Unbrick/Downgrade/Install CF on your PSP with Pandora Unbricker - PSP Hacks

Spartan 117 · #1 08-23-2007, 04:50 PM

OK, I will write this tut, I intentionally bricked my M33 PSP to test this (it also has a UP Mod Chip just in case it didn't work) but it did work :)

For those new to the PSP hacking scene, this little app can restore your PSP to a limited version of Firmware 1.50 (Think of Firmwares as Operating Systems of the PSP much like PC has Windows, like Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista and such), but it will still allow you to update to any OE, M33 Custom Firmwares and such

For those that do have a Custom FM that got bricked, and cannot get into the Recovery Menu, then this little App of Joy is for you, no need to throw your PSP in anger, use it as a expensive paper weight and such

*This can be also used as a universal downgrader :) *

Before you start any of this, put the msinst, mspformat, folders in you C Drive (HDD) where you see Program Files, WINDOWS, folders and such, you will need to put those right there for the upcoming command prompts you will need to use

Ok, here are the basics of what you will need in order for this to work

1.) You will need a Spare PSP Battery (use Official Sony PSP Battery, works the best), this is needed because according to the Read-ME file, its used to turn it into the "Magic Battery", but you can use your own, *BUT*, make sure you back up the files when you create it to turn it back into a normal battery

2.) You will need a spare Memory Stick Pro Duo as the regualr Memory Stick Duo (like the 32 MB) will not work, if you have only one, back everything up from it because you will need to format the Memory Stick and that wipes everything from the Memory Stick, or if you do have a spare one, then its best to have a 256 or above, but no larger than a 4 gig Memory Stick

3A.) You will need another PSP that is working that has FM 1.50 or any Custom FM, if you do not have a Spare working PSP, then ask a buddy, you will need this Spare PSP with those FM mentioned because you will need to run the "Installer" Eboot (remember, only 1.50 and any Custom FM will only Boot Eboots that are not from Sony, like you would with Homebrew) and if it is a Custom FM, make sure you switch it to the 1.50 kernel in the Recovery Menu

3B.) If you do not have access to a working 1.50 PSP/Custom Firmware PSP, then scroll the the bottom of this tut to see the instructions for it :)

*NOTE* If you have a fat PSP with 3.71M33, make sure to have the 1.50 plugin first before you set the kernel to 1.50 in the Recovery Menu

****Installation and Usage Instructions****

OK, I will now go through he Installation Instructions and will try and be clear as possible, its really easy though, no big terms ;)

1.) First, Connect the working 1.50/Custom Fm PSP under the 1.50 Kernel to the Computer Via USB Cable

2.) *IMPORTANT* if you have only 1 Memory Stick Pro Duo (remember, only Memory Stick Pro Duos will work for this) then back everything up as the reason, you will need to format it and thus, will wipe out everything from your Memory Stick, if you have a spare 256 and above, then Format it in the PSP with the PSP's Format Utility (Settings>System Settings>Format Memory Stick) and Format the Memory Stick because this Memory Stick you are about to use will be the "Magic Memory Stick"

3.) When you Finish Formating the Memory Stick inside the PSP, go to the USb Connection in the PSP to connect the PSP to the Computer

4.) Ok, this gets a little difficult here, I will do my best to say it easy, ok now that your PSP is connected to your Computer, In Windows, select Start>Run>CMD and then open the Command Prompt

5.) Once you have Command Prompt open, then go to "MY Computer" in the Start Menu and look at what drive your PSP is under, for Example, my PSP is known as Removable Drive J: in my computer, so it can be different on any computer, so I will use J for this tut

6.) Now that you got your PSP drive location, go to the Command Prompt, and Type this Exactly like I do, but I will be using my drive letter for this tut, so my PSP drive is J, but remember to put the drive number of your PSP instead of J, and when you type the command in the Command Prompt, make sure to have a space between mspformat and your drive letter, and then when you open the Command Prompt, you should see sumthing similar to this depending what your computer name is and such

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\Spartan 117>

before you type in the command below, type this first

Code:

cd C:\

then this command

Code:

cd mspformat

then this command

Code:

mspformat.exe J

7.) Now once you hit enter after typing that command, you will get this prompt or something similar

Code:

C:\mspformat>mspformat.exe J
You are about to format the drive J.
All data will be lost. Do you want to continue? [Y]

8.) Type Y for yes

9.) Then you should get a prompt similar to this

Code:

Drive successfully formatted, and partition moved.

