By mikesta99
OK this thread is basically well a Super guide. Am going to try to make this guide at least good enough for every one to understand.
But for now my first part of guide is the PSP CFW Handbook.
Yes a Handbook. Basically the do's and don'ts on what to do your cfw psp.Ok I may not get all of them on my first term. If you got any great ideas places PM them to me first.
PSP Handbook Yours do's and Donts
DO's
Always, Always and Always Back up Your Flash0.
This is the most important thing people forget!
*Don't Delete Only, Always Overwrite.*
Always make a nand dump of your OWN psp.
Tip on how to do so:
Use the last Despertar del Cementerio. Which is Version 4, make the stick and make Pandora, then start it up, The option to make a dump nand will be available.*
DONTS
If you don't know how to flash,
Please learn to do so. It's always beginners that screw this up.
Practice makes Perfect.
Please don't flash a Custom Theme thats not for your firmware.
(example a 3.52m33 theme into a 3.71m33)
If your a Noob, I believe this is important
Please stay away from Recovery menu. Until your fully ready to do so.
Don't rush the process.*
Never use another's psp dump nand, It will cause problems*
(You have been warned!)
Never try to change a psp part (hardware) mods unless familiar to it*
Example: Battery!(please do your research!)
Do not use a different firmware flash0 backup on your psp
Or for that matter any Flash0 that isn't your's
Do not put the cpu clock below default your psp will get messed up
Here is some vocab you may be confused with
OFW - This means 'Official Firmware.' This is the bog standard Firmware That you will get when you buy your System (When it is NEW, We cannot gaurantee that you will get OFW if you buy a second hand psp.)
CFW - This means 'Custom Firmware.' This has all the features of OFW with some extras added in, such as the ability to play Homebrew and 'Unmentionables.' This can be easily obtained through with the help of a MMS, Pandoras Battery and a little bit of patience (in some cases.)
Firmware (FW) - In Order to understand the above two pieces of Explained jargon, you will need to know what Firmware is. It is basically the software installed onto the system in order for it to boot up and run. Think of it as the Operating system on your computer (XP, Vista, etc). Without it you would have useless piece of junk.
MS - This simply means 'Memory Stick' The PSP Uses a 'Memory Stick Pro Duo' But you can use other kinds of cards (such as a Micro SD or a M2 card), but only with the help of an adapter.
MMS - This means 'Magic Memory Stick.' This is one of the two tools you will need in order to 'downgrade' your PSP and install a CFW.
Pandoras Battery - This is the second of the two tools which you will need to install CFW onto your psp. It is a modified battery which makes the psp boot from the MMS instead of where it usually does. You can make one of these yourself or buy one online.
Downgrade - This is simply to install a firmware of a lower version than the one you are currently on. The most common case is to Downgrade to OFW 1.50 in order to Upgrade to CFW.
Upgrade - This is simply installing a Firmware of a Higher version than the one you are currently on.
Homebrew - These are pieces of software made at home by anybody. Some of it is made professionally and some of it is made by some random person with barely and knowledge on such things. Some 'Homebrew' software is briliant, some of the other pieces of homebrew are not so good. This is availible freely on many different websites around the net and is perfectly legal to download and play.
ISO/CSO - These are images of retail games which again, are availible all over the net. These are ILLEGAL to download as it is piracy. On that note i will stop talking about them as it is against forum rules.
XMB - This is the main menu of the psp, when you turn on your system, this is what you are greeted with. It is where you launch your games, movies and music from, and change all your settings. It Stands for 'Xross Media Bar.'
UMD - This is the disc that your games come on. It stands for 'Universal Media Disc' Although it is in no way Universal as the PSP Is the only system which uses it.
POPS - This is 'Playstation One Portable System,' this means that you can paly PS1 games on your PSP as long as you have 'posloader' correctly installed. Unfortunately we can't tell you any more about where to get the ps1 games or anything as again, this is piracy.
EBOOT - When you download a Firmware update, (Custom Or Official), An OFFICIAL game demo or SOME Homebrew, then you will get a file named 'EBOOT.PBP.' It is kind of the psp,s version of a RAR Archive or a ZIP folder. Instead of you having to download a folder and make sure that you copy ever file in the folder to the correct location, you get one file which makes it alot harder to mess up.
Exploit - This is what allows us to run Homebrew when on CFW. When under Firmware 3.5, you can use an exploit to downgrade the firmware of your psp instead of using a Pandoras Battery and MMS.
Flash - You may be familiar with 'Adobe Flash' However this is completely different. The flash memory is where all the information needed for the PSP to run is held, it also holds all your setting's. The main flash folder to be modified by people as it is the folder which contains the most part of the information, (such as gameboots and the XMB waves). However, if you do not know what you are doing then you will most likely brick your psp.
Brick - This is common amongst the psp world. It commonly happens when people run a corrupt firmware update file or when trying to modify flash themes and such. What happens is, you delete (or modify to an extent that the psp can no longer recognise) a critical file in one of the flash files. Usually, if you are already on CFW and are trying to install a Custom Flash theme, then it will probably only be a 'semi-brick' and you will be able to fix it by entering the recovery menu and replacing any file which you modified.
Recovery Menu - The Recovery menu is a special menu which you can access once you have CFW. To open it up you must completely turn off your psp and then turn it back on again, however, to access the recovery menu you must hold the 'R Trigger' while you turn it on. This menu has some options such as allowing access to the flash files, allowsing you to enable (or disable) plugins and features. And change some other 'settings' which you normally can't change.
TA-*** - This is just the code used to identify which motherboard you have. The eariler ones can be hacked but the latest ones cant.
(*** is substitued for numbers)
If you have something ultra-n00b-friendly, send it to me and ill post it up. Dont worry, ill mention your name
