PSP Firmwares 2.81 - 3.03 now downgradeable

By MiG-
in PlayStation

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

MiG-

Posted
Posted

from pspupdates.qj.net

Fanjita may have told you guys what to do with a non-homebrew capable PSP, but now it appears that everyone can get in on the homebrew fun! The "goofy exploit" which exists in firmwares 2.00 to 3.03 was found on Friday, January 25, 2007, a date which you'd think might go down in the PSP homebrew history. But it probably won't because despite their seven-day ETA, the Noobz team has once again fortified its position at the top of the homebrew coding ladder with a 3.03 downgrader - just three days after the exploit was found!

Some call it magic, others call it an act of god, but whatever the reason for it, PSP gamers all across the world can now downgrade their consoles to the magic of homebrew-capable 1.5, and then if they wish to do so, upgrading to homebrew-capable custom firmware. All you need is a PSP running firmware 3.03 (if not then update to 3.03 using the update EBOOT found here) the downgrader files and the 1.50 EBOOT as well as an unpatched version of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

Unpatched versions of Liberty City Stories contain the 2.0 update, whereas patched versions contain higher updates. If your copy of LCS has an update higher than 2.0 on it, then you will have to find an unpatched UMD to proceed. There's no need to worry if you have a TA-082 PSP as the downgrader will check your motherboard and patch it if necessary. Note the downgrader will not let you proceed without patching if your motherboard requires it.

Not only has Noobz released a 3.03 downgrader but they've also managed to release a 3.03 HEN (Homebrew Enabler) for the PSP. This means that those of you who aren't too sure that you want to downgrade can still play homebrew on 3.03. This does not flash your PSP, but by running HEN, it installs a patch in your PSP's memory, that allows you to run homebrew almost as if you had a v1.5 PSP. This patch remains in place until you fully turn off your PSP - it will survive the PSP being placed into sleep mode. You run the HEN application just as you do the downgrader using Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

To use this simply download the 3.03 HEN files from the download links below and copy them to your PSP. Then run your unpatched version of GTA:LCS and the patch will apply itself. It will be stored in RAM and will stay there until you reset your PSP. Putting the PSP in sleep mode will not remove the patch. This is based on the source for HEN 2.71 provided by Dark_Alex, so the Noobz team would like to thank him for the code and the help. Additional credits go to Booster, Team C + D for the registry kernel exploit and Mathieulh for the help provided to Dark_AleX.

PLEASE READ: This downgrader has been tested by the highly-successful Noobz team and has been proven to work, however there is a small chance that bricking could occur during the process of downgrading. QJ.Net and the Noobz team are not responsible for any damage which may happen to your PSP by this application. Can you also note before use that it is possible to brick using this downgrader if you downgrade and then update to 3.03 and then downgrade again. The advice from Fanjita right now is to only use this once. If you update to 3.03 again after using the downgrader then we suggest you leave it there to prevent your PSP from bricking.

Now we've got the boring bit over with, we can move onto the downgrade process itself. Here's QJ's "how to" for downgrading from 3.03 to 1.50:

1. Update to firmware 3.03. If already have this firmware then proceed to step 2.

2. Open the 3.03 downgrade file and copy the contents of the folder MS_ROOT to the root of your memory stick.

3. Open the 1.5 update and rename the EBOOT.PBP to UPDATE.PBP then copy it to /PSP/GAME/UPDATE/

Make sure not to overwrite PSP/GAME/UPDATE/EBOOT.PBP

4. Load Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (unpatched)

5. It should get to loading save game, clear the screen, the screen should fill with a light blue color and then reset the PSP

(If this does not happen see below)

6. Check that HEN is running by going to system settings then System Information and it should show up as system version 303 HEN

7. If it is showing up as 3.03 HEN then go to the memory stick and run the x.yz update

8. Before the downgrader does anything to your PSP it will ask for you to agree to what it is doing

If you no longer want to continue press the Right Shoulder Button (R-TRIGGER).

9. Once you have agreed to start the downgrade do not unplug the PSP

10. Once finished the PSP will ask you to press X, after pressing it will reset it self.

11. If it comes up saying that the settings are corrupt press X to continue.

12. Enjoy your new shiny 1.5 PSP.

What do you do once you have firmware 1.5? Well, you can either start downloading homebrew games from our QuickJump Downloads site and use DevHook to run your current homebrew games or use the more popular which is to upgrade to Dark_Alex's 3.03 OE-C Custom firmware. The friendly people over at our forums have even created an easy-to-follow installation guide for 3.03 OE-C if you've never used custom firmware before. This will give you all the features of 3.03 and the ability to play homebrew and PSX games too! It doesn't get much better than this. [updated Video of the downgrade process after the jump, thanks to demologik]

Download links:

Hen 303 - http://dl.qj.net/Homebrew-Enabler-%28HEN%2...12430/catid/114

Downgrader - http://dl.qj.net/Downgrader-for-v3.03-PSP-...12431/catid/114

Well, it was bound to happen, but with an exploit that was apparently patched ? lol.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • IBM reveals sub-1nm chip technology, production expected in another 5 years

