PSP Slim Question

[iclutcha]

Hello, sorry I am a noob so I do not know too much about modding a PSP. I saw that eb is having a sale on the slim so i was wondering if i was to buy that how would i mod it and what version of firmware should i use??

Also from reading the forum a pandora battery is mentioned a lot... can anyone please explain to me what this battery is and what it does? Thanks in advance.

[HMDspawn219]

The only way to downgrade a slim is with pandora. A pandora battery just puts the PSP in service mode so you can install custom firmware on it with a magic memory stick. I made my pandora with the slim battery.Ifyou need some help feel free to ask,also there are a lot of good tutorials on this site to help you out

[butters]

iclutcha,

I'm not sure where the name came from but basically a P-Battery or (Pandora Battery) is a stock PSP battery slim of Phat that has been opened up to reveal it's circuitry. Once inside you have to do a alteration by cutting one connection and soldering another. Once put back together the Pandora Battery has just the right amount of power output to put the PSP in service mode. From there you use the application on the memory stick or "magic" memory stick to alter your PSP from stock to homebrew capable.

Also, the Pandora Battery and the program on the memory stick can help a PSP owner out when they crash or "brick" their PSP.

Hope this helps.

Oh and take HMDspawn219 advice. There is a boat load of info here in this forum alone to take you step by step through the process.

James

[Tets]

It actually has nothing at all to do with the power output, although you've got the basic idea down.

The semi-technical explanation is as follows, if anyone is interested: Hard-modding the PSP battery normally works by severing the ground pin on the EEPROM chip. Since the EEPROM can no longer be read, the PSP instead sees a bunch of 1's in binary coming from the data lines, working out to a serial number of 0xFFFFFFFF as far as it's concerned. That is the signal to direct the boot process to the IPL on the memory stick instead of the PSP's internal flash memory.

There's also a hardware hack that works by soldering a wire between two contacts on the PCB (but I'm not sure how that one works) and the software method for people who already have a homebrew-capable PSP which simply writes a new serial to the EEPROM.

[iclutcha]

Thank you guys, that information is very helpful.

I have thought of a couple more questions. If I make a pandora battery will I be able to use it to play games, or is it just for installing a new firmware. Also if I was going to purchase this battery how much would it cost?

If i install a version of a firmware and a new firmware comes out is updating as simple as putting the memory stick in and running in service mode?

Thanks in advance.

[danlk2]

I would love to know this info also

[fringle]

It all depends on what method you use to make the pandora battery. Two wire mod can allow you to install a switch if you have access to a small enough switch and are good with a soldering iron to enable/disable pandora mode. Cut the trace(method I chose) you can just rub some graphic pencil lead where you made the cut and the battery works as normal again. Lifting a pin I would presume being the hardest one to return the battery to normal use, as if you remove the pin completly there is no going back.

As for the install of newer firmware I'm not sure as I haven't been there yet. But Assume that you would just put the update on your mem stick and run it. I could be wrong on that though.

[iclutcha]

Oh. That answers two of my questions. Does anyone know how much it would cost me to purchase the pandora battery? I heard there was a kit of some sort.

[Tets]

Installing a new custom firmware is as easy as following the instructions that come with it. You won't need pandora for that.

The "tool battery" datel sells is somewhere in the range of $30, I think, but I can't vouch for it.

I was also going to suggest using a multiboot IPL, which can boot the PSP normally with a service mode battery, but I've been told this doesn't work with the Slim. Anyone care to confirm that for me?

[iclutcha]

Can anyone provide a link to the pandora battery kit which comes with a memory stick?