10.) After Formating your Memory Stick, then disconnect USB Mode in the PSP and once you do that, take the Memory Stick out and reinsert it into the PSP (*Note* all this still applies to a good working 1.50 PSP or Custom FM PSP) and after you reinsert the Memory Stick, go to USB Mode once more to connect to the Computer

11.) On your PSP, make sure you have the PSP folder and inside that Folder, you have GAME and GAME150 (GAME150 if you are using a CF PSP), if they are not there, then make them

12.) Once you make them, then copy the folders Battery and Battery% in the GAME folder if you are using a 1.50 PSP, or the GAME150 if you are using a Custom FM (this still applies to the working PSP you are using to generate this files needed), and after all the file transfers, exit USB Mode

13.) This is really the important part, now choose which battery you will using as the "Magic battery" and insert that battery you will be using for the Magic Battery

14.) Once you choose the Magic Battery you are using, then make sure you have those folders (Battery, Battery%) in their correct places, then exit USB Mode and go the the GAME Icon on the XMB of the working PSP, and run the "Pandora's Battery Creator" Eboot file like you would with any other Homebrew game, app and such in the PSP

15.) ***OPTIONAL - But Very Important *** within the app, Press Triangle to back up the contents of your battery's flash into a file on you memory stick. The program will automatically exit. Run "Pandora's Battery Creator" one more time. *Note:* This step is REQUIRED if you want to make that Magic Battery back to a normal battery, its optional if you want to keep that battery as a Magic Battery for good, just label it so you won't confuse it with your normal PSP batteries

16.) After you do that above optional step, then run "Pandora's Battery Creator" again, but this time, press X to make your Battery into a Magic Battery, after that, the program will exit again for you

17.) Go to USB Mode again

18.) Download and Copy the Original FM 1.50 Update (it is found in the download section of this site) and put it in the Root of the Memory Stick, and rename it to UPDATE.PBP and make sure its the Eboot file, not in a folder, just the Update itself on the Root (Root means its the top most part of your PSP where you see the PSP Folder)

19.) After that, then get the folder called "Installer" and "Installer%" and put them according to what FM you got (for FM 1.50, put them in the GAME folder, for Custom FM, put them in the GAME150 folder)

20.) After you put those folders in the correct places, then exit USB Mode

21.) Once out of USB Mode, then go to your GAME Icon of your PSP XMB and run the "Pandora's Battery Firm. Installer" like you do with regualr Homebrew and such

22.) Once in the app, press X to unpack the 1.50 firmware files into their correct places. The program will exit for you. If this step fails, go back into USB mode and rename "UPDATE.PBP" to just "UPDATE", then try again.

23.) Once finished with the above step, then go back to USB Mode and look at your Memory Stick Root, you should see the UPDATE.PBP/UPDATE (this applies to whichever way you named the update file) and the PSP folder, and now you should see another file called "msipl.bin"

24.) Once in USB Mode, copy "msipl.bin" into the folder called "msinst" that was extracted from the ZIP file that you downloaded

25.) Go back to the Command Prompt and then type the location of where you folder called msinst.bin is located

26.) After that, type this (I will be using my PSP drive in this example), and remember to put the drive number of your PSP and have space between msinst, your drive letter and msipl.bin, it should look something like this, and once again, you will need to get to that other folder needed in the next step, type this command to get there

Code:

cd C:\

then

Code:

cd msinst

then finally, this one

Code:

msinst J msipl.bin

27.) You should see a similar prompt like this

Code:

C:\msinst>msinst J msipl.bin
PSP MS IPL Installer
Load IPL code msipl.bin
241664 bytes(59 block) readed
 
