Running Custom Firmware on your PSP
Introduction
I have taken a lot of questions on multiple forums about running Custom Firmware on your PSP, mainly because there are is a lot of different Official Firmware released for the PSP. Every time Sony releases one of these updates it makes it harder to run Custom Firmware on your PSP. You will find a lot of guides for this on the internet, but this guide will cover all the things you need to put custom firmware on your PSP and use it to the full of its abilities.
Before you Start
Although unlikely, putting Custom Firmware on your PSP can potentially ‘brick your PSP’, although unlikely, this has happened. Bricking your PSP means that it will not start anymore because the firmware (which is a bit like the operating system) becomes corrupt. If this does happen to your PSP it is not my responsibility, therefore follow thus guide at your own risk. The first step to avoid this is to check if your PSP can run Custom Firmware. To do this look at the bottom of your PSP, you should see a series of letters and numbers.
NOTE: I have not tried this on the PSP slim but people have told me it works the same, the battery that I suggest buying is for both the Phat and Slim models. But once again it is not tested my me so I can’t guarantee that it will work.
Look at the end of this code it should say PSP(X) (with X being a number.) If this number is 3000 (the new PSP model) then your PSP cannot run Custom Firmware as it has a different motherboard than the old models. Sony did this so that you cannot run custom firmware on your PSPs. Sorry, please don’t try this if you don’t want to break your then don’t try and follow this tutorial. Also, PSPs with a TA-88v3 motherboard cannot run Custom Firmware. There is no way to check for this as far as I know but if you PSP does not have the 3000 code at the end then the chances are you don’t have this motherboard. The chances are if you bought your PSP before 2009 it will be perfectly ‘hackable’. If you did get your PSP in 2009 and it isn’t a PSP3000 model then it is possible that your PSP may become bricked; so again, proceed at your own risk.
What is Custom Firmware; what are the benefits?
When Sony first made the PSP, it was running Firmware V1.0. Under this firmware you could run ISO’s (games ripped form UMDs) and all the homebrew applications (such as emulators) you wanted. Obviously when Sony realised this they quickly released an update to V1.5, but this did not stop ISO’s and homebrew being run. But finally Sony patched this with update V2.0 and now any PSP running firmware after V2.0 cannot run ISO’s or homebrew. So, why don’t people just not upgrade? Well, if you don’t upgrade your PSP you can’t play the latest games. For example I tried to run Fifa 09, a popular football (soccer) game on my V1.5 PSP and I got an error when starting the game:
80020321 – Game could not be started.
This is because the latest games require the latest updates to run. So Custom Firmware was released. This is not released or endorsed by Sony; it is released by members of the PSP community so that people can run ISO’s and homebrew on their PSP’s.
What you need
You will need a few materials to gain the ability to run Custom Firmware on your PSP. You will need:
• A PRO DUO memory stick (card) at least 256MB but no more than 4GB.
• A ‘Pandora’ battery – I will show you where to buy one and how to make one later.
• A PSP (Hope you already knew this)
• A PSP USB cable
Obtaining a Pandora Battery
I will start with the easiest was of obtaining a Pandora battery. I would strongly recommend this way as it will save you a lot of time. You will want to go to
http://www.pandoragadgets.co.uk/products/Pandora-Battery-for-FAT-%26-Slim-PSP.html and buy the product. Trust me, I did it, it is well worth it; it is guaranteed to work and you don’t need to mess around with your current battery. If you chose to follow this method; wait for you battery to arrive (it is fast shipping) and once you have it skip to the next part of this tutorial: Making a Magic Memory Stick.
If you want to make your own battery then follow this guide; if you battery does not look the same as the one that I show you then I would recommend buying a Pandora battery instead of trying to make one unless you have a good knowledge of electronics. You will probably have to buy a new battery anyway after doing this to your battery, as it is hard to get the pin back to where it was (will make sense later), this is another reason why it is easier just to buy a Pandora battery.
First, take the plastic casing off your battery using a sharp knife (I used a Stanley knife), do not cut too deep; just deep enough that you can open up the case and access the circuit board inside.
REMEMBER YOU ARE DOING THIS TO THE BATTERY – NOT YOUR ACCUTAL PSP.
Cut that pin, or lift it off. As long as it is no longer connected you will be fine. Make sure you cut the right pin or you might end up with smoke coming out the back or your PSP. If you don’t have this battery, you may be able to locate this component and the right pin. But as mentioned do not do this if you don’t have good knowledge of electronics and you want to damage your battery.
Making a Magic Memory Stick
(This may not be Linux compatible. Vista or XP are recommended)
(Backup your Memory stick before you do this – if you do not want to lose any files)
Ok, now time for the easy bit. Making a Magic Memory Stick, It doesn’t have to make sense yet, just keep following the guide and you will understand. This memory stick will contain all the files that install the Custom Firmware on your PSP. Combined with the Pandora battery it will allow you to overwrite the existing Sony Firmware on the PSP and put Custom Firmware in its place.
(Follow the following steps carefully)
Make a new folder on your desktop called ‘PSP’.
