GUIDE TO GETTING CFW ON PS3 VERSION 3.55​

Guide objectives :

- Install Custom Firmware 3.55

- Connect to PSN (optional step)

- Install and launch Homebrews

- Transfer files between Computer/PS3

- Play games with managers
​

Guide Contents & Index:

GUIDE 1: INSTALLING CFW:

- Pre-requisites

- Procedures

- PC Stuff

- PS3 Stuff


GUIDE 2: CONNECTING TO PSN

- Pre-requisites

- Procedure
​

GUIDE 1: INSTALLING CFW AND BACKUP MANAGER​

- PRE-REQUISITES -​

0) A FAT32 formatted USB drive

Most low-capacity USB drives are already FAT32 formatted. If your's isn't, right click on the drive letter of your usb(eg: E:\) and click on Format. Choose FAT32 and Quick Format it.

1) OFW 3.55(if you don't already have it)

Download (Use the mediafire link.)

MD5 CHECKSUM: ca595ad9f3af8f1491d9c9b6921a8c61


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Make a new folder on the root of a usb drive and call it PS3. Make another folder inside it called UPDATE. Put the 3.55 update in here and make sure that it's named, 'PS3UPDAT.PUP'. Now put the usb drive into the PS3 and go to Settings -> System Update and choose Update via Storage Media and press 'X'.

2) CFWM 1.5 Small Version [32MB]

Download

Used for obtaining Custom Firmwares.

3) MultiMAN:

BASE

This is currently the best backup manager.

- PROCEDURE -​

- PC STUFF -​

STEP 0: CREATING A CUSTOM FIRMWARE

Automatic Patching:​

1) Create a new folder on your desktop and call it 'CFWM'. If you downloaded OFW 3.55 earlier, skip step 3 and create a new folder inside this folder called 'Original_3.55_FW'. Copy the PS3UPDAT.PUP to this folder.

2) Extract the .exe from inside the CFWM archive to this folder.

3) Now, open the .exe and choose 'Download 3.55 OFW'.

4) After it has finished, choose any CFW from the 3.55 section and click on Create Custom Firmware 3.55.

NOTE: I recommend Kmeaw's 3.55 CFW.

Manual patching:(by Cyan)​

1) Download CFWM v1.5 Full version (+batch by Cyan) [152MB]. and create a new folder on your desktop and call it 'CFWM'. Now, extract everything from that archive to this folder.

2) Place the downloaded OFW 3.55 in 'Original_3.55_FW' folder (or OFW 3.41 in 'Original_3.41_FW' folder).

3) Double click on the Batch file corresponding to the cfw you want to create (ex. Kmeaw_3.55.bat) and follow the instructions. Verify that both MD5 hashes are matching at the end of the process.

4) The patched cfw is now available in newly created folder named after the cfw you chose.

STEP 1: TRANSFERRING EVERYTHING TO THE USB DRIVE

Okay, now lets start transferring the CFW and the Backup Manager to the USB drive.

1) On the root of your USB drive, create a new folder called 'PS3'. Now inside 'PS3' create another folder called 'UPDATE'.

2) Go to the 'CFWM' folder and now go to the folder of your chosen CFW.

3) Find the PS3UPDAT.PUP file and copy it to the 'UPDATE' folder which we created.

4) Open the multiMAN archive.

5) Extract multiMAN WT.pkg, USB.CFG and options_default.ini to root of your USB drive.

- PS3 STUFF -​

STEP 1: INSTALLING KMEAW CFW

1) In the XMB, go to Settings -> System Update.

2) Now select Update Via Storage Media.

3) A message will pop-up.

4) Press 'X'.

5) It should install successfully. If you get any errors, try installing it using Recovery Mode.

STEP 2: INSTALLING MULTIMAN BACKUP MANAGER

1) In the XMB go to Game -> Install Package Files.

2) Select MultiMAN and install it.

3) If you want to play games with Kmeaw cfw, you need to install this using the 'Install Package Files' option in the Game section of the XMB.

STEP 3: ENABLING NTFS ON MULTIMAN (OPTIONAL)

[title: ENABLING NTFS ON MULTIMAN]

1) Plug your external hdd into your PC and download this.

