This Entry Has Been Superseded By This Article: A Final Commentary On The Whole PlayStation Classic Power Supply Mess
Over the past few days since the release of the PlayStation Classic, my article from several months ago titled “So The PlayStation Classic Doesn’t Come With A Power Supply, And That’s Absolutely Fine” somewhat blew up in popularity. Something about search engines makes it a top result in many searches regarding the console and providing power, as best I can tell, and I guess I did my part with the title on making people want to give it a read.
That being said, the article was from just after the console was announced, and I felt a follow up is needed since the console’s launch.
I haven’t seen much in the way of people having too much of an issue powering the console, although I haven’t gone out of my way to hunt for posts on Twitter and other social media from people who do have problems.
The fact that my article on the subject, however, had the spike in views it did, combined with some of the search results that brought people to the page, does show that people are confused on how to power it – both to mean that they don’t know it doesn’t come with a power supply (which is surprising considering that was the first “issue” with the console most people discovered, right when it was announced) and that they don’t know what can power it.
This particularly comes down to ignorance of how USB power supplies actually behave and work – non-techy types do seem to think that power supplies are somehow proprietary, and that their old iPhone charger won’t work with their new Samsung phone, or vice versa, even though this isn’t the case — most chargers will work fine to power most any other device, regardless of what the instructions with the devices say.
Then again, some chargers just aren’t as good as others, though – they can’t really handle the power demands they are rated for too long, or for whatever reason they really only useful in charging whatever it is they came with. While you would think 5 volts over USB would be pretty standard, it’s amazing how things can vary, especially when the varying demands of an active gaming system are consodered compared to the steady power demands of charging a battery.
Probably poor regulation in the PlayStation Classic design? Who knows, someone needs to really study the system layout and figure out how that thing handles power.
Still, I believe there are plenty of chargers out there that should work fine, and judging by how little I’ve seen of reports of people just unable to use the console, I think most are figuring it out, and I stand by the fact that I feel many people do have spare power supplies just lying around which should do the job.
I wonder if the instructions with the console detail this at all – what kind of supplies to use, etc, beyond just saying a USB power supply with a 1 Amp rating.
The one other aspect to address is USB power on the TV being used. I’m still quite certain most, if not nearly all halfway decent TV’s being sold over the past 5+ years have USB ports on them, and as I mentioned in the previous article, I’ve had no issues powering the NES or SNES classic with them, but your results may vary.
Still, none of this matters when you address the fact that Sony should have put a power supply in with the console. I’ve never once intended to defend them for this decision, only to address it as not as crazy as it seemed to not include one, regardless of what people may have lying around, or TV USB power output.
A comment on the previous article suggested that Sony should have provided a USB Type C charger and cable, and used that as it’s a current standard which would have worked fine, and I’m inclined to think that would have been a nice idea.
But, Sony didn’t go that route. They took the path less traveled, and seemed to make every wrong turn on the way down it, creating what has to be the best idea gone bad in gaming in quite a long time.
More to come, as always.
So, without doing any research, as based on the NES and SNES minis working off a TV’s USB ports, you ASSUME the psx mini could too, but guess what? It can’t, and most standard usb ports on tvs and computers only output 5v 500ma, which is enough for the other mini consoles but not the ps, which NEEDS 1a, which not even all chargers provide. This wouldn’t be an issue if it just came with one, of course 😉
Not ASSUME, Presume — “suppose that something is the case on the basis of probability.”
Keep in mind this entry was written on December 6th of 2018 – over a year ago, and immediately following the release of the console, with actual reports of “no issues” or “couldn’t get anything to work” and seemingly everything in between were being posted constantly — it was a time of “let’s see what people are saying” at the very least.
You will notice the phrase “your results may vary” in the article following the comment regarding TV power. You see, I can’t reasonably spend time researching the USB current rating of every television set ever produced to judge what ones will and won’t possibly power the device. The presumption was that it may be likely that a more recently produced TV, built in an era of devices being plugged directly into TV’s for power, may well be built with 1 amp power output in mind, as opposed to the standard 500ma. While I may have greatly underestimated this being the case, it was intended to address a possible solution — not to explicitly state “Just use your TV, it will work fine.” That’s obviously not going to be the case, hence the disclaimer.
Incidentally, I know a few people who’s televisions provide enough power to operate the device, so take it for what you will — in retrospect, it’s almost never suggested by manufacturers to power a device of any type using such, and the more I think on it the more the idea sickens me. Funny how one can pull a 360 on such an idea in just a years time.
You will also notice in both entries I stress the 1 amp rating. The entire point of this, and the previous entry, were simply to stress the idea of “relax, find a 1 amp power supply, and you should be good.” That’s it. To presume anything else is to read to deep into the article(s). This was written mostly as a simple follow up to the original post mentioned herein, which was getting quite a bit of traffic at that time, and oddly still is.
Again, I don’t inherently disagree with your conclusion, but I feel you misread what the focus of this entry was, and may have forgotten the context of a post at launch time as opposed to looking back on a topic a year later.
Thank you for commenting. It’s a rare treat to keep me on my toes, so to speak, and sometimes get a chance to look back and rethink some things.