Hi Everyone,
I'm in a bit of a bind here and I'm looking for options. Tonight after playing on my PS3 I saw the message that a recommended software update was available. Being the stupid moron than I am I chose to update my system. The update downloaded fine and then restarted my system in order to install it. At 28% however the update fails (Error Code 8002F165 although at this point that shouldn't matter) and told me to restart and try again. I did this 3 times until the message that tells me to try again no longer lets me actually click "Ok" and I'm forced to hard boot the system. Each time I boot the system it goes straight to the update and then fails at 28%.

I called Sony Tech Support and we walked through a number of things including removing the power for 2 minutes, to trying to get it in to safe mode, but both are not working. The guy basically said I'll have to send my system in at which point I will most likely lose all my saved data... which is fine because I didn't really want to finish Final Fantasy anyways and these 4 Bluray movies I just bought are just as cool in the box as they are being watched (sarcasim).

To make matters worse after the phone call they send me an e-mail with instructions on how to get a return kit to send in my PS3. As part of the process I need to let them know I have my original receipt so I check everywhere and I don't have it. I'm usually pretty good about keeping receipts for bigger purchases but I don't have it and I've looked. The worst part is I have a PS3 Slim, which according to Wikipedia came out in August 18, 2009, and they need my receipt to prove I bought it within the last year... so by definition all PS3 Slims should be under warranty even if I bought it the day it came out.

So I'm sitting here with a bricked PS3 and no real way of getting Sony to repair it for me. Can anyone think of any options for me? I was thinking if I could track someone down with a slim receipt a photocopy of that might work, I'm not sure if Walmart will print a receipt out for me but I'm guessing no, and my last option, which I would normally wouldn't turn to otherwise, find someone in HRM who can fix these...

Anyways, thanks for listening to my vent and any help would be much appreciated.

No promises ill look for it tomorrow (reciept). I think i have one.

You are suffering like the thousands (millions?) of others with the old-style PS3's. The latest update was to remove the option of installing 3rd party OS's like Linux and the lot. P3S slims do not appear to be affected at this point. Even if you hadn't updated there would still be the chance you wouldn't be able to connect online to the PS Network.

It just does everything!

Thanks. If that doesn't work I'm thinking about buying a new slim, photocopying the receipt, and then returning it. It's sleazy and I hate doing it but if it saves me $300+ because of Sony's bureaucracy I'll do it.

its sleazy that they are doing to you what they are.so screw em...

Looked all over, Nil.


Sorry dude =(

Np, and thanks for looking.

I'm going to try talking with someone at Walmart this weekend to see if they can get me a receipt or maybe the person on staff will even be like "Just return it to us and we'll give you a new one". If not I'll call Sony back and see if a Visa receipt will be enough and then get them to ship me one of those "boxes" I've heard so much about with my friends with Xbox's that have obviously RRoD'ed over the years.

Actually walmart will let you exchange without reciept. I had to do this before. Then you can get a reciept too.

Its sh*t like this that makes me glad to PC game.

Take it back to Walmart dude. Get a fresh one.

a frickin men...i have a 360 and Wii...use the xbox once a month, wii hasnt been on in about 6 months.!...computer never stops....

Yeah but when your card/cpu dies u gotta shell out enough for a new console...

I talked to Walmart and they basically said without a receipt there was nothing they could do. I didn't really argue or anything because really, it wasn't their fault at all.

I did however call Sony Tech Support back to see if someone new had any other ideas and to ask if they would accept a Visa statement saying I paid Walmart $299 on the day I bought it and they wouldn't. This new Tech Support guy was actually pretty defensive about the whole thing -

When I said that it was impossible for my PS Slim to be over a year old, he said the Warranty only applies to the original buyer of the PS3 and it isn't transferable so that's why they need the receipt. So I guess when you buy a system you somehow also enter into this legal agreement.

When I said that even if my system wasn't under warranty it was ridiculous that their update caused the problem and they won't fix it he basically said "No one forced you to do this update so it's your own fault" and then immediately started quoting me on prices to have it fixed - close to $140 once all the fees were slapped on.

Needless to say this got me pretty pissed but I asked "How come these systems don't have a button on them to reset everything to a factory default state?" and he went on about how this corrupted update is on a different partition and a format wouldn't work and could he sign me up for the $140 fix.

So, I said I was good, hung up, and immediately took out the PS3 hard drive and hooked it up to my system. I formatted it, got the latest OS and put it on my USB key and hooked it back up. It booted to a screen that said "No OS Found" but gave me an option to install one so I put in my USB key and went from there. 1 hour later and my system was back up and running (minus all my saved games though obviously).

The moral of the story I guess is - 1) Back up saved games before updates and 2) Sony's Tech Support is there to look for loop holes in providing you a warranty and then make you think you can only have the problem resolved by them and a fee.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Boo on losing saved game profiles Would you have to re-buy things you already bought through the PS network store?

Other than the 14 hours I was in to Final Fantasy 13 I didn't *really* lose a whole lot because all the other games I had played, I had beaten. I was planning on going back and checking out the additional content I unlocked in Batman: AA but that's not a huge lose really.

As for having to re-buy things, yes, I think I would have had to do that had I actually bought anything online... which I didn't. When I was talking to the Tech Support guy he made it sound like if they serviced my system I would get vouchers or something to re-buy everything I had lost. I think it's dumb that it's not just tied to your PSN ID much like computer games are with Steam, but it's good to know that now because I will now never buy something from them knowing this.

You might have been able to put a different hard drive in yer PS3, formatted/installed OS, and "imported" the stuff off your old hard drive in a USB enclosure.

Although, because this is a Sony product, who knows if that would have worked, or just have caused more asplosions.