Playstation 3 error; millions of PS3s disabled

Apparently, a bug surfaced in the old model PS3s that changed the date on the internal clock to January 1st, 2000 (though some reports say December 31st, 1999). This disabled internet access and gameplay for any Playstation 3 owners that bought an older, non-slim model. Some gamers even lost their trophies.

Initially, Sony had issued statements that they were "aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we're looking into it". That was basically it for hours, until they finally revealed the following:

"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 playback 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 apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Seeing this makes me sorta glad that my old 60gb got the "Yellow Light of Death" a second time last year, and basically forced me to buy a Slim (my old one was finally out of the extended warranty). I definitely feel pity for those of you going through this crap though.