Full FeedSony says firmware 3.00 and 3.01 aren’t to blame for PS3 Blu-ray drive problems
It’s a sad day for many PS3 owners. After installing PS3 firmware 3.00, quite a few users discovered their consoles were having trouble playing certain games. A game like Uncharted, for example, would freeze in the middle of play after the update, even though it had played perfectly before. Sony got to work and shortly after released PS3 firmware 3.01, which was supposed to have fixed all of the PS3 game and movie reading errors caused by 3.00.
Now there is a long list of PS3 owners who’ve upgraded to 3.01 only to find their system now has trouble reading any discs. If you read through the PlayStation.Blog entry on firmware 3.01, the comments section reads like some sort of horror story. As of 2pm CST on October 1, 2009, there were 795 comments, and they just keep coming.
Unfortunately, Sony is not owning up for what evidence suggests is clearly its mistake. Eurogamer got in touch with Sony ask about the issues PS3 owners are having after installing firmware 3.01, and was told by the company that the problems people are having aren’t firmware related. The same article also states that Sony’s “solution” to the problem is for owners to send in afflicted PS3s for repairs.
It’s tragic when a company releases an update which clearly is responsible for causing problems with a large number of previously perfect systems, and then decides to deny responsibility and charge owners to have their systems repaired. I mean, come on. The systems worked perfectly before firmware 3.00 or 3.01, and now they don’t.
So, any Gamertell reading PS3 owners install firmware 3.00 and/or 3.01? How did it go? Have you been experiencing problems when trying to play games and movies? Let us know about your experiences in the comments. We may not be able to help, but we can lend a sympathetic ear.
Read [Eurogamer] Via [Joystiq] Also Read [PlayStation.Blog] Also Read [Gamertell]
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Add me to the list. My PS3 now freezes when it never had before. It was working fine with game discs, Blu-rays and downloaded games until I played the new Katamari game (looks like that review will be delayed). Now whenever I try to get online, it freezes. Sometimes I cannot get past the smiley house login screen before it freezes.
I can sometimes get it to work again with what you might call a soft boot. After turning off the system (sometimes holding down the power button for a long time works, sometimes I need to flick the power switch on the back) you turn on the system and hold down the power button until you hear the second beep (about 5-8 seconds). Then wait for it to reset some settings and start back up.
on October 2, 2009 at 12:28 AM - LINKMy Playstation definately died because of this. I played Beatles rock band for a few days until 3.00 came up as an update. After updating, TBRD started freezing. Having no previous problems before that we figured it was the game. After trading it in it still froze, so I went to the forums and saw how many other people were experiencing problems. Let me remind that Playstation forums run using Playstation network logins so all the complaints are Playstation owners. Then 3.01 came out and Blurays stopped reading completely. It would be a coincidence if on any given day a number of people’s systems experience a problem, but when everyone is having no problems whatsoever one day to a ton having trouble after an update then blame should be place.
on October 3, 2009 at 10:45 AM - LINKI hate Sony right now….. Update 3.01 TOTALLY jacked my system up! Wont recognize BLURAY and has decided to not respond to my SIXXAXIS when I press the PS button to turn the machine on…. If I can get a game loaded and running it’ll freeze without any provocation….. WHY? Sony….WHYYYYY??????
on October 15, 2009 at 11:40 AM - LINKAfter the 3.01 update, I was still able to play a few minutes. Afterwhich, the PS3 froze during the game. But now, my PS3 does not read any games anymore nor any Blu-ray movies. Mind you, my PS3 was working perfectly on the 2.7 firmware.
on October 15, 2009 at 12:17 PM - LINKI am very disappointed right now.
I started my PS3 up in safe mode, ran the file check, and fixed the “corrupt” files. Set the BD 1080p 24Hz Output (HDMI) to off. (settings-video settings-bd 1080p 24hz output-off) Then turned off my Media Server Connection. (settings-network settings-media server connections-disabled) Re-Booted… fixed it for a sec…. NOPE… error . damn.
After what i thought would be a painless fix, no dice. When I try and load a BD i receive this msg.
