In this hustle and bustle age of worky work...I like to relax. Several forms of entertainment, from poker on riverboats, the occasional shootout at various Western re-inactment locales, but when asked; I relax with the occasional video game.
Seeing as I am a new owner of the PS3 [60 gig - back compat model] thanks to the mighty ebay, I still cannot help to be skeptical. I have had a Dell for about four or five years without any motherboard malfunctions...and even with the occasional harddrive crapping out...never had the need to replace my entire computer. How is it possible, that the more sophisiticated our hardware becomes, the higher chance of hardware failure occurs?
After the jump, I'll link a story to an unfortunate Playstation 3 user, Guesty 81, who had his PS3 die on him by simply updating his machine. What an age we live in indeed.
There’s one stigma that Microsoft and the Xbox 360 hasn’t been able to shake off, its caused the loss of millions of pounds to guarantee, for those still unaware of what Im getting at, well it’s their reliability, system failures … namely the dreaded red rings of death. It was the main reason a Playstation 3 sits in my living room alongside, the other much maligned console.
But take a look on the internet, dig a little deeper and you’ll find a whole host of System failures tagged to Sony’s previously indestructible machine.
Now everyone knows that hardware fails, or indeed has a shelve life, but the more interesting thing is that several of these ‘bricked’ machines are linked to the updates that are required from Sony to use their online service, PSN.
Kotaku reported this wayback with update 2.40 , stating ‘Owners of PS3s in all shapes and sizes have been reporting that their systems were loading to the initial PlayStation wave screen and simply hanging there after applying 2.40’
It hasn’t stopped there, with several updates following 2.40 creating similar problems. This may be hyperbole from those desperate to blame faulty machines on the brand Sony; I too would have thought that, I too would have backed Sony at one time. That was until it happened to me.
Thursday rolled around and as ususal the psn store was going to be my first port of call, was there new demos? was there new games to purchase? (there was only Zen Pinball for matter of fact) and the Playstation faithfully informed me, the it was needing an update 2.76 of the PSN Firmware, dutifully I obliged, then I booted up a game… then nothing… nothing at all… then an ominous bleep and worse a red flashing light. Then out of the shadows lurked a dreadful sign, a costly sign. A yellow light.
“Simple its just crashed” was my initial reaction, no worries, I’ll restart it. Nothing. Okay I’ll leave it unplugged till the next morning; nothing again.
Fearing the worst I contacted Sony, who said that maybe I should change the power cable. The power cable?! Last time I checked that flashing light wasn’t generated by a lack of electricity, I know the Playstation is good, but no miraculous event happened to get that red light there, so what was a different power cable going to do?
And did I require a Sony branded power lead, oh no the power of my Smart price kettle was the lead recommended by good old ‘Steve’ at the other end of the line. Nice to know all I need is a cable to repair it, I don’t mind missing a few brews to sort it, “what’s worse a new kettle or a new Ps3?” I thought.
Needless to say it didn’t work, so like a glutton for punishment of a playstation variety I phoned again. This time no pseudo technical patter, no tips on using household appliances as a power source – no this time it was just a payment needed… a whacking great bug £145 no less.
Now for that price you’d expect your own machine back wouldn’t you? Sadly not, and 
instead you get what they described as a ‘reconditioned unit’. What exactly was the point of getting it fixed for such a steep price is still a wonder to me? This problem only gets worse, by the fact that you cant just transfer your old hard drive, meaning all the game saves you had vanish without a trace. Far cry 2, Fallout 3, Little big Planet levels, Fifa leagues, the list goes on and on all mercilessly wiped from existence by the hands of the cruel yellow light.
Sony has played a blinder, ensuring that not only are you out of pocket, your money wasted but also your time.
So I ask you the reader the question; have you heard of similar problems? Solutions? Or indeed any of your own nightmare stories of customer care? We’d love to know. Drop us an email at
- Guesty81
Sony, Sony, Sony so glad we called you Thrice! This week a problem befell Guesty 81 of the Playstation bricking variety, and a