Firmware 3.61 causing older PS3s to overheat and shut down

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DJSigma

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This comes from Rockstar's support site: -

Question: My PS3 turns itself off when I am playing L.A. Noire. What can I do?

Answer: We have received some reports of PS3s overheating while playing L.A. Noire or beeping three times before shutting down/turning themselves off, mostly on older 60GB and 80GB fat models.

Primary reports seem to be that updating to firmware 3.61 will cause PlayStations to overheat. There have been various reports of this on a few different games now, all reporting their PS3s turning off or "Red Lighting" after having installed 3.61. This can range from games randomly freezing to PS3s turning off anywhere between 30 mins use to 2 hours. We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed.

At this time we are recommending contacting Sony directly to report the overheating issue. However, this is not the end of our support; we are continuing to test L.A. Noire on all firmware versions and hardware models to isolate the issues and see what can be done. As always, we will update this article as soon as we have updates
PS3s shutting themselves off while playing L.A. Noire : Rockstar Support

Anyone had any issues with this? Obviously not with LA Noire as it's not out yet, but with other games? I only turned my PS3 on to change the password, so I haven't used it properly yet. I have an older 80GB fat model.
 
I too have the 80GB big momma, we'll see how this evolves.
 
Soundburst said:
You really need to start working for the Daily Mail LOL.
This news comes from Rockstar Games. They have done their own testing and it says this in the article I quoted: -

Rockstar Games said:
We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed.
So if you have a problem, I suggest you contact Rockstar Games and tell them to start working for the Daily Mail. They will probably take you about as seriously I do, which is about as seriously as I take any corporate fanboy shill.

EDIT - Now being reported on Eurogamer: -

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-18-firmware-3-61-causing-ps3s-to-overheat
 
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People have said Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is overheating too since the update 3.61.
 
Wasn't talking about the news itself. . .just you scouring the Internet for nothing but doom and gloom :D Do you actually. . .enjoy any aspects of gaming?

As I said Daily Mail executive job in the offing :) :)
 
Wasn't talking about the news itself. . .just you scouring the Internet for nothing but doom and gloom :D Do you actually. . .enjoy any aspects of gaming?

As I said Daily Mail executive job in the offing :) :)



Conversely, some (like myself) might like to thank him for bringing the issue to light in here, I have one of the older machines, and at least now i'm aware that there might be a problem.

Cheers DJ :thumbsup:
 
Don't get anything but bad news in your threads DJ. :rotfl::rotfl:

I suppose we'll see soon enough if theres any complaints our end as people will start getting the game tomorrow.

In the meantime get hunting for some good news please. ;)
 
Conversely, some (like myself) might like to thank him for bringing the issue to light in here, I have one of the older machines, and at least now i'm aware that there might be a problem.

Cheers DJ :thumbsup:
Thank you.

Sometimes there is a lot of doom and gloom in a short space of time. Today we've had a vulnerability in Sony's password change site, news of a 360 update that's borking some consoles, and now this - all things that I've started threads about because it's things that people would benefit from knowing about.

Soundburst said:
Do you actually. . .enjoy any aspects of gaming?
I wouldn't own a PS3 and 40-50 games for it if I didn't enjoy games.
 
Not sure if there is necessarily a connection because we have all heard this before with Phat models suddenly experiencing problems, even YLOD, upon a firmware update. Whereas you hardly ever hear of such reports with a Slim upon firmware updating, if at all
 
I have had trouble with Killzone 3 this evening - console freezing when loading up the campaign, then shutting down and beeping. Have a 40gb, and installed 3.61 yesterday. Never had any problems before...
 
Killzone 3 has frozen on me more than any other game in history ... I haven't yet played it on 3.61 though only older firmware.

Appears rockstar have removed the original statement and replaced it with one that says PS3 and 360 games suffer freezing.

If someone's 360 is updated to 3.61 to cause the freezing then that's definitely worth talking about :D :D
 
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Was playing a bit of black ops yesterday evening and I found that the fat 60GB was making a hell lot of fan noise to cool it down, much more then I can remember.
 
