Psp Questions

[Ravnos]

I just got some money so I was thinking of grabbing a PSP. I want to know a few things, though. Have the new (TA-082 or TA-086) PSPs been cracked yet to run alternate firmwares like DarkAlex's? I heard only the older ones can do that, so I'm wondering if that's changed recently. If I need an older one, is there a way to find out what verson of PSP is in the box without opening it? (Since probably few stores will let me do that before I buy one...) Also, to install that firmware, will I need to buy any specific game or anything like that?

Also, is there a good site that's mostly howtos and documentation for such things? Like a wiki site or anything like that?

 

[CUPC4KES]

not sure about the ta-082 psp's bein cracked but ive downgraded about 12 psp's and none had the ta-082 boards in, in relation to the dark_alex custom firmware all you need is a psp that isnt over 2.8 firmware, with any firmware under that there is a programme that downgrades 2.71 to 1.5 (if you have a firmware under 2.71 yoou need to upgrade to 2.71), then upgrade with the custom firmware and thats it, games are coming through now though that arent working with devhook 0.46 <_<

edit: good sites to go to:

www.psp-hacks.com
www.maxconsole.net

 

[slaanesh]

A good way of determinining whether you have a board which can be downgraded to the older BIOS (say v1.50) is to use the following guide.

Remember do not try and downgrade if you don't have the right motherboard - apparently you end up with this nice brick like thing.

 

[Ravnos]

I was actually hoping for a way to find out without opening the box. I don't think they're going to let me do that in the store and I don't want to wind up with a PSP that I can't do everything with.

 

[slaanesh]

Yeah, well I had the same problem. They wouldn't let me open the box to have a look to see if it's the right motherboard.
So I thought the best solution would be to find a PSP with the earliest BIOS which would hopefully mean it has an earlier motherboard - this may not guarantee success but it would give me a very good chance.
Here's an article which describes which BIOS the PSP has based on the labelling on the PSP box. Very handy. I managed to find one that had "I" written on the side which turned out to be a 2.6 BIOS and the "good, non-TA-082/086" motherboard (using the inspection method from the previous article I posted).
I happily upgraded to 2.71 and then down to 1.50.

EDIT: The only other problem is dead pixels. PSPs seem to be notoriously bad with stuck or dead pixels and Sony have a policy insisting that a few dead pixels are not considered a defect.
So if you can find a shop that will let you open it, consider this an extra bonus and carefully look for dead pixels. They are mostly visible on black screens. If you do find once with dead pixels, there is a movie that you can download which flashes R, G, B, white and black on the screen in an attempt to fix the issue. You need to run this for hours/days. I guess you could try this on any LCD screen with dead pixels.

 

[Ravnos]

Argh. I went looking last night and none of the boxes even have the info on them that tells you what firmware you're looking for. A TA-082 wouldn't have been too bad if I could find one with 2.71, but I can't even do that without opening the box and turning it on, which no place will let me do.

I think I'm just going to say fuck it to the whole PSP thing. Too much of a pain in the ass to get one that I can actually do anything with, and even if I find one it's a pain in the ass to actually do stuff.

 

[soup_nazi]

If you want a guaranteed firmware you could always buy from Success-HK. They've got a 2.5 (Europe Version) for $220. Alternatively if you really want to be able to play US UMD's you can buy a 1.52 (US Version) for $240.

Either way there's a slight premium, but at least you know you'll get the right thing for sure . I've bought from them before (4 GB Mem stick) and had a pleasant experience. My parcel took 3 days to get to me (I'm in the UK though).

As for the 1.5/Custom Firmware experience I can only recommend it, the PSP does some things very well and I tend to use it more than my GP2X. Also for homebrew I'd recommend DCEmu, especially if you're not into ISO's .

 

[Ravnos]

$240? Ouch. But judging from the prices I've seen on eBay, I might be just as well off. There's a couple of leads around town I'm going to look into first but if they don't pan out I might just go with this one. Thanks soup_nazi.

 

[slaanesh]

As for the 1.5/Custom Firmware experience I can only recommend it, the PSP does some things very well and I tend to use it more than my GP2X. Also for homebrew I'd recommend DCEmu, especially if you're not into ISO's .

