Well, I took a leap of faith and came out on top. I am now running Dark_Alex's custom firmware 3.02 OE-B, capable of running all kinds of cool crap, including PS1 games. Tested thus far? Castlevania Chronicles. Testing next? Castlevania SOTN and Silent Hill (1). Sweet.
I have to say, it was really, really painless. My hand was all but shaking when I went to reboot the thing and it started flashing, but I found a good guide that made it all a piece of cake. Honestly, it'd be pretty hard to fuck this up. I'll list the steps exactly as I did them for anyone interested in following in my footsteps. A lot of people seem really happy with this FW, and I can see why. I'm more or less just transcribing this from the guide I used, so feel free to use his if you have any doubts about me. I'm just typing up my own to make it slightly more detailed for those extra scared, and because his wording was a little funny in a couple places. The guide I used can be found
here.
First and foremost this is for 1.50 PSPs only. Do not attempt this unless you've got a 1.50 PSP. I think I read somewhere that it's possible to go from 2.xx, but that's beyond the scope of what I'm repeating here. This is only for those who were in my situation exactly and want to do exactly as I did to (more or less) guarantee success. Obviously I'm not responsible for you fucking up your PSP, but this is what I did for success.
And, just as one more thing before we take off, here is a FAQ from the guide I linked to. I'm copying it here just to supplement my own little tweak of the guide.
FAQ/Troubleshooting
Q: Is this upgrade definitely worth going for?
A: Read above, yes yes and YES!
Q: Is it possible to downgrade back to 1.5?
A: Yes, I won't go into how here but dont worry about this one.
Q: Will it play all previous devhook games and ISOs?
A: Yes, no problems here whatsoever.
Q: Do you need a UMD in the drive to run ISOs?
A: Yes, there is a 'no-umd' option that can be enabled, but it is not guaranteed to be compatible. So if you have a UMD,(which you should or it is illegal!) or are having trouble running an iso, best just keep the UMD in there.
Q: I want to update to OE-B but there is no GAME150 folder
A: Just create one!
Q: Does this flash or write to memory stick?
A: This flashes, see below for more info.
Q: Is there a possibility of bricking my PSP?
A: Technically with any procedure that requires flashing there is a possibility of bricking, however, thousands upon thousands of people have installed this firmware and there has not being one report of bricking. I will go so far as to say this is 100% safe, as long as you dont do anything stupid. e.g. turning off the power during install, cancelling install, eating your psp for dinner, etc.
Q: How do I run the recovery mode?
A: Hold the right shoulder button while powering on your PSP.
Q: My PSP is firmware 2.50, 2.80 etc. and the installers not working
A: This is only for 1.5 psps. I repeat, not 1.5 emulated from devhook, not 2.71.. A 1.5 PSP. Otherwise you it will not work and you run the risk of fucking your PSP.
(If you are running DAX's older firmware, 2.71 SE, you need the following installer instead of the one above, otherwise the steps are the same. http://www.psp-haxors.com/wp-content/up … ler_SE.exe)
Q: Can I install the update with <such and such> motherboard?
Yes, your motherboard is only a factor in downgrading.
Q: How do I install the OE-XX upgrade?
A: Dark_aleX has made several small updates to his small firmware since this tutorial was written. Each of these are extremely easy and error-free to install, and if you handled following the instructions in this tutorial, there is no reason why you can't follow the instructions in the readme included with the updates. For most it is just a case of placing the eboot.pbp file in the GAME150 directory and running it. Just be sure to read the readme's properly and it is really easy.
Okay... with that out of the way, let's start this thing.
What you need: - A 1.50 PSP
with the battery fully charged. Don't attempt this with a low battery or with any PSP with a firmware version that isn't 1.50.
- 302_BASIC_Installer_150.exe from
right here.
- Get the 3.02 OE-B update listed in
this thread.
