Members of the QJ forums seem upset that they can't upgrade to Sony's latest official firmware. Why? Because they've been using custom firmware on TA-082 PSPs. The 3.30 firmware installer doesn't seem to run on these modified systems, giving a mysterious 'DRNffffffd7 error code." These glitches seem to mirror the many found when Ratchet & Clank was released. So much for respecting the homebrew scene, huh?Firmware 3.30 gives users some important functionality, such as official support for full-resolution videos and free internet access at T-Mobile Hotspots nationwide. For now, it seems as though users of custom firmware will have to wait until Dark_Alex and the rest of the homebrew community work their magic again.
[Via PlayStation]
[Update 1: A patch has been released for those with TA-082 motherboards. You must restore your system to 1.50, then run this patch, in order to run Sony's official upgrades. Via PlayStation.]













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-29-2007 @ 3:20PM
mjalelmand said...
Serves 'em Right, I say. That's what you get for modifying a product that the company doesn't want you to.
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3-29-2007 @ 3:53PM
txa1265 said...
Why am I having a hard time finding sympathy for a crowd that consists largely (not entirely, but the majority) of people doing this so they can used pirated games ... ?
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3-29-2007 @ 3:55PM
sponge_killer said...
So if Sony is making PSP owners choose between their firmware or Dark_Alex's firmware, is this kinda, sorta allowing homebrew?
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3-29-2007 @ 3:58PM
God of War is the ONLY GOW said...
Go SONY!
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3-29-2007 @ 3:59PM
SKI said...
If Sony is making PSP owners choose between official firmware or use Dark-Alex's firmware, is this kinda, sorta allowing homebrew?
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3-29-2007 @ 4:18PM
Saigon said...
"So much for respecting the homebrew scene, huh?"
I think it's more like they're not respecting pirates, and trying to deter potential ones.
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3-29-2007 @ 4:41PM
h0mi said...
So if I have custom firmware but decide to upgrade to sony's official firmware, this doesnt work? I'd think Sony would want to convince people to move _away_ from the homebrew firmwars.
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3-29-2007 @ 4:44PM
Dave said...
Users of Dark_Alex's firmware can downgrade to official 1.50, and then upgrade to official 3.30. Sorry, Homebrew wins again.
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3-29-2007 @ 4:45PM
SuicideNinja said...
This cat and mouse game is really annoying. This type of thing doesn't happen on the DS.
It sucks how everyone who likes homebrew is instantly labeled a pirate. There is some pretty cool homebrew out there that is way more useful than anything Sony provides.
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3-29-2007 @ 4:55PM
mahes said...
I love the self-righteous comments from "official" users. Have you guys even SEEN the homebrew programs out there? When I go out. I could understand the assumption that everyone was using the homebrew-friendly firmware to pirate if the programs and games being released because of it were crap. But there's stuff out there that wipes the floor with COMMERCIAL apps released on the system. So please just get off your high horse. Half the crap that's on your console is because of these awesome hackers. Anyone who has done business with Sony knows they would NOT push the envelope on anything without competition being there...
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3-29-2007 @ 5:23PM
Saigon said...
@Mashes With the exception of the mjalelmand's comment, nobody here implied that all homebrew users were pirates. Also, I do know ALOT about homebrew, and there is very little about it that impresses ME. So why don't you get off your high horse, and stop suggesting that anybody who doesn't use homebrew, has a useless device. Stuck up retard, LEARN TO READ!!
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3-29-2007 @ 5:26PM
Extinction said...
"This cat and mouse game is really annoying. This type of thing doesn't happen on the DS."
Actually it does.
-Users of the first version of flashMe found their systems bricked completely when the first online capable games came out, which were programed to overwrite flashme.
-The passkey1 was locked out via hardware revision
-And now Nintendo is revising the Wii motherboard to deter modchips
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3-29-2007 @ 5:55PM
mahes said...
Saigon:
i think it's you who's mistaken, my friend. there are 3 comments, not 1 that bashes he homebrew "scene" (2 that openly do so, on that merely suggests a condescension towards it. i never implied at any point that their "legal" system was useless - merely that they shouldn't condemn that which paved the way for the features they have. and to help you with the inevitable flame that will follow this comment, go here: http://www.insultmonger.com/generators/index.htm hopefully you'll come up with something better than "stuck up retard", lol...original.
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3-29-2007 @ 6:52PM
tenmohican said...
didnt really like the idea of flashing my psp more than needed, doing the homebrew route doesnt make the psp much more attractive unless u prefer playing pirated games, which I personaly have no arguement against other than it is a deterrant for companies to put money into a game that just gets pirated anyway.
In the long run it hurts the game companies that develop those new games, as they now have to spend more $$$ to make the game DRM type of game to get paid for their work into it.
Now, why everyone doesnt just pirate everything and create advertisement $$ off the sheer ammount of traffic it would create is beyond me... kind of a uphill battle for both consumers and game producers with the DRMs on products.
