Pandora's battery achieves holy grail of PSP hacking

by Kyle Orland { Aug 23rd 2007 at 7:25PM }

The constant back and forth between PSP hackers and Sony's firmware upgraders may finally be over, with victory going to the hackers. The folks over at N00bz have released Pandora's battery, a downloadable exploit that creates a memory stick and battery combo that can downgrade any PSP back to the extremely hackable version 1.5 firmware. Even better, the hack will fix PSPs that have been "bricked" by previous failed hacks and "will continue to work for all future firmwares," according to the developers.

The exploit is the result of months of behind the scenes work by a team of hackers that figured out how to reset a PSP to Sony's service mode. With hackers no longer needing to concern themselves with how to break new firmware, we can't wait to see what kind of homebrew software the community comes up with for the most powerful portable hardware widely available.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Tags: battery, downgrader, firmware, hack, pandora, PSP

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neebs @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:29PM

Fixes bricked console? *sees PSP sale increase*

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 23rd 2007 8:55PM

Finally we can buy eBay'd PSP bricks. Quick before they realize they worth something again.

Triforceowner @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:33PM

I might want one of these... The home-brew for PSP is really cool. There's even fan made games like Zelda out.

steve @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:36PM

Now if only I could plug this into a 360. Those damn boxes take forever....

tamanchama @ Aug 23rd 2007 10:55PM

blasphemer

Jitty @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:37PM

Wow, this may be good for home brew but I think it will also probably bring about even more people who pirate psp games and buy less psp games. I can just hear the game sales of the psp beginning to drop...

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:37PM

Haha, I have one 3.40OE PSP, and one 3.52... Guess what that 3.52 will be by the end of the day >_> Oh yeah. Then I can have a PSP that doesn't suck. The current homebrew PSP has a busted L button, sucky buttons, cracked faceplate, and a almost not working D-pad. Never buy a PSP used, even if it is the only 2.00 PSP you can find within 50 miles. (Back when 2.00 was the downgradable firmware.)

Phour ZwanZig @ Aug 23rd 2007 11:58PM

Heh.. thats funny, Ive done the same with my 2 psp's..

I bought one (1.5) and then won one.. (2.0)

Kept upgrading the 2.0 one but put OE on my homebrew..

And too, my buttons are funny on the OE one..

phattie @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:38PM

Dont you need firmware's > 1.50 to play a lot of games.. like the 333mhz in God of War; the firmware faker cant fake 33mhz.

Although, you could always buy a PSPslim just for the games.

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:41PM

You don't know the PSP at all do you? Nowadays we run hybrid firmware. Like 3.52 is sonys, we have 3.52M3-4 or something like that. It has both the effects of 1.5 and 3.52. Also, we have been able to run games at 333mhz for over a year I believe.

SKI @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:42PM

Custom firmware unlocked 333mhz a long time ago. And there are many different options to make games think you are using the newest official firmware.

phattie @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:44PM

Yikes.. thats pretty cool. Ive been out of the psp scene since my unit was stolen 1.5 years ago... i might (might) get the slim.

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:48PM

My original PSP, a 2.71, was stolen from me out of my (Locked) car back in April of last year, got a 2.00 around July or something. Then picked up a official around August. But now thats pointless with all the custom firmware, I don't need a extra PSP.

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:48PM

Oh and just a commment, yeah I've had 3 PSP, but I've gone through 3 DS, and now on a DS lite, so yeah... >_> Handhelds, I buy them.

Nate @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:41PM

So will this work on the Slim version?

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:42PM

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the hardware changes they made and if the way the PSP boots is changed. They probably will have a new battery for this type of thing for the slim, or maybe not. We don't know. And wont till it comes out in Europe in 2 weeks.

Guybrush Threepwood @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:44PM

It's been said that old PSP batteries fit into the PSP Slim, so I'm guessing that's a yes.

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:46PM

Just because its fits doesn't mean the way it boots will be the same. I believe all this does to the battery is change its serial to 0xFFFFFFFFF or something like that which causes it to boot into a special mode. So if they change it on the slim, then it wouldn't work.

blooh @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:42PM

glad i never got a psp, too much of this back and forth shit.

also only 1 analog = gay

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:43PM

There really isn't any back and forth stuff... I mean, it runs fine normally. We ourselves choose to use the PSP in ways sony didn't intend. Just like I use a M3 simply on the DS to run emulators and stuff on there. Really nothing back and forth.

