Sony Pulls Latest PS3 Firmware Update

See, this is why auto-updating consoles seems like a BAD idea to me!

Edit: After being informed that you don't have to use auto-downloaded updates, I rescind that comment!

insane in the membrane.

Seems like Sony hasn't been very good with PS3 firmware updates over the PS3's life. Didn't something like this happen before?

I have the PS Plus feature enabled to auto-install updates. I hope that didn't brick my console.

Did this 2 nights ago, was finally giving Resistance 3 a whirl. No problems, but I should be really sticking to Metro, last Light.

Sony: Since we bricked your PS3 there is no reason not to pre-order a PS4.

Yeesh. Looks I'll be playing my free copy of Torchlight then.

Mine auto-updated last night and seems to be working fine so far, guess I just got lucky. I also have a 120GB HD and I've been hearing its been mostly happening to Ps3's with larger hard drives.

From everything I've heard, the cause of the bricking appears to be related to consoles that have their stock HDDs replaced with larger ones ( > 500GB) by their owners.

Maybe this is why Sony doesn't want to be always online....

@wortdog: It only downloads the updates you have to manually install them still because every time you update your firmware you have to re-agree to the Terms of Service policy.

I hadn't had my PS3 online for months until just a few weeks ago. After the firmware update, it was a brick. It wasn't this update, obviously. Puts me in an odd position with the PS4 now, with it coming out so soon it seems wasteful to get a new PS3. Backwards compatibility would make this transition so much smoother, since now I have a modest stable of PS3 games I'll potentially NEVER play again.

The PS Plus auto update does not install system updates. It just downloads them to the system and prevents you from signing in until you manually install the update. For every system update it brings up a ToS screen in which you have to hit accept.

There seems to be a lot of unconfirmed chatter going around that the bricked consoles are limited to people who have installed 1TB drives into their consoles. Which goes against the recommended 500GB limit.

Okay, never mind then! That's a smart way to handle that!

Maybe I'll backup my PS3 after work when I'm mowing the lawn. Its been a while since the last backup. It takes some time, but very reassuring once its done.

Haha jokes on you. My PS3 already bricked. Nice try Sony... I'm still happy with you.

So don't start Last of Us?

Yes and may or may not have happened to 360 users as well. In all honesty it's hard to say though considering it may have been coincidence when the 360s bricked due to their failure rates. And I say that as an owner and avid supporter of both.

Exactly. No BC on either console is a tragedy. Same for Wii U not supporting GC games, because in all honesty I'm much more interested in playing my GC library than my Wii library.

well, that's pretty fucked up, pour one out for those dead PS3s.

LOLOLOLOLOL. With the complete cluster that is PSN and now this, I'm amazed that people are so quick to jump on the PS4 bandwagon.

What? Someone had to go there.

Holy shit, luckily I've unplugged my PS3 before I went on my holiday so it doesn't auto-update otherwise my console is fucked.

Three fittyfive.

PS + Auto Update didn't download it for me. Thank god. Still on versin 4.41. *phew*

So this is the reason why I couldn't sign in earlier.

aaaand this is why you restrict hardware requirements.

I'm fine. Thank you.

All momentum gathered by E3 just thrown out the window. I knew you couldn't keep it up Sony, you never do...

Uh...I'm on the PlayStation Plus auto-update thing. I really hope it didn't download.

I sure wish I saw these articles before I updated and re-formatted my system yesterday. Oh well. Unfortunate timing on my part.

fyi It doesn't brick the PS3, you can still reach the safe mode to install a fixed firmware once it's released.

People on IGN will somehow still convince themselves that this is a good thing for PS3 and that the xbox continues suck balls

heh. wait, are you serious

Not to be pedantic, but consoles aren't being "bricked", they're getting stuck on the splash screen. If they were actually bricked you wouldn't be able to turn the console back on and do anything about it. Luckily, since they're not actually bricked, you can put the next firmware (when it releases) on a USB, start up in safe mode, and install. At this point it's more about seeing how long it is until they release 4.46 or 4.5, or whatever number they jump to next. This problem also seems to be nearly exclusive to people with 500GB+ HDDs, more commonly those with non-official ones.

It just really irks me that every forum thread or news article I've seen addressing this has said that it bricks consoles. It's really crappy this is a problem at all and I am in no way trying to defend Sony for a screw up like this, but nobody's console has been bricked. Do not go out and buy another PS3 because you're having issues here, this will be easily resolvable soon!

No issue on my end.

If this was happening to standard non-modified drive units I could see them sending out USB sticks via express mail but..

This needs to be put into the article, frankly.

People are formatting, uninstalling, trying new drives, tearing hairs out.

Even YLOD isn't a bricked PS3, it can be resuscitated for hours to months, enough time to back everything up to a new machine.

@somejerk said:

I just wish a YLOD was my problem (from months and months ago).

It can do a fan test and boot into repair mode, that's about it. New HD no worky. Old (stock 120) HD no worky in other PS3. Trying one more hail mary attempt over the holiday weekend before I trash it and 3 years of save games. Lesson learned to always expect technology to break in new and amazing ways.

Mine's fine as well. It seems to just be random, unfortunately.

This doesn't brick the console.

That explains why my ps3 has been stuck on the startup for the past 2 days. Well this sucks.

Unfortunately some of those people are on this site too.

Well that's not a way to prompt a PS4 purchase.

Sounds like a dead and defeated HD :(

You have my sympathies, no console HDs lost but important ones containing work from 1980s to early 2000s to a physical HD crash, and then 3com drivers bugged out hard and erased all quicklaunch bar-associated folders on my drive later in 2003..

1) With luck it's "just" that flimsy little logic board with connectors that's lost it on the drive, saved a few HDs that way for local clients (replacing it)

2) I'm going to tell people to cloud-save PS4/XB1 the moment they notice a weird hitch or the HD reports a bad bit

Fuck, I should probably go check my PS3.

Dear: Sony

Thanks.

Yours truly

Microsoft

So I auto-update. Now I'm scared to turn my PS3 on.

LAST OF US. WAIT FOR ME

I got zapped by this. It's definitely not a "true" brick but it's super annoying.

There's actually two bugs crashing into one another here. First is the system software bug that's causing the XMB not to load, and then a second issue with large capacity drives that causes the filesystem repair tools to fail. So what do people do when the XMB loads? They boot to the recovery console and try to repair it, which triggers bug #2.

The PS3 really does not like large capacity hard drives--they'll work, but backups and restore operations get slower and slower the larger your drive is, and if you try to rebuild the filesystem on a hard drive above a certain size, it will always fail and prompt you to reformat. Even if you decline the reformat, your disk is still trashed. This has been the case for some time--I assume that the recovery tools can't be touched by system updates, otherwise they'd have fixed it by now.

Anyone who has a large capacity hard drive and didn't try to check and rebuild the filesystem probably stands a decent chance of recovering with a USB firmware flash. Anyone who did try to rebuild the filesystem on a big drive is probably screwed.

Yes I am, a system killing update is pretty serious.

Does anyone know if it bricks your system immediately? Or could it strike at any time?

My PS3 works great so far.