PS3 4.45 update bricking consoles

[Zookster]

According to Sony not even everyone who got the 4.45 update was affected. They said it was a small number of people who got that update who were having problems.

That was just PR double speak and relative to the fact that only a small number of PS3s (out of the total user base) even tried to download and install 4.45. They didn't specifically say that of the users that downloaded and installed 4.45 only a small number of them were affected. Sorry to nit pick, but I found Sony's only official response (which can be read either way) somewhat dismissive, offering no reassurances that they can and will fix people's bricked systems:

In a statement provided to VideoGamer.com, a SCEE representative said that the firm was "aware of reports that the recent PlayStation 3 system software update (version 4.45) has caused the XMB to not display on a small number of PS3 systems.

"We have temporarily taken 4.45 offline and are investigating the cause of the problem. We will announce when the system update is available for download as soon as possible."

 

[Teehar]

I narrowly missed the update as well.Got Medal of Honor from BB@home,of course when i installed the game it showed the new update was available,I didn't have time to fool with it,so I skipped it.Makes me worry though,every time I turn on the PS3 there is some kind of update,whether it's game,app,or system related.

 

[lacubs]

i just sign-on to so see, and i still on 4.41!

 

[king3pj]

That was just PR double speak and relative to the fact that only a small number of PS3s (out of the total user base) even tried to download and install 4.45. They didn't specifically say that of the users that downloaded and installed 4.45 only a small number of them were affected. Sorry to nit pick, but I found Sony's only official response (which can be read either way) somewhat dismissive, offering no reassurances that they can and will fix people's bricked systems:

Well when I was worried I might have gotten the update due to PS Plus I checked the official playstation forums. There were definitely people in there claiming to have 4.45 and still having working consoles. I don't doubt that tons of people were affected because the thread was hundreds of pages long in just a few hours. I don't think it was a thing where everyone with 4.45 was bricked though.

 

[Scherrman]

I'll check mine when I get home.

I'm curious as to how old all of you gamers are here? I'm still fairly young but getting to be a bit of an older gamer now. Makes me wonder what the age is of the video game enthusiasts here.

 

[Teehar]

I'll check mine when I get home.

I'm curious as to how old all of you gamers are here? I'm still fairly young but getting to be a bit of an older gamer now. Makes me wonder what the age is of the video game enthusiasts here.

Imma gettin too old for these fancy FPS games lol.45

 

[Scherrman]

I'll be 30 Sunday. I always dreamed of owning all the major consoles and last year I finally made it there. Now that I can afford it and have them all I find that I do not have enough time to play the games I want to. What a terrible joke life plays on us.

 

[Zookster]

Well when I was worried I might have gotten the update due to PS Plus I checked the official playstation forums. There were definitely people in there claiming to have 4.45 and still having working consoles. I don't doubt that tons of people were affected because the thread was hundreds of pages long in just a few hours. I don't think it was a thing where everyone with 4.45 was bricked though.

I agree. There are plenty of people who successfully downloaded and installed 4.45 (I'm following several forum threads on the matter). In fact, some people that got bricked have successfully dropped an older (factory) drive back in their units, which took the 4.45 update OK (there's no way to go back to an earlier version).

But as I posted in another forum, yes, the number of PS3 owners who were affected by the 4.45 patch is a relatively small number compared to the total PS3 install base. But for the sake of argument, let's say only 10,000 PS3 owners (a very conservative estimate) had their systems bricked. That would be a very significant number compared to the number of people who should've had their systems bricked by a software update, which is zero.

It's like the governor of Oklahoma going on TV to say only a "small number" of people were affected by a rash tornadoes that swept through the state, when over 10,000 people lost their homes (a very "small number" compared to the total US population).

I'm just uncomfortable with the way Sony is spinning the numbers to make it look like "eh, no big deal," while not making a bolder statement to reassure those affected that we'll be taken care of one way or another.

