Alright, people asked me about how to install a custom firmware onto their PSPs more frequently since I started concentrating on PSP releases.
I've always recommended 6.35 PRO to them.
The PROs are:
- running on one of the newest official firmwares
- inbuilt recovery menu and plugin manager
- run ISOs and CSOs straight from the XMB
- no game patching for older firmwares needed
- inbuilt PSX (pops) support
- play signed Games
- high plugin compatibility
- access the PSN from your PSP
- creates KEYS.BIN for games you bought from the PSN and lets you share them
- a hell lot more
Contras:
- you have to start the Fast Recovery into PRO after every complete reboot of the PSP
- the inbuilt PSX support can make trouble for some games
- some older plugins might not work (yet)
- I seriously am thinking about more cons, but can't find any.
- SAVEGAMES from OLDER CUSTOM FIRMWARES might not be usable, so better use it on a clean system!
Okay, that much for the ups and downs.
Important:
Don't use a small Memory Stick. You won't be able to do much with a small one anyway.
You can use a 2GB one without issues, but don't expect to be able to put a lot of games on it!
Get an 8 GB one, official Sony ones are about 20€ over here, so it wouldn't be as bad, considering you get games for free ;)
First you need to upgrade to 6.35 official firmware, obviously.
Check your current firmware on your PSP (Settings - System Settings - System Information)
- If you're already above that, stop reading here. You will need to wait for people to hack the newer stuff.
- If you already are on 6.35, ignore this step.
Grab the Firmware here or on PSP Slim Hacks
Extract the RAR you downloaded up there. Open up the "PSP Firmware 6.35"-folder and copy the "UPDATE"-folder in it onto your PSP.
It needs to be at "X:\PSP\GAME", where X: is the letter of your drive.
Before Updating, I recommend BACKING YOUR FILES UP!
Mainly your "SAVEDATA" folder (X:\PSP\SAVEDATA) and whatever games are on your memory stick already
This is a security measure just in case something goes wrong.
Run the Update from your PSP's menu.
Choosing the GAME-category and browsing your memory stick should bring up the UPDATE.
Follow the screen instructions and make sure your PSP's battery is charged (I recommend charging it while you're at it).
Once the Update is done, you may connect your PSP to your computer again and delete the "UPDATE"-folder.
Check your System Information to make sure you're now on 6.35 OFW.
Get into the folder you downloaded and pick up the
"635PROUPDATE" and "635FastRecovery"-folders.
Copy them to PSP\GAME like you did with the 6.35 firmware update
In the upcoming screen, pick the "launch CFW" option by pressing
The updater will install the files needed onto your PSP and then reboot into 6.35 PRO-B3 already.
However, as this is not a permanent CFW but has to be restarted after your PSP was fully turned off (not after a standby), there now is a shortcut.
Use the Fast Recovery-tool to instantly reboot your PSP into 6.35 PRO-B3 without having to get into that menu again.
From the PSP's XMB, press SELECT to bring up the VSH menu and get into the Recovery Menu.
"Configuration" brings us to the fun part.
Here you can fake your PSP's region, switch the ISO Mode (although you can do that from the simple VSH menu) and hide your MAC address etc.
I don't recomment switching your XMB USB Device. Leave it at Memory stick.
If you don't know what you're doing, you'll screw up your whole PSP!
However, Enable 'Skip Game Boot Screen' if you're annoyed by the PSP logo popping up before your game starts, same for the Sony logo.
Enable the Custom Update Server and Protect flash in USB device mount.
Especially useful is the option of letting your PSP get charged when its connected to your computer via USB.
This works not only in the usual USB connection mode, so you can browse your pictures, videos or games and still get charged.
Make sure your Plugins are enabled at the Advanced-entry of the Recovery menu and you may leave it.
If you have enabled plugins from the Plugin menu, make sure to Restart the VSH menu once, otherwise the new ones will not work.
To play ISOs or the compressed CSOs simply create an "ISO" folder at the root of your Memory Stick, next to VIDEO, PICTURE and PSP.
Throw your games in and they should show up in your XMB.
For games that are in EBOOT.pbp format, copy them into a folder in PSP/GAME, like the UPDATE or PRO.
If you got Final Fantasy IV, for example, make a folder called FFIV or whatever you want and copy the Eboot and whatever comes with the game (KEYS.BIN or Documentation) into it.
First you need to create a "seplugins" folder on your memory stick, like you did with "ISO".
You can also simply copy the one I put into the package for now.
Inside that folder, you'll find 3 textfiles: VSH.txt, GAME.txt and POPS.txt.
These files manage your plugins.
VSH is anything outside of games or homebrews; your PSP's XMB etc.
The GAME.txt is for PSP Games, while the POPS.txt is the one necessary for PSOne-titles, no matter whether they're custom made or from the PlayStation Network.
Plugins usually come as ".prx" files, sometimes with additional files necessary to run them.
In the .txt files, you'll need to write down the path to the main .prx of the plugin and enable or disable it with a 1 or 0 at the end.
