PSP Network Update Tricks

Arakon · Post by **Arakon** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 5:21 am

@cory: According to the US Manual, updating the firmware will not be possible unless the PSP is hooked up to the charger, so there's no risk of the battery failing during flash.

Post by **ooPo** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 5:40 am

Interestingly, I originally flashed it using only battery power.

cory1492 · Post by **cory1492** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:02 am

ooPo: you have one of the first units off the line right? (that was meant to sound jealous/envious, even though your flash corrupted the unit)
MC: I agree about the unencrypted files, but the way things stand eventually the ROM will be available one way or another.
@Arakon: Sounds like a reasonable failsafe if its true.

The only thing I disagree with is them charging you to fix it (unless its true there is no way to corrupt the flash, yeah right- or the charge is minimal ie. for the return shipping costs only).

a little off topic but:
I personally hated paying $450CAD for my ps2 only to have the laser fail about 2 weeks after the warranty (no mod was installed) was up, and to be told by Sony that they would send me a "refurbished" unit for the low charge of another $100USD+my old console+I pay shipping, not to mention the fact that the refurb units seem to have a higer failure rate than the unfixed ones.

Post by **ooPo** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:37 am

If it wasn't in the first batch, it was close... my will was weak. :)

Post by **mrbrown** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:31 am

cory1492 wrote:The only thing I disagree with is them charging you to fix it (unless its true there is no way to corrupt the flash, yeah right- or the charge is minimal ie. for the return shipping costs only).

a little off topic but:
I personally hated paying $450CAD for my ps2 only to have the laser fail about 2 weeks after the warranty (no mod was installed) was up, and to be told by Sony that they would send me a "refurbished" unit for the low charge of another $100USD+my old console+I pay shipping, not to mention the fact that the refurb units seem to have a higer failure rate than the unfixed ones.

Sony didn't force the bad flash update on people or publish it - ooPo and others grabbed it and performed the update themselves. If you break your PSP outside of normal wear and tear then why shouldn't they charge you to fix it?

Post by **ooPo** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:36 am

Actually, some bad men from Sony did force me to do it!

I've since changed my locks and carry a can of pepper spray.

Arakon · Post by **Arakon** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 11:07 am

the problem is, later on there will be official updates and the flashing CAN fail even if you do it right.

as for the charger-only flashing, that may be added for the US firmware then, since it's mentioned in the US manual.

cory1492 · Post by **cory1492** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:12 pm

mrbrown: now thats how I remember feeling about my ps2 - normal wear and tear but lousy components, shouldnt sony have footed the bill? dont mind me, Im still a little bitter at them and thats why I learned how to fix the thing myself ;)

mc · Post by mc » Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:01 am

cory1492 wrote: MC: I agree about the unencrypted files, but the way things stand eventually the ROM will be available one way or another.

Of course. The console manufacturers usually make it a point to make our work more difficult though. ;-)

cory1492 · Post by **cory1492** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:11 pm

If it was too easy we might miss it... especially from sony ;)

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:55 am

Just a guess.

This is what I believe the failsafe will actually be.

1) must be pluggedi into charger
2) must have battery power sufficient to complete the flash, in case the charger looses power. This should cover all bases.

I believe sony is capable of writing a foolproof flashing algorithm by checking for both conditions.

I'm sure if a bad update ever actually gets on the official site by accident, then they will fix things for free, but I doubt that will happen.

Cogboy · Post by **Cogboy** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:34 am

it would be imposible to make the flash update procedure completely foolproof, there is always going to be someone who is going to drop it and knock the battery out or something.

Arakon · Post by **Arakon** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:56 am

every time someone makes something idiot-proof, nature comes up with a new idiot.

Post by **Drakonite** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:16 pm

zaphod wrote: I believe sony is capable of writing a foolproof flashing algorithm

NO ONE is capable of this...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:26 pm

Cogboy wrote:it would be imposible to make the flash update procedure completely foolproof, there is always going to be someone who is going to drop it and knock the battery out or something.

Drakonite's right on this, there is no way to make it foolproof. This is why every time the PS2 writes to your memcard it tells you not to turn off power or remove it - some things are out of its control.

At best, the firmware loader can be written to store a relatively permanent copy of the original firmware in a protected area, so as to be able to revert in case of a bad flash. Even this isn't necessarily foolproof, but it provides an extra protective measure in that situation.

Needless to say, it appears that Sony didn't do this...probably intentionally in order to make the cost of experimentation too high. After all, its the rare person that will mess this up.

As for charging to fix it, right now Sony is charging folx who messed it up through no fault of Sony. I actually support Sony's current stance on this, as much as I personally would prefer otherwise.

As for when a real firmware comes out, it is debatable whether Sony would be right to continue to charge or do it for free under warranty. It probably depends on whether bad flashes would still be due to nature's idiots or some lack on Sony's part.

Victor · Post by **Victor** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:55 am

hmm,, some info fome internal qc man.a

me : what you do in qc line? like ps2 use the service test cd?

qc man a: we have special cable and 1 button in qc line for test

me : could you tell me more how did you use do this qc section?

qc man a : when psp come ,we plug to cable to remote port.and press the button.

me : what did you see on screen? have any service menu ?

qc man a : yes, it 3 min loading the bar. than show psp system screen.

hehe. there faq can let we know. some think cool in remote port~

asmodi · Post by **asmodi** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 3:41 am

Victor wrote:hmm,, some info fome internal qc man.a

me : what you do in qc line? like ps2 use the service test cd?

qc man a: we have special cable and 1 button in qc line for test

me : could you tell me more how did you use do this qc section?

qc man a : when psp come ,we plug to cable to remote port.and press the button.

me : what did you see on screen? have any service menu ?

qc man a : yes, it 3 min loading the bar. than show psp system screen.

hehe. there faq can let we know. some think cool in remote port~

Could you please describe this a little more in depth? Or is this all you did find out?