“An error occurred during the start operation”. (80010514)
Any idea what that error code is? HUH SONY, HUH?
on October 15, 2009 at 01:02 PM - LINKI ordered a new hard drive (wish I had waited a couple days since Sony *just* officially announced the US release of the 250GB PS3) and tried installing, thinking maybe the hard drive was the issue.
No go.
I cannot even get through the hard drive formatting process before it freezes (as evidenced by the colored swoop ceasing to move) with *both* the old or the new hard drive.
Next attempt will include a system fan/cooler accessory.
on October 15, 2009 at 06:40 PM - LINKWow, hadn’t played a game in some time… never had ANY problems with my 80gb PS3 ... then I did the 3.01 update and like magic, I can’t get anything BR to run…. none, no games or movies… came online and see I’m not the only one. :-( So can we assume Sony will release another update to repair the screw up? (if that’s even possible now)
on October 21, 2009 at 02:19 AM - LINKI can play socom…... and that still freezes on occasion….. mfr
on October 21, 2009 at 04:42 PM - LINKDamn! I have the same issue now after updating to 3.01 yesterday. I still can play FIFA 10 until just now it won’t recognize my DVD movie and Blu Ray disc anymore. It does not even show up the Blu ray icon anymore. I have full formated and restore to factory default and it still ####### don’t work!
Is there any lawyer here that can help? Let’s sue Sony for destroying customer system with their upgrade. It can’t be not the 3.01 causing this. Everyone saying the same thing the same symtoms, please lawyers this is your opportunity to make money to sue Sony for not being responsible.
We can help you to gather data
on October 22, 2009 at 04:34 AM - LINKYhea i have the same problem. I updated my ps3 late one night then after the download was finish i installed the new firmware so i decited to go to sleep and the next day in the moring i woke up to what i call a day in hell specially when it was my first day off from work and i was going to daticate my self to an allnighter of playing. but no the horror started and well what do you know my ps3 won’t play any games or Blu Rays. well my day was just craped out. i called sony and they said that theres nothing that they could do over the phone and immediatly they say you have to sent it for repairs and it will cost 150 dollars that would also take and additional 4weeks for me to get my system back. what a load of crap if i may say. and well to sony well i could say that they are losing one loyal fan of them. but im shure that there are many more people that would be saying the same thing. i only ask that sony takes fault for what has append and just fix the problem. like they say no hard feeling just fix it and lettes all just be happy like the good old days.
on October 23, 2009 at 04:32 PM - LINKJust bought the new R & C Crack in Time,
on October 28, 2009 at 12:08 PM - LINKready to get rolling!
Saw an update notice(3.01), ran it, now nuthin plays!!!
60Gb version…
On a whim I got an external fan for the PS3. System seems to be running fine now but the fan runs all the time (and a temperature sensor). Maybe there’s something about the updates that causes the systems to overheat (like too many active components)?
on October 28, 2009 at 12:52 PM - LINKmy ps3 worked fine until i updated with the 3.01 version.now my ps3 wont play dvds,cds or games,and dont know how to go about getting it fixed.my warranty is out a long time ago.any help
on November 1, 2009 at 12:09 PM - LINKUpdate, just found some information on this…. Seems there IS a class action lawsuit out there against Sony for this problem. If anyone finds the link to join the suit post it here.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/10/sony-sued-over-ps3-update-that-supposedly-bricks-consoles.ars
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Sony/PlayStation_3/Class_Action_Lawsuit_Filed_Over_PS3_Failures/3551
on November 1, 2009 at 11:51 PM - LINK@Rod Scherencel
on November 4, 2009 at 08:27 PM - LINKMine does that too!
Mine too..worked fine until update and now won’t recognize blu ray discs and freezes after 5-10 minutes during games. grrr…
on November 7, 2009 at 04:34 PM - LINKMy system worked fine until I update with 3.01 now I cannot get on the network anymore and have problems reading BLu-ray and game discs.
on November 8, 2009 at 06:06 AM - LINKi dont know what your talking about the only thing i have a problem with is uncharted and i can play its just that it MAY freeze but not every time. so HAHAHAHAHA…..no for real that sucks for you guys i cant bring myself to believe that it is the firm ware to blame completely, and with that being said i feel it may be a combo of obsolete parts failing due to the FW update so repair would be a good idea no matter what.
