PS3 Firmware 3.41 Update Causing HDD Problems?

PS3 Firmware 3.41 Update Causing HDD Problems?
07/30/2010 Written by Paulmichael Contreras



Sony recently released firmware 3.41 on the PlayStation 3, which enabled suggested downloads on the PS Store. However, it may have caused some users troubles when upgrading their system…

As is apparent in this thread and this larger thread on the Official PlayStation forums, a number of PlayStation 3 users are having problems updating their firmware once they install a new hard drive. Combined, these threads have exploded to 32 pages of posts in just under three days, as the problem has been reproduced by multiple customers. Sony has thus far given no official statement on the matter.

Source: PSLS



From what I have read so far it appears that this issue happens when you update from 3.xx to 3.41 and not from 3.40 to 3.41. - Ares

No problems so far for me...but I went from 3.40 to 3.41

I checked into this since I have my brother-in-law's PS3 here with me, his firmware is 3.30 so I updated to 3.40 first since I still have a copy of it on the PC, after that I hooked it up to net then updated to 3.41.

No issues to report from the first part of this experiment, next I decided to upgrade his HDD with one I have lying around and that is were the problem starts. I copied 3.41 to a usb drive to install on the new HDD and every time it would stop at different percentages.

1st attempt 33%
2nd attempt 52%
3rd attempt 60%

After the third try I stopped and reinstalled his old HDD and it worked without an issue, so I guess the moral of the story is if you want to update your HDD do it before you update the firmware...at least for now till Sony fixes this issue.

Update

I tried to replace the HDD on my 40GB model and had the same problem. I gave Sony a ring to find out what is going on and explained what I did with both models, the guy I was talking to said it could be a hardware issue. I told him that's not possible one model is a Slim 120GB less than a week old and the other is a 3yr old 40GB model, what are the chances that both would suffer from the same issue? If it was just my 40GB that it happened to I could say it's possible but when two different models bought at two different time periods suffer from the same issue then it's not the hardware it's the firmware he said he would pass the info along. Sony will need to get on the ball here to fix this before someone has an HDD fail on them and can't replace it.

I upgraded my launch from 3.40 to 3.41 and had no issue. It was also a really fast update.

Serj22 said:

I upgraded my launch from 3.40 to 3.41 and had no issue. It was also a really fast update.

Click to expand...

The only issue I ran into was trying to upgrade the HDD after the download but other than that no real issues, which was no big deal because I just reinstalled my 500GB and was good to go.

logically this doesent make sense, why would it not be possible to update firmware with a new drive installed? hard drives are hard drives.

This is what I have found in an Engadget article.

the issue may have something to do with a newly discovered feature of the 3.41 update that allows for more incremental patches, which might also explain why the problem only seems to be affecting PS3s where the firmware is stored in on the hard drive instead of the system's memory.

Click to expand...

so the firmware is stored on the hardrive? how can you upgrade HDD's ever then?

Sony has been using this method for awhile now where part of the firmware is stored on the NAND and part on the HDD. It seems the problem lies with in that "what to buy feature" because from the info I have read it doesn't seem to matter if you use the full firmware version of 3.41 or the patch version of it you will still have this issue.

i'm still wondering how a different hardrive would have an issue when the included one works fine, like i said, a hard drive is a hard drive. maybe im just not understanding the issue fully.

yepimonfire said:

i'm still wondering how a different hardrive would have an issue when the included one works fine, like i said, a hard drive is a hard drive. maybe im just not understanding the issue fully.

Click to expand...

You aren't, because every hard drive is not the same. It would seem that it is either the communication with the drives that is affected or the data (that identifies the drive?) is becoming corrupt. I tried to install my old drive from my first PS3 into my new Slim that had a newer firmware and it wouldn't work, so if the firmware updates on the PS3 and that flag doesn't get updated on the drive it may cause the same issue.

I am in agreement with J, prior to this latest update swapping out the HDD was not a big deal, or here is my theory since the latest update is just a patch and not a full blown update like 3.40 it could be that you would need to download 3.40 first then 3.41 for it to recognize the new HDD but it's just a theory.