Help with a PSP Stability Problem

Hi All.

I'm looking for a little help/advice from everyone here's knowledgability and I'm hoping someone might be able to help.

I bought a "fat" PSP off eBay with M33-3 3.90 custom firmware already installed (after which I've added the DAX 1.5 custom kernal to enable homebrew) Since I bought it, I have had stability problems with it whereby it randomly hangs and freezes.

When it turns on, generally it's fine and works okay. Movies and music on the stick work through the default player work well and without any reak issue. However, whenever you try to run ANY homebrew type application (PSPlayer XT, emulators, IR Remote, ISO's off the stick, etc) it starts off fine but then will randomly hang shortly after starting. This problem was there both before and after I added the custom firmware kernal to enable homebrew.

I've set CPU speeds of both the XMB and ISO to "Default" from the recovery menu and still no joy and I'm not familiar enough with the firmware to know what to play with to try and fix it. I'm wondering if it's a hardware problem or something to do with the custom firmware

Has anyone had similar problems or does anyone have any suggestions on what I need to look at to fix it? .

I'd appreciate any advice :)

Thanks in advance.

tav

your firmware could possibly be corrupt, try pandoraing and re-upgrading to 3.90 M33

you can probably find a guide for making a pandora and downgrading it via google

also make sure your memory stick is not fake

Thanks for the suggestion hellfire662.

I've Pandora'd down to 1.50 and back up to 3.52 M33-3 and it definately seems more stable than it did before.

It still flakes out when using homebrew and I'm definately using a genuine 2GB Sony Memory Stick (I bought it from the Sony shop ages ago so it should be genuine. Never know though :-)

One other thing I've noticed though. I tried updating from 3.52 M33-3 to 3.90 M33 which should be possible but it's not liking me. I run the update, it checks the firmware okay after which the screen goes blank, the memory stick light flashes 5-6 times and then it drops me back to the XMB with the following message:

"The system cannot be updated. The update data is not applicable for this system (CTA800000025)"

I've tried Googling for the error and not having much luck finding anything that helps. My PSP settings as per recovery mode are as follows:

System Software 3.52 M33-3

Skip Sony Logo (disabled)
Hide Corrupt Icons (enabled)
Game Folder Homebrew (3.52 Kernel)
Autorun program at: /PSP/GAME/BOOT/EBOOT.PHP (disabled)
Fake region (disabled)
Free UMD Region (disabled)
Hard reset on homebrew (disabled)
Use VshMenu (enabled)
XMB USB Device (Memory Stick)

I'd appreciate any more help that anyone may be able to offer.

Thanks again, in advance.

tav

I would recommend you upgrade to 3.90 M33 via Pandora, it will save you a lot of headaches, just use the correct version of Despertar del Cementerio.

Thanks jamotto.

I used DC5 which has taken me back up to 3.90 M33-3 and movies, music and ISO on the stick all appear to be working fine so thanks for the advice.

I'm still having emulators (cpspsp1/2 and PlayerXT in particular) flaking out while playing and that's with the kernal addon and kernal emulation set for 1.5 and using 1.5only versions of the relevant software. The weird thing is that I had the same problem when I tried to run them in Native 1.5 firmware which strikes me as really strange given that these apps were all coded for at least 1.5

I guess the main thing is that it runs music fine and plays movies (albiet in h.264 MP4 format only - This is a pain for all of the TV for all of the TV shows I've recorded on my Home Media Centre PC which are avi) but either way, this has definately sorted out the stability at least.

If anyone has any suggestions on any last things to try, I'm all ears else thanks for reading and the help. Much appreciated.

Also, as a result of the good advice above and having spent the last couple of weeks messing with firmwares, Pandoras Battery and DC5, hopefully I'll be able to "Pay It Forward" and help someone back.

My ultimate sequence of events was:
3.90-M33-3 -> 1.50 (Native) -> 3.52 M33 -> 3.52 M33-4 -> 3.90 M33-3 using both Pandora Battery and Despertar del Cementerio v5 (with only 1 x original battery)

......so if I can offer some help, drop me a PM and I'll help where I can.

Cheers!
tav.

Ah-hah. The plot thickens. I think I've managed to isolate my problem but now I REALLY have no CLUE what to do to fix it because It seems to be something to do with the analog stick.

Whilst playing Final Fantasy: Crisis Core (great game btw), I noticed that whenever the analog stick was pushed into extreme diagonal or moved from a right angle (ie. Up, down, left or right) into a diagonal, the PSP will ALWAYS hang (guaranteed when it's a top-right and bottom-right push).

Now I'm more certain it's this than the firmware I though because the game works perfectly "stabley" when using the D-pad (or at least so far) but as a result, games are far less responsive when using a D-pad.

This suggests to me (being the newbie I am) that something is wrong with the analog stick, the analogue direction connection/interpreter to the mainboard or the mainboard itself. On the other hand, I could be talking complete bummocks.

Does anyone have ANY suggestions as to what else I could do short of opening it up or getting a new PSP (please let there be some sort of calibration thing somewhere)? I know I only use it for MP3's and movies but the fact that it has reduced functionality is going to gnaw at my psyche until I break.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks again.

Tav

Ah-hah. The plot thickens. I think I've managed to isolate my problem but now I REALLY have no CLUE what to do to fix it because It seems to be something to do with the analog stick.

Whilst playing Final Fantasy: Crisis Core (great game btw), I noticed that whenever the analog stick was pushed into extreme diagonal or moved from a right angle (ie. Up, down, left or right) into a diagonal, the PSP will ALWAYS hang (guaranteed when it's a top-right and bottom-right push).

Now I'm more certain it's this than the firmware I though because the game works perfectly "stabley" when using the D-pad (or at least so far) but as a result, games are far less responsive when using a D-pad.

This suggests to me (being the newbie I am) that something is wrong with the analog stick, the analogue direction connection/interpreter to the mainboard or the mainboard itself. On the other hand, I could be talking complete bummocks.

Does anyone have ANY suggestions as to what else I could do short of opening it up or getting a new PSP (please let there be some sort of calibration thing somewhere)? I know I only use it for MP3's and movies but the fact that it has reduced functionality is going to gnaw at my psyche until I break.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks again.

Tav