2) Install usbview and open it.

3) Grab the vendor id and the product id.

4) Now create a new notepad file and put this in 0xVNID:0xPRID:V where VNID is the vendor id and PRID is the product id and V is the number of volumes.

5) Now save it as USB.CFG and copy it over to the root of your USB Drive. If it asks you to replace it, do so.

6) Now download Awesome File Manager and install it on your PS3.

7) Run it and browse to /dev_hdd0/game/BLES80608/USRDIR

8) On the other side you should find a directory that has "USB" in it, the inside directory should have your "USB" file.

9) Highlight it and press O to copy it into MultiMAN USRDIR.

10) Now go back to multiMAN and press Start + /\.

11) The NTFS driver should be activated now.

NOTE: Currently you can only copy from an external NTFS hdd to your internal hdd. Nothing more, nothing less.

-END OF GUIDE 1-​

GUIDE 2: CONNECTING TO PSN​

Spoiler: GUIDE 2: CONNECTING TO PSN. THIS DOES NOT WORK CURRENTLY AS THIS METHOD HAS BEEN BLOCKED BY SONY

THIS DOES NOT WORK AS OF 3/18/2011. FOR MORE INFO, GO HERE.

- PRE-REQUISITES -​

0) A FAT32 formatted USB drive

Most low-capacity USB drives are already FAT32 formatted. If your's isn't, right click on the drive letter of your usb(eg: E:\) and click on Format. Choose FAT32 and Quick Format it.

1) TEAM REBUG'S 3.60 SPOOFER

Visit Team Rebug website to download a list of URLs

Select a link from the provided list in the text file to download the installer.

- PROCEDURE -​

INSTALLING TEAM REBUG'S 3.60 SPOOFER​

1) Extract 3.60_Version_Spoofer.pkg from the archive you downloaded to the root of your USB drive.

2) Plug it in to your PS3

3) In the XMB go to Game -> Install Package Files.

4) Select 3.60 Version Spoofer

5) Once loaded Press the 'X' button to install. It will take about 15-45 seconds.

6) When it prompts for a reboot, do so.

STEP 2: INSTALLING FUCK PSN (OPTIONAL. USE THIS FOR SPOOFING YOUR CONSOLE ID).

1) Download dev_blind.pkg, fuckPsn-v0.6.exe and CA27.cer from here. Copy dev_pkg and openps3ftp.pkg from the OpenPs3Ftp archive to the root of your USB Drive.

2) On your desktop, create a new folder. Let's call it Fuck PSN.

3) Copy CA27.cer and the fuckPsn-v0.6.exe file to this folder.

4) Now download an FTP server. I personally use FileZilla.

5) Install it.

6) Now plug-in your USB Drive into your PS3.

7) In the XMB, go to Install Package Files and install dev_blind and OpenPS3FTP.

8) Go to Game and launch dev_blind to mount the flash as writable

9) Now on your PS3 run OpenPS3Ftp and on your PC run Filezilla or whichever FTP server you use.

10) Go to FileZilla and enter root as the username and openbox as the password.

11) Now using FileZilla go to /dev_blind/data /cert

12) Rename CA27.cer to CA27.cer.bak

13) Now copy over the CA27.cer from the FuckPSN directory that we created earlier to /dev_blind/data/cert

14) Now change your PS3's primary and secondary dns servers to your PS3's IP. If you don't know how to change the DNS servers look here.

15) After you're done changing the DNS servers, reboot your PS3 and launch FuckPSN.exe from the folder we created earlier.

16) You can now connect to PSN.

-END OF GUIDES-​

F.A.Q.(by Cyan)​

Main questions

Q. Can I use burnt Bluray discs to play games?
A. No. Only Internal and External HDD is working with backup managers.

Q. I updated past 3.55, is there any way to get the 3.55 custom firmware from there?
A. No. There's no way to downgrade from 3.56+ firmware yet using a software method. Though, there is a way to downgrade some FAT PS3 involving Infectus modchip.

Q. I'm on 3.50 or bellow. Do I need to install the Official Firmware 3.55 first?
A. Even if installing a cfw3.55 over an old fw should work, it's recommended that you update your PS3 to the same Official Firmware as the cfw you want to install first to avoid bricking your console.

