Sony has pulled the highly anticipated firmware update v2.40 for the PS3 following reports that it is killing consoles. So far it has provided no solution to those affected.

A message from Patrick Seybold, Sony Computer Entertainment America's director of corporate communications & social media, tells us, “we have temporarily taken Firmware v2.40 offline.”

Seybold is keen to emphasise the fact that Sony does not perceive the problem to be widespread. “We’ve received a limited number of calls from consumers experiencing an issue with installing the system software update on their PS3. While our consumer services department has seen a low volume of calls on this topic, we are committed to providing the PS3 community with XMB access features delivered in the v2.40 update”, he states.

Forum poster ASickness reports on the official PlayStation boards, “Well, I downloaded version 2.40 put in metal gear solid 4 and i get a black screen forever..i cant even get demos to start.”

Other users are, however, reporting no such issues.

Meanwhile, you can see a video below (movingly titled 'Dead PS3') showing the problem manifesting as the PS3's background ribbon graphic showing on his screen perpetually.

The only - and totally unofficial - fix that is doing the rounds is to take your PS3s hard drive out, format it using a PC, replace it and reboot the PS3. This, of course, results in losing all your saved data.

Unsurprisingly, Seybold states, “We are working diligently to isolate the problem for those few consumers and to identify a solution before we put the firmware back up.”

SPOnG has contacted SCEE for information on when the problem will be fixed and what PS3 owners should do to get their bricked consoles up and running in the meantime, but it is not adding anything to the statement of Seybold.

What the update should have done is enable in-game access to the XMB and the trophy system. You can see more details here and here.



^{Sources: PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Forum}