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Sony to recall all PlayStation 2 Memory Cards

It's causing DVD glitches, apparently

The Register is receiving reports that Sony has discovered some rather nasty post-launch problems with its new PlayStation 2 console. At this stage, we ourselves have seen no official Sony comment, but various PlayStation-oriented sites are reporting that Sony has recalled all the 8MB Memory Cards that have shipped with PlayStation 2 units so far. Solid details of the problem are scarce. Reports talk about issues with the Memory Card, with the unit itself overheating and crashing, with the game Ridge Racer V, and with the unit's DVD player. The problem is that it's impossible at this stage to say where the trouble lies. Are the faulty Memory Cards corrupting the DVD driver, which in turn is spoiling DVD playback - there's talk of "sound skipping" - and ensuring Ridge Racer won't run? Or are there problems with some DVD units, which would, frankly, produce exactly the same symptoms? Overheating could easily lead to crashes - it happens with PCs - but is it occurring with ordinary use or with systems that haven't been switched off since they were set-up last weekend? Certainly, Sony has experienced problems with PlayStation 2 Memory Cards, at least at the production level, which is why, by Monday, the company had been unable to ship only a third of the consoles ordered online. The Memory Cards are also the home of the PlayStation 2's anti-piracy system, MagicGate, which, if it's malfunctioning because of a dodgy card, could easily affect DVD playback in the ways described. At this stage, it seems more likely that the problems centre on the Memory Card rather than the PlayStation 2 hardware itself. Given the expectations raised by Sony in the run-up to the PlayStation 2 launch, it's not surprising that news of problems with the hardware would emerge very quickly indeed. The only trouble is the importance of such news could easily be way over-inflated for precisely the same reason. After all, a lot of people out there - typically Nintendo or Sega fans - want Sony to fail, and will hype up any news that indicates it may have done. As more substantial information emerges, we'll pass it on. ®

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