PS3 gets firmware update 2.41

By Ellie Gibson Published 8 July, 2008

Sony apologises for inconvenience.

PS3 firmware update 2.41 is now available for download.

Last week, you may remember, Sony was forced to withdraw update 2.4 after some people reported it had busted their consoles.

Now, in a post on the US PlayStation blog, PSN boss Eric Lempel has stated the update was recalled "because, for a limited number of users, the XMB wouldn't display after the update was installed".

The problem has been fixed, according to Lempel, and Sony's jolly sorry about the whole thing. "We want to extend our apologies to the PlayStation community for any inconvenience," he wrote.

"Now we’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone online and racking up those trophies!"

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • X201 #1 4 years ago

    You go first.
    I'll just wait here and see if anything happens.

  • space_ace #2 4 years ago

    :)

  • Trendyninja #3 4 years ago

    Oh well, shit happens. Hardly the end of the world now is it?

  • #4 4 years ago

    could be worse.

  • HiddenAway #5 4 years ago

    Not being a PS3 user, I'm a bit confused here. If your XMB has disappeared during the last upgrade (I assume that is what happened), how can you get the new one?

  • Killerbee #6 4 years ago

    So are those bricked consoles easily "unbricked" or is it still a back to Sony job?

  • ram #7 4 years ago

    what the hell. I updated my PS3 to 2.41 and my 360 RRODed!

  • andijames #8 4 years ago

    I believe you could "un-brick" it by formatting the hard disk if you had the resources to do it. I for one upgraded to 2.4 with no probs but am glad sony got it all cleared up pretty quickly!

  • KayJay #9 4 years ago

    I think the few that did go pop Sony swapped out with some next day Delivery/Swap action...

  • the_dudefather #10 4 years ago

    @ram

    http://i1 76.photobucket.com/albums/w179/...

  • Widge #11 4 years ago

    Glad I was on holiday for the update! If there is one thing about Microsoft I have to say, the operating system game is blatantly going to be their forte.

  • Mortey #12 4 years ago

    "what the hell. I updated my PS3 to 2.41 and my 360 RRODed!"

    I like that, even as a 360 owner!

  • Nosbod #13 4 years ago

    Dount count on it Widge

    How many times have they patched updates recently for xp and vista

  • sickpuppysoftware #14 4 years ago

    Just updated and the system is still working*


    *mind you 2.4 worked fine for me too.

  • penhalion #15 4 years ago

    This 2.4 fiasco showed a lot of die hard fanboys in th worst possible light. Lot's were in flat out denial, claiming that it was all made up by XBots. What they didn't seem to notice (maybe shows how much they actually use their PS3s instead of going onto forums to defend it) was that music and trophies didn't work properly in 2.4 either. It was broken no matter whether your console still booted after installing it.

    Like most here I suspect I'll be waiting for a few days before I install 2.41

  • KayJay #16 4 years ago

    What do you mean... it didn't work for those that... erm... it worked for? I don't understand what your saying.


    It all worked okay for me.

    /confused... :-(
    Edited by 2 at 08/07/08 @ 09:56

  • 3william56 #17 4 years ago

    @HiddenAway/Killerbee

    Apparently, if 2.4 did brick the PS3, there's no real physical damage damage a la RROD, you just need to reformat the hard drive.

    So easily DIY fixable if you happen to have a 2.5" USB HDD enclosure and minor screwdriver skillz (pull the HDD from the PS3, put it in the enclosure, attach HDD to PC, format drive, return to PS3, job done). No return to shop needed, and no effect on warranty. The bummer is you lose all of your saved stuff (inc. game saves). Or you can take the excuse to upgrade the PS3 hard drive, and slam in a new monster hard drive anyway.

    If you don't know what that means or how to do it (plenty of guides if you Google), then a short visit to your local computer or game shop should do - faster than posting it back to Sony.

    Bummer that it happened (especially on such an anticipated upgrade - blushes all round I reckon), though from the rarity of the incidence it sounds like it would have been difficult to predict in advance. But otherwise, pretty good job done by Sony on this - no waiting a year and denying failures or FUDding; immediately pull the update, apologise and sort it within a week. Redmond, are you watching?

