PSP Slim: Pandora’s Battery Twarted on newer Slim models

[famousboot.com]

I think the news of the triumphant hack of the PSP Slim by Team M33 and the Pandora battery may be premature.

I am here to suggest that Sony has released a new battery and new PSP slim in which Pandora’s Batteries *do not work*. Don’t jump to any conclusions. It’s more than just the battery being Pandora-proof. Please read on.

I went out over the weekend and bought a piano black PSP Slim at Target (I had read that the piano black wasn’t out yet, but that Target had them on their shelves ahead of release. Sure enough.) I bought the base package with just the Slim, power cord, no games or memory stick.

Using my old PSP with the first version of M33, I successfully made a Pandora’s Battery following their instructions. It worked fine and booted with the service menu. I then put the battery into my new PSP Slim. It would not boot to the service menu. It wouldn’t do anything in fact. The green power light came on. That’s it. I reverted it back to a regular battery and tried it in the Slim again. It worked fine, just not as a Pandora battery.

Ok, fine. I then tried to make a Pandora’s battery out of the Slim’s slimmer, smaller 1600 battery. I backed up the battery’s EPROM so I could revert it back to a regular battery later, and then I ran Pandora’s battery installer. I received several write failures and the process failed. I tried booting the Slim and my old PSP with the Slim’s battery and it was dead. I then tried to write the original EPROM back to the battery, and turn it back into a regular battery and got a ton of write failures.

Do not dismiss me. I am not a “n00b”. I have been following the custom firmware scene on my original PSP for some time now. I know I didn’t do anything wrong and followed the instructions. Which is why I am telling you now – Sony has somehow thwarted Pandora’s Battery on the newer PSP Slims.

I did a scan of Digg.com and found a number of articles reporting that the possibility of new Sony batteries that were Pandora-proof. I think it’s a much larger problem than that. I think they’ve changed both the way that the battery interacts with the PSP, and changed the code running on the battery itself. (Because the Pandora’s battery that worked on my old PSP didn’t work on the new one. And my attempt to manipulate the new battery using Pandora’s utility resulted in a dead battery.)

I considered going out and buying another Slim – perhaps one of the ones released earlier like a Silver Daxter Pack. But I think I will wait patiently until M33 or someone either figures out a workaround to hack the new batteries, or better yet, a way to downgrade the newer Slim’s without a Pandora’s battery.

PS: Before someone asks, I forgot to check what firmware was running on this newer PSP Slim. I had killed the battery and was so frustrated by that point that I took the thing right back to Target

[eatnooM]

I believe the Pandora battery uses part of the 1.5 kernel, which the Slim does not have complete support for, meaning that the display does not work in the service menu. This could be why you didn't see anything. As for the battery, it's generally accepted that Slim batteries can't become Pandora batteries (yet?)

[Saracchini]

If you see the readme of Pandora Battery Creator for 3.XX kernels it says it will kill your PSP Slim battery. At this moment only PSP Phat batteries can be converted to Pandora.

[ICE]

pandoras batteries in a slim show nothing. just hit at the blank screen.

[hp641]

Soooooooooooooo

I forget about downgradeing my PSPslim

thats bad man

[hp641]

OK

lets say that I have

1- PSPslim
2- 2006PB
3- V 3.60

is there any way now adays to play games from memory stick

[famousboot.com]

Ok, mystery solved. I was posting a reply saying that M33's method of downgrading a PSP Slim REQUIRES A PANDORA BATTERY and I went to quote the instructions. I guess I entered some different keywords this time because I got a different tutorial this time with different verbage. Please see the part I've bolded -- which was NOT a part of either of the two instruction manuals I working from.

We are proud to present the first custom firmware for the PSP Slim, and the first custom firmware
that runs using a 3.XX IPL (3.60)

3.60 M33 for PSP Slim has all the features of 3.52 M33, except the 1.50 kernel support, as
that kernel doesn't work properly on psp slim (hardware problems, screen problems).
3.60 M33 will load homebrew from GAME, GAME150 and GAME360 directories, but all will be executed
with 3.60 kernel.

This mean that some homebrews done specifically for the 1.50 kernel cannot work on 3.60 M33.
However, the adaptation of code to 2.XX+ kernels is not difficult, and homebrew developers can
port their aplications to work in these firmwares.

Included with the release is the M33 sdk for programmers.

Instalation:

The instalation is done using pandora battery and requires a fat psp with 1.50 or
custom firmware with 1.50 support to run a installer.
However once the memory stick installation is done, you can use it in whatever psp slim without
repeating the process again.

We want to thank C+D Team for having created Pandora and having opened the path to custom ipl's,
without which this cfw wouldn't exist.

Steps:

- Create a pandora battery and a pandora memory stick using the C+D team tools.
- Run the fat psp with the pandora memory stick inserted, but with a normal battery.
Copy the directories pandora_slim and pandora_slim% to PSP/GAME or PSP/GAME150.

