Hacking Borrowed PS Vita. Need help figuring things out

[mescjq]

Hi guys,

I borrowed a friends PS Vita and need a bit of help figuring out what's going on with it. He says it's "fully hacked", but it's been a few years so he can't remember any of the details of what he did to it etc. It's working away without issue and he reckons he used to just add games without much hassle, but can't remember how. I've looked through the tutorials for hacking a Vita but can't figure out how he went about it or how to leverage what he did. System information says it's running 3.61. Can't see any mention of HENkaku or MolecularShell/VitaShell or anything that might give me FTP access. I tried connecting it to my laptop but it looks like it needs drivers/ Sony software, and the open source stuff is failing to compile on my laptop at the moment. I have a Mac lying around that I want to try out today that should hopefully solve that, but I'm not sure what to expect when I do get it connected.
So I guess my questions are as follows:
1. How do I identify what CFW it's running?
2. Can I leave it on firmware 3.61 if it's successfully running the CFW? Will mainly be throwing a few emulators on it to try.
3. Is VitaShell installed/how do I find out it it's installed?
4. How do I connect to the bloody thing to get homebrew on it?


Apologies if these are basic questions. If I'd gone through the hacking myself they'd probably be obvious, but I'm starting in the deep end so getting a bit lost.

 

[kaymynd]

Hi guys,

I borrowed a friends PS Vita and need a bit of help figuring out what's going on with it. He says it's "fully hacked", but it's been a few years so he can't remember any of the details of what he did to it etc. It's working away without issue and he reckons he used to just add games without much hassle, but can't remember how. I've looked through the tutorials for hacking a Vita but can't figure out how he went about it or how to leverage what he did. System information says it's running 3.61. Can't see any mention of HENkaku or MolecularShell/VitaShell or anything that might give me FTP access. I tried connecting it to my laptop but it looks like it needs drivers/ Sony software, and the open source stuff is failing to compile on my laptop at the moment. I have a Mac lying around that I want to try out today that should hopefully solve that, but I'm not sure what to expect when I do get it connected.
So I guess my questions are as follows:
1. How do I identify what CFW it's running?
2. Can I leave it on firmware 3.61 if it's successfully running the CFW? Will mainly be throwing a few emulators on it to try.
3. Is VitaShell installed/how do I find out it it's installed?
4. How do I connect to the bloody thing to get homebrew on it?


Apologies if these are basic questions. If I'd gone through the hacking myself they'd probably be obvious, but I'm starting in the deep end so getting a bit lost.

Ok i don't think 3.61can install enso so it must be using a epsp exploit which uses a psp game, this only allows us to use adrenaline and play psp/psx games and homebrew, but cannot install or play vita games or homebrew, i recommend you upgrade to 3.65 or downgrade to 3.60 so you can install henkaku or h-encore and then enso. I don't think vitashell is installed since henkaku or h-encore is probably not installed. Once you have everything up and running you can connect to pc via usb with vitashell and transfer files this way.

 

[mescjq]

Ok i don't think 3.61can install enso so it must be using a epsp exploit which uses a psp game, this only allows us to use adrenaline and play psp/psx games and homebrew, but cannot install or play vita games or homebrew, i recommend you upgrade to 3.65 or downgrade to 3.60 so you can install henkaku or h-encore and then enso. I don't think vitashell is installed since henkaku or h-encore is probably not installed. Once you have everything up and running you can connect to pc via usb with vitashell and transfer files this way.

Cheers for that. I'll look into upgrading. Is there anything I'd need to watch out for if I'm upgrading from one hacked firmware to another? Can I just follow the normal guides as if it's stock?
One small thing. It's definitely running vita games. Not sure what CFW it's got going for itself, but its definitely capable of running backups.
Is it worth installing CMA or something? Would it give me access to the memory card to try adding homebrew?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Edit: Just tried installing CMA and connecting that way but it's insisting on updating the software so leaving that be for now. Going to have a look at some jailbreaking 3.61 guides online and see if I can find anything.

 

[RaptorDMG]

Cheers for that. I'll look into upgrading. Is there anything I'd need to watch out for if I'm upgrading from one hacked firmware to another? Can I just follow the normal guides as if it's stock?
One small thing. It's definitely running vita games. Not sure what CFW it's got going for itself, but its definitely capable of running backups.
Is it worth installing CMA or something? Would it give me access to the memory card to try adding homebrew?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Edit: Just tried installing CMA and connecting that way but it's insisting on updating the software so leaving that be for now. Going to have a look at some jailbreaking 3.61 guides online and see if I can find anything.

Here's a good guide if you need it https://vita.hacks.guide/get-started

 

[mescjq]

Here's a good guide if you need it https://vita.hacks.guide/get-started

Cheers. Have been looking at that alright. Looks straightforward enough. Is there generally issues with upgrading hacked vitas? Is there a bigger risk of bricking or anything I need to watch out for?