For the screenshot plugin, you'd need to write the following line into the .txt files to enable it:
ms0:/seplugins/prxshot/prxshot.prx 1
or for GO users that use the GO's internal storage:
ef0:/seplugins/prxshot/prxshot.prx 1
You'll see, I already added PRXShot to all three of them, which means that you'll be able to take screenshots using the ♪-button.
However, for that to work, you might first need to get into the "PSP"-folder on your device and check if there's a "SCREENSHOT"-folder. If not, create it.
The POPS.txt also includes the line "flash0:/kd/usb.prx 1" already, which enables USB support when running PSOne games.
I put in an additional plugin called "usbversionfake.prx", which lets you fake your PSP's firmware version so you might use MediaGo to browse the PSN on your computer.
Copy the files into "seplugins" and add a line to VSH.txt, linking to the usbversionfake.prx and enable it.
If you want to en- or disable a plugin without the computer, check the recovery menu of your PSP.
Remember that you'll need to restart the VSH menu once before Plugin settings are applied!
I'll add more stuff if questions come up!
23 Comments:
is this permanent?
Read again.
No it is not, after a complete shutdown of the PSP you'll have to run Fast Recovery to get into PRO-B3 again.
There is an Issue with the old 5.50 Savegames, Some might not work. Its Useless to back them up cause on 6.35 they use a new "style" of savegames (My english is not the best, sry for that). Soul Calibur works fine, but Dissidia 012 and T3rdB wont work.
So be carefull
Oh and.. there is an Issue with Standby. Whenever i put my PSP into Standby mode it resets to OFW and all my Games are a bunch of "Wrong Data".
is this for psp3k?
It works on ALL models, even the GO.
its a miracle! it works on my psp-1000 (1g). It never bricked after upgrading it =)
Of course it doesn't brick, its completely safe.
The only way you could damage your PSP would be letting it fall to the ground while updating or running out of battery while installing the new 6.35 OFW.
That's the cool thing - it is risk-free!
i put the update folder correctly but it says my system software is already 9.90?
currently at prome-4 but i dunno what's going on. please help i wanna play with the 012 dlc and ff5-7 and eventually ff8
prome-4 and the whole 5.xx CFWs change your version.txt in flash0 so that the version number gets faked.
This is, for example, so you can use MediaGo for your stuff and browsing the PSN without getting prompted for updating.
Use the installers of Prome/GEN to uninstall your current CFW first.
what firmware should i switch to when i uninstall? i'm asking cuz this is the first time i'm handling firmware stuff.
you're running GEN? then use the GEN-D3 installer, it will get you back to 5.50 OFW. from there you can start the tutorial like usual.
and hey, we all started with little to none knowledge on the topic, thats why I wrote this tutorial =)
got a problem!
my psp cfw is 5.50 prome-4. (got psp 1000)
but when i try to update it to ofw version 6.35, it says to me
the system software of your psp
system is version 9.90.
there is no need to update.
thats what the psp says.
any help please?
already thanks ^_^
You will need to remove the current CFW before you can upgrade. 5.50 GEN edits the versions.txt and thus gives the wrong version number.
You should have the 5.50 GEN Installer, right? That with the ladybug in the XMB.
If you run it, you can pick 'install 5.50 OFW' - that will work and give you a clean firmware to start from
the screenshot thing, i have done it step by step but it isnt working :( its all got to be coppied into the sepluggin bit yeah? and have ms0:/seplugins/prxshot/prxshot.prx 1 in all of the .txt documents. so do you know where i have went wronge?
and where will the screenshots be on the psp.. or is the only way to view them through the screenshots folder on the pc?
I guess you have a non-GO model? if you have a Go, it's ef0 instead of ms0;
however, if there is no SCREENSHOT folder inside PSP/, create it, along with a 'XMB' folder inside.
Press Select and pick 'Reset VSH' to restart the whole plugin stuff.
Alternatively you could restart the whole PSP and thus restart PRO, but its easier via reset vsh.
PSP/SCREENSHOT/ on your memory stick =)
ok ill will try.
and thanks ^_^
5.50 gen installer, does it matter which gen (gen-d3, gen-a and all those other gens) you use.
and where is the version.txt
is it in the memory stick or in the psp self.
and do you have to use you recover menu to change your version.txt
sorry if my english isn't good and sorry if i ask too much
i just want to be sure about it.
already thanks ^_^
I don't think it matters, as the installer just works around the modified version.txt and installs the OFW anyway.
The version.txt can either lie on your psp, but I don't know about that on 5.50 GEN.
My guess is that they're using the PSP's flash internal version.txt, so its best to simply use the installer without modifiying stuff on your own.
Keep it as safe as you can =)
so what does "no game patching for older firmwares needed" means?
does that mean that i can use save datas played on lower cfw versions?
for example. i'll switch from gen d prom to this one.. will i still be able to use my dissidia 012 save data and friend cards?
answers will be appreciated
New games that need a newer firmware often need to be patched to be played on, for example, the old 5.50 GEN firmwares.
That is not necessary on PRO.
Yup, your savegames should not have any issues.
I just advise to uninstall GEN-D before you do anything else. Return to 5.50 OFW before updating.
(Even if some savegames would show as corrupted afterwards, you'd just need to use a short workaround to fix the saves, as far as I know. Gen screwed some things up between updates back then as well, iirc)
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