PS3 "security patch" halts HDD upgrades

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 1 February, 2011

Firmware v3.56 causing problems for Slims.

Gamers are reporting that Sony's recent PlayStation 3 firmware "security patch" prevents users from upgrading the console's hard disk drive.

PS3 firmware update v3.56 – released last week – was described as a "security patch" by Sony bigshot Eric Lempel.

Some speculated that it was an attempt by Sony to prevent George "Geohot" Hotz's infamous jailbreak from working.

However, reports indicated the patch itself was hacked just days after release – and now it seems it has caused problems for unsuspecting PS3 owners.

Eurogamer reader Marshall2008 took to Eurogamer's forum to spread the bad news: "At present you will get error 8002f2c5 when you change your HDD and the only way to fix it is to put the old drive back in," he wrote.

"I bought a 320GB HDD to upgrade my 120GB PS3 Slim. I stuck the drive in and got the usual message about putting in a USB drive/stick with update 3.56 or newer on. I stuck the old drive into a sata caddy formatted it and put the update on. All good so far until it gave me error 8002f225.

"Checking online it appears to be a firmware bug which screws up upgrading your HDD. Unfortunately for me I wiped the original drive so I can't just stick it back in and I will have to wait for a fix."

Eurogamer reader Joseph Bat then pointed Eurogamer towards spiralling threads on the official EU PlayStation forum.

Reports indicate the issue is restricted to the 16MB flash PlaySation 3 models – which includes the Slim. Eurogamer has contacted Sony for comment.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • customfirmware #1 1 year ago

    Blame it on the hackers!!!!

  • captain_Carl #2 1 year ago

    I believe that this happened with an earlier firmware, and it was blamed on a bug. Which was then fixed shortly after.

    ...Now it's happened again
    Edited by captain_Carl at 01/02/11 @ 10:22

  • dudefella #3 1 year ago

    Can we bring this back?

    lolsony

  • NotSoSlim #4 1 year ago

    Hackers can't sign anything to 3.56 EG..research research

  • X201 #5 1 year ago

    Have you asked him if its OK to link his real name to his forum ID?

    If you've just done it off your own bat, it will make people very wary of posting anything news worthy in the forum, seeing as how their real name could be linked back to all of the posts that they've made.


    EDIT: Well done for fixing it Wesley


    Edited by X201 at 01/02/11 @ 16:06

  • neilka #6 1 year ago

    Joseph "Vampire" Bat?

  • customfirmware #7 1 year ago

    @x201 was thinking the same thing.

  • Mortey #8 1 year ago

    Do they bother testing?

  • FortysixterUK #9 1 year ago

    I think not, decisions like this are made at suit level and rushed out to try and protect their bottom line, not to provide you, the customer, with good service.

  • MaoZedong #10 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:40:08 17-12-2011

  • Zimo #11 1 year ago

    Bit behind EG been reported since it went live,

    As for it being a bug, i wouldn't be surprised if it was re-introduced until they are ready to drop the next firmware which will add additional methods of combating the pirate issues; as this for the time being could be seen as stopping would be pirates from adding additional space for 'back-ups'

  • captain_Carl #12 1 year ago

    Firmware updates are mostly handled by SCEJ (i think) and they're completely up their own arse in terms of everything.

  • SeesThroughAll #13 1 year ago

    Read about this in NeoGAF over a week ago.
    Like mencioned above, these problems are less likely to occur (though hardly impossible - remember 3.40?) when we install the firmware in full.

  • abcd #14 1 year ago

    Could the hackers release a fix for this?

  • modo_komodo #15 1 year ago

    Glad for the coverage of this - tried upgrading my HDD last night... FAIL

  • Gurgeh #16 1 year ago

    "Hackers can't sign anything to 3.56"

    As I understand it it would be better to say "Hackers WON'T sign anything to 3.56".

