When Will Sony Address 3.61 PS3 Update And Bricked Consoles?

  • May 23, 2011 6:28 am

Having a bricked “fat” style PS3 after Sony’s recent 3.61 update? You’re not alone. Growing reports on two posts we wrote late last week (here and here) paints yet another blemish on an already badly marked public image for Sony. Coming off of the month-long PSN downtime caused by one of the largest digital data breaches ever, having to deal with more PlayStation problems takes things from bad to worse. Adding insult to injury, however, is the fact that Sony refuses to accept any responsibility for bricked consoles.

But at the same time, Sony has also gone on record saying that issues caused by the update are “extremely isolated in very few numbers”. So which is it, Sony? Either the update did or didn’t (news flash: it did) cause issues with some PS3s. From the stories we’ve seen so far, it looks like the update has hindered the older fat style PS3s ability to properly cool themselves as affected users are citing “increased fan noise, speed, and the amount of time they’re running at full blast” amongst other things.

Both previous articles we linked to above are still seeing new comments and accounts added daily by disgruntled PS3 owners now dealing with the monumental task of trying to get some, if any help from Sony seeing as how they don’t acknowledge that it’s there fault. As such, owners of bricked PS3s are being told that they will have to burden the $100+ cost of console repair or replacement — a slap in the face to an already angered user base.

Coming from a company such as Sony, however, who has a past full of anti-consumer and downright disgusting policies and responses, we’re sadly not surprised. In the meantime, the most we can do is continue to post about affected consoles and their owners. There’s already a group on FaceBook called “PS3 Update 3.61 Killed My PS3″. Though we advise affected users to not stop at FaceBook. Use Twitter, personal websites, email big name publications, etc. The only way Sony will take responsibility for their actions is enough of us speak up.

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  • Kaden101

    Quote “From the stories we’ve seen so far, it looks like the update has
    hindered the older fat style PS3s ability to properly cool themselves as
    affected users are citing “increased fan noise, speed, and the amount
    of time they’re running at full blast” amongst other things.”

    Surely, if the fan is going quicker, then the PS3 should run cooler. I don’t get it.

  • Mike

    I see your point. What I understand it as is that the consoles are running hotter — possibly processor and/or graphics chip being pushed harder for longer and causing more heat thereby needing more cooling, and hence faster fan speeds. Though in this case, it seems that the older PS3s can’t keep up in the cooling department.

  • Bondoboy

    I have a ps3 60gig from day one
    And it works great.. Playing socom for 6 hours non stop..
    And that was 2 days ago played last night for 4 hours and still going
    I think people trying to get there brick ps3 fix for free…
    Good luck gypsys

  • Thebigbad

    For gods sake when we you people learn – PS3s brick ALL THE TIME. It’s a coincedence that some peoples have bricked after the Firmware update. Every single time a firmware comes out this stupid stories get published.

  • Guest

    I gave up on $ony, switching over to Micro$oft Xbox360…..enough is enough with these clowns.

  • Clorissa

    Well, I certianly have noticed my PS3 running not nearly as smoothly as it did before the update. It’s been freezing more often and being slow and clunky. Before I even heard of other people having issues I was like, “Could the update have caused this?” And have been kind of afraid of it bricking up.

    By the way, my ps3 is an 80gig fat style.

  • Ananymous

    Dear OP, go fk your self as you don’t know what your talking about , simple as that, enraged at SONY? Then go fk Microsoft up the ace….quit whining. I have PS3 Fat, playing fine like no other sense day one… You have no evidence, gtfo…

  • Mike

    Dear Anonymous:

    Please refrain from posting until you can (1) express yourself using complete words instead of your broken, barely readable “English” and (2) construct sentences with slightly less elementary English (read: a couple less “fucks” and a bit more creativity).

    Thanks, OP

  • http://www.gadgetsteria.com The Gadgeteur

    I see your point. What I understand it as is that the consoles are running hotter — possibly processor and/or graphics chip being pushed harder for longer and causing more heat thereby needing more cooling, and hence faster fan speeds. Though in this case, it seems that the older PS3s can’t keep up in the cooling department. 

  • http://www.gadgetsteria.com The Gadgeteur

    Dear Anonymous:

    Please refrain from posting until you can (1) express yourself using complete words instead of your broken, barely readable “English” and (2) construct sentences with slightly less elementary English (read: a couple less “fucks” and a bit more creativity).

    Thanks, OP

  • Pfoley58

    Bricked within 2 hours of the firmware upgrade tonight… Running a 80gb fat shoe system. Never any issues prior to tonight

  • Pfoley58

    Should say “style” not shoe?

  • Gegre

    get some sun

  • xerocz

    1 of my friends playing LA Noire 6 hours without any problem using fat PS3…i think user should check the game data…delete some game data that they didn’t play anymore…or delete demo game from ps3….technically when your hard disk space little bit low like 5gb…it’s can make your ps3 become hotter..its need bigger space to run the game and OS in the PS3…

  • http://www.gadgetsteria.com The Gadgeteur

    Do you have a link to show this?  I don’t see how a hard drive with low free space will cause the device its in to run hotter.  

    Poorly written code that causes CPU and/or GPU spiking — yes.  Lack of space for more 1′s and 0′s — just not seeing it.

  • DTLTE

    I have the 40gig model that I updated with a 500gig hard drive…havent been using it much for fear it will brick because I have noticed it going a lot slower and I dont wanna end up with plastic garbage. Sorry Sony but you suck in my eyes now worse than Microsoft and their RROD 

  • Kaden101

    I’ve been playing L.A. Noire for a while now without any problems on my 80GB PS3. The fan is definitely up a notch on anything else I’ve put in the machine. I stripped down my PS3 a couple of months ago due to excessive fan noise, cleaned it thoroughly, & applied new thermal compound. The dust level in my PS3 was making it very loud under normal use. Once I’d cleaned it out, it was quiet like new. If I hadn’t done this, I suspect my console would be struggling to keep cool with L.A. Noire.

    Personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with 3.61 as it hasn’t made a difference to the fan speeds or performance of my 80GB phat PS3. It’s just coincidence that 3.61 & L.A. Noire happened to turn up around the same time, & that its older (potentially dustier) consoles that are dying.

  • Dmtaft

    Ever since the 3.61 update my 80 GB PS3 won’t play discs for more than 20 minutes, the fan doesn’t seem to be on, yet it can play downloaded content okay, all I know is I can’t play MvC3 now thanks to Sony.  My PS3 has worked flawlessly up untill this update, this is not a coincidence.  Sony needs to fix this shit!

  • Nyjtjh

    I downloaded the 3.61 update earlier tonight and IMMEDIATELY after the update (on restart) it wouldn’t turn back on, did the green -> yellow -> beeps -> flashing red. It didn’t even have time to heat up, and immediately before the update it was working perfectly. Played a game for a few minutes before deciding to check the store, and it instantly bricked. I have a refurbished 40g old model (replacement for another I had to pay $150 to replace).