    Though I'm just glad my ISP doubled my download allowance this week. Would have been growing old on throttled downloads otherwise.

  • Dizzy #18 4 years ago

    >So easily DIY fixable

    ROFL.. the irony ;)

  • ToAks #19 4 years ago

    @Penhalion: This i really odd, nowhere has i seen anyone claim what you do, music is ofcourse clear to everyone if they bothered to read the releasenotes in the 2.40 archive (games will have to be patched to make use of the new custom music feature) , trophies worked exellent the first 2 days for me atleast, i have them all except for SSDHD multiplayer pack which is not out in europe yet (only Solo pack is (4.00) and that was pulled too, they removed that the same time as 2.40 was removed. so either stop wanking or just run to the thread you belong in. PS: i have over 60 friends in my friends list and i'd say 80% of them has atleast unlocked 1 or 2 trophies out of the 16 available atm (well more to come today i guess). BTW: since youre such a wiseguy , you seem to forget that every trophy is recorded via PSN with a date stamp and time stamp and by that i can prove your trolling in a single comment.
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/08 @ 10:12

  • Darren #20 4 years ago

    So I presume that this v2.41 firmware I installed (rather quickly) this morning is in fact absolutely IDENTICAL to the v2.40 one I successfully downloaded last week? I presume the version number change is only so that every PS3 owner is running the same version of the firmware?

    It is kind of annoying to have to do these vX.X1 bug fix updates, mostly because firmware updates carry with them a small element of risk of something going wrong, so they should be kept to an absolute minimum but the PS3 has at least one every six weeks!!! Still at least Sony resolved the issue (presumably) quickly and they can now get on with improving the ingame XMB, i.e. hiding the unused stuff to make it run quicker and moving the controller battery charge overlay somewhere where it doesn't obscure the clock!!!

    But, please, can we go more than two months without doing a firmware update, Sony? Please... plus it'll give you more time to test them so things like the v2.40 fiasco don't happen in the first place! :p

  • MossyMos #21 4 years ago

    2.40 worked fine for me however updating to 2.41 resulted in a "System cannot start. Incorrect harddrive.", or something to that effect. Switching off, removing and reinserting the power cable solved the problem though. Launch day PS3 with a 250 gigabyte harddrive.

  • Darren #22 4 years ago

    @MossyMos - I've come across someone else who had the same problem as you. Like you they were using a 250 GB HDD. What model is it? I've used a 160 GB 5,400 rpm 8 MB buffered Western Digital Scorpio HDD in my PS3 for a year with no problems with updating the firmware and two months ago upgraded to a 320 GB version of the same model, again with no problem. Could certain models of HDD cause incompatibility issues, say, if it's a 7,200 rpm model or one with a 16 MB buffer?

  • ToAks #23 4 years ago

    @Darren , ofcourse its more or less identical. 2.41 is a bug fix for everyone who managed to not get it 2.40 installed. There was some minor glitches and problems with 2.40 (web browser used too much memory , InGame XMB used to much memory etc) time will tell if thoose have been solved too. anyway this is not 2.41 as in a new feature list , this is as in 2.41 (as a developer myself i would have called it 2.4.1) as in a bugfix for 2.40. , Now , Gimme proof that there has been an update every 6th week. I ran all dates now since launch day and nope' its not every 6th week so you should bring some dates and news item as a source to your rant.

  • Steroyd #24 4 years ago

    This 2.4 fiasco showed a lot of die hard fanboys in th worst possible light. Lot's were in flat out denial, claiming that it was all made up by XBots. What they didn't seem to notice (maybe shows how much they actually use their PS3s instead of going onto forums to defend it) was that music and trophies didn't work properly in 2.4 either. It was broken no matter whether your console still booted after installing it.

