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Problem after update to PS3 firmware
- Aardwolf 13y agoWhat happens if an official update bricks your device and the warranty expired?
- gozmike 13y agoHappened to me and I was SOL. They wanted me to send it in and pay about 200CAD for repairs. I yelled till I was blue in the face, but no dice.
- gmac 13y agoIANAL but I suspect the law would have been on your side in that scenario, if you'd been able to use it. Seems pretty clear-cut that they broke your device. The guarantee ought not to be relevant.
- sp332 13y agoThis depends on the jurisdiction. Consumer protection laws vary per-state in the US. Not sure what they're like in Canada, but you can bet Sony did everything they could to limit their liability.
- whaevr 13y agoWait for the company to realize what's going on. Wait for said company to release a patch to fix a problem that was obviously their fault to begin with. You face can return to it's normal color now. Jumping to conclusions like "SOL" is a bit ridiculous edit: I'll gladly take a downvote for this, you're talking about screaming at customer support and IM getting downvoted. Constructive group we have here.
- gozmike 13y agoThis happened during another wave of bricked PS3's about a year ago. One year later - same shit is happening to PS3 owners, no real addressing of the problem happened. My device has been stuck in a perpetual (failing) update loop like many others. No patch was ever released. There's no known way without specialized hardware (PS3Key) or out-of-warranty RMA. I don't want to invest in either solution.
- leddt 13y agoMy device does something similar. When a new update comes out, 95% of the time the update will fail. When that happens, it continues to fail no matter how often I retry. Through much trial and error, I found a way to make the update work every time. This may look stupid, but I swear it works: 1. Try the update. It fails. 2. Turn off the console. 3. Take the hard drive out. 4. Turn on the console. It will fail to boot and shutdown. 5. Put the hard drive back in. 6. Turn on the console. The update will start again and succeed. I have no idea why this works, it makes no sense to me. But it's been working this way without fail for a few years.
- gozmike 13y agoThanks man. I tried this out to no avail. When I realized that I was faced with a hefty RMA bill, I tried both removing the battery and letting its settings RAM clear overnight as well as booting without a hard drive. Both had no effect unfortunately. In my opinion, it's a poorly designed update mechanism that makes it prone to failure. There should be some redundancy built into the process so that the machine can always force itself back to a "known-good" state and at least access the recovery menu.
- dspillett 13y agoOfficially you are out of luck if it is completely bricked though for PR purposes, especially this close to a new product launch, they may far more generous than that.
- whaevr 13y agoOfficially out of luck? I've read in multiple places they are looking into it and will release a patch
- dspillett 13y agoThe question was what happens if your device is bricked. Bricked means you are unable to even apply a patch and need to take the device in for servicing or replacement. If you are able to apply an update yourself, your device is not bricked.
- iddqd 13y agoThis bug hasn't caused any devices to get bricked either. The title is wrong. The recovery menu is accessible, so is definitely patchable.
- dspillett 13y agoCorrect with respect to the issue discussed in the article. Though I was answering the related hypothetical question "What happens if an official update bricks your device and the warranty expired?".
- sp332 13y agoDowngrading is not for the faint of heart, and requires special hardware ("factory jig") to overwrite some firmware. http://www.ps3news.com/ps3-hacks-jailbreak/ps3-firmware-3-6x-downgrade-via-infectus-waninkoko-brick-fix/ http://www.ps3news.com/ps3-hacks-jailbreak/ps3-firmware-3-6x...
- InternalRun 13y agoThey are not bricked, the update is just buggy. They will release a fix and you will have to put it on a USB and upgrade from that. Bricked means it is completely unusable. It is a sensationalized title.
- dcaunt 13y agoSensational, maybe, but it's not good for PS3 owners, whether bricked is the right word or not.
- InternalRun 13y agoI agree, but I doubt they will have to wait weeks for a fix. Sony will have a patch within a day or two.
- lobo_tuerto 13y agoYeah, neither is good for PS3 owners, that's not in question here, but there is a big difference between being bricked and not. From wikipedia: "In one common sense of the term, "bricking" suggests that the damage, often a misconfiguration of essential on-board software, is so serious as to have rendered the device _permanently_ unusable." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)
- gonvaled 13y agoBy that definition, and you being picky, we can safely assume than nothing can brick any device. What? Your CPU burnt during the last upgrade? Not bricked! You just need to go through the simple procedure of soldering a new CPU!
- temac 13y agoThere is, usually, no such thing as _permanently_ unusable. 99% of the time a bricked device can be recovered by reflashing a working FW through JTAG or equivalent. This needs a piece of equipment to do so, but so does online or USB flashing...
- snarfy 13y agoYou agreed to that in a EULA.
- yekko 13y agoYeah, and your first born.
- josephlord 13y agohttp://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-19-playstation-3-update-4-45-bricking-some-consoles http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-19-playstation-3-u... This story says the offending patch has been pulled offline.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- scrabble 13y agoIt will be interesting to see how this type of situation would be handled in the XBox One, which can't play games unless you're checking in online. It's not like you'd avoid connecting in order to see if people have problems with a patch.
