Intermittent BD and Sony BS??

Hello People


I am not a PS3 owner though nearly was on a number of occassions, I now realise I am thankful I am not and have not been a big fan of them for some years after previously being one of there biggest.


I joined this site and started this thread as I wanted to explain my recent findings and dealings with Sony UK.


A friend of mine who purchased a used PS3 from a well known chain of stores brought the machine to me as he had been having problems with it. From what he explained I had assumed it was an overheating problem most likely from some kind of blockage or build up of dust, I was wrong.


I put the machine on and inserted Need for Speed, an old favourite of mine, and the owner was dumbfounded when the game actually loaded and I played the game for twenty minutes before checking the machine. He said he had never been able to get a single game to load for over a months. A cheack of the interior found the fand and heatsink to be mostly dust free?! So that ruled out overheating completely.


Trying the same game again then produced the fault the owner had told me of and no matter how I tried I could NOT successfully load the game. I thien tried films and got the same from the Blu-Ray Movies but DVDs were fine. Checking the format of the games and I was suspicious to find these were BDs too. I declared that I was baffled and in all my years of dealing with computers I had not come across anything like it. It was almost as if the software was intermittent but that made no sense whatsoever.


The machine was left with me and I looked into this on the internet, though I am involved in many other very seriosu things and about to travel away from home for a time, curiosity got the better of me. I then discovered that my friend was not alone and there were indeed a great many people suffering the same problem. A software 'glitch' was becoming more and more the target in my eyes.


I then came across a number of people whose reasoning for the problem was a deliberate act by Sony to sabotage the use of games but this seemed outlandish at the time. Then it started to appear that these machines that were affected were ones the were either jail-broken or had previously been. A pictuie was beginning to emarge and it was not a very good one. Then I found one chap who ended up BUYING a newer model but at a later stage then repleced the optical drive on his 'broken' one. He amazed hismelf that the mahcine was now back to full operation. That is until he prformed an update and his brand new drive became intermittent after a few days.


A firther search revealed some lawsuits lietd on Wikipedia and I decided to email Sony UK about this in the chance it was something simple or how I could downgrade the machine to get it operational again.


I put all my fears and findings into an email. Within a matter of hours I had several emails frmo them that surprised many Sony owners that I know. They said they would get their engineers onto it and was even prepared to call my mobile phone to help and even asked for a convineient time to call?! I was surprised.


However when I did get that call it was not what I expected and while listening to PR marketing spind and absolute tosh from someone that clearly knew nothing about neither hardware nor software. This was absolurtely clear to me within no time at all but she insited she knew what ALL the updates from Sony enatiled. A fired a quick question at her, 'well what was the 3.2 update all about?' and she then did not have an answer. She also stated that this problem had NEVER occured before and that this was the first incident?! I then quickly pointed out that there WAS indeed many incidents that she denied until I pointed out the articles in Wikipedia. She then back tracked and admitted that there was indeed a problem but it only affected machine in North America, with me being in the UK. I then pointed out that one chap replaced his optical drive for a brand new one and that everythingw as fine until he updated and now his brand new drive was useless! She then made a remark about not updating the same system update twice and that is when I knew without a date she knew nothing about software. In fact without a serial number nor a receipt she even seem to know that the machine I had contacted them about had gone beyond its warranty. Clever girl considering she did not know what machine I had, unless of course they DO KNOW what machines are affected and that it is only the FAT early model that I had sitting here! But when she harped on about the warranty I then asked her why indeed they had bothered to ring me at all?! What was the point in the knee jerk reactions and the call to a mobile phone? From someone that knew nothing about hardware, nothing about software and was focusing primarily on my suspicions about what had been done to unbeknownst members of the public with their machines. Spin was why they rang me and SPIN and bull was all that I got. In fact all they succedded in doing was proving to me that my suspcions were correct and that they had deliberately fudged the updates to render dives uselss. Now as to the reasons why I can only speculate but do this deliberately they did.


There is nothing wrong with the Blu-Ray drive in this machine and I have insisted that to the owner since he first placed it in my possession. I have insisted that ever since and I also insisted the same thing to the PR SPIN DOCTOR who called me from Sony. I told her that not only would nothing she said to me now change my conclusions but to be convinced by someone who clearly knew nothis about either hardware of software was never going to happen. The odd thing about this is that my degree and my unversity was sponsored by Sony and included a Playstation programming module?! Go figure! Obviously we are all stupid.


I started this by stating that I do NOT own a Playstation 3 and have not owned any of them. But trough this incident, among others I have been hearing, it is of primary concern that these large corporations, hmm I am not having that Apple as my stomach is churning, seem to want to take your money for hardware that they then want to dictate what you can and can not use on it. My friends Ferrari has been in his garage for 5 years as a year after he purchased it Ferrai rang up and said that he was not not allowed to use the steering wheel any longer. Yes OK that WAS BS but I hope you understand the analogy.


I also can not help but wonder as toi the hack that were made on the Sony servers and wonder whether or not this was anything to do with it? Like I stated earlier this part is all purely speculation I am afraid but I dare say there are one or two individuals out there 'in the know'.


It ,ight also interest anyone who is reading this, especially if you are in the UK and even Europe, that I have sent a detailed email to The Gadget Show', aired on the UK's Channel 5, of details on this and of the behaviour and BS from the Sony emplyee. Hardly her fault she is just doing a job though I did point out at one stage that I hardly thought that the powers that be in a large corporation like Sony were going to keep there frint line staff fully informed of eveything ehy include in all of there updates.


What Sony do does not affect me in anyway but after reading of the many upset and frustrated victims of this debarcle that ther indeed are I can only sympathise with you as I know how it would be for me had I had been a victim.


For this reason and this reason only I have posted this in the hope that it may help anyone out there who has been affected.


After all the victim of the onwer of this partuclar machine is not my friend but thart of a little girl who was bought this by her dad as a present for her birthday and paid off installments to get it. Now that was not very nice was it?


The one positive in all this is that my endeavours and my tearing down of Sony PR staff and the fact I was planning to write and post this, along with informaing The Gadget Show, seems to have not only surprised him but pleased him somewhat into fits of hysterical laughter at my recalling of part of the conversation with the poor unsuspecting woman.


Remind me never to work for Sony. Lying is not my strong point.


Best of luck.


PS Just remebered I did own a PSP

One last thing..

The hardware has always been the same so I am confused at the need for updates for newer games??

Did they forget a chip that was included in the machine that had been forgotten about in the original OS?? I am sure they could provide plenty of fluff for that too, hmm I might just email them again and ask them why that is. If I do I will post any further interesting conversations I might have. However I doubt they would wish to have any further discussions!