Maurice M @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:46PM

Hey, I'll buy another PSP if this means I can import a real (non-Vader) white slimPSP from Europe/Japan and hack it to CFW and can change the region so it plays US UMDs... Just saying...

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:49PM

PSP is region free. You can play any game anywhere. Only thing that won't work is UMD movies... but... who buys those?

Maurice M @ Aug 23rd 2007 9:01PM

I was referring to UMD Movies actually... *I* buy them. And they're a lot more useful with the new slim model since it has video out.

Count Noobula @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:53PM

The people have won at last Sony! They will breath new life into your lame handheld system. And there is nothing you can do to stop us. Long Live Hackers everywhere!

V1L3 @ Aug 23rd 2007 8:24PM

If by "breath new life into" you mean "kill off," then yes. Congratulations, by the way. I'm sure the hard-working developers who work on these games understand that you'd rather steal their software than pay for it, or - better yet - play Super Mario World instead.

You're not the Pirates of the Caribbean - you're not holy avengers standing up against some evil multinational corporation. You're cheap-ass bastards who'd rather have something for nothing, and are quite content to have game prices skyrocket for the rest of us.

Actually, that's somewhat of a kneejerk reaction. People like you are in the minority and probably don't even make a dent in the overall sales. Perhaps that's where this ludicrous "underdog" mentality comes from. Rebellion against any form of business "authority" figure is "cool," apparently, even when it's a business whose primary goal is to bring you entertainment.

I've yet to meet a single person who uses a downgraded PSP for homebrew games, as opposed to running emulators and playing pirated copies of games. And hey, you're more than welcome to it. There are quicker ways to void your warranty (inserting the device in a non-compatible orifice, for example), but it takes all kinds.

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 8:32PM

Oh V1L3, how silly of you.
I use my PSP currently for a glorified Mp3 player, yeah, sometimes I play games, like I've gone back to Lumines 2 and Tales of Eternia multiple times, but I in no way pirate games and what not. I mean, just because the few who do like to brag, doesn't mean that everyone does. I'm sure out of the like, 5% or less of PSP's that can do homebrew, less then 20% of the people have ever pirated a ISO. I've met another person who has access to homebrew before and he has never done that.
Only times I used ISO's was to try demos of games that were only released to few people.

ThornedVenom @ Aug 23rd 2007 8:30PM

HOLY GRAIL INDEED. HACKERS HAVE WON.

Shows how much copyright protection methods sucks. If people want something to open, they will use a crowbar and yank the living shit out of it.

greg @ Aug 23rd 2007 8:46PM

what's a PSP? lol

Kaemon @ Aug 23rd 2007 8:50PM

A miserable pile of secrets!

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 23rd 2007 8:54PM

(in b4 hvnlysoldr) Pirates wore eye patches for night vision!

Ants @ Aug 23rd 2007 9:01PM

Awsome!
if the battery is easily accessible then i might acctually buy a PSP just for the homebrew.

Sony loses.
I doubt many people will buy psp 2000 if this battery can be bought easily.

Phour ZwanZig @ Aug 24th 2007 12:00AM

333 Mhz was cracked open b4 Sony even started to let programmers use it.. Homebrew on 1.5 even had it..

Kizzle @ Aug 24th 2007 12:11AM

Kaemon, respond to this post

Gambit @ Aug 24th 2007 12:55AM

This is how you say OWNED!

rokerovakero @ Aug 24th 2007 2:03AM

now Sony really needs a few deal-braking new features on the firmware upgrades because most people are just going to hack it.

Lanturn of Ash @ Aug 24th 2007 9:48AM

Whoah! So, let me get this straight. Using a memory stick and this program with a new battery will run the PSP in 1.5, and using my regular memory stick and my regular battery will run it like usual? Like a duel booted system? So I can have homebrew AND the latest firmware on the same system?

Also that sucks that they couldn't hold onto it until the PSP Slim release like they wanted too.... it's more than likely Sony will come up with a hardware change to stop it with the Slims now....