Modding Your Psp

[Geek]

<Guide Revision
I apologize for my last guide it was not easy to use at all. I made it in a hurry. Hopefully this will help you.
-If you have questions or suggestions pm me please as this will be buried under the many postings a day. Also if you have great emus, apps, or makers and know of a place to download post them under the guide with a description
-BIG NEWS-Everyone who doesn't have a pandora and has an unhackable try the 5.03 CHICKHEN firmware to get to M33 (3K's don't do this) that means all you TA88v3 saps have a break now
-Just an extra note people seem to have trouble running this on vista, so try this put in xp compatibility mode, then right click run as admin
-GOOD NEWS EVERYONE PANDORA DELUXE NOW WORKS ON VIST, VERSIONS 2.7 AND ONWARD WILL WORK ON VISTA
-Okay just to let anyone know if your psp is modable then the pandora and magic memory stick will work on ANY firmware
-Okay so if you have a problem here are some things I NEED for you to post computer os (xp, vista, mac), what went wrong and have you read everything
-ADDED 3 STEP METHOD (scroll to bottom)


<Terms To Know
mms=magic memory stick
magic memory stick=a memory stick that has been logically formatted, meaning like a hard drive it has been partitioned so the psp can read can read system files off it.
pandora's or jigkick battery=a battery whose serial is 0xffff it tells the psp to read off the memory stick instead of the NAND
NAND=physical memory on the motherboard holding all the psp system files (a nand dump backs up these files so if you crash the system you can restore it)
cfw=custom firmware such as M33 or GEN A
ofw=Official firmware this is what is on every standard psp
Despertar Del Cementrio (DDC)=the installer of cfw

<Getting Started
What do you plan on doing? Do you want to downgrade to 1.5 ofw, go to the latest M33, or install GEN A? It doesn't matter unless your psp is below 3.5 (for slims this won't work) you can't do ANYTHING without a pandora's battery and mms. These tools are essentiall and great to have. There is no brick you can't recover with a pandora an mms end of story. So you are going to need a pandora's battery, there are two ways to make them. 1 Hardmod the battery this is a dangerous method if you snip the wrong pin your psp may catch on fire, so I do not recommend this. (Sorry but I do not cover hardmodding psp batteries look around) 2 Softmod the battery using an already modded psp and a tool such as PSPTool or Hellcat's Installer. I would strongly recommend this method because you can pandorize the battery and change it back to normal in about 3 minutes. If you plan on making a pandora you must check its compatibility do that here JigKick Battery - PSPWiki. If your battery is not pandorable then buy one its easy and you always have an extra.

<Know Your PSP
Before you mod your psp you have to check if you can mod the psp so go here http://www.pspmod.com/forums/psp-mis...-hackable.html to see if you have a hackable motherboard. NOTE: At this time 3000 are not hackable. If you have a hackable psp move on if not STOP there is nothing you can do but wait.

<Let's Do This
So first things first you will need a memory stick to make into a mms. MMS have to be at least 256MB but no larger than 4gb for this installer. The reason they have to be at least 256MB is because the psp system files with the programs needed to install cfw are only a touch smaller than 256MB. I recommend a 1gb there are cheap and easy to find. NOTE:MAKE SURE THIS IS A MEMORY STICK PRO DUO WITH MAGIC GATE KNOCK OFFS ARE NOT MADE CORRECTLY AND DO NOT LOAD AS FAST DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE A KNOCK OFF. Now go download pandora deluxe here File Details-PSP-Pandora-Deluxe-v3.0-PSP-Homebrew-Applications -. Run the program and it will install. Now you need to get some official sony updates find those here Dark-AleX - PSP Developer. You will need at least the 1.5, 3.5, 3.73, 3.9, and 4.01 for Despertar Del Cementrio to work correctly. Now I used pandora deluxe 2.7 so the latest DDC on that was v7 so I apologize but this guide is for that DDC. After pandora deluxe has installed itself run the program you will get a home menu, the first thing you must do is go to the left and select all the firmwares it will ask you to locate them. Make sure you check the box for copy firmware. Now go to the bottom and select format memory stick, inject IPL, and prepare memory stick. Now you will see a tab called installition options click on it. Select the Noobz 1.5 downgrader and DDCv7. Now connect your psp and click run, follow the onscreen prompts. At times the program may appear inactive leave it alone it is copying files to your psp it will work.

<Movin On
Once the process has been completed congratulations you have a mms. Now is the tricky part, you will need a pandora's battery, so either order one or do the following find an already modded psp near you. Insert the battery you wish to pandorize and the mms. Go to the game section of the psp and you should see Hellcat's Installer, run the program. Now you will get a menu telling you about the creators, click ok and move on. You will now see a menu with several options ignore them and go to battery options. You will see several options; make battery pandora, make battery normal, dump battery serial to file, set battery serial from file. Selecting make battery pandora will set your serial to 0xfffff, if you select make battery normal it will give you a generic serial, if you select dump battery serial it will store the current battery serial onto your memory stick, if you select set battery from file you will set the battery serial from the one you dumped. Now I would suggest dumping the battery if you want to keep your serial I have not noticed a difference between the generic and unique battery's performance. Once you have backed up the battery pandorize it. Congrats you have a pandora's battery.

