Update your PS3 firmware the QJ way

Imagine you have a PS3. Now, you know you have to update it, but you can’t read Japanese. Unfortunately, those are the only instructions you currently have for the damned thing (the price you pay for travelling halfway across the world to stand in line for a PlayStation.

Well, we can help you out with that. Perhaps not as completely or as lovingly as the “densetsu no maid” (legendary maid, loosely translated) of Akihabara, but we’ll still do what we can short of visiting your house to install the bloody system for you.

Some words of advice before anything else though. If you are updating the PS3’s firmware, do not turn off your PS3 for whatever reason you can think of. For lack of a better term, you may end up bricking your console or at least doing something terribly nasty to it. If you think your PS3 shut itself off because the light in front turned off, it hasn’t. It’s working as intended, as far as we can translate their instructions.

Want to learn how to update your PS3’s firmware? Click on “Full Article”.

Imagine you have a PS3. Now, you know you have to update it, but you can’t read Japanese. Unfortunately, those are the only instructions you currently have for the damned thing (the price you pay for travelling halfway across the world to stand in line for a PlayStation).

Well, we can help you out with that. Perhaps not as completely or as lovingly as the “densetsu no maid” (legendary maid, loosely translated) of Akihabara, but we’ll still do what we can short of visiting your house to install the bloody system for you.

Some words of advice before anything else though. If you are updating the PS3’s firmware, do not turn off your PS3 for whatever reason you can think of. For lack of a better term, you may end up bricking your console or at least doing something terribly nasty to it. If you think your PS3 shut itself off because the light in front turned off, it hasn’t. It’s working as intended, as far as we can translate their instructions.

Now, there are three ways to update your firmware. You can either use an update disc, do the update via the PC, or update the firmware directly through the network. Let’s start with the simplest procedure: Updating through disc.

Disc-type Updates:

Here’s what we’ve been able to decipher. Apparently, there’s a separate disc you can pick up for the express purpose of updating the firmware. Whether or not said firmware updates come in the box or inside the blu-rays of the launch titles, we can’t tell.

Basically, before you can run a game, stick in the update disc and you should be looking for the screen below to show up:

Press the O button on the controller to begin the update procedure and wait for the update to complete itself, and you’ve got your firmware all patched up and ready to go. If you think updating through a disc seemed ambiguous, you’re going to LOVE the other procedures.

Update via PlayStation Network:

Besides owning a PS3, you’ll need to check your user’s guide to hook your PS3 up to the internet. We know that seems stupid, since none of us has that much Japanese reading training, so you can try checking our source page, translating it, and then opening up the translated version of their online user’s guide, or look for the official English version.

Now, when you’ve figured out how to get the PS3 online, you’re going to be looking for the Home icon with the System Update icon on its corresponding dropdown menu, as you can see below:

Now, the PS3 will ask you if you want to update by going online with the highlighted text below. Say yes by pressing O again, and it will hunt down the latest firmware updates and do the download and installation for you automatically. Just wait for the installation to finish, and you’ll get a screen that says “OK” in the middle. Following that, you’re done.

Update via Computer:

Perhaps the most annoying installation procedure among the three to translate and transcribe, it’s also the one you can do while reading this guide directly from your comp. You’ll obviously need a computer with an internet connection and a PS3, but you’ll also need some sort of removable storage device with at least 110MB of space, whether it be a memory stick, flash card, SD card, or an actual USB drive.

To update using your computer, pick up the update file from the source by looking for this icon:

It will prompt you to download the file PS3UPDAT.PUP. Upon downloading it, stick the file into your removable storage drive and put that in your PS3. Consult the user’s guide on transferring files from removable storage to PS3, as you will need to move the file from the removable storage into the Update folder of your PS3.

Now, the steps to get to the actual update are the same as the network procedure, with you going to the Home option, followed by the System Update option. The main difference lies in choosing the bottom text on the System Update Screen, as highlighted below:

That will make your console search the Update folder for the specific file and do the installation for you. Just wait for the prompt that says you’re done, and you’ve completed the update.

Now… all you need is the bloody unit, right? Same here. Cheers gamers, and pray that the benevolent creator made a lot of PS3s to satisfy all our needs.