Q. I'm on 3.41 or bellow and don't want to update to 3.55, do I really need to install 3.55 to use a cfw?
A. No, you can install Hermes cfw 3.41 (please update to ofw 3.41v2 first) and follow the guide the same way. Just don't install the Version Spoofer from Team Rebug (It only works on 3.55).

Q. I'm already using a cfw but I want to change for Kmeaw 3.55
A. First re-install the ofw 3.55 over your current one, then follow the guide again.

Q. How big should be my USB drive just to install it, not to play back ups?
A. Around 200mb.

Q. Where can I find all previous Official Firmware and their MD5 hash ?
A. Sony removed previous firmwares from their servers when the first jailbreak method appeared. You can still find remaining links and all the informations here.

CFWM

Q. The program doesn't start.
A. You need .Net framework 4.0.

Q. Where can I find .net4.0 ?
A. Here

Q. I don't want to install .Net4.0. How can I still patch the firmware?
A. You can use bspatch program to patch the firmware manually. Follow the manual patching method in the Guide.

PSN

Q. Can Sony ban my PSN account?
A. Yes, as Sony can't ban your Console ID, they can ban your account. But you can always create a new account, while unbanning the PS3 itself will be harder.

Q. Can I play online with all games?
A. You can't play online anymore. You need the 3.62+ official firmware to connect to PSN.

Q. FuckPSN is not working, what can I do?
A. You need .net Framework 3.5, and if you are using a firewall you need to open these ports : 53 UDP, 80 TCP and 443 TCP. You may need to close Skype.

Multiman :

Q. When I press start+triangle to enable NTFS it freezes
A. Your NTFS partition needs to be primary and active.

 

[JFTS]

damaged, maybe.
Due to backing up games, no I don't think so.

The drive's job is to read discs.
some games require constant reading of the disc, even if it's not from start to end in one pass, so it's not backing up which damaged it, playing is also affecting it.

Did you try other games (which worked fine before) to see if they are also lagging now?
Maybe it's just Uncharted 2 which has a problem.

I tried some other games. They lagged a little bit, but nothing like Uncharted 2 which doesn't even load the main menu. However I can't say for sure, because I think you naturally have minor slowdowns on some games. It just seems that the whole console is lagging lately.

 

[Coto]

I just got into PS3 brew world last month since I've bought a SLIM CECH-2001 (buggy PSU, and 65nm RSX yay) so I put a fan as soon as I could. Anyway, since I wanted to enjoy homebrew on it, I had to research and all that..!

So (small story):

Spoiler

When I bought it, I took an USB pendrive , and put inside x:/PS3/UPDATE/ an app called "MinVerChk". It'll tell you the base firmware you PS3 can have (mine was 2.70 iirc). It'll work on any OFW since it launches as a local update (through USB).

Then I had to pay to softmod it, I believe those guys used rogero v2 3.55 spoofed to 3.70. Anyway, a day like any other, I decided to switch to kmeaw's by installing OFW 3.55 through service mode. My ps3 was in mint condition since I've had played GTA IV the whole day. Well, when the upgrade reached 51% it simply "shut off", leaving a blinking pseudo standby red led.

Took out the power plug, popped it in, pressed power to turn it on. green led blinking, after 3 seconds, ylod then rlod. Dead PS3.
I had to take it to those guys who did the downgrade (mine was in 4.11, the method was through an E3 Flasher). Hopefully I had a copy of my NOR (16MB) when they did the downgrade.

When they rewrote the corrupted NOR (ylod can be because of flag_hardware returning error upon bootup, be it rsx,cell,nand,nor,sysconf,etc), it'd YLOD again on my face.. So yeah, a week-old just bought PS3 was dead because of a bad OFW restore (even rogero says you can do it anytime you want, since he removed LV2 checks), or maybe worse, a poorly performed downgrade.

I had to get an E3 flasher, solder to ground-point "tristate" on PS3 motherboard, so it'd return glod (green led of death) and let you access physically NOR/NAND without the system turning off...

