PSP-SLIM 2001 TA-85v2 - Will not run firmware newer than 4.01

OK, first of all, I'm not a total newb to the PSP CFW scene but this one puzzles me and I've concluded that the flash chip on the mobo must be bad. But before giving the PSP back to its owner, I would like some input from others.

Here's what happened: an acquaintance bought a PSP for her kid that worked fine for the longest time. Recently, she bought him a new game that required a firmware upgrade. She said she executed that upgrade but after it was done and the PSP was supposed to reboot, nothing happened. The POWER light would turn green briefly, the WLAN light would flash briefly, then it would shut off. So she brings it to me.

OK, my first thought was: she tried to flash without having the battery at the proper charge or something. Since that PSP had a v2 mobo that couldn't pandorize batteries anymore, I used my personal PSP-PHAT to do that, which worked like a charm. So I create a MagicStick using Hellcat's tool, but it wouldn't boot. I then re-created another one using a tool collection from Phrotac which worked like a charm. So I install 4.01 M33-2 to the PSP and it works. After returning the battery to normal state, the PSP boots into 4.01 without a hitch.

However, the screen shows garbage, like it has a problem or a cable that isn't fully connected. It disassemble it to check for that and everything is fine. So I research the problem a bit and come across a post about how some chips are not soldered as good as they should and that pushing down on them while turning the PSP on will make them work. And it does for me: if I push down on it between the RIGHT ARROW key and the screen, it works every time. So that issue is sorta fixed.

But when I tried upgrading the firmware to 5.00 M33, again, POWER light works, WLAN briefly flashed, and then it shuts off. So I pandorize it back to 4.01 and try to upgrade it to 6.10 OFW. But same outcome everytime. No firmware works, except 4.01 either OFW or M33-2 CFW.

This leads me to think that since newer firmware is probably bigger in size than the older ones, maybe the chip is damaged and when upgrading to a newer firmware, the flasher attempts to write to that damaged part, causing it to foobar. I can't think of anything else that would cause this behavior but since I'm not expert, maybe someone has an idea??

I'd appreciate any input!! Thanks,
BB

did it have any custom themes etc cos if it did that can screw up a fw flash.
try gettinto recovery (press and hold r at boot up) check kernel cos if its 1.50 it wont upgrade,change to whatever else it shows and try again.
you could also try a reset in recovery mode.

Thanks for your answer!

- As far as I know, if had no custom themes on it, just a plain 3.xx OFW.
- I checked which kernel was activated in the recovery menu and it says 4.xx
- It did the SQUARE+TRIANGLE+SELECT+START reset with no success. Formating flash1 from recovery has the same effect.

I also attempted to install 5.50 GEN but the result was the same after upgrade and shutdown. The green power light stays lit, but nothing happens. When I hold the power switch up for a while, the WLAN light blinks and the PSP shuts off.

EDIT: Forgot to add something odd I noticed. After pandorizing the PSP back to 4.01 M33 every time, it will boot up with either a pandora battery or a regular battery in it. However, another slim that I pandorized to CFW would only boot with a regular battery (which I thought was the way it's supposed to be). Is that normal?

Any other suggestions?

pandora should only boot if you are holding L and have a magic stick in place.
will do some checks and post later.

Originally Posted by Sparks988

pandora should only boot if you are holding L and have a magic stick in place.
will do some checks and post later.

Yeah, that's what it does. What I meant is: once I restore that PSP back to 4.01 CFW or OFW, that PSP boots, no matter what battery is in it. Yet I thought that a firmware only boots when a regular battery is inserted? But maybe I'm getting something mixed up here.

But that's not important anyway, I just want to figure out why updating is not possible. If at least it would give an error of some sort instead of just sitting there with a black screen!

Thanks for trying to help!

have you tried to reformat the ms and then remaking the magic stick, there is some corruption somewhere, maybe even the ms is not compatible, when you returned the battery to normal did you put in the original code or a random one?
just chucking the ball around a bit in case its something we missed.