- kogir 13y agoProbably much like Windows updates, which come out regularly without issue. Microsoft has a pretty good track record and decades of operational experience around this kind of thing.
- scrabble 13y agoBack in 2011 there was an update to the 360 that bricked consoles. Microsoft sent out replacements to people affected. So it's not unthinkable. I imagine more people would be affected if the machine is always on, since the updates could be applied even if you're not using the machine and would likely be required in order to connect.
- anonymfus 13y agoJudging by Windows Phone updates, Microsoft probably will not update all consoles simultaneously.
- loganfrederick 13y agoTo add an anecdote to this, I had a bricked Xbox 360 due to the famous "red ring of death" within the first two years of its life. Shipped the broken system to Microsoft and received a brand new one in two weeks from Microsoft that has worked ever since. Failing hardware sucks, but the way Microsoft handled it was great.
- teamonkey 13y agoIf you've paid for PS+ your PS3 will switch itself on in the middle of the night (optionally; you can disable it) to sync, download and install queued titles and most importantly apply patches. I wonder how many people woke up to broken consoles? But really, you can unplug the new Xbox, it's just that if the situation goes on for more than 24hrs you won't be able to play anything (Sony 'resolved' the situation within hours by removing the problem patch).
- VLM 13y agoI would imagine they can roll out the rootkit PR campaign almost unchanged. In order to protect our IP, sometimes extreme measures have to be taken ... Along with a healthy dose of the ole "In order to save the village we had to destroy the village"
- K2h 13y agohttp://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/06/19/playstation-3-update-4-45-reportedly-bricking-systems/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/06/19/playstatio... affected systems estimate: Aftermarket HDDs, 500GB-1TB ~90% Stock 500GB models ~8% Stock 120GB models ~2% Stock 1st-gen fat models ~ 0%
- josephlord 13y agoI initially read that as 90% of the aftermarket HDD systems were affected rather than 90% of the affected systems were those with aftermarket HDDs. These numbers come from looking at the problem reports on a forum.
- criley2 13y agoHeh, it's worth noting that the Forbes source for those "numbers" is a Redditor who is ballpark estimating based on user reports in a forum. Didn't realize we were in a time when Forbes sources were nearly unsourced Reddit comments. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1gmrmx/do_not_update_your_ps3s_new_firmware_brick/calqjiq http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1gmrmx/do_not_update_...
- viraptor 13y agoAt the top, over the article: "Paul Tassi, Contributor". I think the official articles are written by "..., Forbes staff". There's not much distinction these days between the core and the affiliated people. (not that this is an excuse)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bdcravens 13y agoSeeing all the drama about XBox One vs PS4, I can't help but laugh. The PS4 may seem a better solution (lower cost, more freedom) but then I remember, this is Sony. Gaming network hacked many times, company that attacks hobbyists that hack on the hardware they own, and then situations like this.
- larrik 13y agoPlus, Sony will stand up to a crowd and lie their face off. I wouldn't be surprised if the DRM differences between PS4 and XBox One aren't actually different.
- shadowmint 13y agoOP not about PS4. Don't care. (seriously, are you trying to start another PS4 / XB rage thread? Stop trolling)
- bdcravens 13y agoNo, I'm not. In the same way that a post related to the iPhone somehow magically turns into a discussion about Samsung and "rounded corners", when the original article had nothing to do with those issues. My point is situations like this are further indications of Sony's incompetence, yet there's plenty on HN who will be standing in line to give them money when the PS4 come out, as if it's a different company without all the fails.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- levesque 13y agoNot bricked since it still boots stuff and can be fixed. Oh well, everyone's taken a liking to say they are bricked - it sounds so much more dramatic.
- TillE 13y agoYeah, I'll allow the usage of "bricked" if recovery requires opening up the device and connecting via JTAG. That's effectively dead and unrecoverable by any normal consumer. But c'mon, a device that you can fix by sticking in a USB drive with a patch is not bricked.
- pandaman 13y agoAlso the number of the affected PS3s is not large both according to Sony and neogaf's lack of a rioting. But, I think such exaggerations in the news are good to catch attention of the people who might be affected by this.
- tomc1985 13y agoRight now a botched PS3 is about as functional as a brick, or maybe a glorified (and boring) screensaver. Why not call it one?
- loucal 13y agoThese may not actually be bricked but I had an old ps3 that actually was bricked after the update following the psn hack and consequent month-long outage. This ps3 had linux installed on it at some point (from back when ydl had a ps3 tailored distro) but that was overwritten by a sony update that I grudgingly agreed to since I didn't want to give up my access to psn. When psn came back up after the long outage I got on immediately and the update was downloaded, but as soon as it finished and before any indication of a restart I heard a 'click' and it was gone, forever. Sony told me they would 'pass on' my info about having linux legally installed previously but admitted nothing and it remains useless to this day. Luckily, I received a new one as a gift... but now I am afraid to update it ;) I'll wait a couple days I think to be sure.