 

[Teehar]

I'll be 30 Sunday. I always dreamed of owning all the major consoles and last year I finally made it there. Now that I can afford it and have them all I find that I do not have enough time to play the games I want to. What a terrible joke life plays on us.

hehehe that's funny Scherrman.I have owned most gaming systems since the Atari 2600,but,I always sold the older system to move up to the next gen.Currently have a gamecube,wii,and PS3.Mainly keeping the wii for the grandkid.The gamecube is just collecting dust.Like you though,I don't have the time to be a serious gamer.I spend more time playing angry birds than most anything else.

 

[king3pj]

I agree. There are plenty of people who successfully downloaded and installed 4.45 (I'm following several forum threads on the matter). In fact, some people that got bricked have successfully dropped an older (factory) drive back in their units, which took the 4.45 update OK (there's no way to go back to an earlier version).

But as I posted in another forum, yes, the number of PS3 owners who were affected by the 4.45 patch is a relatively small number compared to the total PS3 install base. But for the sake of argument, let's say only 10,000 PS3 owners (a very conservative estimate) had their systems bricked. That would be a very significant number compared to the number of people who should've had their systems bricked by a software update, which is zero.

It's like the governor of Oklahoma going on TV to say only a "small number" of people were affected by a rash tornadoes that swept through the state, when over 10,000 people lost their homes (a very "small number" compared to the total US population).

I'm just uncomfortable with the way Sony is spinning the numbers to make it look like "eh, no big deal," while not making a bolder statement to reassure those affected that we'll be taken care of one way or another.

That definitely makes sense. I'm worried that they won't be able to fix this for those having the problem with a simple software update. Like you said, the only people I have seen who found fixes actually had to replace their hard drive.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[king3pj]

I'll be 30 Sunday. I always dreamed of owning all the major consoles and last year I finally made it there. Now that I can afford it and have them all I find that I do not have enough time to play the games I want to. What a terrible joke life plays on us.

I'm 26. I am a single guy a few years out of college with my first "career" job started about 3 years ago. I just bought my first house and moved out of my temporary, after college, living arrangement at my parents house 3 months ago.

Living on my own with no kids means I have more free time than you guys and, for the first time in my life, enough money to buy the games I want. That's why I have a new gaming PC, 360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita, and a PS4 preorder on the way. The only current system I don't have is the Wii U. I still don't have enough time with work and other things in life to play all the games and systems I buy, especially during tax season. I'm an accountant at a small CPA firm.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Scherrman]

Looks like I have version 4.41

 

[Zookster]

Reports in the PS community boards are now saying that Sony is deleting comments that discuss the 4.45 system bricking from their official Facebook page.

I'm 45, btw. Started gaming in 2007 with a PS3 (my first console since the Atari 2600), which I bought as a blu-ray player mainly. I work from home part-time, have no mate or kids, and virtually unlimited time to game and troll gaming forums. I'm also a trophy hunter, who ironically sees no value in what 4.45 was to add.

 

[Scherrman]

My system seems to have the older version and is operating fine. Played the NCAA 14 demo last night and the game is awesome. Also tried to download a free game I had coming from Sony, inFAMOUS. I had to leave it download over night because it was taking so long but it looks like it finally worked.

 

[king3pj]

My system seems to have the older version and is operating fine. Played the NCAA 14 demo last night and the game is awesome. Also tried to download a free game I had coming from Sony, inFAMOUS. I had to leave it download over night because it was taking so long but it looks like it finally worked.

That is a very good game. I think you will like it when you get a chance to play it. That is also my biggest problem with the PSN though. I don't know if they have inferior servers or what it is but game downloads of similar size take much longer on PSN than they do on Steam or Xbox Live. All 3 devices are connected by ethernet to the same gigabit switch so there should be no difference.

