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sabregen
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- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
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Welcome to the thread! I'd like to thank everyone that's contributed to the discussions, so far. Your participation is very valuable in getting more information out to more people on how to make all of these methods and programs work together. If you have any questions, you can always PM me, or make a post in the thread. If we helped you out, let me know, we'll add your name to the list! Any links in this thread, to guides, or other information that go to external sources, are property of their respective owners. I will not take credit for the work of others. I'm standing on the shoulders of many in putting this together. I just got tired of having outdated/irrelevant information floating out there, and decided to put it all together into one place, and keep it up to date. Enjoy!
-sabregen
-sabregen
Here are some PSP terms & acronyms to know while digging around on this topic:
Tool battery / Datel battery / Datel Tool / pre-modded battery - One and the same. Datel makes a "Tool" battery that is this funky orangish color for the modding community to load custom firmware onto their PSPs. The battery will not function as a normal battery. In other words, you cannot plug in a fully charged "Tool" battery and play your PSP normally. There are ways around this, but they're more involved than I care to get into, unless someone is really desperate to do so.
Link to Datel Tool search on ebay (for reference): http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=datel+tool&category0=
CFW - custom firmware. Any firmware loaded through any means that is not released directly by Sony for your hardware model is CFW. There are many creators, but we are generally focusing on the latest releases from a modder who goes by Dark_Alex.
MMS - magic memory stick. this refers to a memory stick that is of a size between 64MB-4GB. there are many tools to properly format the Memory Stick for flashing the PSP with custom firmware. Once the magic memory stick has the proper partition type, and files copied to it, it is said to be a Magic Memory stick. For the purposes of this guide, we are only covering the use of Genuine Sony or SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duos in the stated size range as magic memory sticks. Word to the wise, if you buy from a seller / company that is out of China, you are on your own. Many authentic-looking memory stick pro duos are not authentic, and will not function properly for the creation of a magic memory stick.
Pandora's Battery (PSP Slim)- For the purposes of this thread, we are really talking about a hard-modded (in some fashion or another) PSP Slim model battery when we refer to a Pandora's battery. A Pandora's Battery is simply (in all cases) a battery that has been modified in one form or another that puts the PSP into "service mode." It has been revealed by Sony itself that the methods discussed here for creating a Pandora's battery are the same as Sony itself uses to reflash a "bricked" or failed PSP. The PSP Slim does not share the same PCB as the fat PSP batteries. The PSP Slims battery PCB must be hard-modded to accomplish a successful custom firmware installation (through various methods). The differences are visually apparent, and alter the methods used to load custom firmware drastically. See entry below for fat battery information.
Pandora's Battery (PSP Fat) - While it is generally out of the scope of this thread (unless it gets really big, or we have a reputable source and volunteer to assist with including information), I will cover the basics in the differences between fat and slim Pandora Batteries. A Pandora's Battery is simply (in all cases) a battery that has been modified in one form or another that puts the PSP into "service mode." It has been revealed by Sony itself that the methods discussed here for creating a Pandora's battery are the same as Sony itself uses to reflash a "bricked" or failed PSP. The PCB on the fat is different than the slim. On the fat, you can (through steps not covered in this thread, as of yet) flash a chip on the PCB to make a soft-modded Pandora's battery. You can also crack the battery open, and perform various hard-mods to accomplish the same thing. Soft-mod has the benefit of being easily reversible. Hard-mod can be reversed, but with a few caveats (also not covered here). I felt it was necessary to discuss this difference up front.
Here's the guides that I used:
Pandora's Battery Mod for Slim - http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=81424
It should be noted that while this is the way that I did the mod, it can be done another way. When you are looking at the PCB inside the battery, after you get it open, and are looking at the pin that you would normally remove, look for an embedded trace on the PCB that leads to that pin. Just before the pin, there's a resistor mounted on the PCB. Instead of removing the pin, you COULD just use a blade to cut the trace. Once the CFW is loaded, then you could use the old AthlonXP trick, and just re-run the trace with a graphite pencil, or use one of those circuit trace pens (forget what they are called, ATM). This method has also been confirmed to work successfully, and has the advantage of NOT having to buy a new battery when you are done.
Be careful to not detonate your battery in your hand, when attempting to open it. Such incidents can cause injury. There are also pre-modified batteries for sale, called Datel Tool batteries for PSP. They will not function as a normal battery would, and are modified just for loading CFW on the PSP. If you search ebay, you can find them.
Cat1yst said:...when modding the psp battery DO NOT crack it from the bottom...the two connection strips are there and can easily be cut from the knife (as i just learned the hard way)
when cutting use a new xacto blade and put the whole cutting area to effect...push the tip and a couple strokes should be sufficent..dont aim the blade down
The program that I used to format my memory stick was the "TOTAL Newbie Easy Installer - Pandoras menu." Hey...shut up. I didn't want to brick my new toy! This thing was great, and walked me through every step of the way to get the CFW loaded on my majic memory stick. It should be noted, that in it's latest incarnation, the Total newbie installer will load 3.7x m-33 on your PSP. you will have to also download Dark_Alex's CFW 3.90 m33-3 upgrade to load on your memory stick after the initial CFW load.
