Sony just pushed out an updated software for PlayStation 3 consoles to bring improvements and fix some older issues, but much to the surprise of the company as well as the PS3 users, the new 4.45 update has landed with a major issue.

Many PS3 users, who have installed the 4.45 update on their consoles, are complaining of their gaming console not booting beyond the welcome screen.

The new update was pushed to give users options to turn on and turn off the in-game notification when a trophy is earned. Till the last software version, users had no control over the in-game 'Trophy' notifications and the notifications were arriving on the screen without their consent.

Many PS3 users have already started posting their problems on Sony's support forum seeking some solution that can bring their gaming consoles back to life.

"When I start up the PS3 Slim today, it reported that it required to update to 4.45 (the version that allows you to disable trophy notification during game play). After the download and installation, the system reboots. But after it displays the PS3 logo, it went to the second screen (the flowing ribbon). It supposed to display XB next, but it never goes there. Just the flowing ribbon.

I cannot even shutdown the system by press the power button. (It bleeps, but the system didn't shut down.) So I tried unplug the power cord and plugging it again. Still same problem. Is there anyone from SONY here? Could someone help me to revert to the system before 4.45?" a user posted on the PlayStation support forum.

The problem was faced by a limited number of users in the beginning, but the number of affected users started growing with time. At present, the discussion on the forum runs up to 79 pages with all the users complaining about the same issue.

This is not the first time Sony has faced this kind of issue with a PS3 software update. When the company released PS3 update 4.31, some users also had complained about booting issues after installing the update. Later, the issues were found to be related to the hardware and not the software update.

However, with the release of version 4.25 and 4.40, users faced performance related issues which were later addressed by the company.

According to a Venture Beat report, a Sony representative has acknowledged the problem and said that they are looking into the issue.