what are the pros/cons of upgrading from 3.40 OE-A?

[Zaenos]

Hello. I'm currently using custom firmware 3.40 OE-A and am wondering if I should upgrade or not. The features most important to me are music playing, UMDs, PSP game ISOs, and all those wonderful emulators (SNES, GBA, PSX, etc.). Is there anything I could benefit from by upgrading to a higher custom firmware with these priorities? and if so, what would be the best firmware to go to? I don't have a Pandora's battery, so the less brick-risky/'recover-mode included' versions would also be nice. Thank you!

[<s^3>n3o]

1. as of 3.52 the no-UMD feature works on about 99% of games with the sony iso loader.

2. with the CXMB plugin you can change custom themes as easily as .ptf themes with no flashing, meaning much less risk of bricking when changing themes and much faster. only on 3.71 and 3.90.

3. if your idstorage file was corrupted due to the downgrading process the 3.71 update repairs it before installation.

4. i don't remember when it was added, but now there is a vsh menu in the xmb accessed by pressing select, although i don't ever use it, some like it.

5. making backup copies of umd's is now super easy, you can select the umd drive to be what is accessed from the usb mode in the xmb instead of the memory stick. just drag and drop from there. not sure when exactly that was added either.

6. all around bug fixes.

i'm sure there are more features i'm missing, that's all i can think of right now. i am using 3.90-3 right now and i love it.

[Zaenos]

Sounds nice, thank you! I guess what I should be asking is, are there any reasons not to upgrade to 3.90-3?

[<s^3>n3o]

actually, there's an answer to that. it's an extremely minor bug, but you can't use cintro videos. the only reason i know that is because a friend at work was wanting me to put a halo 3 cintro on his while i upgraded it for him. while researching it i found out they no longer work. that should be fixed on the next version though, and is no reason not to upgrade imo.

[Zaenos]

That's no big deal here. Thanks for informing me. I'm on my way, then, to upgrade! I'm waiting for my battery to finish charging. As I understand it I have to go from where I am now to to 3.52 M33-4 first and then to 3.90 M33-3? Any installation pitfalls to watch out for? Haha, sorry for all the questions; you're a big help. ^__^

[<s^3>n3o]

Originally Posted by Zaenos

That's no big deal here. Thanks for informing me. I'm on my way, then, to upgrade! I'm waiting for my battery to finish charging. As I understand it I have to go from where I am now to to 3.52 M33-4 first and then to 3.90 M33-3? Any installation pitfalls to watch out for? Haha, sorry for all the questions; you're a big help. ^__^

if you have a corrupt idstorage you might want to upgrade to 3.52-4, then to 3.71, and then 3.90-3. which if you downgraded it to mod it and you have a ta-82 or ta-86 mobo, then it is corrupted. i don't know if the 3.90 update does the repair or not, so if you need it repaired i would make sure and do the 3.71 update as well.

[babyboi828]

there is NO way to fully recover your idstorage because parts of it are UNIQUE to your psp. simple solution: ALWAYS HAVE A NAND BACKUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cant stress that enough ppl! i coruppted mine and thought all hope was lost until i found mine i had saved and forgotten about but if you do have a corupt idstorage however i think there is a way to restore most functionality as homebrew and internet(i think) if u screw up but UMD's will never work again on you psp wit corrupt idstorage.

But anyways is 3.90-3 the best cfw? i was jus wondering the diff between OE and M33? i really like 3.90-3 well i wont be downgrading or ne thing anytime soon since my psp is nothing more than a mp3 player now cause the backlight ribbon is screwed nooooooooo

btw does anyone have a harmodded pan batt which power always stays at 100% (even if its almost dead) dont know if its supposed to be like that or if its cause i cut the wrong pin when i made it lol

[Zaenos]

Okay... wth... I'm trying to install 3.52 M33, full batery, 1.5 kernel set, and when selecting the update from the Game menu the game start screen goes and *poof!* error pops up saying

"The game could not be started.
(DADADADA)"

DA... Dark Alex? What does this mean? @__@

EDIT: Oop! I figured it out! Just about made a fool of myself there, eh? I was trying to run the official updater that comes with the UMD, it seems. Good ol DA was just stopping me from making that mistake. ^^;;

[<s^3>n3o]

Originally Posted by babyboi828

there is NO way to fully recover your idstorage because parts of it are UNIQUE to your psp. simple solution: ALWAYS HAVE A NAND BACKUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cant stress that enough ppl! i coruppted mine and thought all hope was lost until i found mine i had saved and forgotten about but if you do have a corupt idstorage however i think there is a way to restore most functionality as homebrew and internet(i think) if u screw up but UMD's will never work again on you psp wit corrupt idstorage.

But anyways is 3.90-3 the best cfw? i was jus wondering the diff between OE and M33? i really like 3.90-3 well i wont be downgrading or ne thing anytime soon since my psp is nothing more than a mp3 player now cause the backlight ribbon is screwed nooooooooo

btw does anyone have a harmodded pan batt which power always stays at 100% (even if its almost dead) dont know if its supposed to be like that or if its cause i cut the wrong pin when i made it lol

your right, once it is actually corrupted it is unrecoverable. during the downgrading process however part of the idstorage HAS to be "patched" (at least it used to before pandora, thanks again guys) in order to downgrade the psp. altering it caused a few bugs though, the most common of which was the "brightness bug" where the psp switches the brightness order when running homebrew from 1-2-3 to 3-2-1, so you always had to readjust the brightness level when running homebrew. the 3.71 update detects whether or not your idstorage has these bugs and fixes them before you update. this in no way means that it can recover a completely corrupted idstorage, it simply means that it can correct the errors caused by the downgrader.

EDIT: i forgot to mention that this only happens on TA-82/TA-86 mobo's. the ones below that don't need the patch to downgrade.

[Zaenos]

Okay, everything's up and running fine now! I am officially 3.90M33-3! Thank you very much, again!