Stopping Forced Upgrades From UMD's

[Abstract3000]

Is this possible? I could have sworn i saw some small utility that prevented this from happening, Im so scared to load any real games into my PSP I have a 1.5 Straight out of a Box with the Letter "A" and the only UMD this PSP has seen is the sample disc. anyways please let me know if there is a utility and what its called
thanX

[Abstract3000]

I think I may have found it its called "No Update" it seems to use a boot method of swapping, so my question is: when you get a game that trys to force upgrading does it gove you prior warning? I cancertainly see how this wouldwork wonderfully in that situation but is there games that give you no prior warning? and if so how do you stop them

lastly what if your playing a Back-up of a PSP game on your memory stick that requires and upgrade what do you do in that case and would the game still be playable for such chance that it "really" dosent need the upgrade?

[b8a]

Abstract3000- I'm in the same boat as you as far as having a 1.50 that I've only ever used for old school emulators and a few homebrew games. Same here, the only UMD I have or have put in my machine is the sample disk that came with it. So, I'm not exactly an expert at this, but from what I understand no UMD <i>forces</i> an update. That is, there are UMD's that require a higher firmware before you can use them, and there are UMD's that ship with that firmware on them, but to my knowledge there aren't any UMD's that automatically update your firmware without your consent. From what I've heard, it would be illegal for Sony to do that as, same with computers, there are laws that say that you have to be given the option to decline software installation, even from the original vendor. I could be partially or wholey wrong about this legal stuff, but the other reason why I've heard that there are no automatically updating UMD's is that the process of upgrading your firmware is actually pretty detailed. I've heard that your PSP battery has to be fully charged AND that it has to be pluged into the wall. This is most likely a safeguard by Sony to prevent powerloss while upgrading which would result in a partial update and a useless PSP. That's not to say that no PSP's have been bricked while upgrading even with these precautions, but it's probably as safe of a process as Sony could make it.

I personally wouldn't worry about putting a UMD in for fear of a forced upgrade, but once again, I have no first hand experience. If anybody can refute or backup this logic, please do so.

[b8a]

When you start talking about back-ups, back-up game loaders, and methouds for using them, you get into a forbidden topic on this board, so you don't want to try to pursue that avenue here. Even if your uses are 100% legit, it's to try to curtail those who's uses are more malicious and irresponsible.

As I wrote above, to my knowledge, yes, you are given the option to decline before any UMD attempts to update your firmware.

If a game doesn't "really" need the firmware update (that is, if there are no features of the game that require features only in the new firmware), then you can probably use the WAB Version Tricker (or one of the many other similar programs) to play it.

[RunningWild]

You are completely right. Dont be worried AT ALL. Games that require a higher firmware will come bundled with it on the UMD. You have to physically select it and then agree to Sony's conditions (not to mention having the AC Adaptor plugged into the wall), for it to go ahead.

I can verify this as ive had to upgrade to 2.0 (not going any higher!) to play X-Men Legends II.

So dont worry, you're fine