Topic: Blue Light of Death

I came home from work today and tried to turn on my Vita.  It wouldn't turn on but the PS button at the bottom left continued to glow blue.  I know the battery wasn't dead because I had it plugged in all last night.  I held down the power button for 20 seconds and a boot-screen was displayed with 5 options that went a little like this:
1. Restart
2. Rebuild Database
3. Format Memory Card
4. Restore System
5. Update software

I selected option 1.  My Vita then powered off and the blue button flashed orange, then back to blue and my Vita powered back up normally.  Everything looks ok so far.

Scary!

Happened to me twice already. I dismissed it as a minor glitch. Didn't lose any data or nothing, so have no idea what could cause it...

Yep, this is a launch issue and will most likely be ironed out with a firmware patch.

Just happened for the second time.  This time everything started normally, except I was at the 3G "Can't find a network" screen.  When I clicked OK/Close, it locked up.  3G was also on during my first occurrence.

2 times doesn't necessarily equal a pattern, but I'll keep an extra eye on the potential that this is somehow 3G-related.

this has happened 4 times to me.  i have yet to figure out what triggers it...

Luckily, this hasn't happened to me yet and fingers crossed it stays that way.

Hopefully it can be patched up soon.

Just got it right now, whew doesn't seem like there is anything wrong. Scared the heck out of me though

It happened to me once. I honestly think it has to do with the battery dying. I know you said it was charging all night but did you unplug it?

When I was at work, I played it for a few minutes on a break and put it to sleep when I went back to work (still had full battery bar).

When I got home a few hours later, it wouldn't turn on and when I plugged it in, it still wouldn't turn on (just flashed orange). Eventually, (after about 20 minutes) it would turn on and freeze on livearea screens. I rebuilt the database and it fixed the problem but made a huge mess of my screens haha.

I had this at work last night. Played it on my break and towards the end of the shift I just went to check to see if anything had happened (3G console and all) and the screen wouldn't turn on.
Held down the power button for what felt like an eternity until the blue Playstation logo died. I then pressed the power button again (whether or not it made any difference) which made the console bring up the menu Magi mentioned.
I selected Restart the console and everything was back to normal. This was with the battery at around half-full (or half-empty? ;D) so I'm just presuming it's just a generic hiccup which will hopefully get fixed via firmware update.

The battery was definately charged.  Once I reset it, I continue to play off-and-on for the rest of the day.

I may have overlooked this information from posts in this thread but:
For everyone that has had this happen, do you have the 3G Vita or the WiFi Vita?  If 3G, were you connected to a data plan when it happened?

Mine is the 3G version but I was not connected to data as I don't have a plan yet.

I have the 3G console and it can just about pick up signal in my locker at work so I can't say whether it was connected or not.

Just happened to me this morning. I'm pretty sure it either has to do with the battery or internet connections. About half an hour before it happened, my Vita ran out of power and I needed to charge it. But around the same time the storm knocked out the internet in my house (currently using one of those 3G Clear doohickies). I tried loading some of my games but they just froze, and it eventually went to the blue light. Anyways, it's over now, my Vita isn't broken, and that's all that matters

I would hardily call it the Blue Light of Death, its just a running light for the PS logo. Ive crashed my Vita twice trying to play unsupported PSP games. Killzone Liberation freezes for me everytime, so I've deleted it from my Vita until it becomes supported. Pursuit Force runs just fine but my Vita has froze if I pause the game and let the system go into sleep mode, once I try to resume my game it doesn't respond at all.

In the interest of full disclosure, I think that's what most folks are calling it around the 'ole internet.  Granted, it's a little sensational (as long as it reboots that is)

The PS3 has a yellow light for hardware errors, so thats why theres the famous yellow light of death. I suspect that if a Vita truly has a hardware error, a similar light indicates an issue.

This just happened to me D:

I got the BLOD when i was recording hit it on the floor by accident it flashed blue held the power button for 20 seconds came up with some kind of boot screen clicked option 1 and then it restarted

Geez, I would panic if I dropped my Vita! O_o