PS4:CBOMB Information

CBOMB (CMOS + Bomb) or Error CE-30391-6 is a coined term that describes a defective and/or unsynced CMOS battery to PSN servers, causing both physical and digital media unable to be launched.

What is a CMOS and what causes the issue?

In an effort to discourage cheating in terms of how soon Trophies are awarded, the PlayStation Network requires consoles to maintain an accurate time and date setting before games, both physical and digital, can be started. Without a connection to PlayStation Network, consoles would rely on a CMOS battery to maintain the date and time. If a console is unable to obtain an accurate date and time from PlayStation Network due to loss of connectivity and CMOS battery charge combined, games can be rendered unplayable on it, as trophies and saves would not be able to assign a correct date and time. A dead CMOS battery would revert the time and date to 12/31/1969 5:00PM. A simple replacement of the CMOS battery would not be enough to restore the system clock, as it will still require a PSN sync.

For unexploited PS4s, to fix this issue the user had to either be on the latest firmware and be connected to PSN to auto-sync the date and time if the user didn't want to replace its battery, or to replace it then update to latest firmware and sync to PSN until that CMOS battery dies again.

CBOMB on exploited PS4s

If the user didn't have a active jailbreak, CBOMB issue will also be triggered. Post-jailbreak, however, multiple fixes have been found for various firmwares such as:

• Running the Kernel Clock payload, from various exploit hosts, only on 5.05-5.07 firmwares.
• Running GoldHEN or MiraCFW+ToDex which automatically fixes the issue, allowing both saving and trophies to be unlocked, by using debug trophies and removing the timestamp.
• 8.xx users still don't have any fix currently, besides updating to 9.00.

The 9.00 Sony Fix

On September 15th, 2021 Sony released firmware version 9.00 which officially fixed CBOMB issue. While this update fixed the games crash by removing the accurate timestamp needed on trophies and save data (will now show as blank date "-", similar to the previous GoldHEN or Mira fixes), it still doesn't allow the user to manually change the kernel clock and still requires a PSN connection to validate the correct time and date on new CMOS batteries.

As a result, both unexploited and exploited PS4s running 9.00 or higher can safely launch and play both digital and physical media without crashes, with the ability to receive trophies and use save data (without a timestamp).