Fear and Loathing in PS3 FW 4.0

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hikaricloud

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So I figured I'd tell you guys my experience with this FW 4.0 fiasco. I bought a PS3 Slim 320gb Move Bundle last year, 12/31.

After updating, started freezing randomly in games. I was mostly playing Skyrim and AC:B around that time. I'd had freezing before, didn't think a lot of it, but it was getting more frequent.

So for a few days, I wasn't playing any games, just watching movies and stuff using the media server I was connected to. One night, I was messing around in youtube, and the system froze. I figured "well, the browser is crap." Hitting the power button didn't do anything however, and after awhile, I had to pull the plug on the system. What else could I do? Plugged it back in, got the restore file system dialogue, went through the process, everything was okay again.

Couple nights later, we were watching some episodes on my media server. One of them started hiccupping really bad, same type of file and encoding as all the others. I exit back to the XMB, and I notice it's locking up every few seconds, trying to load thumbnails. I go back to the main XMB area, and it's still doing it. So I decide to use the PS button to turn the system off so I can restart. After which, I get a black screen and a triple beep on the console. Green light flashing on the power button. I couldn't do anything, so I had to pull the plug again. Booted back up, restore filesystem, yada yada yada...but it never fixed it.

Basically, it started looping. It would sit there, try to restore the filesystem for 30 minutes, restart, and ask to do it all over again. I tried it multiple times, no effect. Tried safe mode, nothing worked. I stayed away from formatting, because I would lose everything. (I didn't know you could back up to USB, and I also didn't have an external big enough to do so anyway). So after a while, I break down and call support. The lady was very nice, but she told me the only way to fix it is to format. Losing EVERYTHING. I tried everything with her, no way around it. I hit the format.

Now, the reason it started looping according to tech support was a corrupted save file or download. Seeing as I hadn't downloaded anything in a while, nor played a game for a few days, I found this hard to believe, but whatever. I formatted, (cried a bit) then settled back down to play games again. Popped in Portal 2, everything seemed to work alright.

So I decided to start playing ME2 again. I had 3 profiles, and if you combine the progress in all the profiles, I basically beat the game 3 times. So I download all my DLC, install the game data/patch/DLC, but had trouble installing the Cerberus DLC, got error 80010038. I thought whatever, I'll figure it out later. Played through a bit. Next day, I decided to tackle the issue with the DLC. I had downloaded in the background, so I figured this time I would do it straight on. I downloaded it and started installing it all at the same time in the PS Store...errored out. So I tried one more time, and was going to set it to download in the background since it took a while, and I wanted to do something else. It sat there "preparing" for about 15 minutes. Again, I couldn't do anything. It was stuck there. In the end, I tried turning off the system, got stuck on the black screen with a triple beep, had to pull the plug. Got the looping file systemrestore again, so I formatted. This time I had a backup of before I installed ME2.

Since then, I got ME2 and the patch installed, and I sat in PS Store, downloading each of the DLCs one at a time, starting with the Cerberus package, installing right away. Everything worked fine. I thought FANTASTIC finally it's fixed. Played through the game, finished the mission where you get Garrus. When it was loading the next scene, I get an error message. Great. Says the game data is corrupted, so I need to reinstall.

So fantastic. I had recently purchased PS Plus, so I backed up my saves to the online server just in case. Deleted the main game data. Went to reinstall it, got stuck at 46%. No HDD activity, no anything. I could still use the PS menu, so I attempted to quit the game. Blank screen, triple beep, pull plug, restore filesystem, everything worked again. Deleted the rest of the game data (DLC/Patches) and also deleted the 2gb corrupted data file from the failed install. Took a break, tried to install Super Stardust HD and Marvel Pinball. Neither worked. Downloaded, failed install, 80010038. Started watching anime again.

Today, I tried again to install ME2 data. Patch downloaded, failed install, 80010038. Turned off network to JUST install game data first. Stopped at 4%. Quit game, blank screen with triple beep, pull plug, restore filesystem, everything's back up. I tried one more time on Marvel Pinball and Stardust, same results.