      By Yogurth · Posted

      Which finger's fingernail are we talking about? I can see how not having this info can lead to massive differences in interpretation.
    • This Chinese company is reportedly developing a feature Apple and Samsung can only dream of

      By Hamid Ganji · Posted

      This Chinese company is reportedly developing a feature Apple and Samsung can only dream of by Hamid Ganji While companies like Apple and Samsung have been relatively conservative with their devices’ battery capacities in recent years, Chinese manufacturers have taken the competition to the next level by introducing significantly larger batteries. However, the latest report from China suggests that a local company may already be developing a smartphone with a whopping 14,000mAh battery. Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station claimed on Weibo that a smartphone maker is developing a device with a 14,000mAh battery. If true, it would be the largest battery ever used in a smartphone and could, in theory, provide up to a week of battery life on a single charge. The leaker did not reveal the name of the company behind the device, but there are some clues. This week, HONOR unveiled the X80 Pro Max in China with an 11,000mAh battery and 90W wired charging support. The company also launched the Honor Win in January, which packs a 10,000mAh battery. HONOR, a former subsidiary of Huawei, has a proven track record of developing smartphones with unusually large batteries. However, other Chinese brands, including Xiaomi, have also launched devices such as the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max with 7,500mAh batteries. Though Chinese users on Weibo also believe the company behind the new battery is HONOR. Interestingly, Digital Chat Station said the device with the 14,000mAh battery weighs around 220 grams, making it lighter than the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (233 grams) and slightly heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (214 grams). The iPhone 17 Pro Max currently packs a 5,088mAh battery in eSIM-only versions, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra features a 5,000mAh battery. Neither device is expected to see a dramatic increase in battery capacity in its next-generation successor. So when it comes to battery comparison, Chinese brands are unbeaten. HONOR smartphones are currently available in the EU, but the Chinese brand has no official presence in the United States due to restrictions imposed by the U.S. government.
    • IBM reveals sub-1nm chip technology, production expected in another 5 years

      By xrobwx71 · Posted

      https://i.imgur.com/dNY9tNv.png
    • Rufus alternative Ventoy now supports Windows 11's mandatory update, fixes major boot bug

      By Skyfrog · Posted

      I'm not sure I would call Ventoy a Rufus alternative.
    • Qualcomm takes on NVIDIA with new Dragonfly CPU and AI chips

      By pradeepviswav · Posted

      Qualcomm takes on NVIDIA with new Dragonfly CPU and AI chips by Pradeep Viswanathan Microsoft, Google, Amazon, AMD, Meta, Apple, OpenAI, and several others have been developing their own chips for AI infrastructure. However, NVIDIA still remains the dominant player in the market. Today, Qualcomm announced a major expansion of its data center infrastructure portfolio to better compete with NVIDIA. The new lineup includes the Qualcomm Dragonfly C1000 CPU, Qualcomm High Bandwidth Compute technology, the Dragonfly AI300 inference accelerator, new connectivity products, and custom silicon solutions. Qualcomm claims that this new lineup improves performance per watt, token throughput, and total cost of ownership for AI data centers. The Dragonfly C1000 is a new data center CPU built with Qualcomm’s custom Oryon cores. This chip will feature more than 250 cores, frequencies above 5GHz, and a chiplet-based design. Qualcomm claims that this new C1000 can deliver more than 2x better performance per watt compared to existing server CPU offerings based on specifications. The Dragonfly C1000 will support PCIe Gen 7 with more than 2TB/s of connectivity, along with CXL, advanced RAS features, and both air and liquid cooling. Qualcomm expects the Dragonfly C1000 to be commercially available in 2028. Additionally, Qualcomm and Meta announced a multi-year, multi-generation agreement under which Qualcomm will supply Dragonfly C1000 data center CPUs for Meta’s next-generation server fleet. Qualcomm also announced High Bandwidth Compute, a new near-memory computing architecture designed to address AI’s memory bandwidth bottleneck. HBC Gen 1 will debut with the Dragonfly AI250, which is expected to sample in mid-2027. The AI250 will deliver 133TB/s per card, an 18x increase in effective memory bandwidth compared to the AI200 with LPDDR5X. The new Dragonfly AI300 with HBC Gen 2 is a rack-level AI inference platform from Qualcomm. Qualcomm claims that the AI300 can deliver 4x to 8x better performance per watt compared to existing GPU-based architectures based on memory bandwidth per watt per card. The Dragonfly AI300 is expected to be available in 2028.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Meta Plast earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      kinowa earned a badge
      First Post
    • Rookie
      krychek57 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Grand Master
      Jaybonaut went up a rank
      Grand Master
    • One Year In
      Philsl earned a badge
      One Year In

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      461
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      171
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      136
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      78
    5. 5
      Xenon
      77
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!