 

[RaptorDMG]

Cheers. Have been looking at that alright. Looks straightforward enough. Is there generally issues with upgrading hacked vitas? Is there a bigger risk of bricking or anything I need to watch out for?

There's no issues I'm aware of and since your on 3.61 your vita isn't hacked so upgrading won't cause issues

 

[mescjq]

I seem to be having a bit of trouble with the initial step of upgrading from 3.61 to 3.65. I'm following the vita.guide website and using finalhe to upgrade. All seems to be working fine until I get to the step of running h-encode from the Vita. It launches, displays a warning about trophies, sits for a second or two and then reboots. When it reboots I get a warning about the Vita not powering off correctly. If I try to run the next step of System Update, I get a message about the latest software being installed and System Info says I'm still on 3.61. Any ideas?
Am I right that the first step is using finalhe to install h-encode on the Vita to update from 3.61 to 3.65? The second step in the guide seems to be to install h-encode a second time so a bit puzzled. Can I not do the 3.61->3.65 step with QCMA or is there an exploit going on with the finalhe step that I'm missing?

Edit: Did a quick test with QCMA and got "An error has occurred. (C3-10698-4)" when the Vita connected to QCMA.

 

[Vinceherman]

I seem to be having a bit of trouble with the initial step of upgrading from 3.61 to 3.65. I'm following the vita.guide website and using finalhe to upgrade. All seems to be working fine until I get to the step of running h-encode from the Vita. It launches, displays a warning about trophies, sits for a second or two and then reboots. When it reboots I get a warning about the Vita not powering off correctly. If I try to run the next step of System Update, I get a message about the latest software being installed and System Info says I'm still on 3.61. Any ideas?
Am I right that the first step is using finalhe to install h-encode on the Vita to update from 3.61 to 3.65? The second step in the guide seems to be to install h-encode a second time so a bit puzzled. Can I not do the 3.61->3.65 step with QCMA or is there an exploit going on with the finalhe step that I'm missing?

Edit: Did a quick test with QCMA and got "An error has occurred. (C3-10698-4)" when the Vita connected to QCMA.

finalhe is a hack not a firmware upgrade, you need to install the Sony 3.65 offical firmware BEFORE you try to hack the device.

you need to follow the below guide from this point, install 3.65 firmware and then run the final hencore hack

https://vita.hacks.guide/updating-firmware-(ps-vita-3.65-and-3.68)

 

[kaymynd]

I seem to be having a bit of trouble with the initial step of upgrading from 3.61 to 3.65. I'm following the vita.guide website and using finalhe to upgrade. All seems to be working fine until I get to the step of running h-encode from the Vita. It launches, displays a warning about trophies, sits for a second or two and then reboots. When it reboots I get a warning about the Vita not powering off correctly. If I try to run the next step of System Update, I get a message about the latest software being installed and System Info says I'm still on 3.61. Any ideas?
Am I right that the first step is using finalhe to install h-encode on the Vita to update from 3.61 to 3.65? The second step in the guide seems to be to install h-encode a second time so a bit puzzled. Can I not do the 3.61->3.65 step with QCMA or is there an exploit going on with the finalhe step that I'm missing?

Edit: Did a quick test with QCMA and got "An error has occurred. (C3-10698-4)" when the Vita connected to QCMA.

You can update using finalhe,
Follow step 2 in the read me, then proceed to install h-encore after it updates.

https://github.com/soarqin/finalhe

 

[mescjq]

I'm definitely missing something with the vita.hack/finalhe step. It doesn't seem to be doing the actual update part. Anyway, I gotit working with QCMA. My issue yesterday was I hadn't the right region in the XML file. Found the last few pieces of the puzzle in this guys video/pastebin links:
System reporting it's on 3.65 now so back to vita.hack I go! Thanks for the help guys.

Update: Looks like I'm all good now guys. Only small change I had to do was install VitaShell through finalhe instead of through the h-encore app. Not a big deal. VitaHBBrowser seems to be giving me errors but not a big deal. I'll try redownloading or can work around. Just to confirm, I'll end up staying on firmware 3.60 correct? Presumably to make use of the enso exploit

 

[RaptorDMG]

I'm definitely missing something with the vita.hack/finalhe step. It doesn't seem to be doing the actual update part. Anyway, I gotit working with QCMA. My issue yesterday was I hadn't the right region in the XML file. Found the last few pieces of the puzzle in this guys video/pastebin links:
System reporting it's on 3.65 now so back to vita.hack I go! Thanks for the help guys.

Update: Looks like I'm all good now guys. Only small change I had to do was install VitaShell through finalhe instead of through the h-encore app. Not a big deal. VitaHBBrowser seems to be giving me errors but not a big deal. I'll try redownloading or can work around. Just to confirm, I'll end up staying on firmware 3.60 correct? Presumably to make use of the enso exploit

I'd recommend 3.60 but it doesn't make too much difference as for the VitaHBBrowser issues make sure you use the latest version and if that doesn't work install the itls plugin https://github.com/SKGleba/iTLS-Enso