So basically, to sum up this wall of text:

- Had to format twice, lost all data.
- PS3 can't handle background downloads anymore, it gets confused. At first downloads seem to work if installed one at a time, then that flies out the window.
- Currently can't install ANYTHING AT ALL. Everything errors out no matter what it is, game data, downloaded game, PS Mini, everything.
- On top of all this, XMB is STILL locking up slightly, everything will freeze for a second, then it will let you move, then freeze, etc etc.
- About to format a THIRD time, but I really don't think it's going to do anything.
- ALL THIS CRAP HAPPENED AFTER THE 4.0 UPDATE. My system ran near flawlessly for the past not quite a year I've had it. Once 4.0 was installed, all hell broke loose.

Tech support (again, very nice lady I spoke with) swore up and down it had nothing to do with the update. I have a SERIOUSLY hard time believing that.

Is anyone else on TF having any issues with anything after the update? It doesn't affect everyone, but there's been enough consistent info about it that it can't just be a coincidence. From the posts I've read, it seems to affect all different models, slim and fat.
 
I haven't found a problem with 4.0 yet. My slim just gives me the average freezing once in a while. It's usually when I'm using the crappy browser. I never bother with restoring the filesystem. I just press circle and keep on going. My brother has a 320 gig, hasn't had a problem either.
 
I haven't found a problem with 4.0 yet. My slim just gives me the average freezing once in a while. It's usually when I'm using the crappy browser. I never bother with restoring the filesystem. I just press circle and keep on going. My brother has a 320 gig, hasn't had a problem either.

I guess lucky you then. The type of freezing I was dealing with before every once in a blue moon didn't require the filesystem restore, but the stuff that's happening to me now forces me to do it.
 
I have watched NetFlix, movies from my PC using both TVersity and PlayOn along with playing AC:B, Portal 2 and all of my other games since the 4.0 upgrade without an issue here. I dont have Move or the 320GB hard drive, but I dont think those would really effect playing AC:B when it isnt move compatible anyways. Just figured I would say that I dont have any issues. But I did let my PS3 load all the thumbnails for my media before I tried playing it as well.
 
I don't necessarily let them load all the way, they just normally do while I'm scrolling.

I'm thinking it's not everybody because of the diversity of parts in the PS3s, there's so many models, and even within the same model scheme, there are different internals. I'm starting to think the update just basically fried my HDD with all the corrupted data and errors installing. Probably gonna have to send the system to Sony.

Also Mak, I tried TVersity before and it was horrible on my PS3...I use PMS (Playstation Media Server) and it works much better, though not perfect. Give it a try, you can have both running at the same time. :D
 
As an update:

I have just realized the difference between "format" and "restore". I called restore "format" because that's what it does, but obviously it does more than the format option does, which has led me to a new theory, and I don't think 4.0 is killing my hard drive anymore.

Formatting all data didn't do anything. My system still wouldn't install anything. Not until I did an actual restore, where it resets the firmware, did anything install. So I'm starting to think the longer 4.0 is active from default settings, the more messed up everything gets. Restoring temporarily fixes my problems, then it degrades into crap. Some code in there is slowly corrupting my filesystem to a point where I can't fix it. After last night's restore, I was able to install all ME2 DLC, the patch, and game data, along with some other games I downloaded. Unlike the last time I formatted, I didn't make it past the opening sequence before it told me my game data was corrupted though.

The couple games I managed to install (minis, marvel pinball) seem to work alright for now. I wish I had a solid explanation for what is going on, or the reason for time frames between restores for stuff to actually work, but I'm certain it's the firmware now after the standard format didn't help anything and the restore did. There's gotta be something in the code that just actively corrupts the filesystem to cause all these problems, if it was just the hard drive failing, I doubt it would work after a restore and not a format.

Gonna be calling Sony soon to get this worked out with them. This sucks.

EDIT:

Another theory I have is it may be related to the code surrounding the network protocols. Interestingly enough, the first time I had my system freeze to the point I had to pull the plug and restore the filesystem was when I was using the browser. Second time, having problems accessing the media server (First time I had to restore). Then I had problems with the DLC I downloaded in the background not installing properly (second time I had to restore). The third time, I didn't HAVE to restore, I just did because nothing was working, but the FOURTH time (yes fourth time, I restored twice last night) was again, trying to access a file on my media server.

The common demoninator here is network access. I know my PS3 was having problems staying connected to a WIRED connection at first, and I also know the download in background function has been modified. Just a lose theory, but it seems like too much of a coincidence.
 
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