Total newbie easy installer can be found here: http://dl.qj.net/TOTALNewbi-easyInstaller-PSP-Tools-Utilities-(on-PC)/pg/12/fid/14749/catid/193
Dark_Alex's CFW 3.90 m33-3 can be found here: http://exophase.com/files/psp/390m33_3.rar
Here's the guide that I used to load my CFW on the PSP Slim - http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=538909
The Fat version has a slightly different method. The problem that I had was that no one had written a concise guide (that I could find) for the Slim, since all of this CFW/homebrew stuff started with the Fat version.
Here's the basic steps, top to bottom:
1.) Open up your PSP Slim battery, and either cut off the pin shown in the battery mod guide, or cut the trace to the pin (on the PCB). Optionally, find someone who has already modded their battery to spare yours, or buy a Datel TOOL battery from ebay or another source.
2.) Download Newbie Easy Installer Pandoras menu (which includes CFW 3.7x m33)
3.) Download Dark_Alex's CFW 3.90 m33-3 update (see notes at bottom of this section, 3.90m33-3 is no longer the most current version)
4.) Extract Total newbie easy installer to a Windows XP machine's hard drive, and run the "start" file. Follow the on-screen instructions to get the memory stick formatted. BE SURE TO READ EVERYTHING. The process takes all of 5 minutes to do, but do yourself a favor and read what it is telling you the first time.
5.) Follow the above listed guide to put CFW on your PSP.
6.) Format your memory stick after 3.7x m33 is successfully running on your PSP (format it using the system emnu inside the PSP).
7.) extract Dark_Alex's 3.90 m33-3 update to your memory stick (as per the instructions in the 3.90 m33-3 RAR file).
8.) Run 3.90 m33-3 update, which will also prompt you to locate or download (it will download for you, if you tell it to) the official Sony 3.90 software update.
9.) Double check that your PSP is running 3.90 m33-3
10.) Go find you some homebrew apps / emulators / etc!
NOTE TO ALL CURRENT AND NEW CFW INSTALLERS: The latest version of Dark_Alex's CFW load is 4.01 m33 update 2 (4.01 m33-2). Any current CFW load after 3.70 will grab the new CFW + Sony base .PBP FW load from the System Update menu. Please update your firmware to the new version.
Known working Programs for PSP CFW 3.90 m33-3:
Just a note, it has been asked what programs I am currently using. Since I am a high performance computing geek these days, I have needs that some may not. Here's the list of apps that I currently have running on my PSP (with supporting back end implementations on a home server, if it was required):
PiMPStreamer 1.0 (with back end application on server) http://www.pimpware.org/PiMPStreamerSetup-1.0.msi
PSP Tube (link includes guide) http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/552565
PSP Radio (link includes guide) http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/537953
PSP SSH (link includes guide) http://zx81.zx81.free.fr/serendipi.../156-PSPSSH-SSH2-Client-for-PSP-v1.0.1-!.html
PSP Maps (link includes guide) http://royale.zerezo.com/psp/
Portable VNC (link includes guide) http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=psp&thread.id=2802824
Converting PSX games for the PSP:
I have also successfully converted my PSX copy of Gran Turismo 2 (Simulation Disc) using ISOBuster and PopStationGUI. I have downloaded a lot of Genesis and SNES roms of games that I still have, but the console's that I own are broken and in a box.
ISO Buster: http://www.isobuster.com/
PopStationGUI 3 Beta: http://www.endlessparadigm.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=57 (no longer a direct link, but the download link is there in the first post)
PSX Games on PSP Short Guide:
1.) Download IsoBuster, and PopStation GUI 3 beta - install both.
2.) Insert PSX game into CD-ROM drive, and launch IsoBuster
3.) Click "Remind me later" on annoying IsoBuster screens
4.) When IsoBuster launches, you should see the structure of the disc ion the left-hand pane.
5) Right-Click on the "Session 1" line and select the line that says "Extract RAW Data (xxxx bytes/block) (*.bin, *.iso)"
6) A Browse Window will appear. It's asking you where to save the ISO. Pick a location that you'll remember.
7) IsoBuster will now give you a progress bar while the extraction is happening.
8.) When IsoBuster is done making the compressed image file at the location that you told it, go ahead and close IsoBuster.
9.) Launch PopStation GUI 3 beta
10.) Upon opening, you will see that the first dialogue box asks for the PSX image file. Hit the browse button and point it to the ISO or BIN file that was just created in the IsoBuster program.
11.) Once you give it the file, you should see all of the other previsouly blank dialogue boxes on the menu populate.
12.) You can customize load screens, etc for the game if you wish, under the "Customize EBOOT (+)" section, but I'm not going to cover that here.
13.) Hit the "GO" button at the bottom of PopStation GUI.
14.) PopStation GUI will dump the EBOOT.PBP file into the directory of your ISO/BIN file, and then ask you if you want to transfer it to you PSP.
15.) You can either allow PopStation to transfer the file for you over USB, by putting you PSP into USB mode, or you can tell it no, and place the file yourself.
16.) EBOOT.PBP files should go inside of: root>PSP>GAME>(grant your eboot a game folder, and place the .PBP file inside).
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