    This post puts YOU in a bad light (maybe shows how much you actually use your PS3 instead of going onto forums to attack it :-P ), because it DID work for me and I didn't have any problems and it was working perfectly for me, and Sony have stated during the 2.4 firmwire video's that the games would need a patch for custom soundtracks to work, and i've been able to compare my level 2 e-penis for a whole week, infact no-one on my friendslist has had a problem with the firmwire except those who couldn't download it because it was taken down before they turned their PS3 on.
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/08 @ 10:29

  • zisssou #25 4 years ago

    what trophies

  • Widge #26 4 years ago

    @ Nosbod

    Oh yeah! I get that, I mean I'm getting WELL hacked off with a BAD_POOL_CALLER BSOD I'm getting at the moment on XP, and its not handy that the industry standard mastering VSTi Waves doesn't work with Vista ... but more driving at the fact that the buggers have been running the OS game since the 80's and are a wee bit adept at it.

    Having said that, Sony are doing alright I have to say. Grinding out the additions and updates (which is remarkably Windows in its approach). The OS could have been utterly horrific ala their DAP software, plus I suppose, 2nd to Nokia, their phone OS's are the nicest to use.

  • mikeck #27 4 years ago

    "what the hell. I updated my PS3 to 2.41 and my 360 RRODed!"

    That was the main feature of 2.41 did you not know ;)

  • spookyzombie #28 4 years ago

    Anything updated trophy wise?

  • Darren #29 4 years ago

    @ToAks - You're a bit of a delicate soul, aren't you, if you thought I was having a "rant"! LOL

    And if you want proof of the number of updates and their dates then look at this *link*. With odd exception, like the three months between v2.10 and v2.17, it does show that the PS3 has at least one firmware update every month, never mind every six weeks!!! ;)

    Like others I'm sure, I'm just concerned about the chance of something going wrong during these updates so, IMO, they should be kept to a minimum like on the 360, where it typically gets just two major updates per year (although it seems in 2008 it will get just one).

  • Darren #30 4 years ago

    P.S. The PS3 launched with v1.54 firmware and on that same date the v1.60 update was available to download. Since then there's been EIGHTEEN (count 'em) updates and the machine has only been out in Europe 15 months!!! LOL

  • oreillymj #31 4 years ago

    @MossyMos I occasionally get the same Hard drive error message on my launch day 60Gb upgraded to 320Gb.

    A reboot fixes it. I'm guessing that some HD's are just marginally slower then the original drive at spinning up and presenting themselves to the OS as ready for use. If they're a second or two later then expected, the PS3 will display this error. A soft reboot fixes it because the drive is still spinning when the PS3 is reset, so the drive is found straight away.

  • Artemus #32 4 years ago

    "Now we’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone online and racking up those trophies!"

    Might be possible If we had more than one game to get trophies on.

  • ToAks #33 4 years ago

    @Darren , well done research and for that you get REP +1 :) , as for the other points you have, ofcourse i would also want to see updates like rarely but with more stuff in them but Sony is playing catchup and they have to make all the whiners happy, just look at the official forums... its crazy. i agree that every 4th or 6th month we should have a update although i do think they still need to catch up on a few other minor things first (Flash 8 among others , i doubt we will see flash 9 soon but i hope we atleast get 8). cheers

  • Widge #34 4 years ago

    not that we're a MOANY old bunch though

  • ghearoid #35 4 years ago

    Um, I'm not fussed about trophies and stuff. Is that that the only thing in this update or do I *need* to run the update anyway for other reasons?

  • MossyMos #36 4 years ago

    @Darren. It is a Western Digital 250 gig drive at 5400rpm. Cannot remember the model number or cache size. Knowing my wallet it is probably an 8 meg cache ; ) Going to change it at some time as it likes to do a clicke-de-click sound once in awhile, like my laptop drive, during which it cannot read. Lasts all but 1-1.5 seconds but games that stream from the harddrive freeze during this (only affected Warhawk and Heavenly Sword).

    @Oreillymj. Thanks. Just figured resetting the power would make the PS3 check extra hard : ) Could be the startup time of the harddrive that is at fault but I was also thinking of the Other OS I have installed (in this case Yellow Dog Linux). Who knows. And right now I don't give a damn as it is working.

    The PS3 had me shouting for a moment when it did not boot properly. Just received my 50" screen this morning and the first thing the PS3 does when I connect it to the screen is update to 2.41..... and then not boot. Aaargh!! Three years of saving and researching HDTVs and I am foiled at the last minute (well the first minute of turning on the TV).

