Submeg upgrading PSP to 3.03 OE-C

[Submeg]

Hey Harrison my PSP has 2.7.1...hehe sweet. So what the deal with the emulation?

[Harrison]

The first thing you need to do is determine if your PSP is a TA-82 model or not. To do this open the UMD drive and look inside at the bits of the motherboard you can see. You are looking for the serial code IC1003. If this is printed on the motherboard then you have a TA-82 model. If there is nothing there then you have the better earlier motherboard.

This is what I'm talking about:

If your PSP is a TA-82 model then follow this guide:

http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthr...highlight=2.71

But only follow it as far as downgrading back to the 1.5 firmware, as you will then want to upgrade to the custom firmware 3.03 OE-C, which I can explain next.

Or if you PSP is not a TA-82 model then you can follow this guide:

http://www.psphome.com/forum/psp-tut...sp-1-50-a.html

When doing either of these methods make sure you first fully charge up your PSP to 100% and then during the process of downgrading the PSP make sure the mains power supply is also connected to the PSP at all times. If you don't do this it could go wrong and kill/brick your PSP.

Also before you start I recommend you format the memory stick in your PSP, and then once downgraded to firmware 1.5 you format the memory stick again before doing the 3.03 OE-C upgrade.

OK, if you have done that and now have a PSP with firmware 1.5 you are ready to upgrade to the custom Dark_AleX firmware 3.03 OE-C. First before you do anything format the memory stick just to make sure it is clear and fully formatted to work correctly with the current firmware in your PSP.

[Harrison]

Now you are at firmware 1.5 you are ready to upgrade to custom firmware 3.03 OE-C

First you will need to download the files needed:

- Custom firmware installer 3.03 OE-C
- Official Sony firmware updater 1.5
- Official Sony firmware updater 3.03

Once you have all of these files unrar the 3.03 OE-C archive and it contains a guide on how to install the firmware. It is quite straight forward. Just make sure you follow the instructions properly and also format your memory card before doing this and charge your PSP to 100% and leave it connected to the mains power before starting.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Submeg]

Ok, is what I'm looking for inside the UMD slot? I'll take a pic for you of what I can see...

[Harrison]

Yes it is. Just open the UMD slot and then look inside from the back of the PSP. At the very top edge of the inside you should see parts of the PSP circuit board visible. It will either have that IC1003 code printed on the board or no code at all.

[Submeg]

mine has IC6001...

[Submeg]

Sweet, it worked, so how do I get PSPUAE to run?

[Demon Cleaner]

There's a tutorial for PSPUAE on the main site.

[Submeg]

Lol, yea I remembered just after I posted whoops!

[Harrison]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention.

Now that your PSP has 3.03 OE-C, format the memory stick again and it will create a few new directories on the memory stick. When you look at the contents from your PC you will see some new directories.

In the root of the memory stick is a new directory called ISO. Just copy any game ISOs into here, then from the PSP you can go to the memory stick and launch them.

Inside the PSP directory are two new directories, GAME150 and GAME303. Normally if you want to run emulators or homebrew place them into the GAME150 directory, and again to run them

If the instructions with an emulator or homebrew software refer to a method for 1.5 and other versions, just follow the 1.5 instructions.

So for example, with PSPUAE just copy the folders and files it instructs into the GAME150 directory. Then from the PSP go to Game section and then the Memory stick and the emulator should be listed in there ready to load and run.

An additional feature of the custom firmware is a boot menu. When you switch your PSP on you can hold down the R button and it will boot to a custom menu. In here you can change many aspects of how the PSP will work. Only change things if you understand what it will do, otherwise you can mess things up.

A couple of useful features of this Boot/recovery menu are inside the configuration menu.

1, Hide Corrupt Icons is useful to enable, otherwise emulators and other homebrew can display some of their files as corrupt files in the PSP menu system.
2, Use No-UMD - This is an important option. When it is disabled you need to have a game UMD in your PSP when you wish to run any game ISOs. The PSP uses the game UMD to bypass the game protection and boot the ISO. You can however enable No-UMD mode with this option so you don't need a disc in the drive to run ISOs. This doesn't work with all games though.
3, Free UMD region allows you to run Film UMDs from other regions.
4, Fake Region tricks the PSP into showing a game or film it is a specific region.
5, Game Folder Homebrew. This tells the PSP what mode to run files in the normal PSP/Game directory. Leave it as 3.03 and just use the GAME150 for most files as it is easier.

A new feature of the actual 3.03 firmware worth using as an option in the system settings menu. You can now disable the autobooting of a UMD in the drive. So if you keep a disc in the drive so that ISOs boot correctly you can disable them autobooting when the PSP is switched on to stop them running.

I think that is about it. If you have any other questions please ask.