PS3 BUG: DON'T TURN ON YR PS3!

[robthebanks]

ITS THE APOCALYPS3!
I'm sure y'all have heard already (there's an 88+ page thread over on GAF) but pre-Slim PS3's are having some problems. Something to do with some Y2K-esque calendar issues. Everyone is hoping that it'll be automatically resolved by 7pm tonight, so it should be okay then.

http://kotaku.com/5482328/ps3s-sufferin ... k-lockdown

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=388872

[Ruldra]

[drboom]

Ruldra, that's just pure awesome.

[xris]

Work itself out? Good luck with that one..

[Ruldra]

Ruldra, that's just pure awesome.

Oh I didn't make that gif, just quoted it from the GAF thread.

People are complaining that they can't play singleplayer games now, even if the network cable is not connected. How is that even supposed to happen?

[mortified_penguin]

Played Demon's Souls and Shatter all weekend with no issues. This is the first I've even heard about it.

[ZOM]

Played WKC all weekend - did I miss something?

EDIT: read the GAF thread; why the commotion? It's just a clock issue, and why is this thread title in all caps?

[Ruldra]

I played Demon's Souls all day long yesterday with no problems, but I have the slim model.

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoENVnD3J8w

[ZOM]

60GB launch day PAL PS3 here - no problems...?

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoENVnD3J8w

[PainAmplifier]

Sadly, got bit by this one myself. I didn't see the online uproar until after.


The game I was trying to play was Disgaea 3. What would happen is the game would start the intro but after skipping (or waiting) to get to the Start/Continue main screen, the game would throw up an error after starting the 'load' process. The actual error was the "Unable to Initialize Trophy" message. At that point all you can do is hit the PS3 button on the controller and quit the game.

The PS3 was not connected to the internet at all, and I don't have any DLC crap to worry about, so for me this and LittleBigPlanet appear to be my affected games, since this problem seems to have affected any game with trophies.

Irritating and frustrating yes, but I expect Sony to have a fix for the cause of this problem before too long. The main question will they be able to recover/fix the now non-working trophies?

Although quite honestly, I could hardly care if the trophies were lost and had to be redone, if they would just include something that would allow me to DELETE trophies entirely off from games that I have rented and never want to play again. That shit just clogs up my system unneccesarily.

I have to say though, implementing trophies in such a way that this type of problem could occur is seriously DUMB. Even if there were other reasons under the hood for it, it's still seriously borked that a mere date error can break the system so badly. And that's regardless of wether you have a 'unaffected' Slim unit, as at somewhere along the line, something can/will break the date and then this will be an issue for those people as well. (Hardware failure, bug in system update, cosmic radiation, whatever...)

[ZOM]

@PainAmplifier
Your PS3's warranty still going? If not, why don't you just reset the clock by taking the battery out? Should work.

[Ex-Cyber]

Some people have reportedly gotten in-game error messages suggesting the possibility that "initializing trophy data" is sort of a euphemism for "passing DRM checks" in this case. That's still speculation, but it would at least explain why the system is so brittle; making things artificially fail for contrived reasons is pretty much the chief function of DRM. Personally, I wouldn't be too surprised if it was an anti-cheat system run amok, since trophies/accomplishments/etc. are apparently Serious Business.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Suppose you live in a backwater country with no Internet connection. You just got a Piece of Shit 3!!!!

devs think that debugging is below them or something.

Edit: who thought the apocalyPS3 would be like this?

[KindGrind]

Yeah, got that, too.

Rented a game (Heavy Rain) and after the annoying 15 minute software update, when the game finally booted, I got the error message. I had noticed yesterday night when watching a movie on the console that the time wasn't right, but I couldn't foresee a bug as ridiculous as this. Hopefully this gets fixed soon, as I rarely get a chance to play and was planning on doing that in the next couple of days.

[kengou]

Luckily I have a slim, so I'm unaffected, but man this sucks. Hope they fix it soon. I bet they'll give out a free game or something like that to everyone affected, like what Microsoft did that one time for a massive XBL outage.

[ZOM]

Again, people without a warranty can just take the battery out & pop it in again - works like a charm, I already fixed 2 consoles from friends this way.