Create:
Desktop\PSP\EBOOT
Desktop\PSP\EBOOT\150
Desktop\PSP\EBOOT\450
Desktop\PSP\RainsMMSMaker
Download this file:
http://www.psp-hacks.com/file/4And save it to Desktop\PSP\EBOOT\150
Download this file:
http://www.pspmod.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=54And save it to Desktop\PSP\EBOOT\150
Download this file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/140149602/RainMMSFull.rar.htmlAnd save it to Desktop\PSP\RainsMMSMaker
(If you have trouble with Rapid share you can use
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TDC3IEWV)(If it comes in an archive extract it to the same location mentioned above)
Now follow the following part of the guide is split into two sections, one for Vista and one for XP.
For Vista:
1. Disable User Account Control (Google it)
2. Restart your PC
3. Right Click on the RainsMMSMaker exe file
4. Go to properties
5. Go to compatibility
6. Check the box that says ‘Run this program in compatibility mode’
7. Select ‘Windows XP Service Pack 2’ for the drop down list
8. Press apply
9. Press ok
10. Now follow the Windows XP Guide (from the start).
On Windows XP:
1. Plug you PSP into your PC via the USB cable (make sure that your memory stick is in your PSP)
2. If you PSP doesn’t automatically, go to Settings>USB Connection
3. Go to My Computer and find the drive letter of you PSP (for me it was J:\)
4. Open up RainsMMSMaker
5. From the drop-down menu select ‘4.01 OFW/M33-2 (DCv7)’
6. Press ‘Load EBOOT’
7. From the window that pops up navigate to Desktop\PSP\EBOOT\450 and select the EBOOT file you saved there.
8. Change the ‘Target Drive’ to the drive letter that your PSP is plugged into.
9. Check ‘Format Memory Stick’
10. Check ‘USB Version Fake Plugin’
11. Check ‘1.50 Kernel Addon installer’ (Skip this step if you’re using a Slim PSP)
12. Now the ‘1.50 EBOOT’ button should be clickable – Click it and in the window navigate to Desktop\PSP\EBOOT\150 and select the file that you downloaded in there. (Skip this step if you’re using a Slim PSP)
13. Set the ‘Pandora Trigger Button’ to ‘L’
14. Leave the rest of the options to what they already are.
15. Press ‘Make MMS’ (On Vista it may say ‘Not Responding’ at times after you press this – Just leave it and it will work if you have User Account Control Disabled)
16. Wait for it to finish – don’t do anything else on your PC while it is doing this to avoid the small chance of the data becoming corrupted or the program crashing.
Your done for now.
Installing the Custom Firmware
Now it’s time to install the custom firmware. Disconnect your PSP from the PC and make sure that your Magic Memory Stick is in your PSP.
1. Turn off your PSP
2. Take out your original battery (not Pandora)
3. Put in your Pandora Battery
4. Your PSP will start up, you may have to turn it off or it may turn off itself
5. Once your PSP has turned on and off hold down ‘L’ (left trigger) and turn on your PSP.
6. Keep holding ‘L’ until you see a menu.
7. Select the option to install custom firmware (it is normally the second option, it will be called something like 4.01 M33-2 (make sure it has M33 in the name))
8. Let it install
9. When it is done turn off your PSP
10. Put in your normal battery and start up your PSP
11. Go to Settings>System Settings>System Information and make sure that you have an M33 firmware installed.
12. If you haven’t start again – following the instructions exactly
13. Turn off your PSP fully (I.E. holding the off switch up completely and holding it there until your PSP turns off)
14. Now hold ‘R’ (Right trigger) and turn on your PSP.
15. You should come to a basic text menu called ‘M33 Recovery Menu’
16. Go to Configuration (use the D-pad and [X] to navigate the menu)
17. Navigate to UMD Mode (5th option down)
18. Press [X] on that option until it says ‘Currently: Sony NP9660 –NO UMD-’
19. Press back
20. Press exit
21. Your PSP will start
22. Go to Settings>System Settings
23. Select Format Memory Stick
24. Allow it to format
25. You’re done.
What can I do with my new custom firmware?
There is a lot of stuff you can do with your new firmware but the following things for me are a must:
Put some ISO/CSO games on – These are games that run without a UMD, just connect your PSP to your PC and put the ISO/CSO file in the folder called ‘ISO’ on your PSP. If you can’t find it create it yourself and put the files there. The folder should be on the root of the PSP, not in the PSP folder. There are a few games on HF, but there is a lot more on
http://pspiso.comPut Movies on your PSP – Simple, just download videos off the internet and put them onto your PSP in the Video folder. Again
http://pspiso.com is a good place for this.
Put a new theme on your PSP – Put these files in the theme folder on your PSP (it's easy to find, just look through the folder) make sure that the files are *.ptf, there are other ones that are *.ctf but these can mess up your PSP and are hard to install. Once it’s on your PSP just go to Theme Settings on your PSP and apply it from there.
http://google.com is the best place to find PSP themes.
Add some homebrew applications – These include things like EBook readers and more, these go in the folder on your PSP called ‘Game’ (again easy to find) unless they have specific instructions otherwise. Again
http://pspiso.com and
http://google.com are the best places to find this.
Any problems, post a reply or PM me for other questions.
Credits
Credits to Holyjoely and the guy who made the pictures (Google images).
Updates
1.1 – I know I have Cello-tape on my Battery, it’s because I opened it up one time to try to make a Pandora myself, but I bought one instead.
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Subject: Holy's Complete Guide to Putting Custom Firmware on your PSP. 