Target DRIVE is 7
Check partation Sector
boot status        0x80
start head         0x05
start sec/cyl    0x0004
partation type     0x06
last head          0x0F
last sec/cyl     0xB7E0
abs sector   0x00000810
ttl sector   0x000767F0
signature        0xAA55
Check BPB Sector
signature        AA55
Check free reserved sector:OK
Write ABS Sector 0x10 to 0x1E7
Are You Sure ?[Y]

28.) type in Y and press enter

29.)you should now see a prompt like this

Code:

Write MS BOOT COD

30.) that prompt above means you successfully created a Magic Memory Stick :)

31.)Now comes the easy part, its time to Unbrick your PSP :mrgreenthumbsup:

32.) Now make sure you have the 1.50 Update renamed to UPDATE.PBP just like mentioned earlier in the Root of the "Magic Memory Stick"

33.) Make sure the "Magic Memory Stick" is inserted into the bricked PSP

34.) Insert the "Magic Battery" into your bricked PSP, and you should see all the wifi, power lights and such turn on shortly and a Menu appears similar to the Recovery Menu of a Custom FM

35.) After that, press X and it should search for your Update you put in the Root, if it does, then you will get to another menu

36.) once in that menu, press X to begin reflashing the 1.50 Update to your bricked PSP

37.) Wait and once it is finished, WOOOOOT, you now have unbricked your PSP, *BUT*, read the below statement from the Read-ME file

38.) Well if you had only 1 Memory Stick Pro Duo, then you can simply format it with the PSP's Format utility and it will be used as a normal Memory Stick Pro Duo and transfer all your files you backed up earlier to their right locations, or if it is a spare Memory Stick Pro Duo, then put it away for future uses so you won't have to go through all of this to make a"Magic Memory Stick", the same applies if you have a spare battery that you want to leave it as a "Magic Battery", I did that, I have a spare Memory Stick Pro Duo and a spare PSP Battery and I left them as "Magic Battery" and "Magic Memory Stick Pro Duo" for future use, I would suggest the same if you have spare of these items, and make sure to label them apart from your regular Memory Stick and PSP Battery beacuse "Magic Memory Stick Pro Duo" and "Magic Battery" will not work on a regular PSP, they will work as unbrickers, no matter what you do, if you have one, its important to back you your battery information if you want to use that battery as a regular battery again :)

39.) Once again, thanx to those hard working PSP hackers that make all of this possible :)

Code:

NOTES AND RESTRICTIONS
- The firmware in the Memory Stick is not a full 1.50, but a minimal
  subset. Therefore, not all applications (such as flashers, or
  recovery apps) will load.
- Only Memory Stick Pro Duo are compatible. Memory Stick Duo
  (e.g. 32MB sticks) are not supported.
- The IDStorage cannot be totally restored, as there is no known way
  to regenerate it properly.
- It is strongly RECOMMENDED to make a flash dump of the PSP before
  any downgrading operation.
- There might be a BSOD at the end of the downgrade. This is normal,
  and happens on the standard downgraders.
- All hardware revisions known at this day are supported. 
- This release contains no Sony-copyrighted material.  All required
  Sony data is generated from the v1.50 update files.

OH YEAH!!

it seems another member of the forums found this neat tut, its for those that don't have have a working 1.50 PSP/Custom Firmware PSP :)

give props to richluk for the info :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by richluk

Quote:

Ok, so you want to unbrick or downgrade your PSP but don't have a PSP capable of running homebrew apps. No problem! In this tutorial I will show you how to modify the battery's hardware to make it activate service mode.

This is our victim . Please note that while this concept may work on non-Sony batteries, only official batteries are guaranteed to have the same internals, so we recommend using one.

STEP 1:

The first thing you need to do is obviously crack open the battery. Surprisingly, the battery isn't very hard to get in to. In this picture you can see that I'm just using a guitar pick to slide in through an edge and slide around the perimeter of the battery to seperate the two halves.

STEP 2:

Next, we need to locate a certain chip. The chip has the model number S93C56 printed on it. We are going to need to desolder pin 5 and lift it off of the board. Here is a magnified view of the board, which shows where the chip is and which pin needs to be lifted.