[handsome_rakshas]

If my Last Guy save data gets corrupted I will kill Sony!

[Ruldra]

Possible explanation of this whole mess (sauce):

Well the gist is that the ARM SYSCON CPU that is used to power up the front panel of the ps3, that is responsible for doing things like sleep mode, eject, RTC etc. Is an old batch that sony picked up from the shelf like other manufacturers that has that calendar year bug regarding feburary 29th on certain periods. Causing the ps3 system clock and the real time clock to desync, messing up security measures like Digital Rights management software and sometimes games that relies on clocks for whatever reason. As well as signing up to the playstation network... This CPU is always on even when your PS3 isn't plugged
This problem is also happening with various of test Ps3 models, particulary the ones that has the emotion engine cpu/gpu for ps2 dev.

This is the one of the same type of CPUs that is powering up mobile devices like zune and blackberries, they have been affected with this bug, so they done some software patches. A syscon update can also fix this problem

The Slims ps3s aren't affected because they use a newer up to date revision on the syscon cpu that fixes this bug.

A quick way to fix this is to remove the RTC battery for at least 5-10 min and plug it back in, you will see the date and time reset, and voila...

[Pirate1019]

I know shit-all about hardware, but that battery fix sounds like a fine way to put off the problem for another 4 years.

[kengou]

Official Explanation/Announcement: http://blog.us.playstation.com/
Long story short, it's a calender bug with fat PS3s. It does not affect slim models. Sony hopes to fix the issue within 24 hours. Sony advises you NOT to use your PS3 until then, as it could result in lost or damaged save or trophy information.

[Cuilan]

Ok, so I decided to turn my 60gb PS3 on, and sure enough the date shows up as 12/31/1999.

Can't connect to PSN, Burnout Paradise is unplayable, and Wipeout HD reverts to the trial version.

It only does some things.

From what I've read, it goes like this :

PS3 w/ BC = 99.99% chance it's affected
Non-Slim PS3 w/o BC = 50% chance it's affected
Slim PS3 = 99.99% chance it's unaffected

[PainAmplifier]

@PainAmplifier
Your PS3's warranty still going? If not, why don't you just reset the clock by taking the battery out? Should work.

It's not a priority right now. I figure I can wait a day and see if they put out a update that fixes everything.

If it gets to be an issue, I can open it up and reset the battery like people have been saying. That's easy-sauce to do if it comes down to it. But, no it's not in warranty. I have one of the older 60G fats, that I bought for the BC as soon as I heard that they were dropping that functionality. (That and my PS2 stopped playing blue disc games like Gradius V and Wizardry:TOFL) Can't remember when I bought it exactly, but it's at least 2 years old now, even if I never reg'd it for warranty purposes.

[professor ganson]

I wonder if this is going to affect my BC 20gb Japanese PS3, which has never been on the internet.

[Cuilan]

I wonder if this is going to affect my BC 20gb Japanese PS3, which has never been on the internet.

Yes, you will be affected. This is a hardware issue.

[professor ganson]

I wonder if this is going to affect my BC 20gb Japanese PS3, which has never been on the internet.

Yes, you will be affected. This is a hardware issue.

Scary! Obviously, I hope this can be resolved without some elaborate measures, like having to create a Japanese account. I guess we'll have to see what fix is forthcoming.

Has anyone tried playing blu-ray movies on a US 60gb? If there is a problem playing blu-rays, my wife will be seriously annoyed if this problem persists into the weekend.

[Cuilan]

Has anyone tried playing blu-ray movies on a US 60gb? If there is a problem playin blu-rays, my wife will be seriously annoyed if this problem persists into the weekend.

From what I've heard, Blu-ray playback is unaffected.

[robthebanks]

why is this thread title in all caps?

CAUSE ITS A BIG DEAL AND I'M E-YELLING!

[Cuilan]

Looks like everything is starting to go back to normal now.

[Rob]

why is this thread title in all caps?

CAUSE ITS A BIG DEAL AND I'M E-YELLING!

Every forum should have a town crier.

[junkeR]

I have a BC 60-gig phat.. I haven't turned it on since Saturday and I'm patiently waiting for an update. I'm probably going to go back to my trust N64 and beat Zelda: OoT for the 7th or 8th time.