I would tend to agree, I actually don't mind the controller on the PSP and I like the instant-on and the "suspend" feature. You can switch off a game and resume it again. This seems to work on the CPS emulators I play and is quite a handy feature. In fact switching on and playing straight away is kind of nice and is a highly desirable function from my point of view

 

[Fishbong]

Why would anyone buy a PSP now? When i bought mine, it wasn´t even out here and i thought there would be lots of cool games but nowadays i wouldn´t buy one for half the price.

 

[Amon_Re]

Why would anyone buy a PSP now? When i bought mine, it wasn´t even out here and i thought there would be lots of cool games but nowadays i wouldn´t buy one for half the price.

I would, if it welcomed homebrew *sigh*

 

[Ravnos]

Why would anyone buy a PSP now? When i bought mine, it wasn´t even out here and i thought there would be lots of cool games but nowadays i wouldn´t buy one for half the price.

Looking to unload it at a reasonable price?

 

[Fishbong]

Sorry, you´re not from Europe, are you? Its a fine device otherwise, no death pixels, 1.5 FW and old mainboard. If anyone wants it + Lumines and a 1GB memorystick, i´d want about 170 € for it.

 

[Steve-O]

I dont see why people are still downgrading / using 1.5 ... You want Dark Alex's 2.71 SE C Custom firmware!!!

For more PSP Info you might want ot try asking here -

http://forums.maxconsole.net/forumdisplay.php?f=80


Plus it isnt all crap for TA-082 owners you can still do this -

Your best bet is updating to 2.71 and using HEN-D and Devhook. You're on your own for finding the 2.71 update, but make absolutely sure that you do not update any further than 2.71 as there is no downgrader for anything newer.

both of the other files you need are available at http://www.dark-alex.org

you will want:

Devhook launcher port to 2.71 (now with support of 2.71 flash)

and

Homebrew enabler for 2.71 (Revision D)

Once you have HEN-D installed check out the devhook guide here for more information:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=35987

With that above method you should be able to boot devhook up and emulate 1.5 firmware

 

[Goity]

I dont see why people are still downgrading / using 1.5 ... You want Dark Alex's 2.71 SE C Custom firmware!!!

For more PSP Info you might want ot try asking here -

http://forums.maxconsole.net/forumdisplay.php?f=80


Plus it isnt all crap for TA-082 owners you can still do this -

Your best bet is updating to 2.71 and using HEN-D and Devhook. You're on your own for finding the 2.71 update, but make absolutely sure that you do not update any further than 2.71 as there is no downgrader for anything newer.

both of the other files you need are available at http://www.dark-alex.org

you will want:

Devhook launcher port to 2.71 (now with support of 2.71 flash)

and

Homebrew enabler for 2.71 (Revision D)

Once you have HEN-D installed check out the devhook guide here for more information:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=35987

With that above method you should be able to boot devhook up and emulate 1.5 firmware

Regarding SE, my memstick is probably fake (I got it on ebay) but it works fine. Will it bugger up SE?

 

[Ravnos]

I dont see why people are still downgrading / using 1.5 ... You want Dark Alex's 2.71 SE C Custom firmware!!!

For more PSP Info you might want ot try asking here -

http://forums.maxconsole.net/forumdisplay.php?f=80


Plus it isnt all crap for TA-082 owners you can still do this -

Your best bet is updating to 2.71 and using HEN-D and Devhook. You're on your own for finding the 2.71 update, but make absolutely sure that you do not update any further than 2.71 as there is no downgrader for anything newer.

both of the other files you need are available at http://www.dark-alex.org

you will want:

Devhook launcher port to 2.71 (now with support of 2.71 flash)

and

Homebrew enabler for 2.71 (Revision D)

Once you have HEN-D installed check out the devhook guide here for more information:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=35987

With that above method you should be able to boot devhook up and emulate 1.5 firmware

That's all well and good, but I have no way of guaranteeing that the TA-082 PSP I buy will have 2.71 firmware anymore. None of the boxes I've seen have the firmware letter on them and no place will let me open up the box before I buy it to turn it on and check. Since I'm probably going to have to look to Hong Kong anyway, I may as well try to get a TA-079 or 081 mobo just to be sure.