My launch PS3 is ok on 3.61 playing MW2 but it has always made a racket playing that game.
 
Hmmmm, to me I'd say Rockstar have created a game that is very intensive on calcuations, producing heat and that's causing PS3s (& 360's) to shut down - and they are shifting the blame on to FW3.61 to deflect it away from the game.

When I had my 60gb there was only one game that ever made the fans ramp up above level 2 and into jet engine territory, and that was GTA4.
 
I follow that link now and get this:

You do not have access to this topic

It may have been deleted.
 
Hmmmm, to me I'd say Rockstar have created a game that is very intensive on calcuations, producing heat and that's causing PS3s (& 360's) to shut down - and they are shifting the blame on to FW3.61 to deflect it away from the game.

When I had my 60gb there was only one game that ever made the fans ramp up above level 2 and into jet engine territory, and that was GTA4.

Was just about to post this. GTA4 was the game that consistently caused my launch 60Gb to sound like a jet engine/freeze/shut down....take your pick as all 3 happened often whilst playing. Never happened on any other game tho but instead of chancing it and having a dead console I got shot and got a newer model, is there any co-incidence this is now happening again on their new game?

I think not.
 
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Hmmm, I was playing Half Life last night and my PS3 froze on the main menu - never had that happen before :rolleyes:
 
Hmmmm, to me I'd say Rockstar have created a game that is very intensive on calcuations, producing heat and that's causing PS3s (& 360's) to shut down - and they are shifting the blame on to FW3.61 to deflect it away from the game.

Well you can not blame the game for making the console over heat, can you?

Over the past several years and various updates it seems that Sony's updates can kill a machine. Thinking back, my first YLOD was after an update... in all fairness Sony replaced it within days, they were not so keen on the second YLOD though :(
 
Well you can not blame the game for making the console over heat, can you?
Why not? If it's heavy on the GPU & PSU causing it to overheat then it's possible. That's why GTA4 overheated my old PS3 I suspect, and it's not a critisim of Rockstar for producing a massive game BTW.

FW 3.61 just added some security features as far as I know, it didn't implement anything drastic nor restrict memory usage, turn of some of the cells etc did it?
 
Hmmm, I was playing Half Life last night and my PS3 froze on the main menu - never had that happen before :rolleyes:
I thought Half Life was prone to freezes on the PS3?
 
I have been playing on my Slim since the update perfectly fine no overheating or anything, like mentioned already i think its LA Norie pushing the PS3 more than other games would, I'll be able to test that for myself when my copy arrives.
 
Appears rockstar have removed the original statement and replaced it with one that says PS3 and 360 games suffer freezing.

If someone's 360 is updated to 3.61 to cause the freezing then that's definitely worth talking about

LMAO

Makes me laugh - whenever something happens and a firmware has been released its always the firmware that has caused the issue.

Well IMHO no it hasn't - what - sony coded into the firmware code to reduce the fans spin speed???? LOL

I'm with Robot - its the game being intensive on processing power most likely. The consoles shouldn't shut down though, i expect the ones that do need a jolly good clean - i mean if the fan ramps up to max and is still insufficent to cool the PS3 then there is something wrong with that PS3 imo - My PS3 is about 3 years old now i think, lately i have been playing GTA4 (& my PS3 is on for over 12 hours at a time some weekend - gaming, BR Films & playtv) and it has never ramped up above stage 2.
 
Why not? If it's heavy on the GPU & PSU causing it to overheat then it's possible. That's why GTA4 overheated my old PS3 I suspect, and it's not a critisim of Rockstar for producing a massive game BTW.

FW 3.61 just added some security features as far as I know, it didn't implement anything drastic nor restrict memory usage, turn of some of the cells etc did it?

What I meant was its not the game designers fault (as you state "its not critisim of Rockstar", its as OS/hardware fault on the PS3.

Games should keep pushing the PS3, but it should not fail in that way - there is a design fault inherent will old PS3s.
 
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