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3-29-2007 @ 9:07PM
TwoLOUD said...
I dont care what you morons say. Homebrew users 99% get it for illegal games. (as i said this before and will stand by it) Download games from torrents and use them so there cheap asses dont have to support the game companies. Im glad there 'trying' to stop this homebrew mainstream crap. But I as well as you people know homebrew will always be around. Its a sad thing to say 'i bought the system now its mind i can do what i want'. Which is true but thats not the point of this subject. I just bought me a kickass car. Now Im stealing the rims and sound system cause its the cool thing to do. Noobs.
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3-29-2007 @ 9:33PM
wildweasel said...
I'm a homebrew user, and I haven't bothered pirating anything at all. I'm actually quite satisfied with stuff like PSP Dungeons, No Gravity, rRootage, and the PSP port of Doom (of which my legitimately purchased copy of Doom 2 works quite well with). For this reason, I detest comments like mjalelmand's.
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3-29-2007 @ 9:39PM
Bedammit said...
OK...
Listen people...
When you buy a device, its yours.. you can smash it take it apart etc.
This is wholly different than theft.
So those of you who think that Homebrew should be completely stopped, better be driving completely stock cars. After all it is YOUR choice to modify it and if that voids a warranty so be it. There are no laws against it and you are actually PROTECTED by US law to do such manipulations personally.
I dont support game theft... however I do support Homebrew...
What needs to happen is a third party company needs to sell a game that is playable on homebrew. Maybe make it an MMORPG or something that would have a monthly subscription.
Homebrew is actually IMPROVING the platform as can be seen by the latest feature in the 3.30 release.
And TwoLOUD.
IT IS THE COOL THING TO DO.
The current generation of gamers and technology lovers are wooed by flexibility. That is what makes some products sell!
Consider the Linksys WRT54 wireless router.
There are TONS of public firmware out there. Given it was originally developed on a linux public license and the source is freely available. The mere fact that people are interested and are modifying is something that SHOULD be embraced. Business have to figure out how to make this ingenuity pay them also. If that means higher priced units and lower priced games
voila!
I better not hear.. oh but the PSP isnt open source...
Thats not my point ... its the interest in modifying that I am speaking to.
If game vendors want to sell games they need to lower prices...
19 bucks gets me to buy a game that I want almost every time.
I have to go..
I need to put some tin foil on my antenna to get a better signal...
oh wait..
thats modding...
I guess I shouldnt do that ...
hmmph!
Bedammit
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3-29-2007 @ 10:22PM
txa1265 said...
I fully support homebrew - and wish that Sony did.
I fully abhor pirated software and the lazy, self-rationalizing jerks that use it. And I wish Dark Alex would take the initiative to include something so that people could run games off memsticks *only* is they had the UMD's to do the initial rip.
That would be 'fair', wouldn't it - if you don't support that you must be a pirate!
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3-29-2007 @ 11:24PM
Kichigai Mentat said...
If Sony gave me the ability to run my own PlayStation games on the PSP, it'd be a long ways toward me giving up custom firmware. If they let me customize my XMB with different waves (not *just* backgrounds) would be nice. How about this: if Sony *listened* to its customers, there probably would have been less of a call for this. I didn't hack my XBox to play downloaded games (I BOUGHT my copy of Halo 2 on launch date. I BOUGHT my copy of Halo when I got my XBox), I hacked it for XBMC. If Sony gave us full-resolution video and RSS (Web RSS too) when we asked (or at least without homebrewers having to hack it in first), people probably would care less about it. They'd all be like "why should I risk my warranty? I already can do that with my PSP."
The reason Sony is in trouble with homebrew is because they ignored their users, and forced them to make less-than-authorized modifications to their system in order to get what they want. Want proof of another situation like this? See XBox Linux. People wanted Linux on their XBoxes, MS wouldn't give it to them (big surprise), so the XBLin crew had to crack the kernel, and people figured out how to use that for their own purposes.
Sony did things right with the PS3, however. They gave homebrew users a sandbox so that they can run whatever they want on the PS3, but the important, secure parts of the PS3 kernel (including the BD-ROM DRM subsystem) are not available for tinkering with. Most people feel pretty content with that. Now if only they did something like that with the PSP...
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3-30-2007 @ 12:01AM
SKI said...
This is from reading Dark_Alex's OE custom firmware readme files:
" Because official SCE updaters don't work in that 1.50 kernel environment (because they need some vsh files not available), i've included with this package a flasher that lets to flash any official update from 1.50-2.71 to your psp. To use it, copy the files inside inside "flasher for recovery/RECOVERY" in /PSP/GAME/RECOVERY/ and the official SCE updater renamed as UPDATE.PBP in the same directory, and run the program through the recovery option."
It tells you not to try to update. And if nothing from the homebrew scene impresses you, you must not have looked. psp-news.dcemu.co.uk
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