on November 8, 2009 at 08:04 PM - LINKI preordered my copy of Modern Warfare 2 Prestige edition, go in to pick it up, try to install it to find i have to update to 3.01… no big deal. As soon as i get 20 minutes into my game it freezes when i die, the system would not respond, so restarted it to find it wouldn’t recognize the game at all. Managed to enable disc auto-start and got it to attempt to load, only to be greeted with error message 514, meaning theres a problem with the bluray drivers. Followed sony’s instructions to attempt to fix the problem which only uncovered another error message, it will read dvd’s but nothing bluray related. Finally got them to admit it was their problem and are fixing it for free! Just have to wait 10 days to play my game… at least i can use the night vision goggles!
And of course its a firmware problem, anyone believing otherwise is incompetent. The older bluray drives have one laser instead of the current two, older hardware doesn’t work the same as new, especially when the firmware is updated!
on November 11, 2009 at 02:01 PM - LINKHey guys,
I’m in the same boat with everybody else. I am a PS3 owner and absolutely LOVE my console. I even try to get my friends to ditch their XBOXes and buy a PS3 because I’m such a Sony fan. I’ve NEVER had one itty bitty little tiny iota of a problem with my stellar PS3….UNTIL I got the 3.01 update. I was playing Uncharted 2 one night, working like a charm, then I update to 3.01, then I play Uncharted 2 the next night…and I can’t hear any of the character’s voices in the cutscenes. I thought it was a one off glitch, so I played on. Everything else seemed to work fine. Then I popped in my “Predator” blu ray disk and lo and behold….I can’t hear ANY of the character’s voices! I can hear the music, the background effects…but the dialogue is non-existent. This is definitely not a hardware issue…this is a FIRMWARE issue and we all know it! We MUST get Sony to fix this problem free of charge. I sent an email to playstation.com and got a reply with something like this (and I paraphrase here….) “we are sorry you’re having difficulty with your system…but you did agree to THIS…” and then they spout off this legalese about updates and if they bust your system they are not liable. NOBODY reads those things. you just say “I agree” and move on to play your game or watch your blu ray. You don’t expect that you’re going to get a messed up PS3 after doing an update from a trusted company, right? I’m very upset they are not owning up to it and they better do something soon or they are going to lose a lot of Sony fans, me included. Does anybody know how to get involved in the class action lawsuit? I’d be the first to sign up. Star Trek is coming out next week and I won’t be able to watch it!!!!!!!!
on November 13, 2009 at 11:04 PM - LINKYou can file a complaint online through the BBB and FTC. A law firm is currently gathering information for a class action law suit, contact them at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and write in the subject line “Sony Playstation 3”. Write down when your PS3 stopped working and why, whether you have a receipt or not, when or if you contacted Sony, what was the outcome with Sony, if this defect has ever happened before, and what Sony is going to do to remedy this for you.
Luckily i got them to fix mine for free, got the box and shipping it out tomorrow!
on November 14, 2009 at 03:20 AM - LINKUPDATE: So I emailed the law firm that Max recommended, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and basically got nowhere with them. All they said was “Sorry, we’re not taking any more Sony cases. Try small claims court. Good luck”. What? I thought a class action lawsuit was something you just signed up to be included on, hence the “class action”. Am I wrong? Am I missing something? The bigger question is, is there anybody out there that can help us? Those of use who have broken ps3s and everybody keeps telling us “Tough luck?” I call bullcrap on that. Does anybody know how we can get some compensation????
on November 15, 2009 at 12:06 PM - LINKdownloaded new update yesterday, 20 minutes later, wont read any discs…never had a problem until now…class action lawsuit anyone??
on November 15, 2009 at 08:02 PM - LINKI Stop Update My PS3 after i read the comment and the issue with the update 3.01 ..
So No update till every buddy say “OK, They fix there problem” ..
Thanks You All ..
on November 17, 2009 at 12:54 PM - LINKI HATE SONY! so i just buy modern warfare 2..says i need 3.01 update..i download..STAR TREK DOESNT WORK! other games work, blu rays, but not star trek…reading up on my update problem..im never turning on my ps3 again, I AM GOING TO ####### TRASH IT SONY! YOU ####### SUCK! xbox here i come…
on November 17, 2009 at 10:16 PM - LINK