Note that I have no idea whether or not things are affected by having the PSP plugged into the wall. I assume not, but I took no chances given that the guide mentioned having a fully battery. I had a fully charged battery and my PSP was not plugged into an outlet. Do otherwise at your own risk.
How to do it:Step I - Get a memory stick and format it. If you have stuff on it, back it up so you can copy it over later. Just make sure you're running from a freshly formatted stick.
Step II - Connect the PSP to the computer via USB cable and enter USB mode.
Step III - Run the 302_BASIC_Installer_150.exe file (the one you downloaded) on your PC. Keep clicking next through the first few screens, then enter the drive designation of your PSP when prompted to do so (I believe it defaults to E:/, so I had to change mine). Note that it may appear to stop or crash while installing, most often reported at 37%. Just be patient, it can take a couple of minutes to get past this, but nobody has reported it stopping for good. If you wait, it'll finish.
Step IV - Once the installer has completed the copying of files to your PSP, exit USB mode and go to Game->Memory Stick->3.02 installer. This is what was copied over to your PSP. Just run it, and your PSP will reboot. You still haven't done anything that could possibly brick your PSP yet, so don't freak out. This is still safe territory.
Step V - Once the PSP reboots it will give you a message. This is the point of no return. If you're going to chicken out, chicken out now. There are onscreen instructions for either continuing or exiting. If you're going to do it, press X to continue.
Step VI - Wait and try not to tremble with so much fear that you knock your PSP off the desk. Just leave it alone and let it do its thing.
Step VII - Once the firmware has been flashed to your PSP, it will give you a message telling you to manually reboot. Obviously this means you don't want to put it in sleep mode, so hold your PSP's power switch up for several seconds until it shuts off completely, then turn it back on again.
Step VIII - You're... done! Welcome to 3.02 OE-A. Wasn't that easy? But there's still a bit more to do (and nothing dangerous -- you're out of the woods).
Step IX - Put your PSP in USB mode once more and run the PC installer again. This time select the "recovery mode" option.
Step X - Select your PSP's drive again and let the program do its thing. It's going to install a nice recovery option so that you can easily revert back to the 1.50 FW if you ever run into the need for it.
Step XI - Open up the .RAR for the 3.02 OE-B update. Instructions are in the readme, but I'll list them here too.
Step XII - You're going to have to *create* the GAME150 directory the readme talks about. That's PSP/GAME150.
Step XIII - Copy over the OEB_UPDATE directory from the .RAR into the PSP/GAME150 directory you created on your PSP, then exit USB mode and go to Game->Memory Stick->OE-B Updater (I forget what it's called in the menu, but this should be obvious). Run this program and watch as it (very quickly) updates stuff. I don't think this is actually flashing. Pretty sure it's just copying files as it's very quick.
And that's it! All finished.
Hope that helps those who believe they want to take the leap. If you need more reassurance, check the original guide I used. There are 14 pages of people asking questions and getting answers. I'm sure you can find anything you need there. If not, post here and we can see if we can find an answer for you somewhere out there.
EDIT - Note also that I didn't go up to 3.03. If you go to
Dark_Alex's site you can find the files for that. I really just wanted to get the PS1 emulation going, so I went no further than was necessary.
EDIT x2 - SOTN works perfectly. Awesome.
EDIT x3 - Silent Hill works like a dream. Feels a little awkward with the d-pad for some reason, but after a minute or two I got used to it. Freaking sweet as all get out. I've been wanting to play through the game again for a while, and being able to do it whenever is just bliss. Because the game scares the fuck out of me and it'll be nice to be able to play it in places where I might be less horrified.
Oh, and 3.03 also apparently gives you the option of somehow compressing ISOs that you're going to play or whatever, but I'm not too sure how that all works and don't feel like dealing with any more shit today. But I may later, as that might allow me to get 2 PS1 games on the memory stick at once. As of now, it's only one. But this isn't the end of the world as the savegames are stored in the usual savedata directory, so you can just swap out whatever game you have on there and not have to worry about backing up saves or anything. Which is great!
