A red-faced Sony has confirmed that its Playstation 3 consoles are now recovered from an internal clock glitch.
“We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year,” explained Sony spokesperson Patrick Seybol.
“Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally.”
According to Seybol, users have the option of adjusting their time settings manually or over the Internet if the XMB is found to be displaying incorrect data.
It should be noted that Sony had previously asked PS3 owners to keep their consoles off until the enigmatic system clock bug was “fixed.”
The glitch – which prevented PS3 users from connecting to the PSN network – was blamed for causing a number of [temporary] errors, including:
- System date reset to Jan 1, 2000.
- Error message – “You have been signed out of PlayStation Network, (8001050F).”
- Error message – “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”
- Error message – “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F).
- Downloads – Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.
As TG Daily previously reported, players of the online service – which allows its 38 million users to connect to online stores, download software and play multiplayer games – experienced difficulties as early as Sunday afternoon.
The problem also affected players of single-player, trophy-based games such as Heavy Rain and BioShock 2, as these require trophy information to be synchronized with Sony’s online servers.
