PS3 4.45 update bricking consoles

[Zookster]

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.

Thanks. Gaming is pretty much the only thing I really look forward to to get me through my work day. And wouldn't you know that this happened during June when there isn't much on TV either. If it was football season, I could deal with it a little better. There's a part of me that wants to use this as an excuse to get a Vita, since I'll have all the free Plus games I put in my download queue to play, but once my PS3 is back up, I probably won't touch it again.

 

[king3pj]

Thanks. Gaming is pretty much the only thing I really look forward to to get me through my work day. And wouldn't you know that this happened during June when there isn't much on TV either. If it was football season, I could deal with it a little better. There's a part of me that wants to use this as an excuse to get a Vita, since I'll have all the free Plus games I put in my download queue to play, but once my PS3 is back up, I probably won't touch it again.

I like my Vita. I got the white Assassins Creed bundle for $179 from Amazon during their Black Friday online sale. I rarely, if ever actually buy a game for it because the PS Plus library builds up faster than I can play them. I use it when I travel or when I'm passively watching TV like during a sporting event that I only half care about. I am a sports fan and I tend to pay attention to my Tigers baseball or Notre Dame football. Things like last night's game 7 or all day football sessions that I don't have a huge stake in are perfect for Vita though. This will be even more true when I get my PS4 and I can play all of those games on the Vita screen.

 

[king3pj]

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.

If you do decide to sign up for PS Plus here is a tip. Go to the web store at least once a month and "purchase" all the free games for every system whether you have them or not. You don't have to actually download anything and once you purchase them they are tied to your account as long as you stay a member. That way if you ever do get a PS4 or Vita you will have a huge library of games waiting for you that you can download at any time.

 

[Zookster]

I like my Vita. I got the white Assassins Creed bundle for $179 from Amazon during their Black Friday online sale. I rarely, if ever actually buy a game for it because the PS Plus library builds up faster than I can play them. I use it when I travel or when I'm passively watching TV like during a sporting event that I only half care about. I am a sports fan and I tend to pay attention to my Tigers baseball or Notre Dame football. Things like last night's game 7 or all day football sessions that I don't have a huge stake in are perfect for Vita though. This will be even more true when I get my PS4 and I can play all of those games on the Vita screen.

I was tempted by that AC bundle. But I don't travel too much, I live alone (so no competition for TV time), and I already passively watch sports on a small second TV in my living room while playing on my PS3. But I do like the idea of playing a Vita while having the game on the big screen. I used to do that with games on my Kindle until the novelty of playing a game without physical buttons and analog sticks wore off. I just wish there was a bundle right now that at least included a 4 GB card. Otherwise I'm looking at nearly $300 with sales tax to get up and running with a Vita if I were to grab one this weekend...basically what I'd pay for a second PS3.

 

[riffjim4069]

Thank goodness MLB.TV does require me to download the lastest update like it it does when playing online games, which I usually don't play until the weekend.

 

[ohioankev]

This is not a dig at anyone but I chuckle to myself every time I read an xbox fanboy say "Well yeah your PS4 is going to require PS+ just to play multiplayer" Anyone who has PS+ right now knows how great of a deal it is and that it's worth less than $5 a month. It's kind of like the SEGA channel back in the day. I value PS+ more than I did XBOX Live when it was active on my XBOX360. And anyways currently I don't need PS+ to watch NetFlix.

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]

InFamous finished installing this morning and I finally got to play it a bit tonight. Pretty sweet game.

 

[Zookster]

This is not a dig at anyone but I chuckle to myself every time I read an xbox fanboy say "Well yeah your PS4 is going to require PS+ just to play multiplayer" Anyone who has PS+ right now knows how great of a deal it is and that it's worth less than $5 a month. It's kind of like the SEGA channel back in the day. I value PS+ more than I did XBOX Live when it was active on my XBOX360. And anyways currently I don't need PS+ to watch NetFlix.

With my PS3 being bricked right now, I'm exploring all my gaming/streaming/BD playback options, even looking at some good bundle deals on 360s that include some games I'd like. But when I pause to consider that I'll need to pay for Live just to stream Netflix, it stops me in my tracks. I just don't understand that policy when there's no extra charge to stream on every other device out there that I'm aware of.

 

[dangue]

Just to update: got the new PSU and swapped it out successfully. It was quite easy once I had the right torx security screw bit to remove the first screw.

Unfortunately, no dice. Which based on my research on google means there's probably a short circuit on the motherboard. So there's no salvaging this unit (at least not by my hands).

I really wish there was a way to just swap my hard drive into another unit without having to wipe it. If I could pick up right where my old one left off, I'd move over to a new console in a heartbeat.

The idea of have to re-download all the PSN games I've acquired over the years is just depressing. If I queued it all up and just let it run it might finish just in time for the PS4 to arrive.

If anyone has any thoughts on how to back up a good working hard drive from an already dead console, I'm all ears.

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[king3pj]

Just to update: got the new PSU and swapped it out successfully. It was quite easy once I had the right torx security screw bit to remove the first screw.

Unfortunately, no dice. Which based on my research on google means there's probably a short circuit on the motherboard. So there's no salvaging this unit (at least not by my hands).

I really wish there was a way to just swap my hard drive into another unit without having to wipe it. If I could pick up right where my old one left off, I'd move over to a new console in a heartbeat.

The idea of have to re-download all the PSN games I've acquired over the years is just depressing. If I queued it all up and just let it run it might finish just in time for the PS4 to arrive.

If anyone has any thoughts on how to back up a good working hard drive from an already dead console, I'm all ears.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

Well I know the drives are user swappable. I have never done this myself but maybe it really is as simple as putting it in a new PS3 as you said.


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[dangue]

Well I know the drives are user swappable. I have never done this myself but maybe it really is as simple as putting it in a new PS3 as you said.

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Unfortunately, no. I've swapped out the drive on this one twice to increase capacity. The first thing the PS3 wants to do is format the new drive.

Based on what I'm read online, the only time this doesn't happen is when you put in a drive that was previously formatted for that specific PS3. So the hard drives and their content are coded/tied to one unique machine.

The only standard way around this is a back up and restore, but that requires a working machine. I was just hoping someone around here knew of an alternative method.

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[Zookster]

There are some methods to get your YLOD'd PS3 working long enough to do a full backup so you can restore it to a new console. Google "hair dryer ps3 ylod fix." There's also another method that requires taking apart your PS3 to access the motherboard and reflowing connections using a heat gun. This link explains how to do it on an older PS3 model: http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/tech-centre/36515-aidans-ylod-repair-guide.html.

But otherwise, there is absolutely no way to get content off the HDD on a PS3 that died.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Sony has released an update, along with instructions to fix "bricked" PS3s..

https://support.us.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4984

 

[Zookster]

Thanks. I just got mine running this morning. No data loss. Everything the same as the moment before it got bricked by 4.45. I'm glad I was patient and didn't try any band-aid fixes in the meantime that may have forced a reformatting of my bricked 1 TB HDD.