STEP 3:

EDIT: If you are not confident in your soldering skills, have a less than steady hand or have a larger-than-optimal sized tip, please desolder the cell pack from the battery first. If you make contact between pins 5 and 6 then you will short ground to +3.6VDC! Not good! When desoldering the cell, only keep the iron on long enough to melt the solder. If you can, use a higher wattage iron so that the tip will be hotter, but you won't transfer as much heat to the cell pack. Remember that heat + Li-Ion battery = large explosion (t3h sux0r5, unless you get in on video. Twisted Evil Seriously though, this operation is not for the faint hearted, and should definitely not be your first soldering experience. I recommend trying your hand on lifting the pins on an N64 CPU chip. Surely you have a couple killed N64 mobos laying around. Razz)

Now is actually desoldering the pin. There are a few ways you could do this, but I think my method is the best because its less likely to damage components near by. Use an Xacto knife with a sharp tip and try to put it underneath the pin. Get somebody to hold a soldering iron (WITH A VERY FINE CONICAL TIP!) on the pin. When the solder melts you can pop the pin up with the knife. Be sure not to hold the iron on the board too long to avoid the lithium battery from getting too hot and exploding. When your done it will look something like this .

STEP 4:

Finally, close the battery's casing. Use some Krazy Glue to keep it closed, or just use electrical tape around the edges like I did. I don't actually recommend the electrical tape as it makes the battery very snug in the compartment and it takes a bit of force to get it out. You can use the battery just like a regular Pandora's battery. As for getting the Memory Stick files, I can tell you that they are out there and you can find them after a bit of Googling. However, I can't tell you exactly where to find them as they contain copyrighted Sony code, and sharing them is illegal.

How does this work?

The pin that we just lifted was actually the ground pin of the EEPROM. Removing this pin effectively shuts off the EEPROM. When the microcontroller inside the battery tries to read the EEPROM, it will think the EEPROM contains all 1s (in binary). This is because of the pull-up resistors on the data lines. So the microcontroller returns a serial number of 0xFFFFFFFF to the PSP, which then goes into service mode.

Thank you for reading this, and if you have any questions, make sure to post and I'll try to help you!

BY: iam7805

You can use an Easy installer to create mem stick but format it first using mpsformat

wg · #2 08-23-2007, 04:59 PM

Nice ;)
+30cm

For the first time i read the orginal readme, i didn't understand why you need 2 psp's and etc...
Then i understood that needs a system that can get to the battery ;)

I must be lucky, or im just a victim of this brick of m33-4 :/
I added this update for my self also, but i didn't get a brick, hope that won't be something like After-Brick ;)
But now, no worries, unbricker...
Hey, lets buy bricked PSP's on ebay.com!
They are cheap and they can be unbricked ;)

And good thing that you said to backup the battery...
Battery after unbrick is unusable...

dydo · #3 08-23-2007, 05:00 PM

good tut

pirata nervo · #4 08-23-2007, 05:03 PM

yeh nice tut :mrgreenthumbsup:

Spartan 117 · #5 08-23-2007, 05:04 PM

thanx, I tried it and it works, took me a while to figure it and, and while I was doing ti, I wrote this tut to help ppl out :)

DSpider · #6 08-23-2007, 05:05 PM

Lots of inconsistencies... The noobs might find it hard to understand.

5.) Once you have Command Prompt open, then go to MY Computer and look at what drive your PSp is under, for Example, my my PSP is known as Removable Drive J:, so it can be different on any computer, so I will X for this tut

mspformat J <--- ? 1

7.) Now once you hit enter after typing that command, you will get this prompt or something similar

>>> C:\psp\pandora\mspformat>mspformat.exe O <--- ? 2
>>> You are about to format the drive O.
>>> All data will be lost. Do you want to continue? [Y]

You need to look it over... But nice job nonetheless. :mrgreenthumbsup:

Spartan 117 · #7 08-23-2007, 05:06 PM

thanx, I was in a hurry :mrgreenthumbsup:

Gee19 · #8 08-23-2007, 05:31 PM

I love you.

grant · #9 08-23-2007, 05:32 PM

nice tut... anyway how do you turn your magic battery back to normal

wg · #10 08-23-2007, 05:38 PM

Simply, run the P. Battery Changer again ;)

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