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New firmware crashes PS3

It was only meant to be a small update to the PlayStation Store, but Sony's latest PS3 firmware upgrade, 3.41, is crashing PS3s when owners attempt to upgrade the hard drive.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
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Michelle Starr

It was only meant to be a small update to the PlayStation Store, but Sony's latest PS3 firmware upgrade, 3.41, is crashing PS3s when owners attempt to upgrade the hard drive.

Editor's note: this issue has now, according to Sony, been resolved. You can read the update here.

(PlayStation 3 image by Tim Snell, CC BY-ND 2.0)

A 58-page thread on the US PlayStation forums reveals users who attempt to format their new hard drives with the firmware are being greeted only with the message, "No applicable update data found".

Sony responded to online complaints, "We ask that you update the previous HDD first to see if the update will go through. Then update from the thumb drive that is formatted in FAT 32 and has the 3.41 update downloaded." However, the company has not yet released an official statement or fix.

One way to circumvent the bug is to first install firmware 3.40 on the new hard drive, available to download here. Once 3.40 is installed, you should be able to install 3.41.

Have you had problems with firmware 3.41? How did you fix it? Tell us your stories.