I’m fairly sure that everyone knows about the hack on the Playstation Network resulting in it being down for 25 days.  If you don’t, well yeah, Sony got themselves hacked and private user information (name, address, date of birth etc) was stolen and they didn’t even bother to encrypt it not to mention that credit card details were also stolen.

Unfortunately for me once it all came back online my PS3 crashed whilst I was playing Darksiders.  I tried turning off the PS3 but I ended up having to turn it off at the back.  I left it ten seconds and then switched it all back on but noticed that the game icon wasn’t appearing on the XMB.  I tried a few times but it wouldn’t appear, so I tried an audio CD which worked (unfortunately it was my girlfriend’s Taylor Swift CD so I didn’t exactly test it for long).  I started assuming it was only BD’s that were affected and trying a Blu-ray movie confirmed that.

I started scouring the internet for others with the same problem, it didn’t exactly take too long to find lots of posts out there.  I found a really helpful one that explained how to get into an engineer menu.  The plan is to then restore the system without wiping out save games and downloads etc.  The PS3 said that I had corruptions on the disk so it would wipe it.  This was fine with me and once it completed and rebooted my game icon re-appeared.  I fired up Darksiders again and ran upstairs and did a little victory dance in front of Amy  Unfortunately though after about 5 minutes of playing it hung again.

I started to think that because the PS3 had mentioned corruptions I should delete the install data for the game and try another save game too.  Once again around 5 minutes in it crashed – disaster struck again.  I did a few more system restores that night, did a bit of testing with movies, it seems that the drive is struggling reading parts of the disc, but can read to some extent  I’ve bought a BD cleaning disc that should arrive soon, I’m really hoping that it’s just a dirty lens..  My PS3 is out of warranty and it’s already the 2nd one I’ve had to buy brand new due to my first one getting the “yellow light of death”.  I will seriously be pissed off if my only real option is to buy a 3rd PS3 because of hardware faults.

Today I also learned that the web site Sony have that allows (or in most cases at the moment forces) people to change their PSN password has been compromised.  All a hacker needs to know is your email address and date of birth and they can change your password.  All this data was allegedly leaked when Sony got hacked.  How the hell can a company take nearly a month to get their system up and running again, make promises that they have the best technical minds working on the problem and then just a few days later have yet another massive cock up!!??

I’m a huge fan of Sony, but they are seriously starting to wind me up with dodgy hardware and complete and utter incompetence with my personal information.

Sort it out Sony FFS!!!!

Posted from Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom.