James Delahunty
1 Mar 2010 9:56
Some gamers who have tried to play popular PS3 titles today might have had a nasty shock. Thousands of users are being prompted with an error - "8001050F – Hardware failure. Cannot update Firmware or connect to Internet" - and report not being able to connect to the PlayStation Network (PSN), play certain titles offline, access or play downloaded PSN content and more.
The fault is being blamed on a bug with the consoles clock or calendar which oddly set the date back to Dec 31, 1999 for many users in the switchover from February to March. Sony is well aware of the issue and made a statement earlier. "We have found out that some users are experiencing a network connection failure when signing on to PlayStation Network," the PlayStation maker said.
"We are currently looking in to the issue to identify the cause of this network connection failure and will update further information as necessary on the PlayStation blog and official website. We appreciate your understanding and continued support."
The problem only seems to affect users of older "fat" PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles, while owners of the Slim PS3 models reportedly have no problems so far.
At the time of writing, this was the latest from the PlayStation Blog:
Were aware that many of you are having difficulty connecting to the PlayStation Network this evening. Those of you with "slim" PS3s (the 120/250 GB models) appear to be unaffected.
Know that we have narrowed down the issue and have engineers working to restore service even as you read this. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and genuinely appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this.
In the meantime, you may want to follow our Twitter account for the latest updates.
PlayStation Twitter: http://twitter.com/sonyplaystation
Update: This is the latest post from Sony's PlayStation blog regarding the glitch.
As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3.
We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.
Errors include:
* The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
* When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following
message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been
signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
* When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears
on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install
trophies. Please exit your game.”
* When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the
Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date
and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
* Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the
PlayStation Store before the expiration date.
We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.
As mentioned above, please be advised that the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologize for any inconvenience caused.
For the latest status on this situation please continue to check either the PlayStation.Blog or PlayStation.com.