psp & custom firmwares

[dman32]

Hi, I was wondering if I bought a new psp today will it be able to run custom firmware? I'm only concerned about the type of motherboard or what ever you call it. I already know certain firmwares can't be upgraded.

[The EX]

Yes, no PSP's that you buy in the shop cannot be downgraded.
No new PSP's come with a firmware above 3.50, so you're safe.

[dman32]

well what about certain types of boards? like I remember when that was a issue

[MicroNut]

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

At this time all psp motherboards are safely downgradable using the GTA3.03 and Lumines3.50 downgraders.

The catch, again correct me if I am wrong, is that TA-82+ motherboards that have been patched while performing a downgrade
can never be upgraded to an official Sony firmware beyond ?2.40? again.

The reason for this is that the ID_Storage value on the motherboard has been changed during the downgrade.
Any official Sony firmware upgrade attempted after the patch will not know about the patched ID_Storage value.

You will know if you have such a motherboard because the downgrader (3.03 and 3.50) will warn you
that you have a TA-82 or greater board and require your confirmation to continue.

[jassdhali]

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

At this time all psp motherboards are safely downgradable using the GTA3.03 and Lumines3.50 downgraders.

The catch, again correct me if I am wrong, is that TA-82+ motherboards that have been patched while performing a downgrade
can never be upgraded to an official Sony firmware beyond ?2.40? again.

The reason for this is that the ID_Storage value on the motherboard has been changed during the downgrade.
Any official Sony firmware upgrade attempted after the patch will not know about the patched ID_Storage value.

You will know if you have such a motherboard because the downgrader (3.03 and 3.50) will warn you
that you have a TA-82 or greater board and require your confirmation to continue.

Can someone confirm this pls as I am spending sum money to buy one tomorrow from Argos..Thanks

[acn010]

instructions is inside with the downgraders

[MicroNut]

Read all about it from the folks who know: N00bz (http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/)

[MicroNut]

With the release of the Pandora battery recovery
I decided to take a a deeper look at this and this is what I have learned.

Noobz info may not be up to date or it may be correct
I don't know:
http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/news/downgrader-for-psp-v3.50-firmware.html

From what I have read at other websites it is possible to fix key 5 of the id storage value
if you have a clean dump of that key (or set of keys) for a spacific TA-82 motherboard.
Or a least know the correct hash value the key needs to be edited.

If this is true it would be very helpful to have an archive of clean id storage dumps for all TA-82+ motherboards.

Using Chilly Willy's Key Cleaner it is possible to
Discover the exact motherboard type
Discover broken keys
And restore those broken key(s) on downgraded psp's.
After which it wold be possible to run any official firmware again... if you really wanted too.

Which brings me to Pandora's recovery.
The readme states there is no known way to regenerate the id storage keys for these psp's.

Does that mean that they cannot be recovered using a clean dump of the motherboards ID storage keys... I dont know.
If have the option when downgrading your motherboard to backup the ID Storage... Do It!

In any case I am posting excepts from the forums I gathered this information from.
And posting a clean dump of a TA-82 ID Storage key set for research purposes only.

Clean_TA82_keys.zip (http://www.fullburn.com/random/Clean_TA82_keys.zip)