Critical PS3 internal clock error and its aftermath

[patsu]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/28/psn-is-down-some-titles-experiencing-game-crashing-errors/

A wide rash of game-crashing errors is spreading among the PS3-owning community at the moment, most of which can be chalked up to a 8001050F error code. This has led to a variety of unfortunate side-effects for those affected, including corrupted trophy information and an inability to access the PSN. When combined, those two issues prevent players from launching certain games, such as Heavy Rain, without being kicked back to the XMB.

...

Sony has acknowledged the issue, and is "looking into it." We've yet to hear an official word on what the problem is, though it seems to be a bit larger than just the PSN. Owners of PS3 Phats are reporting that the date on their console has reverted to 12/31/1999, which is likely the cause of the data-corrupting errors.

I left my PS3 running for the entire day and it's still running fine now (played LBP, Heavy Rain demo and browsed PSN store).

Some experienced problem when they turn on their PS3 for the first time in a long while.

 

[androvsky]

Do you have a slim though? So far the problem doesn't affect slims, but it does affect almost all fat PS3s, if even they haven't been connected to the internet, and even if they have a slightly older firmware.

 

[patsu]

No, both my PS3s are fat model. I haven't checked the office PS3, but my home PS3 is still running (in Life with Playstation now).

 

[deathindustrial]

My Borderlands install no longer thinks I have any DLC installed so no General Knoxx this evening for me.

=(

Date definitely got reset too. 40GB unit so it is not just launch PS3s. Staying offline until Sony explains what exactly is up.

As a bonus booby prize, the new Lithium driven official Playstation forum looks like absolute ass if you block offsite iframes and disable Javascript by default.

Sux.

 

[patsu]

Might be due to wrong leap year calculation.

Will see if this PS3 fails after midnight.

 

[androvsky]

Might be due to wrong leap year calculation.

Will see if this PS3 fails after midnight.

Is Life with Playstation all you've tried to run? Free content still works, and some paid PSN content reverts to demo mode. Try a downloaded PSN game or a PS3 game with trophies.

 

[thop]

It probably is a dormant bug in leap year calculation. The fun begins for Sony when the bug prevents PS3s from going online to get firmware updates and Sony starts sending out USB sticks. They will have to for the select few without internet connection anyway.

 

[patsu]

Is Life with Playstation all you've tried to run? Free content still works, and some paid PSN content reverts to demo mode. Try a downloaded PSN game or a PS3 game with trophies.

My son is playing LBP right in front of my eyes now.

It probably is a dormant bug in leap year calculation. The fun begins for Sony when the bug prevents PS3s from going online to get firmware updates and Sony starts sending out USB sticks. They will have to for the select few without internet connection anyway.

You can download the firmware using a PC and install via USB drive. Or a special disc install I guess.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It probably is a dormant bug in leap year calculation. The fun begins for Sony when the bug prevents PS3s from going online to get firmware updates and Sony starts sending out USB sticks. They will have to for the select few without internet connection anyway.

Be cheaper to send out CD or DVD's with the updates in that case. And as an added bonus they can serve as a coaster or a target for shooting practice.

Would be interesting if this is related to measures to prevent the PS3 "hack" and in the process force all Fat owners to upgrade to a new firmware/game os.

Regards,
SB

 

[deathindustrial]

Assuming everything doesn't magically fix itself shortly, I would think that the damage caused by the ensuing PR nightmare would outweigh any benefits that Sony might see from reducing potential future piracy (considering it is a network centric system).

Cheers

 

[thop]

You can download the firmware using a PC and install via USB drive. Or a special disc install I guess.

IMO Sony needs to be pro-active in this case otherwise this turns into a huge PR problem. Just sending out instructions how to update the firmware via USB stick might not be enough, they also have to offer to send out prepared USB sticks or CDs on request.

 

[PARANOiA]

Is this likely to "fix itself"? Or will the user in all situations have to update their firmware offline? If so, what a cock-up! Some poor coder is probably shaking his head in despair right now.

 

[nightshade]

I am having this problem, all my PSN purchases are inaccessible/corrupted, I can't sign into PSN & it also resets your trophy information.
Apparently US PSN is bugged by a guy who is whining for .flv & javascript support.
The date is reset to 31/12/1999 (Y2K date)..& this is what you got when you went to the US Playstation website earlier:

http://i49.tinypic.com/28h3761.png

This is fuckin irritating, why do people do this ? I just bought Heavy Rain & I wan't to play that damn thing lol.

 

[androvsky]

My son is playing LBP right in front of my eyes now.

Interesting. Now for the big question, do you set your clock manually or via the Internet?

 

[nightshade]

This is only for US PSN...IIRC Patsu doesn't uses US PSN.

EDIT: Just checked with multiple ids from different region, I can;t login to any of them..so yea its down for every region.

 

[deathindustrial]

... this is what you got when you went to the US Playstation website earlier:
http://i49.tinypic.com/28h3761.png

The above just seemed to be the fault of a (crap) new school web designer. Sony's sites (and most large corporate sites these days) are littered with problems like this. Hell, the US Playstation blog has an obvious character escaping problem right at the top by the twitter link:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/

QUICK UPDATES // SonyPlayStation: @dublrs We\'re on PST, but you probably figured that out by now. // PSB on Twitter

Social Media FTW I guess.

=)

Makes me wonder if the Lithium folks now have everyone's PSN account passwords so as to support the forum logins.

Cheers

 

[nightshade]

Something strange happened with me just now...I went to boardsus.playstation & I saw myself being signed into the site with a random PSN profile :S

 

[patsu]

nightshade, I am on the US PSN.

Some GAFers mentioned that Sony updated their website yesterday. That dearplaystation link may be part of the update. ^_^

Is this likely to "fix itself"? Or will the user in all situations have to update their firmware offline? If so, what a cock-up! Some poor coder is probably shaking his head in despair right now.

The leap year thing is just my guess though.

EDIT: androvsky, I use Internet time servers.

 

[patsu]

Problem will be fixed by tomorrow :
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-12218-Video-Game-Examiner~y2010m3d1-PSN-Up-and-working-properly

I'm done for the day. Palo Alto seems to have power outage tonight (again !)

 

[thop]

Not sure an internet post by someone claiming to have phoned tech support counts as official confirmation. Tech support are usually the last to know what's going on anyway, and will tell the customer anything to get him off the line. It isn't a PSN problem either.