 

[Steve-O]

As long as its below 2.71 its ok, but its better if its not one of them TA-082 boards...

 

[DaveC]

As for the 1.5/Custom Firmware experience I can only recommend it, the PSP does some things very well and I tend to use it more than my GP2X. Also for homebrew I'd recommend DCEmu, especially if you're not into ISO's .

I would tend to agree, I actually don't mind the controller on the PSP and I like the instant-on and the "suspend" feature. You can switch off a game and resume it again. This seems to work on the CPS emulators I play and is quite a handy feature. In fact switching on and playing straight away is kind of nice and is a highly desirable function from my point of view

That is cool but comes at a price. It sucks the batteries down real fast unless you constantly charge the thing. If you use and charge alot it is fine. If you are the type that may let it sit for a week or so you will be greeted with a low battery. I kind of like devices that are truly off when you shut them off. This way the batteries are still full when you go to play after awhile. I guess it depends on the user.

 

[Steve-O]

I dont see why people are still downgrading / using 1.5 ... You want Dark Alex's 2.71 SE C Custom firmware!!!

For more PSP Info you might want ot try asking here -

http://forums.maxconsole.net/forumdisplay.php?f=80


Plus it isnt all crap for TA-082 owners you can still do this -

Your best bet is updating to 2.71 and using HEN-D and Devhook. You're on your own for finding the 2.71 update, but make absolutely sure that you do not update any further than 2.71 as there is no downgrader for anything newer.

both of the other files you need are available at http://www.dark-alex.org

you will want:

Devhook launcher port to 2.71 (now with support of 2.71 flash)

and

Homebrew enabler for 2.71 (Revision D)

Once you have HEN-D installed check out the devhook guide here for more information:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=35987

With that above method you should be able to boot devhook up and emulate 1.5 firmware

Regarding SE, my memstick is probably fake (I got it on ebay) but it works fine. Will it bugger up SE?

Should be fine I just used this installer -

http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=36823

Use that as long as your PSP isnt a TA-082 thing and make sure your running 1.5 and have a full battery...

Gives all the featuers of 2.71 plus the Homebrew capabilities of 1.5 and the ability to boot ISO's / CSO;s from game menu and the ability to load PRX Plugins from the memory card and the ability to play 2.81 UMDs etc etc

Plus if anything fooks up just hold R while booting to get in the recovery menu to repair your bricked PSP!!! (When I say bricked I mean bricked within reason... Not if you have completely wiped out the Flash and deleted the recovery tool from flash sort of bricking )

 

[Goity]

I dont see why people are still downgrading / using 1.5 ... You want Dark Alex's 2.71 SE C Custom firmware!!!

For more PSP Info you might want ot try asking here -

http://forums.maxconsole.net/forumdisplay.php?f=80


Plus it isnt all crap for TA-082 owners you can still do this -

Your best bet is updating to 2.71 and using HEN-D and Devhook. You're on your own for finding the 2.71 update, but make absolutely sure that you do not update any further than 2.71 as there is no downgrader for anything newer.

both of the other files you need are available at http://www.dark-alex.org

you will want:

Devhook launcher port to 2.71 (now with support of 2.71 flash)

and

Homebrew enabler for 2.71 (Revision D)

Once you have HEN-D installed check out the devhook guide here for more information:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=35987

With that above method you should be able to boot devhook up and emulate 1.5 firmware

Regarding SE, my memstick is probably fake (I got it on ebay) but it works fine. Will it bugger up SE?

Should be fine I just used this installer -

http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=36823

Use that as long as your PSP isnt a TA-082 thing and make sure your running 1.5 and have a full battery...

Gives all the featuers of 2.71 plus the Homebrew capabilities of 1.5 and the ability to boot ISO's / CSO;s from game menu and the ability to load PRX Plugins from the memory card and the ability to play 2.81 UMDs etc etc

Plus if anything fooks up just hold R while booting to get in the recovery menu to repair your bricked PSP!!! (When I say bricked I mean bricked within reason... Not if you have completely wiped out the Flash and deleted the recovery tool from flash sort of bricking )

So I just let the installer put the stuff on memstick then click 2.71 firmware install?