Then, I had to byte-swap the NOR backup (because E3 flasher backup NOR mode writes on-reverse NOR/NAND headers), use a PSP as a jig-stick PS3 service mode enabler (it'll send special commands through USB), so my PS3 didn't ylod on me anymore.

Upon power up again, I had no longer ylod then rlod, but glod (contiuous green led of death, without nor tristate soldered, which meant the hardware was initialized correctly and waiting) but I had no video output or anything... but USB access! (ylod/blinking rlod can't reach that state, because of failed initializing some of ps3 vital chips). So, I could enter service mode (btw psp-jigstick is known to do NOT work on 6.xx fws, which is false because I have 6.20 nightly-permanent), psp sent some data, then after 20 seconds...

My ps3 is alive! I hope this could help someone out there who frankly don't wish to see a $250-300 doorstop paperweight

 

[Cyan]

For someone who just started last month in the brew world, you did great and seems to know a lot

 

[Coto]

Yeah haha. I felt the urge to save that $300 piece of genuine hardware. Anyway, glad to join the PS3 world, and i'm learning a lot. Heck I think i'm enjoying more messing around than playing games on PS3.

Thx Cyan

 

[Nujui]

I've been away from the ps3 scene for awhile, and was wondering if there were any updates on downgrading? I had a NAND chip instead of a NOR, so I was stuck waiting for a downgrade solution. Was wondering if anything new came up.

 

[Cyan]

I though NAND and NOR was both working fine. maybe I didn't read correctly as I didn't need a downgrade.
You can downgrade only up to your first console's firmware. You can use the MinVerChk homebrew to check which one it is.

 

[Coto]

I've been away from the ps3 scene for awhile, and was wondering if there were any updates on downgrading? I had a NAND chip instead of a NOR, so I was stuck waiting for a downgrade solution. Was wondering if anything new came up.

Yeah of course. NAND on PS3 (phat) is 2x 128MB (two chips containing mirrored CoreOS files, pre-vsh.). E3 flasher has a NOR (16MB) solderless solution, and also a NAND socket with the solder points of PS3's onboard NAND so you can reflash them in tandem with any E3 Flasher unit.

But I haven't tried, and I know some people using infectus/progskeet on their PS3 phat models having much more success. (downgrading/backup/restore/brick fixing)

edit: E3 flasher has several "updates" around, you'll need those labeled as "Samsung" since all NAND on PS3 phat are Samsung (At least, all NAND's PS3 i've heard of). And you can easily downgrade from 4.11 to 3.55 or base ofw

 

[JFTS]

I tried some other games. They lagged a little bit, but nothing like Uncharted 2 which doesn't even load the main menu. However I can't say for sure, because I think you naturally have minor slowdowns on some games. It just seems that the whole console is lagging lately.

So, does anyone have any clue about the situation with the drive?

 

[Bryon15]

My PS3 is 4.21 Can it be softmodded? I'm guessing no, but I thought I should ask anyway.

 

[Cyan]

only 3.55
it's written everywhere in that forum's section that it's 3.55 ONLY.
You can't hack a PS3 past 3.55 if it's a new one
You can hack a PS3 past 3.55 if it's an old one, but you need to solder a modchip to downgrade the NAND/NOR chipset. I doubt a lot of users want/can do it.

 

[Selim873]

only 3.55
it's written everywhere in that forum's section that it's 3.55 ONLY.
You can't hack a PS3 past 3.55 if it's a new one
You can hack a PS3 past 3.55 if it's an old one, but you need to solder a modchip to downgrade the NAND/NOR chipset. I doubt a lot of users want/can do it.

Damn that sucks... :\ I've always wanted to have emulators on a PS3, at least I can play PS1 games. PS3 Slim can play PS1 games right? The cheapest PS3 I can find with all the cords and a controller is a slim.

 

[Cyan]

Yes, all PS3 model can play PS1 games, according they are retail disc and from your region (I suppose they didn't made PS1 region free, but I may be mistaken, I didn't try).