    "Psn is the only reason for creating a 3.56cfw and there is no place for modded consoles online and the true devs understand this. To waste an exploit (if one exists) just to get online would be a waste when it could be used on the next sdk revision firmware to enable any new features that may be introduced."

  • Darren #17 1 year ago

    So is it safe to upgrade to v3.56 if you still have the original HDD the PS3 Slim came with then (in my case a 250 GB one)?

    It only seems like last week that I installed firmware v3.55... couldn't Sony have just waited and released ONE firmware instead of two within a short period of times? Now we going to get yet another one (v3.57?) to fix a bug that really should have been picked up on prior to general release.

    It's not like these take a few seconds either; they can take upwards of five minutes or more and each passing second when it is updating increases the risk of something going wrong if, say, you have a power cut or something.

  • snekevlav #18 1 year ago

    This sucks, I just ordered a new HDD, to read (less than 12 hours later) that i may not be able to use it :-s

  • levitate #19 1 year ago

    I thought we lived in the 21st century where stuff like this couldn't happen. Guess we're back to the 80s again.

  • djed #20 1 year ago

    @Zimo

    You can run games of off an external hard drive, so no worries.

  • weedar #21 1 year ago

    Firmware 3.56 har NOT been hacked. The hackers are able to encrypt/decrypt the firmware, but they cannot sign code anymore. There may never be a 3.56 custom firmware unless the hackers discover another weakness. All the talk about Sony not being able to fix the security hole without a hardwareupdate was nonsense. It assumed that changing the rootkey has to be done by means of a *.pup file.

  • ant72 #22 1 year ago

    I'm getting a bit annoyed about MANDITORY firmware upgrades, that seem to screw everything up. So I can't message friends or access the store, or do anything with my account until I do?? My 360 (for all it's bad press) has never given me this much grief.

    I just want to get home from work and play a video game, why is this such a problem? Sigh.

  • Mnia786 #23 1 year ago

    On ps3 slims, some of the firmware is stored on the 16mb flash and the rest on the hdd. On phats, all of it is stored on the 256mb flash chip (i think later phats had 16mb).
    This has happened before so I'd assume there is a fix in the works right now.

  • bigtechno #24 1 year ago

    just leave it alone aready Sony!!

  • ShapeThrower #25 1 year ago

    Given the fact that a Sony approved update broke PlayTV for a large percentage of users at Christmas this does not surprise me.
    Given they still haven't issued a patch to fix said issue I'll be interested to see how quickly them get this one sorted out.

  • jivemaster #26 1 year ago

    Woh this ain't on. Hopefully they fix this soon.

    I haven't updated since their move to remove other OS. I'm going to keep this ps3 this way. My beloved ps2 compatable ps3. I must keep you untainted forever. Why does sony want to hurt you and take away your super powers?

  • TheEnforcer000 #27 1 year ago

    Sony should stop writing software, period.

  • ruslan74 #28 1 year ago

    Instead of giving gamers something worthwhile in their firmware Sony just keeps breaking stuff. I rather pay for a service which delivers than have something free that gets broken with almost every firmware release.

    lolsony indeed!

  • ps3owner #29 1 year ago

    I think the sony devs do it on purpose to keep their job. just break something so you can release another firmware down the line...

  • repairmanjack #30 1 year ago

    Sorry, just so I'm clear... I upgraded my original 60gig PS3 with a 500gig drive at Christmas. My machine is rarely connected to the net. I got the patch yesterday, without issue, and downloaded Dead Nation. Haven't seen a problem yet. Does this mean I'm fine?

  • jaydeluxe #31 1 year ago

    I don't understand why he erased his original 120GB drive before he got the new drive installed? Hmmmm....

  • Beano #32 1 year ago

    Wiping the old drive (for a small firmware file) before restoring data back to the new drive and verifying that everything is ok, is just plain stupid. Sure Sony screwed up, but jesus... what are people thinking?