- Download official sony firmwares 3.40 and 3.50, and put them in pandora_slim directory
with names 340.PBP and 350.PBP.

To avoid confussion: These firmwares are used ONLY to extend the memory stick pandora kernel.
NOTHING FROM THOSE FIRMWARES WILL EVER BE FLASHED ON THE SLIM.

- Run the program. It will quickly extract some prx's overwrting some of the pandora memory stick.

- Insert the pandora battery and the memory stick in the psp slim. It will boot. You won't see
anything on the screen, because that kernel doesn't support the slim screen, but it is OK, you
don't need a screen for the installation of 3.60 M33.

From here, you have 3 options:

- Press X to install M33. The process will last just few seconds, since the installer only
needs to install the M33 custom prx's and IPL. After the process is finished, the installer
will shutdown the psp automatically.

- Press L+R+triangle to uninstall M33 and go back to original 3.60. Note: this can't unbrick a
psp slim, it will just remove M33 ipl. There is currently no unbricker for the psp slim, but
we plan on doing one in the future.
After uninstallation, psp will be shutdown automatically.

- Press square to dump the PSP Slim nand. Watch out: you need 66 MB of free space in the
memory stick for this, otherwise your memory stick may end corrupted.

This option uses the team C+D nand dumper. When the memory stick orange led stops blinking,
the process will have finished, and you can either shutdown the psp, or use one of the two
previous options.

[sgtchariot]

I think the news of the triumphant hack of the PSP Slim by Team M33 and the Pandora battery may be premature.

I am here to suggest that Sony has released a new battery and new PSP slim in which Pandora’s Batteries *do not work*. Don’t jump to any conclusions. It’s more than just the battery being Pandora-proof. Please read on.

I went out over the weekend and bought a piano black PSP Slim at Target (I had read that the piano black wasn’t out yet, but that Target had them on their shelves ahead of release. Sure enough.) I bought the base package with just the Slim, power cord, no games or memory stick.

Using my old PSP with the first version of M33, I successfully made a Pandora’s Battery following their instructions. It worked fine and booted with the service menu. I then put the battery into my new PSP Slim. It would not boot to the service menu. It wouldn’t do anything in fact. The green power light came on. That’s it. I reverted it back to a regular battery and tried it in the Slim again. It worked fine, just not as a Pandora battery.

Ok, fine. I then tried to make a Pandora’s battery out of the Slim’s slimmer, smaller 1600 battery. I backed up the battery’s EPROM so I could revert it back to a regular battery later, and then I ran Pandora’s battery installer. I received several write failures and the process failed. I tried booting the Slim and my old PSP with the Slim’s battery and it was dead. I then tried to write the original EPROM back to the battery, and turn it back into a regular battery and got a ton of write failures.

Do not dismiss me. I am not a “n00b”. I have been following the custom firmware scene on my original PSP for some time now. I know I didn’t do anything wrong and followed the instructions. Which is why I am telling you now – Sony has somehow thwarted Pandora’s Battery on the newer PSP Slims.

I did a scan of Digg.com and found a number of articles reporting that the possibility of new Sony batteries that were Pandora-proof. I think it’s a much larger problem than that. I think they’ve changed both the way that the battery interacts with the PSP, and changed the code running on the battery itself. (Because the Pandora’s battery that worked on my old PSP didn’t work on the new one. And my attempt to manipulate the new battery using Pandora’s utility resulted in a dead battery.)

I considered going out and buying another Slim – perhaps one of the ones released earlier like a Silver Daxter Pack. But I think I will wait patiently until M33 or someone either figures out a workaround to hack the new batteries, or better yet, a way to downgrade the newer Slim’s without a Pandora’s battery.

PS: Before someone asks, I forgot to check what firmware was running on this newer PSP Slim. I had killed the battery and was so frustrated by that point that I took the thing right back to Target

did you read the readme? cuz it doesn't seem like it. it's a blind installation once you see the green light come on. just push "x". the pandora's battery uses the 1.5 kernal to install, and because the slim doesn't support it, the display doesn't work. but it'll install. just push x, and you'll see the memory card and wifi lights come on. once it stops blinking just push x and turn off the psp. and you're good.

[V3N0M]

Whoa thank god dude.. you had me scared there for a minute because I'm not picking up a PSP Slim until the white StarWars ones come out! Wouldn't want to pick up an awesome PSP Slim and not be able to hack it now.

[jondagamkd]

Hey I have a wierd question. I already added a cfw to my psp slim (version 2001pb) via a Datel tool battery and a custom magic memory stick. When I loaded it to service mode with the battery it showed EVERYTHING on the screen with no problem. All there! Every step displayed without a hitch. Now here is my question... why did it show it for me with no problem while every guide I read says I shouldn't see it on a slim?