Unable to Upgrade

[roninbrian]

Hello all. I have a noob question and was wondering if anyone could answer it for me. I bought a 2nd hand PSP which has version 3.10 on it. I went to upgrade to version 3.71 and got an error message so I called Sony about it. They told me that the error message meant that the system has been hacked at some point in the past and that there was nothing they could do and that I would never be able to upgrade.

My question is this: will there be anything that I can not do with the system because of this? Will there be any games that I will be unable to play? I tried reseting the system to factory specs and it did not do anything.

Thanks in advance,

roninbrian

[ilovejedd]

My question is this: will there be anything that I can not do with the system because of this? Will there be any games that I will be unable to play? I tried reseting the system to factory specs and it did not do anything.

Yes to both questions. There are a couple of new features in newer firmware so obviously you won't have that. Some new games require newer firmware in order to run, too.

You can downgrade your PSP to 1.50 using either Pandora or an unpatched copy of Lumines. After you've downgraded to 1.50, you can then install custom firmware. From there, you can either keep using custom firmware or install the official 3.71 firmware. Okay, that was a bit oversimplified but when you've got the necessary tools, then just inquire again later.

Using a modified version of Pandora (Dark_AleX's Despertar Cementerio v3), it is also possible to install official 3.71 firmware or custom firmware 3.71 M33-2 directly. I believe this would be the best and easiest route provided you can get your hands on or create the battery. I can supply you with the files for both regular Pandora or Despertar Cementerio should you need them. Just PM me or something.

I'd suggest you read the following guides:
http://www.pspmod.com/forums/psp-mis...-basics-q.html
http://www.pspmod.com/forums/psp-har...ictionary.html
http://www.pspmod.com/forums/psp-har...ide-noobs.html
http://www.pspmod.com/forums/psp-har...ew-method.html

Basically, if you only need to play UMD games you buy and do Sony-sanctioned things on your PSP, you can just go with official firmware and save yourself further research in the future.

If homebrew has whetted your appetite, then please, do read the Guides' section and come back to post some questions if you need further help or clarification.