 

[Windaga]

I'm sure you've all seen them out there, but there are a few places that have "Jailbreak's" for 4.21/4.20. Does anyone know if there's any truth behind it? One site that I've come across (found by googling "4.21 ps3 jailbreak), claims that you can "jailbreak" your ps3 by following these steps :

Spoiler

------------------HOW TO INSTALL--------------------------------------
STEP 1: Plug a USB stick into your computer

STEP 2: Create a folder in the root of the USB stick called PS3

STEP 3: Create a folder inside the PS3 folder called UPDATE

STEP 4: Download PS3 Jailbreak 4.21 - CFW.rar ( websitename)

STEP 5: Unzip PS3 Jailbreak 4.21 - CFW.rar to PS3UPDAT.PUP

STEP 6: Move PS3UPDAT.PUP to the directory UPDATE that you just created on the USB stick

STEP 7: Plug the USB stick into your PS3

STEP 8: Navigate to Settings Tab

STEP 9: Choose System Update

STEP 10: Choose Update via Storage Media

STEP 11: It will say it found Version 4.21-jb

STEP 12: Choose OK

STEP 13: Accept Conditions and Install Update

STEP 14: After less than a minute, your PS3 will update, beep 4 times then shut down.

STEP 15: Power up your PS3 (You will have to do it on the console and not by the controller)

STEP 16: Your PS3 is now jailbroken!

I figure I would confirm it here, so that I can tell a few friends of mine if there's anyway to hack their ps3 without splitting it open - this doesn't work, does it? It seems farrr to easy for something like this to work. There are a fair amount of views on the website itself, less on the youtube install video (it's on the main website, I didn't link to it because it links back to their website, which contains files which I would assume to be not allowed here) - I just wouldn't ever think it'd be this easy.

 

[Cyan]

There's no way to sign anything past 3.55, so all custom firmware above 3.55 are fake and can brick the console.
At best, they are just 3.55 custom firmware with a faked (spoof) version number displayed in the setting.
Do not try to install any custom firmware above 3.55 without asking here first, and for any 3.55 you can ask too.


It seems "faaaar to easy", but it's the way 3.55 are working too.
It's like a simple firmware update. You put the file on USB, go to update menu and load it. that's all

 

[godreborn]

there's no such thing as jailbreak beyond 3.55.

 

[Windaga]

Yeah, I figured. Thanks for the heads up - that just saved some intense headaches and long phone calls.

I was looking into hacking my old phat ps3, but I'm not very confident with my console opening abilities. I'll likely just wait until more progress is made, if any is made. I'll just be sure not to update it anymore.

 

[Selim873]

Yeah, I figured. Thanks for the heads up - that just saved some intense headaches and long phone calls.

I was looking into hacking my old phat ps3, but I'm not very confident with my console opening abilities. I'll likely just wait until more progress is made, if any is made. I'll just be sure not to update it anymore.

Thank God I cancelled that download! I haven't bought a PS3 yet but I almost took the bait, good thing I came here. I'm about to buy a phat 40GB, can't even wait to order it! I'm sick and tired of the X360, though I'm a bit late for the CFW party. :\ I used to be a hardcore PSP CFW user back in the day.

 

[zavlin]

ps3 newb here. Any tips to what model and where i should buy a ps3 that wont have fw past 3.55?

 

[ankc]

Does all back ups work on modded ps3?

 

[Cyan]

only old model will have a firmware bellow 3.55 (like PhatPS3, or slim up to the PSMove Demo disc pack, released near September 2010)
If on of these console have a firmware past 3.55, there's a way to downgrade them using a hardware NOR/NAND flasher (but it requires soldering skills).

Newer consoles can't be downgraded at all.

You will have more chance to buy a used PS3 already hacked than finding a new one on an old firmware.



@ankc:
Backups used to depend on the firmware you used. New games had new encryption key which required patches to play on old console firmware.
But it's now possible to install a custom firmware at the same version than the latest official firmware (4.30/4.31) so the games don't need patches anymore.

If a game is not working, it's because it's incompatible with the gameManager and/or launch method.
You can see a list of backup compatibility here: http://www.pshomebrew.net/wiki/PS3_Backup_Compatibility_List

Some game haven't been tested yet.
Other games are marked as not working, but it might be an old report because there's no precision on which cfw/Manager it was tested on.