Originally Posted by Sparks988

have you tried to reformat the ms and then remaking the magic stick, there is some corruption somewhere, maybe even the ms is not compatible, when you returned the battery to normal did you put in the original code or a random one?
just chucking the ball around a bit in case its something we missed.

Well, the magic stick works great! It always returns the PSP to 4.01 M33. I tried to make a magic stick with a newer firmware, but that didn't work.

The problems happen after the magic stick/pandora restore. The PSP works great just on 4.01 but when I try to upgrade it to a newer version, either using a downloaded updater copied to the stick, an updater from a UMD or LAN-update, it screws up. No errors during the update process, I always get the "A shutdown or reboot is necessary to complete" at the end. But after that, nothing.

The non-pandora battery I put it is untouched from another PSP slim that I borrowed. And the one that is pandorized has its serial number saved in a .BIN file so I can restore it when I'm done.

It just seems to me like the firmware upgrade works fine until the end, but somehow the boot code does not get written properly (IPL I believe is what it's called?). It's weird!

are you adding the new update eboot to root of mc (renamed) and the dc8 folder to psp/game folder?

I have a PSP slim that shows lines in the screen unless some pressure is applied to the mobo in the precise location you are having to apply pressure so it seems it may be a weak area on the board. Maybe it was flexed too much somehow or warped by heat (left in a car) I stuck bits of a sponge material(solder tip cleaner) I had lying around to put resistance when the faceplate was screwed down and that worked for me.
On the note of the NAND maybe being messed up, I do believe the homebrew app NANDTOOLS has function to scan and attempt repair of bad sectors of your NAND which may help you out. It's certainly worth a shot.

Originally Posted by carlerakestraw

I have a PSP slim that shows lines in the screen unless some pressure is applied to the mobo in the precise location you are having to apply pressure so it seems it may be a weak area on the board. Maybe it was flexed too much somehow or warped by heat (left in a car) I stuck bits of a sponge material(solder tip cleaner) I had lying around to put resistance when the faceplate was screwed down and that worked for me.
On the note of the NAND maybe being messed up, I do believe the homebrew app NANDTOOLS has function to scan and attempt repair of bad sectors of your NAND which may help you out. It's certainly worth a shot.

Yeah, I took it apart and put a few layers of thin cardboard in there, apparently not enough though. But I can fix that later because if I can't figure the firmware thing out, I'm not gonna worry about the screen And since pre-teen kids were playing that PSP, I'm sure it's had a rough life so far...

I did do a NAND dump of the unit while back and it spotted 3 bad areas but I was under the impression that this was to be expected?! I'll check NANDTOOLS out, can't hurt. Thanks for the hint.

Originally Posted by Sparks988

are you adding the new update eboot to root of mc (renamed) and the dc8 folder to psp/game folder?

The magic stick I'm using uses a different layout. For example, DC7 (yeah, not 8) is located in TM\DC7... It was built using something other than DC and it works.

Originally Posted by BeastyBoy

I did do a NAND dump of the unit while back and it spotted 3 bad areas but I was under the impression that this was to be expected?! I'll check NANDTOOLS out, can't hurt. Thanks for the hint.

I don't know what the norm is.
Every psp I've owned have had Zero bad blocks.

ok yeah that sounds good

Maybe try recreating/restoring your IDstorage under the DC pandora menu. That usually restores loss of function such as a non working umd drive, wifi board, etc. Maybe your psp is just a little outta wack and doesn't know what to do with newer firmware.

Originally Posted by carlerakestraw

Maybe try recreating/restoring your IDstorage under the DC pandora menu. That usually restores loss of function such as a non working umd drive, wifi board, etc. Maybe your psp is just a little outta wack and doesn't know what to do with newer firmware.

But I thought that messing with the IDStorage could actually disable some of the functionality? Because everything works, except for the fact that upgrading or downgrading the firmware from 4.01 turns the PSP into a paperweight.

Also, if I do manipulate the IDStorage, restoring the NAND dump would return it to normal, correct?