<Let's Just Finish Already
So you have a mms and pandora battey you now are a modder, almost. Grab the psp you wish to mod and insert the mms, then hold down the L trigger and insert the pandora battery (make sure the battery does not fall out during installition). Now you will get a screen with a couple options; install 4.01M33, install 4.01OFW, NAND operations, Hardware Info, Test M33, shutdown and reboot. If you select install 4.01M33 it will install the cfw. If you select 4.01OFw it will install 4.01OFW. If you select NAND operations you will get several options; Dump NAND, Format Lflash, and idstorage tools, dumping the NAND will create an exact backup of the psp's current firmware, restoring the NAND will restore from that file, formating the flash IS NOT FOR YOU DON'T TOUCH, Idstorage tools are for things like the MAC address in case you brick the psp. If you select Test M33 it will allow you to try out M33 without installing. So if you want to mod your psp select install 4.01M33, it will take a little and then boom your done you have a modded psp. It will shutdown leave the psp alone and it will boot up normally. Now go to Hellcat's installer and unpandorize your battery, and you are done.

<Knowledge Is Power
So what will you do with your psp? It's your choice, I would recommend updating to the latest Dark Alex M33 firmware, but if you wish to play ISO you need to do this. After you have installed the firmware of your choice go to system options and format the memory stick it will create all the folders you need. If you want to play psp ISO's, put the umd iso in the iso folder and then disconnect the psp. Press select go to UMD ISO mode and press right until you see M33 driver. Now you can play psp ISO's off your memory stick, if you want to play ps1 games you must conver the ISO into an eboot. I recommend psx2psp, but you can use others look around.

<The 3 Step Method
After seeing that a lot of people have trouble (its a lot of info) I've decided to make a 3 step method that will ease installation, it will install DDCv7, Time Machine for 1.5 ofw, Hellcats 3.xx installer, 5.02 GEN A update (with 1.5 Kernel), and Hellcat's Recovery Flasher v1.6 (that way you can install 5.00m33-6), and will come with the 1.5, 3.71, 4.01, 5.00, and 5.02 ofw eboot but this comes at a small cost, this method does not use mspformat (you can do it yourself, but instructions on how to will not be posted), so if this doesn't work for you then I suggest that you try mspformatting
1. Download this file MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service, extract using Winrar
2. Connect your psp via usb (or memory card via reader), format your psp's memory stick using windows, copy the contents inside the folder that you just unrared to your psps memory card
3. Disconnect psp, insert mms (if you used a memcard reader), insert pandora, hold L, text will pop up in the left top saying loading, it will boot hellcats recovery flasher, which will allow you to install 5.00m33-6, just select install cfw, and then you're done


<Now That You Are Done
Congratutlations you modded your psp and can now mod others. Special thanks to Noobz, Dark Alex, Hellcat and zarz123 for the modability guide.

[mattyjk8]

best guide on web i think thankks

[goku2778]

good guide, thanks

[njd911]

ok the pandora deluxe finished, but is there a way to check and make sure it worked?

[Geek]

not sure I understand the question the only way to be sure is to put it in the psp, and then put in the pandora if the psp boots up normally when you don't press any buttons then success, or hold L when you put in the battery and you should get an installer

[Dundeain]

Thank you very much for this but whenever I try to install the downgrader from the GAME menu in the XMB I'm told the files are corrupted, even though I followed this guide step-for-step. Should I try to find other FW files or is that not the issue?

[g0_fux0r_ur53lf]

I just bought a Pandora's Battery and Magic Memory Stick from the site and then used this guide. My PSP is now modded... All I can really say is, I love you pspmod.com?

And just for shits and giggles, one question; what if the battery did fall out during installation? Would you just have to start over, or would that really fuck things up?

Thanks a lot.

[El_Cappytain]

It's been a year since i've had my hands on a PSP (so far i've owned 3.. all modded and having a self made hardmodded pandora is amazing), and now it's time to mod again; thanks for the guide -hopefully no problems.

-bump-

[noitideraey]

i just recently got a psp and posted a cry for help, Geek9 replied and so far soo good, thank you, and yes, having a self-made hardmod pandora batery is amazing, and satisfying as you made it yourself

I give this guide a 5/5

[help help help]

I have already done all of that twice...
it just wont load the menu to mod it
it worked on a friends psp same model just fine not long ago either
im at a loss i have no idea why it will not work lol

[SPARTAN-4:Sepher-223]

Do we need a Memory card reader to place the files on the MS or does it write
to the card though the PSP? I need a good guide to hardmodding it too plz.
Oh could I download all the Pandora Deluxe files to my PSP then copy them to the PC and install them?

[Geek]

as long as it reads and writes data you are fine

[SPARTAN-4:Sepher-223]

Ok so it will work. To hard mod the battery can I simply place a credit card or
similar between the pins, and use a knife etc to pop or cut it off the board?
Can I also just push the pin back down to turn the battery back to normal?
Please answer my questions man, Im jonesen to get my PSP modded.

[help help help]

i am running vista so i cannot use mspformat do i need that to make the MMS

[Geek]

more than likely yes, but if you can't just mspformat it at the library or on a friends computer