As a PS Plus member who gets lots of free downloadable games this gets pretty annoying. Here is my solution. I'm not sure if you have to be a PS Plus member for this to work but it's worth trying. I don't use the playstation store on my PS3 at all. I go to the web version here.

https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-us/home/main

From there you can make your game purchases and get your free PS Plus games. You can put any game you bought from the PSN into your download queue. They download to my PS3 overnight or my Vita whenever I'm not using it. Supposedly this problem is fixed on PS4. It will wake up into a low power state any time you make a purchase to download your games so they are waiting for you.

Edit: Duh this won't work for you... My mistake. You have to be a PS Plus member to make the game download overnight. You can still use the web store instead of the slow PS3 store but if you don't have PS Plus it won't auto update overnight.

 

[Scherrman]

How much is the subscription? I power my PS3 down every time I'm done playing, will it still download to it or would it need to be left on?

 

[king3pj]

How much is the subscription? I power my PS3 down every time I'm done playing, will it still download to it or would it need to be left on?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RMK5QG/?tag=satell01-20

It's $50 per year or they sell a 3 month option for $18. Keep in mind that this will be required for online play on PS4 so if you plan on getting one it might be worth it to just jump in now. For this fee you get auto updates at night and new "free" games every month. They call them free but you are paying $50 so in reality they are just really cheap but most of the games they give out are actually good and relatively recent releases.

For example some of the free full retail PS3 games this month are Uncharted 3, Saints Row the Third, XCOM, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. If you are in to Indie games or own a PS Vita it's an even better deal. As of today there are 21 free games and you keep all of them as long as you are a member even once they are rotated out for new games.

You don't need to leave your PS3 on. This is how it works on PS3, this will all be irrelevant on PS4 because it will always be in a low power state to download new games and patches in the background. You pick your update time. I don't remember the default but mine is set for 4:00am. Every night at 4:00am my PS3 boots up and syncs all my trophies with PSN, syncs all my game saves with the cloud saves, downloads and installs all new game patches for every game I have played, downloads and installs anything new in my download queue, and downloads new system FW so it's ready and waiting for install when I boot up. People know about most of these features but most people never mention the cloud saves. If you have PS Plus and multiple systems or a system failure you can download all your game saves to any PS3. Yes it sucks to need a new system but at least you wouldn't have to lose your progress in all your games too. When it's done with all of this it shuts itself back down so you never even know it happened unless you happen to be awake in the middle of the night. You can set this update time so it works for you unlike my hopper.

 

[Scherrman]

That sounds pretty awesome. I would love to get the PS4 but I have way too many games to finish on the PS3 yet. If I ever end up getting the PS4 it wouldn't be for a couple years.

 

[Zookster]

Apparently the fix will be available June 27:

LATEST UPDATE (6/21; 8:04AM PDT)

We have identified the issue related to the PlayStation 3 software update (version 4.45) that impacted a small number of PS3 systems earlier this week. A new PS3 system software update is planned to be released on June 27 that resolves the issue. Thank you for your patience and understanding and we apologize for the inconvenience.

http://community.us.playstation.com...e-PS3-v-4-45-SCEA-Update/m-p/40721809#M282041

Too long to just keep reading books, for my taste, but not long enough to justify purchasing a replacement gaming device. (I just can't get into gaming on my Kindle Fire tablet and my laptop PC is worthless when it comes to the kinds of games I'd want to play, i.e., not Bejeweled or Zuma. lol)

 

[king3pj]

Apparently the fix will be available June 27:



http://community.us.playstation.com...e-PS3-v-4-45-SCEA-Update/m-p/40721809#M282041

Too long to just keep reading books, for my taste, but not long enough to justify purchasing a replacement gaming device. (I just can't get into gaming on my Kindle Fire tablet and my laptop PC is worthless when it comes to the kinds of games I'd want to play, i.e., not Bejeweled or Zuma. lol)

Ouch...6 more days in addition to the few you have already missed. At least they seem confident that they can fix it without replacing hardware. I realize how ridiculous it probably sounds to most people for someone to say 6 more days seems like a long time without games. Lately I spend much more time gaming than watching TV though. That is my relaxing release at the end of the night when I'm home from work and done messing around in the yard. I feel your pain.