Sony released a new tweak to its 3.56 firmware today to rectify a glitch caused by the original version. Upon its release on January 27th to address security issues caused by the recent jailbreaking, the 3.56 firmware had the unforeseen effect of making consoles that attempted to run different hard disks after the update was completed unplayable.
Dukio reported on the new fix earlier today, along with an explanation on getting bugged harddisk drives working again.. Unfortunately, there is a caveat: "If you by any chance reformatted the (old) drive you are out of luck." An additional 3.56 fix may correct this issue too, the site surmised.
We verified that there is indeed a new system update on our own PS3, which had downloaded the original 3.56 firmware patch last week. After installing the update, we checked the system information. Sure enough, the system software was still listed at 3.56. The update is not mandatory; only users who experienced issues with their hard disk drives as a result of the last week's security update need to download it.
The official PlayStation site makes no reference to the upgraded 3.56 firmware as of now, but Sony confirmed to MyCE that the minor tweak was released to address the hard disk bug.
The original 3.56 update was released with the sole purpose of combating system hacking, though proved largely ineffective: it was hacked within hours of its release.
[UPDATE] Due to a miscommunication with Sony, we mistakenly reported the company had confirmed with us that the new system update to the 3.56 firmware addressed a known harddisk bug. Sony has yet to make an official statement regarding the matter. If it does, we'll let you know.
