.
If there was ever an actual issue in the product that is of real significance, there would be a mass recall done. Just like Honda’s car batteries, like Corsair’s SSD’s, and like OCZ’s power supplies. If there isn’t sufficient statistical evidence to demonstrate an actual issue. Manufacturers can only reassure its customers with their limited warranty.
Personally, Sony has been very reasonable in dealing with my equipment, and replaced 2 out of the 4 PSP’s I’ve owned since 2004. Physical damage is never covered in ANY manufacturer warranty. You don’t throw a brick through a new TV and try to get it replaced. Your “mystery crack” is going to be denied by ANY customer rep over the phone. And if they didn’t, they are not doing their job. Enough said!
@1234iamreal . If you mentioned to sony customer care you were a lawyer and were comfortable moving this to the courts at any moment if desired resolution is not met. (And as long as you paint the desried resolution as being reasonable) You would have received 4 replacement PSPs, not 2. ( As long as you can make a case you are reasonable and have wasted time seeking resolution, yet sony is unreasonable in not providing it )
Lol, looks like whoever the author was they were only concerned about their screen cracking. If your vita didn’t move and wasn’t touched how did you crack it? I know you said heat from charging, but something tells me that you just stumbled upon that after Sony said no to your fix my problem mentality. We get it, you cracked your screen, go buy a new one or deal with it. Don’t go posting an article with no first person sources or data claiming all of the major flaws of the vita, which you list as three.
In find this funny because of the 20 something flaws that I can think of you choose three I nor anyone I know has experience, one of which breaks the laws of physics implying that the sides of the Vita are so heavy that the device stresses itself into cracking. Which by the way you sadly attempted to make more sense of your situation by throwing in heat as a factor. By then though you have already proven to me that you don’t know what you are talking about and just want to created false closure for your vita that you most likely played a major role in cracking.
If I were to write a paper on the design flaws of this article I’d have a heck of a lot more than three.
This is why the article is about faults that Sony denies even exist. If these issues were major and happening to a large population, Sony would recognize these issues instead of denying them, which is not what the article is about 🙂
There are many physical reasons that could explain what happened to the author’s Vita, but no reason that explains why Sony would refuse to refund him. Remember, they are not selling you hardware anymore, they are selling you the services that you can access with the hardware. By refusing to ship a replacement unit to people who got their device broken (for whatever reason), they are technically losing a customer for their service. They should take Apple as an example, that company has understood a long time ago that by replacing broken hardware for free in many cases, they maintain a happy customer base who will spend much more on services, apps, and digital content.
That was until applecare 2.0 lol, but yeah, your right. In some ways if Sony took the overly friendly apple support route they would have far more customers, especially back in the early days of the PS3. However you also have to realize that Sony isn’t getting triple the total cost to build for the vita like apple is the the iPhone pod pad. Don’t think they could afford to pass out vitas the way I used to see iPhone replacents flying around my nearest apple store. Maybe if they took off some of the gimmicky cellphonesque features like the front and back cameras. Im not taking pictures while gaming, and it has sent shown any promises for good AR. More people should be *** about the promise of remote play. They could have easily streamed video to vita and output to ps3, but instead the y make it a feature if developers want to include. Either thats false advertisment, or the people working at Sony are braindead and don’t understand the concept of am remote connection.
@Tonakai
Do this. Book in your unit for assessment. include PHOTOS of the distortion on ther unit. ( proof of Intermittent fault. <– important )
Stronlgy argue against customer induced damage. Have the ASC comment on the screen cover. Any deep scratches, no ? Then that does not indicate customer damage.
Call up customer care. Provide them the information so far. State to them, that you feel it is unreasonable to be penalized for an intermittant fault and you seek replacement. Request the name of the Sony Manager of service after 2 unsuccessful calls to resolve. Then hit Sony FB with your story and state you have all documentation and want contact from the corporate team because customercare just "doesn't care" about your problem and it is unfair to you as a customer.
I wonder if its only on Devices that weren’t made properly. I have left my Vita charging for almost a week straight since I left it at the house before going to Tennesse and Kentucky. And well, I thikl would have noticed a crack on screen or even my Vita melting (*Sony Facepalm*). The only problem I have, is the Charger being in backwards, and the dark black dots that are stuck on the screen. (But I’ve dropped mine MANY times)
something tells me the burning issue is from people using 3rd party, non-licensed chargers or random wall chargers with a usb port on them.
Of course people posting on the web wont admit if they sc*** up or not in the end.
As for the screen cracking I am not sure about that one. Did anyone who suffered the cracking flex and put pressure on the system while playing it?
Again, another question we will never know the truth about on the web.
I am super careful with everything I own, keeping everything in new condition if possible.
My roof leaked 2 days ago and right onto my vita! It was completely SOAKED! Somehow, it survived. I also dropped it and charged it overnight multiple times. I guess the unlucky ones got stuck with the “lemons”
I have also noticed intense pressure on the corners of the Vita’s screen, to the point that it interferes with the touch screen interface in the browser and games!
I had to fiddle with it in my hand VERY lightly and after a somewhat sickly crack and crinkle it was back to normal… Definitely a fault that will affect many Vita owners in the coming year or so.
lol when this happens, call to, yes to sony and tell them to repair or rechange the
L and R inputs to the screen (touch base) because if you press the sholder buttons the screen
will have what they call “graphics in motion” (what sony thinks of screen data ((mc=2)) moving is from block to blocks of a data transfering made by same stlye,
“using system” or #include (header file) there the same by means a digital stream line, (im speaking of video players/games) this will redund the black spots in the screen when you load a game that has that black sceen, oh and tell them, this was a call from psn ID, to sony S.C.E.E (your region). to sony. then they will understand and will safe time :). (speaking of the black spots on the screen).
or better of in “playstation eyepad”.
or better of a “playstation eyepad”.
@GlueGun,, what are you going on about with the L & R triggers and the black blotches on the screen?
From day one I noticed these darker areas of the screen. It’s the only single flaw and I can’t stand it but accepted it as something unique to the display. I assume all models have this strange affect. If there is no color besides black it will be blotches of varying black. … If your in a dark scene in a movie on Netflix it can be really annoying. Can this be fixed? Only dark DARK areas does it become appearance. This is the only major issue. I do not believe everything else,, of course some models are going to slip thru and have unique issues. Cracking? Randomly? No.
A 3 year old kick my Psvita out of my hands fall on the floor
close to weight lifting equipment,it fell on top of a weight
and screen got scratch,minor but scratch,call Sony and the tell that it wont cover that it will cost $159 dollars to fix
the screen thats almost half of what the Psvita cost,NO WAY i left it with the scratch screen. XD
i notice this 3 months after buying the vita, so i got relly annoyed so i went
and purchased a second vita, after two months of barely using it, like mabey 4-5 times
powerd on the system tell now,to some it all up its been powerd on for like less then
15 minutes scene i got the vita for private review’s and just for my self to complain
and convence on hacking it. coming from a community base environments,
(dont wanna be that scary creep who add picture to your facebook with facebook hacker, sure friends playing with your posts well your haveing a quality time with the other gameing friend and end up changeing your stats about your self, and relize he/she chaned your settings we all know you can change it back). the moment i turned on the vita there where no blotches yet, this was the 4th time i think, i was prod that there was no glitters, so i then played my other vita games (knowing this will happen, i paused the game pressed L and R left it tryed freazeing the vita then shut off buy holding the vita, asumming it powerd off i then did a normal person would do, and that is to leave it alone, when i turned it back on there it was. so im thinking of getting a dev unit just for the signed executions, then mabey find a public savedata way. because no way i cant decrypt the .psvita file it self not yet so i need a way to enter to find out. 🙂
so over heating in caseing made of platics think to reinforce to case metal brackets like from the pc n put a faceless ac an a backup battery but realy all i uslaly have is lags think its do to over heating man n i was gong to get a usb ac thing online this months think may have to next month ooh i have the nerf case think it help to reinforce the vita sum what
not yet happening to me..
I’ve noticed that when a game is on and the screen goes black, there are a few lines across the screen. Although it doesn’t affect the gameplay, I’m getting a bit worried…
I’ve noticed it too. There’re a lot of black spots on my Vita screen. One of those have very noticeable in gray or black color (Status bar on home screen for example).
That’s because the backlight is simply turned off, while the LCD image fades out. Entirely normal.
This is normal, its because of the OLED.
sorry, @Voltrom.
i was jack machine on that comment because i found that psp flash emu
source code when i posted that one lol.
because this is a problom, your createing hate thought about what you spent
(350+ the first month, psn cards, second is like 100-200) im speaking of the
presure from within the product that has that “see the future” or “be the future”
or even worse make.beleive, im telling you, if you just switch the L R inputs to the
marketed OLED screen you don’t have concerns, you dont have the costomer asking about some random arcayn thory speaking agents there technology!,
no more of that screen play for needs, is perfect, its, its the gaikai running with 8.5 mbps games multiplayer call of duty ps3 games. do you agree? i mean if sony did this, houses would not “nearly”burn down.