Thanks :)

Victor · Post by **Victor** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:12 am

that is all qc man a tell me

senas8 · Post by **senas8** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:16 am

asmodi wrote:
Victor wrote:hmm,, some info fome internal qc man.a

me : what you do in qc line? like ps2 use the service test cd?

qc man a: we have special cable and 1 button in qc line for test

me : could you tell me more how did you use do this qc section?

qc man a : when psp come ,we plug to cable to remote port.and press the button.

me : what did you see on screen? have any service menu ?

qc man a : yes, it 3 min loading the bar. than show psp system screen.

hehe. there faq can let we know. some think cool in remote port~
Really? hmmmm

mc · Post by mc » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:19 am

Seing as we have found out the "remote" port is really a RS232 serial port on which a packed oriented protocol is spoken, it makes sense that you could access some internal stuff by sending the right commands.

ooPo, if your PSP is still busted, maybe you could try checking the pins of the remote port to see if the PSP sends something when turned on? If it does, it seems like a good chance it could be fixed this way (although you'd need to know exactly what data to send of course).

Pinout is on http://mc.pp.se/psp/phones.xhtml, but don't take it as 100% accurate. RXD and TXD might be swapped, for example.

Victor · Post by **Victor** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:49 am

he only tell me " 1 button cable to remote port "
and i think it hard to know the command.
but i think that it like MD rs232 remote command.

asmodi · Post by **asmodi** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:52 am

Victor wrote:he only tell me " 1 button cable to remote port "
and i think it hard to know the command.
but i think that it like MD rs232 remote command.

Do you know what it does to the PSP? System check of some sort, or is this how they "fix" the broken firmware?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:55 am

mc wrote: ooPo, if your PSP is still busted, maybe you could try checking the pins of the remote port to see if the PSP sends something when turned on? If it does, it seems like a good chance it could be fixed this way (although you'd need to know exactly what data to send of course).

Oopo is currently not in possession of his psp.

However, I might be able to check. The thing is, fixing it this way assumes there is a way to regain control from the bad flash, that there is still a good "rom" inside that can gain control. Maybe there is, I am not sure we know either way as yet.

Victor · Post by **Victor** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:11 am

asmodi wrote:
Victor wrote:he only tell me " 1 button cable to remote port "
and i think it hard to know the command.
but i think that it like MD rs232 remote command.
Do you know what it does to the PSP? System check of some sort, or is this how they "fix" the broken firmware?

i'm not sure, sorry

Victor · Post by **Victor** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:23 am

this one is rs232 to a1 for net md,audio device,and boardcast remote or command/program , it same as qc line / service engineer hardware. just use different software send qc test / service command ( or mod home user music software send service/qc command hehe. )

this one is cam recoder programmer remote, it same as qc line / service engineer hardware. and this remote can open firmware lock edit by user, just user need know what editing the firmware by " HEX ".like : unlock DV in/out, Ntsc/pal , change max zoom,DV/DVCAM format.....etc( see the sony old logo you will know...it must over 10 year)

why i ask that not about psp here, because i want people know. remote port to service / programmer in internal sony is long long ago, it not news,

mc · Post by mc » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:26 am

gorim wrote:Oopo is currently not in possession of his psp.

However, I might be able to check. The thing is, fixing it this way assumes there is a way to regain control from the bad flash, that there is still a good "rom" inside that can gain control. Maybe there is, I am not sure we know either way as yet.

Yes, that's the idea. As I may have mentioned already, it is common practice when making field-programmable devices to have some kind of bootstrap in an un-erasable part of the flash, in order to be able to reset the device to factory settings regardless of what state it is in. As this bootstrap would have to be fairly compact (and totally self-contained, and reasonably bug-free), it will usually only provide very rudimentary functionality (such as reflashing the contents of firmware) typically accessible through a serial port (since serial ports are very easy to control with very little assembler code). From what this "qc man" says (3 minute loading, then PSP system screen), it sounds like he might actually be installing an up-to-date firmware on the systems.

Since the read-only bootstrap would only be available momentarily before giving control to the firmware image, it would probably send some kind of identification when it runs, so that an attached device would know that it is time to break in and sent its commands. This is why I suggested measuring for such a signal at power-on.

The exact function of the "1 button" used still is unclear of course.

mc · Post by mc » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:34 am

Although, if the firmware is really uploaded in its entirety during these 3 minutes, it would probably use a baudrate higher than the 4800 bps used when talking to the remote control. In 4800 bps, there is only time to send 86400 bytes in three minutes.

Not that there is any problem with that; the serial port is probably connected to some kind of internal UART in the CPU, which can handle a wide range of baudrates.

Victor · Post by **Victor** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:38 am

sorry coz qc man a can not tell too much for me
but 3 min, it just like you hardware reset sony clie.....
so the 1 button just like hardware reset

( the qc man a is last section on qc line, when finish the psp will go packing room)

segobi · Post by **segobi** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 10:54 pm

Hi!
I also captured this as a result of the networking testing feature:
Request:
GET http://fj00.psp.update.playstation.org/ ... /trial.txt HTTP/1.0
User-Agent: PSPNetconf-agent/1.0.0 libhttp/1.0.0
Accept: */*;q=0.01
Accept-Encoding:
Accept-Charset: iso-8859-1;q=0.01
Host: fj00.psp.update.playstation.org
Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive

Answer:
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Age: 234139
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 19:43:56 GMT
Content-Length: 1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Expires: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 19:43:56 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=2592000, public
Server: Apache
Last-Modified: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 08:49:37 GMT

p

Post by **ooPo** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 3:10 am

Nifty!