  • Phredreeke #33 1 year ago

    Hey Sony, why so FAIL?

    Also, if this applies to consoles with 16 MB NAND then it also applies to later (non BC) phats.
    Edited by Phredreeke at 01/02/11 @ 15:03

  • Beano #34 1 year ago

    "Does this mean I'm fine?"

    Yes ... Im using a 750hdd in my PS3 and no problems here with FW3.56

  • Xboxfanuk #35 1 year ago

    Glad I bought an Xbox 360!

  • arcam #36 1 year ago

    Yes, because upgrading to a 320GB HDD on an Xbox is hassle-free!

    Oh, wait...

  • Marshall2008 #37 1 year ago

    If you had already upgraded your HDD before the patch you will be fine. Also, as long as you have the original drive and didn't format it (like I did) you can pop that back in. Sony UK support advised that they are waiting on a fix coming but had no time scale.

    @badflounder

    Fair point. Impatience, that was the cause. I knew the 320GB drive was fine (had used it in the caddy with my PC) but couldn't get my hands on a USB stick for the update file. I have upgraded the drives on other PS3's (had 2 Fat PS3's before) with no issues. Just got caught out.

    Sony offered to replace the PS3 but I could get it swapped out quicker thru the store, or could be patient and wait for the fix.
    Edited by Marshall2008 at 01/02/11 @ 15:53

  • BadFlounder #38 1 year ago

    This guy is a moron. Why would you reformat your old HDD before even installing the new one??? Idiot

  • repairmanjack #39 1 year ago

    Thanks for clarifying, folks.

  • coolbritannia #40 1 year ago

    Do Sony support upgrading the hard drive?

  • Beano #41 1 year ago

    "Do Sony support upgrading the hard drive?"

    Yes it's officially supported and has the required backup/restore utility in the XMB.

  • coolbritannia #42 1 year ago

    See, if I was truly a genuine Sony troll I wouldn't do my research first. I was going to say you can't complain if it's not a listed feature, but if it is, Sony fail.

  • SavageEvil #43 1 year ago

    Trolls shut up, Sony have to protect themselves and by association you. Yea Sony makes mistakes with updates and what not, but we could be stuck in the past with a system you can't increase your storage space, no web streaming, etc. Known trolls, seriously haven't you grown up yet? Or are you going to remain an over 30 self loathing moron who only feels good about himself when he goes online and tries to sound cool.

    It's obvious that Sony will fix this issue, honestly the guy who mistakenly erased his original HDD before verifying the new one would work that was a cart before the horse moment. Sorry to hear that, but if I was him I would swap out for a brand new PS3 slim just for the hell of it with the store. Keep your warranty intact and you get a brand new PS3, I assume you have your information backed up to an external HDD, just plug it in and copy the stuff over and you should be back on your merry PS3 gaming ways. I have a 500GB HDD waiting to be installed in my 160 Phat PS3 no BC, how can you tell if your PS3 is one of the 16MB Flash ROM type versus the 256MB one? I still have an Original PS3 from launch day.

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #44 1 year ago

    phewww glad i upgraded 500gb 2 months ago...

  • Kaminari #45 1 year ago

    Apparently, firmware 3.56 has been reuploaded today.

  • coolbritannia #46 1 year ago

    SavageEvil - Or are you going to remain an over 30 self loathing moron who only feels good about himself when he goes online and tries to sound cool.

    Sadly, not even this makes me feel cool or cheers me up in the slightest.

  • Lucodeath #47 1 year ago

    Just my feckin luck, under 9 gb left an this happens. It will save me a few quid though.

  • Marshall2008 #48 1 year ago

    Well, Sony have released a 2nd version of 3.56 but it only works if you have a working slim ps3. After the update it allows you to swap the HDD with no issues.

    If you are not in this position and your slim is in warranty Sony will arrange a replacement console.
    Edited by Marshall2008 at 01/02/11 @ 23:01