New PS3 Firmware Causing HDD Upgrade Problems? 82
Channard writes "While there have been occasional reports of previous PS3 firmware upgrades causing system crashes and so forth, Sony's new firmware upgrade for the system, 3.41, is apparently stopping PS3 owners from upgrading their hard disks. This problem has been encountered by many users on Sony's forums and occurs when you try to put a new hard disk into a PS3 that already has the firmware upgrade installed. The general course of action for upgrading a PS3's drive is that you download the latest PS3 firmware onto a memory stick and, after swapping the hard drive in the PS3, plug the stick in, allowing the PS3 to properly prepare the disk for use. But as of upgrade 3.41, the PS3 fails to recognize the firmware on the stick, complaining that it can't proceed until you insert the correct firmware. Repeating the process and re-downloading the firmware does not fix the problem, as I can confirm, having encountered the problem myself. Users can put the old hard disk back in, provided they've not reformatted it for some other purpose, so all is not lost. Sony have apparently told gaming website CVG that 'The information available to our Consumer Services Department does not suggest that this is a problem PlayStation owners are likely to experience when upgrading the HDD with 3.41 update.' This seems to fly in the face of the currently available information — although whether or not this statement was issued by Kevin Butler is unclear. Either way, PS3 owners encountering this problem will likely have to wait a few days for a fix and use their old HDDs for now."
Old problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Just use a CD - that is the GENERAL way to do i (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What's up with companies lately? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not just "these days." And it's not just mass-market gear.
I can count on one hand the number of expensive products (think $40,000 to $800,000) that actually worked, as advertised and promised, out of the box. Everything else (I don't think I have enough fingers to count these systems) was broken, even if it'd already been around in production and use for more than a decade.
Fortunately, these low-volume widgets are usually produced by relatively small companies, and it's not a completely harrowing experience to set up a conference call with their tech support, the engineer who designed it, and a responsible party (CEO or owner).
But even at this price range, the first suggestion is always "You're doing it wrong." Which, sometimes, I actually am (I'm not perfect). Sometimes it's a software fix that needs put together, other times it's hardware. One time, we had to send a bunch of expensive PTZ cameras back (which were mounted on 100' towers) for fixes because their internal grounding structure was gorfed such that they kept blowing up without provocation.
In another case, we had engineers from another country on-site for days at a time, fixing real problems that they were initially claimed were impossible. This was successful, thankfully, but once we got it all working correctly they killed the entire (years-old, generally stable, best-of-breed) product line. (WTF?)
Disclaimer: I work with communications and control systems, not the IT stuff typical of Slashdot. My experience with IT things has been pretty good, but then we don't really ever use any non-mass-market IT stuff since we don't ever need to. I'd be interested in knowing if folks ever have similar problems with (say) low-volume/high-end Cisco or NetApp gear, or if my career is uniquely doomed to consist largely of making companies fix the stuff that they sold us.
Patch vs Full fw image? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:You're surprised? (Score:1, Interesting)
The problem is that it is hard to imagine a company that hates its customers more than Sony. It's not just the OtherOS thing - it is their whole attitude dating back to the "get a second job" thing at the very least.
Your PS3 fails. Want to keep your settings and saved games by swapping your hard drive into the replacement? Tough luck.
Buy a new game for your PSP and need to update the firmware to play it but aren't near a charger (it is not quite as simple as this - it's some combination of battery level and AC power)? Tough luck!
And some of your examples above are just silly. Why should a user expect their sound settings to affect their ability to play music in the background? What sort of primitive system is this? Are you seriously telling me that a system that is "so powerful that developers will never utilise it's full power" can't play "high quality" music while browsing the web?
You've already given them your money so they really don't care about you any more.