Questions about UMDs, Firmware, and DevHook.

Well for the last 48 hours I've been reading a virtual ocean of information on PSP homebrew and firmware. I got my PSP back during the first shipment to hit the US and it was a 1.5 PSP. Ever since I saw emulation was going to be possible I kept my PSP at 1.5. When I heard that newer games were requiring new firmware I pretty much consigned myself to having a PSP that only emulated and didn't play PSP games.

Some months ago I shelved my PSP and was busy with other things till only recently picking it back up and discovering an amazing amount of progress in the homebrew department. Taking all these new Apps and discoveries in and seperating the real from risky has been really tedious and time consuming.

There are a few questions I've yet to find the answers to. I've read countless faqs and guides and posts here on DCemu and PSP Hacks and QJ. The FAQs here on DCemu were nice but quite outdated, for instance they would say things like downgrading from 2.0+ is impossible and that it was impossible to run homebrew on 2.0+ firmware even though advances have obviously been made in these departments. So I'm suspect to take any other parts of the FAQ for granted.

My first question is do the new UMD games automatically update your firmware? If I go out and buy a new release for the PSP and attempt to play it on a 1.5 does it automatically update the firmware? Or does the firmware have to be updated manually?

I've seen several people write "accidentally upgraded". In what ways is it possible to accidentally upgrade?

Secondly, obviously, I'm quite interested in DevHook as a means to play new UMDs without updating my 1.5 PSP. Though I've done a lot of reading on DevHook I've not really been able to pin down the risks associated with it. What risk is involved in using DevHook exactly and what exactly leads to these risks?

I'm quite content to just go without if there is significant risk involved with bricking the PSP in any fashion. I'm not wealthy or even financially comfortable enough to brick my $250 PSP (nearly the cost of my rent!).

These are probably my two main concerns which I can't seem to find a clear and deffinent answer for. I'm certain these are really noob issues but we're all noobs at some point I suppose. ;)

Any clarification is greatly appreciated!

Those who "accidentally upgrade" are pretty dumb. Yeah, they clicked "start" to upgrade and put in the power cable. There are NO RISKS associated with DevHook.

Dev Hook cannot brick your PSP because it doesn't write to the flash.

Thanks for the answers guys. So the retail UMDs dont automatically update firmware? You have to tell it to do the update?

only some devhook versions write to flash....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gizmo356

only some devhook versions write to flash....

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Only if you do so, as it won't automatically.

Thanks for the help! Was my understanding correct in saying that none of the retail games will automatically upgrade your firmware without your intervention?

For instance when you run the game it doesn't just load the firmware instantly and ask you to reboot? It gives some kind of confirmation window?

The reason I ask is if I'm going to be loading my games with DevHook to prevent upgrading I don't want to load a game then, because of my limited knowledge of DevHook, "accidentally" update my PSP firmware.

And yeah I'm really paranoid. :D

If this is totally out of the realm of possiblity that would be great.

the games will not update automatically, they will tell you that you need a higher firmware, but that's it

Yes, Sony will NEVER automatically update your PSP's firmware by surprise (too many risks).

Goood. Many thanks for taking the time to give the answers everyone!

no problem :)