PS3 3.56 Firmware Bricking Consoles?

[admin]

Reports are coming in that people with newer models of the PS3 Slim, and who have upgraded the hard-drive in the console, are experiencing "The data is corrupted" errors which prevent their PS3s from working again.

Sony designed the PS3 to allow users to upgrade the hard-drive themselves, without voiding the warranty.

But it appears the latest firmware, which was released to combat the recent leak of the master key for the console. As expected, the latest firmware has already been cracked and Sony's latest security efforts were easily defeated (something that can't be avoided unless Sony issues new hardware), but the side-effects of the patch appears to be causing problems for those that didn't even install the custom firmware.

When people with the affected Slim models (with upgraded HDDs) install the firmware, they are told that their hard-drive is corrupt. Those that choose to reformat and wipe out all data are then left with "The data is corrupted" errors and a console that doesn't work.

For these users, the only solution is to wait for firmware 3.57 and hope that Sony issues a fix. Or to put back the original hard-drive.

A video of the problem can be seen below:



More:

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/2/1/sonys-ps3-356-firmware-causing-hard-drive-woes/

[admin]

And does 3.56 possibly contain a rootkit that allows Sony to take over your console at any time via PSN?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20030353-17.html

[admin]

Sony has re-released firmware 3.56, which suggests that they've probably found the error and fixed it, but did not want to issue a new version number because that would be too embarrassing.

[admin]

The re-released firmware (3.56v2) only works if you still have the original HDD and you haven't reformatted it or anything, which is fairly unlikely for most people who have upgraded their HDD. If you do have the original, untouched, HDD, you can upgrade the firmware to 3.56 (v2), and then upgrade your HDD, and it will work.