    Have to say that these HD TV thingies look absolutely beautiful with a BluRay movie (or HD-DVD if that is what you want ; ) )

  • Gaol #37 4 years ago

    Nothing to add here except Super Stardust HD is fucking awesome, and I'm glad these trophies pointed me towards it if nothing else :)

  • DFawkes #38 4 years ago

    Gaol +1

    Would've never even tried SSHD without the trophies, bought it, and found out it's actually brilliant. I'm ashamed I hadn't bothered until last week.
    I'm assuming the SSHD update is back up too? I had a fully working 2.4 and SSHD, but no trophies.

  • des #39 4 years ago

    PS3 is like sinking ship,needs to be patched every couple days to stay afloat lol

  • ToAks #40 4 years ago

    @des , by the sound of things you seem to misunderstood the whole thing about patches and sinking ships, other than that i suggest you grow up before posting again. youre hereby Ignored.

  • penhalion #41 4 years ago

    @DFawkes

    The SSHD patch should be automatically downloaded when you start SSHD. Trophies should work once you earn one of them by playing the missions.

  • m0thr4 #42 4 years ago

    @Dizzy

    ">So easily DIY fixable

    ROFL.. the irony ;) "

    I think he meant compared to the Xbox 360, but I know what you mean!

  • Trigga_Tybalt #43 4 years ago

    more games need trophy support :/

  • zedzee #44 4 years ago

    So Sony is saying it only affected a "limited" number of PS3s?

    How does that work then? Are they all like PCs, different from the next one?! Doubt that, except for the odd model change, but surely they all accept the same firmware.

    Want to know how come it was "limited"?

    It WASN'T! Sony just withdrew it quick enough, before everyone else bricked their units. They were plain lucky...

    Just like how lucky they are that no matter how much they delayed the PS3 launch, charged a fortune for it, had crap release games, still have crap games, are always late with PSN and want to charge £40 for the DualShock3 - people (especially in UK) still forgive them and buy blindly.

    No thanks...I'm sticking with my PS2 and PSP...I'm skipping this round. Might even defect to XBot!

    Over & Out.

  • MossyMos #45 4 years ago

    Thank you Zedzee, for those words of wisdom : ) The best thing this update(s) brought is the focus on super stardust HD.Seriously, it is that good, so just buy it already.....ok?

  • ToAks #46 4 years ago

    @Zeedee , maybe you didn't see the playstation blog post or maybe youre just trolling`? , it happened only to thoose who had certain settings set (ie a debug version installed or some very old firmware) , keep in mind that there is probably still people who has a ps3 who yet have to go online with it.

  • m0thr4 #47 4 years ago

    @des

    "PS3 is like sinking ship,needs to be patched every couple days to stay afloat lol"

    A cheap shot if ever I heard one. The vast majority of the regular PS3 firmware updates are in fact primarily new features and functionality (and include fixes for very minor issues). And at least we got a sincere apology.

    So let me respond with an all-too-easy cheapshot of my own: because, of course, Microsoft have never had problems with failing hardware, or patch rollouts that break consoles... or PCs, for that matter.

  • mcbi4kh2 #48 4 years ago

    @zedzee

    Well done sir, I think every scenetence in that post was utter rubbish.

    surely they all accept the same firmware.
    surely PC's can all accept the same OS? Therefore using your amazing logic one broken PC = all PC's broke.

    before everyone else bricked their units
    They werent bricked, a reformat and job done.

    they delayed the PS3 launch
    Microsoft RUSHED the 360 launch to try and get a stronger foothold in the market. Their hardware simply wasn't ready, over 30% faliure rate is a disgrace.

    still have crap games
    Why is this argument still going? There are loads of games!

    want to charge £40 for the DualShock3
    Yes, I'd prefer to pay £30 for an xbox controller plus £10 for a charger.

  • des #49 4 years ago

    @m0thr4

    What makes you think that i approve MS shitty practice of releasing unfinished OS and patching it on the go?So now that Sony has over-adopted it,its a good thing?This 2.40 fiasco proves how good they are,lets put unfinished firmware and patch it on the go.

    Besides comparing PC patches and consoles is pointless,PC hardware is constantly evolving and OS has to maintain compatibility with thousands of different components.