megalithic
October 10th, 2009, 12:36
Hello, we now have the PS3 'red screen of death' and are stuck. I am suspicious that it is some sort of brutal anti piracy or protection measure that we have fallen foul of. Why? - Read on...
Here is what happened:
Solid red screen in many languages saying "a serious error has occurred. Contact technical support for assistance".
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/2411126086_75f5dc358d.jpg
We bought a new Batman Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition in London, which turned out to be a US import. All fine, no problems, happy until we try and download the free 'Play as the Joker' add-on which my son was desparate to play. It wouldn't work.
We downloaded it with our UK playstation network account which is linked to our PS3 login. Eventually we found out that you have to use the USA version of the 'Play as the Joker' add-on for it to work with a US copy of the game.
OK, so we signed up for an account on the US playstation network site, using a different e-mail address and the mailing address of a friend of mine in the USA. The PS3 wouldn't let us link this account with our standard user ID so we created another ID called "blah_US" and used this to log in to the US playstation network.
OK, still all fine, we use this US account to download the free "Play as the Joker" addon and my son spends most of the day completing this. THEN the fun starts (or rather - NOT!)
The next time we reboot the PS3 we don't get the startup screen, it goes straight to this 'red screen of death' as it seems to be called, with lots of languages on the screen, asking you to contact technical support. Big red screen:
I contacted technical support and they just said they'll have to swap out our PS3 for a new (reconditioned) one. I'm not keen to do this, and if it had been out of warranty we would have been stuffed.
I've worked out how to go into 'Safe Mode' and gone down all the options to try and rebuild the system, right down to options 5 and 6 of a total wipe and re-install of the PS3 OS from a USB stick.
The OS update downloaded and seemed to install OK from the USB stick but again when it came to reboot, it goes straight to the 'red screen' and it still won't run. The PS3 boots into safe mode OK so there doesn't seem to be anything fundamental wrong with the hardware. It also downloads and loads the OS update but as I say it just hits this red screen when you try and reboot.
I suspect that this is some sort of anti piracy or protection measure that we have fallen foul of. I can't find anything about it in any forums so I thought I'd mention it to see if anyone has any ideas, or just to warn others.
Our playstation is brand new and unmodified, we have had it about 2 months, treated it very carefully and never done anything dodgy with it.
Of course it could just be a co-incidence that our PS3 decided to die at this point but I'm not convinced and am suspicious we have been 'barred' in some way.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Here is what happened:
Solid red screen in many languages saying "a serious error has occurred. Contact technical support for assistance".
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/2411126086_75f5dc358d.jpg
We bought a new Batman Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition in London, which turned out to be a US import. All fine, no problems, happy until we try and download the free 'Play as the Joker' add-on which my son was desparate to play. It wouldn't work.
We downloaded it with our UK playstation network account which is linked to our PS3 login. Eventually we found out that you have to use the USA version of the 'Play as the Joker' add-on for it to work with a US copy of the game.
OK, so we signed up for an account on the US playstation network site, using a different e-mail address and the mailing address of a friend of mine in the USA. The PS3 wouldn't let us link this account with our standard user ID so we created another ID called "blah_US" and used this to log in to the US playstation network.
OK, still all fine, we use this US account to download the free "Play as the Joker" addon and my son spends most of the day completing this. THEN the fun starts (or rather - NOT!)
The next time we reboot the PS3 we don't get the startup screen, it goes straight to this 'red screen of death' as it seems to be called, with lots of languages on the screen, asking you to contact technical support. Big red screen:
I contacted technical support and they just said they'll have to swap out our PS3 for a new (reconditioned) one. I'm not keen to do this, and if it had been out of warranty we would have been stuffed.
I've worked out how to go into 'Safe Mode' and gone down all the options to try and rebuild the system, right down to options 5 and 6 of a total wipe and re-install of the PS3 OS from a USB stick.
The OS update downloaded and seemed to install OK from the USB stick but again when it came to reboot, it goes straight to the 'red screen' and it still won't run. The PS3 boots into safe mode OK so there doesn't seem to be anything fundamental wrong with the hardware. It also downloads and loads the OS update but as I say it just hits this red screen when you try and reboot.
I suspect that this is some sort of anti piracy or protection measure that we have fallen foul of. I can't find anything about it in any forums so I thought I'd mention it to see if anyone has any ideas, or just to warn others.
Our playstation is brand new and unmodified, we have had it about 2 months, treated it very carefully and never done anything dodgy with it.
Of course it could just be a co-incidence that our PS3 decided to die at this point but I'm not convinced and am suspicious we have been 'barred' in some way.
Any ideas? Thanks.