PS3 Firmware Update v4.45 May Brick Your Machine, Avoid Like the Plague

Welp. Hopefully they pulled it before 4am EST or my PS3 auto downloaded it. >.<

pretty sure it would have auto downloaded it damn! Good thing I've finished Last of us second playthrough can wait till weekend.

Im not sure if I had auto-update enabled on my Ps3 :/ I hope not lol I was hoping to finish Ar Tonelico Qoga tonight so I hope my Ps3 aint gonna be fubar when I get home from work

It's funny, I canceled downloading update on 99% =).

@get2sammyb My phat seems to have been affected but my slim is fine

Well let's hope my slim doesn't brick I was running fine last night with the update. So would it be instantly noticeable? Because I know I had to update last night to use YouTube because of an update..... But my system still worked, or can it brick at a later time.

First it was The Last of Us. Now this. Something bad happened with Sony after E3. Maybe it's karma because they were trolling Microsoft.

I've heard it should only affect people with upgraded hard drives (but not EVERYONE).

Remember, even if PS+ auto downloads the update for you, you don't have to install it. It asks for permission first.

@nathanuc1988 I have an upgraded drive.... my ps3 worked fine last night.... Any reports of it bricking randomly or is it right after the update? If its right after the update and I survived I'm hoping I should be fine Lol

@ViciousDS From what I was reading, it's only happening to people with upgraded hard drives over 500gb. Not EVERYONE with upgraded hard drives, but it seems like the problem is fairly isolated to just those with 500+ drives. (again, just because you have a 500+gb drive, it doesn't mean you'll get the brick).

Also, it would have happened immediately after you finished the update if you were 'infected'.

@nathanuc1988 woooooo I'm safe also im exactly at 500gb in terms of HDD size Lol

@ViciousDS I'm at 640gb haha. Thankfully I'm at work still

@8vpiper Serious? Im glad i took my internet kable out of my ps3 this morning/

I'm glad I have the automatic updates disabled!

It seems the consoles aren't fully 'bricked' since they do still boot partially, so I'm guessing that installing the updated/corrected firmware (once it's released) through the System Restore menu will revive most if not all affected systems.

My 1 tb slim seems to be okay. I had auto update set between 4-6 am us eastern time.

I nearly had a heart attack when I read this because just one week ago I had to make my slim like new. I tried doing the system to system transfer but I couldn't get it to work. So I had to redownload everything manually. Would've been awful if I had to do it again a week later.

Thanks for the news, I'll keep the upgrade away from my 500GB upgraded HDD just to be safe.

I'm glad I read this before leaving for the day... I just turned off auto-update. Thanks for the heads up.

Glad I was in bed instead staying up on my PS3 lol.

Man, I'm glad I chose to play with my VITA instead of using my PS3 last night . _ .

Damn i got lucky here, good thing my internet is going slow during the day. i was going to wait to download it at night when it goes fast again but it wasnt there at all, like it was an error, now i know why.

I had no issues, but I have a 250GB hard drive, so that's probably why

No problems with my 1tb original fat 60 model. There is a benevolent, caring creator watching over us and his name is getting a GT5 patch instead of crashing.

I have an upgraded 500 gb hdd fat ps3 and the update didn't affect me.

The update had already been removed by midnight EDT. This was definitely a scare, though. I sent you guys a news tip on this, but then I realized some of the main staff was in bed at that hour. Glad the issue has been lessened by the removal at any rate, so people can safely get on PSN meanwhile.

@Gemuarto Lucky you are.

What exactly does "brick" mean?

@rastamadeus: You know how a brick just kind of sits there without any other function? If your console messes up badly enough, it's precisely as useful as one...hence the term.

@get2sammyb: You're quite welcome.

"Platform holder pulls borked stability upgrade."

"Borked" is the perfect word for this, although "Kludged" would have also been acceptable.

Thanks for the heads up.

What's with all these updates that makes a game or the whole system not work correctly, it's like they don't even test things thoroughly enough anymore.

These "system stability" updates are worthless, I'm on my 3rd ps3 and they all crash whenever they want however they want. Still I get excited every time I read "new update out".

I am one of the victims. My Phat PS3 with 1 TB in it got bricked. I was going on the playstation store to try and download some games and was forced to update before I entered. When the update finished installing my PS3 has become useless. I have been trying to reformat the hard drive to erase everything and start again but it will not let me.