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The Sad Saga of Fail (Gen-A firmware brick)

wolvenreign

New Member
Once upon a time, in a mystical land not known by many (Indianapolis) there lived a happy young hacker and his congregation. One day one of his congregation asked for a simple PSP hack to make it run LittleBigPlanet off of a Memory Stick. "Sure,", said the hacker, "That'll be easy. I've done this a dozen times before." So after booting the Phat PSP 1000 into a HEN environment, he successfully installed custom firmware m33-6. After locating LittleBigPlanet, the hacker proceeded to place it into a bootable folder. But nay, it was not to be! LittleBigPlanet couldn't run on that firmware.

So the young hacker decided to try, for his first time, to update into GEN-A custom firmware, and then climb down to GEN-D from there. But alas! Alack! The PSP took a strange dive; once the firmware was installed, the whole thing froze. "I have heard legends of such strange things,", said he, "It is called bricking! Oh no! For woe!" Luckily he had a Pandora battery from Datel ordered for just such an occasion.

So he bound forth, creating a magic memory stick using PSP Grader. But, oddly enough, it never showed up! Though he try time and time again, when he inserts the magic memory stick and the Pandora Battery, he just can't get it to run! Though the green light flashes, it does not stay. Can you make my day?

(I also tried MSP format, only to come to the same conclusion. Oh yes, and I'm running Windows 7. Any help appreciated.)
 
Nice poetry :)
just to clarify i need some details about the psp.
what is it, phat, slim?
did you successfully install gen A or did it brick?
 
I believe I was clear that it was a PSP Phat.

It's quite strange, because GEN-A said that it had installed successfully, but it froze on the screen that said, "Firmware installed successfully!". Then it shut off, and I couldn't turn it back on.

Off topic: My Steam name is Micheal Jackson based. =D
 
Something is wrong with the magic memory stick. How did you set it up? Sounds like the IPL is missing.
 
he used psp grader with msp format.

+sorry missed that part.

remake the magic memory stick using pandora deluxe
 
When I booted up Pandora Deluxe, it said that my Operating System is Windows Vista, and therefore MSPFormat would fail.

FFFFFFFUUUUU-

Let me try it with Ubuntu's WINE and see what happens. I'll edit this post when I find out.

Edit: Well. I'm hosed. Ubuntu's WINE can't run Pandora Deluxe, only it's installer. Wait, I'll try using WINE's Beta release and see what happens.

Edit 2: Double hosed. Ubuntu's WINE beta won't run it either. I'll try my friend's computer with WinXP.

(As a side note, though...wouldn't it be more profitable in the long run to program these things for Linux? That way you have compatibility with essentially all computers, since Linux is multiplatform and designed to run on pretty much anything. Programming for Windows can only really tie your programs' fate to Microsoft, and cause it to be obsolete over time. Program once for Linux, and you'll never have to do a re-port ever again. As a cherry on top, you wouldn't have to have your programs run only on licensed product.)

(Even if most of the newbies to PSP hacking don't run Linux, so what? I'm an experienced hacker, having done PSP, PS2, X360, Wii, NDS, and various Windows cracks, and I can tell you that even the simplest hacks can mean a lot of learning. If you were to base all this learning around just learning how to use and run Linux, then perhaps in the long run it would be a lot less trouble for everyone.)
 
haha cant be that experienced if you bricked a psp1000 upgrading to cfw in the world of today :laugh:

in vista, right click pandora deluxe and run as administrator, also tick the dc8 box and the tm-ipl. theres no need for mspformat these days.
 
When I booted up Pandora Deluxe, it said that my Operating System is Windows Vista, and therefore MSPFormat would fail.

FFFFFFFUUUUU-

Let me try it with Ubuntu's WINE and see what happens. I'll edit this post when I find out.

Edit: Well. I'm hosed. Ubuntu's WINE can't run Pandora Deluxe, only it's installer. Wait, I'll try using WINE's Beta release and see what happens.

Edit 2: Double hosed. Ubuntu's WINE beta won't run it either. I'll try my friend's computer with WinXP.

(As a side note, though...wouldn't it be more profitable in the long run to program these things for Linux? That way you have compatibility with essentially all computers, since Linux is multiplatform and designed to run on pretty much anything. Programming for Windows can only really tie your programs' fate to Microsoft, and cause it to be obsolete over time. Program once for Linux, and you'll never have to do a re-port ever again. As a cherry on top, you wouldn't have to have your programs run only on licensed product.)

(Even if most of the newbies to PSP hacking don't run Linux, so what? I'm an experienced hacker, having done PSP, PS2, X360, Wii, NDS, and various Windows cracks, and I can tell you that even the simplest hacks can mean a lot of learning. If you were to base all this learning around just learning how to use and run Linux, then perhaps in the long run it would be a lot less trouble for everyone.)

While I agree, you have to take into consideration that the people making these types of easy installers may not run Linux. As for being 'profitable' .. well they aren't making any money off it, so there's no incentive there. Sure Linux has gained much more market share over the past few years but is still only used by a fraction of computer users. Case in point.. 99% of the time anyone developing a free product is going to stick to their OS of choice.

You could try running Windows XP in a VM environment also. I have managed to run the standalone MSPFormat on Windows 7, so I assume it would work on Vista as well, just have to run it as administrator.
 
Well, let me make it clear; even though it said my operating system is Windows Vista, I am running Windows 7.

I have even tried Pandora Deluxe on a computer which runs 32-bit Windows XP, and even though it says the IPL and everything else was placed successfully on the card, it still won't work when I put in the magic memory stick and the Pandora Battery.

What could I possibly be doing wrong?

By the way, you guys will really be pulling me out from under the fire by helping me with this. I don't know how much that means to you, but yeah.

Edit: Even if it is currently only used by a "fraction", because Linux is a free operating system to install, it is always possible to create a partition. It isn't what the reality is now that is important, it's what logically could be. Think about it; how many computers 5 years from now are going to be running 32-bit Windows XP? The incompatibility issues will be extraordinary. Program once for Linux, however, and you have a reliable platform that can and will be ported to every system regardless of technological advance. And think about it; do you really want your hard work to be tied to Microsoft's whimsy? Not to say that they're evil, they're just not the brightest. (Vista, ME, etc. They do what they do out of a sense of monetary profit rather than any actual necessity or art of programming. Speaking of monetary profit, I meant "profitable" in the sense that you're doing what you're doing for a reason, even if it is for free. If you want that purpose to be maintained longer and be without ties to someone else's whim, well, Linux is probably your best bet.)
 
make sure youre pressing the button the assigned boot to before th epandora is in
 
I think he meant the battery, just make sure to hold down the assigned boot bottom before you put it in.
 
I think he meant the battery, just make sure to hold down the assigned boot bottom before you put it in.

yeah and magic memory stick, some people just think its a battery when its both.
Ray said it better then me, make sure your holding the boot key you made when your putting in the battery
 
this is not supposed to happen. when the firmware is successfully installed it gives you 2 choices
1. turn off psp
2. restart psp
 
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