Hacking a couple simple questions about CFW

[Lunchbox7985]

so i have searched and searched, and cant find a simple answer to my questions. maybe its because im tired, but all i can seem to find are complicated guides that tell you how to do this stuff. they might answer my question but i dont want to learn all about hacking a ps3 yet, i just want to know a couple things first.

i have a phat 40gig model (with a 320gb hdd upgrade). it seems that all phat models can be downgraded from 4.80 to 3.55 just fine with soft mods and no hardware or physical mods required.

what i cant seem to find out is
1. will the act of downgrading, or installing the cfw erase anything i have on there? ( save games, or psn games that ive bought)
2. if yes, can i do a backup and somehow restore any of it after the jailbreaking?
3. (i think its obvious why im wanting to jailbreak my ps3, but ill just keep that to myself) but i have a bunch of legit games, both disc and downloaded. can you still play those after you install cfw?

like does the lack of getting online render your psn games unplayable because the system cant validate them or anything? or what happens if i have a disc game that needs a certain firmware version to run (i think there are some that do)

and lastly 4. is compatibility pretty good? there are just a handfull of games i want to "procure" and run with multiman off a usb hard drive. my modded wii plays any game it seems with about 100% compatibility, my ps2 playing over network gives me id say about 90%, but those few that dont work i can just burn to a dvd and play them that way. but i wont have access to a blu ray burner, so i want to make sure that at least a good number of games will work over a usb hard drive, even if i have to install a couple trouble ones to the internal or something.

 

[Zero72463]

1. No if you do it correctly it won't, although when I did it some of my PSN games gave errors.
2. You can if it does. It most likely won't
3. Yes you can play and backup all those games. Like I said in 1 some PSN games will give errors so they will have to be reinstalled. (You can't download from store. You have to go to a torrent site to get it back.)
3a. Idk what you mean lack of online render. Again PSN games might give errors. Other than that they should run fine (when reinstalled).
4. All/Most PS2 games should run (Cobra can interfere). All PS3/2/1 games are good over USB drive.

 

[Meteor7]

4. Some PS2 games DON'T run. From what I have seen the popular ones will run. All PS3 games are good over USB drive.

If you use Cobra to emulate them, then some won't run, but BC consoles can run all PS2 games and I believe that extends to backups as well.

 

[Zero72463]

If you use Cobra to emulate them, then some won't run, but BC consoles can run all PS2 games and I believe that extends to backups as well.

NVM sorry I thought he was on a slim.

 

[Lunchbox7985]

I'm not too worried about ps2 since I have a modded ps2. But can the non backwards compatible ps3 play ps2 games?

But even modded, the ps2 requires a disc swap to play ps1 games. and my wii plays ps1 games but compatibility is sketchy. And I'm a bit nostalgic, my desire to mod my ps3 is about 50/50 between ps3 games and ps1 games.

I guses I worded that weird. what I meant is, does it render your ps1 classics useless because you can't get online to validate them. Like if I were to copy them from one legit console to a friend's legit console it would not play them because his console didn't buy them.

I know if you take the card out of your psp and put it in your friends it won't play the games downloaded to it because it's not the same account that bought them. I wondered if the jailbreak automatically broke all bought content and I would have to "reaquire" it elsewhere.

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Oh and in number 4 I think I was a little confusing. I was using my wii and ps2 as examples of the compatibility of each playing their respective backups. on the ps3, as I said, I'm mostly interested in ps1 and ps3 games. it seems like multiman offers very good compatibility, I just wanted more opinions.

I want to get and mod a wii u, but it seems like only a handful of games work on that. I think someone is working on a kernel exploit that will offer much higher compatibility, so I'm going to have to wait on that one. Or bust out my 15 year old outdated programming skills and start contributing. But I don't think html and a very light understanding of c++ are going to bring much to the table.

 

[Meteor7]

Well, I don't know about PS1 games bought through the PSN, but you can stick any PS1 game onto your CFW PS3 in ISO form and it will play them with (I think) 100% compatibility. I've never had any problems playing PS1 games, at least. If your PSN PS1 games get broken with the switch to CFW, you can always just load their ISOs onto the PS3 and play them that way.

Also, yes, the PS3 can play PS2 games, but not with 100% compatibility unless your PS3 is BC.

There are 15 acronyms in the above 4 sentences, HUZZAH.

 

[Lunchbox7985]

one last question, (at least until i dive into this, then there will undoubtedly be a lot more)

does it cause problems having games on both the internal and and external drive. that is, is there a nice pretty user interface that will show all games in one menu even if they are in 2 different places?

im trying to get away cheap here, if i can use some of the 320 thats in there, then i might be able to get away with a smaller external.

 

[Zero72463]

one last question, (at least until i dive into this, then there will undoubtedly be a lot more)

does it cause problems having games on both the internal and and external drive. that is, is there a nice pretty user interface that will show all games in one menu even if they are in 2 different places?

im trying to get away cheap here, if i can use some of the 320 thats in there, then i might be able to get away with a smaller external.

No problems. Multiman or whatever back up manager you use will usually read both drives and you can launch games from both drives. Of course if you unplug the drive you are using to play the game while you are playing it then the game will crash. (I am sure you already knew that )

 

[Lunchbox7985]

i may have gotten ahead of myself. there are a whole slew of websites offering instructions on how to downgrade from 4.80 to 3.55 without a hardware mod like an e3, but there are also a handfull of sites saying that is impossible.

i havent downloaded anything yet, is it true that there is no way to downgrade without hardware?

 

[Zero72463]

i may have gotten ahead of myself. there are a whole slew of websites offering instructions on how to downgrade from 4.80 to 3.55 without a hardware mod like an e3, but there are also a handfull of sites saying that is impossible.

i havent downloaded anything yet, is it true that there is no way to downgrade without hardware?

No you have to use a dongle to downgrade. I have a slim so i can't tell you which one to use.

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i may have gotten ahead of myself. there are a whole slew of websites offering instructions on how to downgrade from 4.80 to 3.55 without a hardware mod like an e3, but there are also a handfull of sites saying that is impossible.

i havent downloaded anything yet, is it true that there is no way to downgrade without hardware?

I am literally taking my PS3 apart and replace its thermal paste right now. Once you do it one time its almost like you could do it dailer.

 

[Lunchbox7985]

ya, ive had to do that once, had to take the heat gun to the chips, and replace the thermal paste, ever since the fan kicks up to high gear after playing for a few minutes. so im hoping its because there is better heat transfer and its sensing the heat, and working better than it did originally (i may be kidding myself)

but i havent had any problems with it since i did that, its been a year or two. im too lazy to unhook everything to get to the back and see which model i have. apparently the 40 gig was available in both nand and nor. but the e3 flasher doesnt look that hard to install.

i just feel like it may be on borrowed time. i hadnt checked in a while, but when i saw that there was a potential "softmod" available i figured i didnt have much to lose. shame on all the scammers, and shame on me for not doing a little more research first.

its not like used ps3 games are that expensive now anyway.... which or course has no bearing whatsover on this thread.... cuz... you know.... i was just planning on backing up my existing perfectly legal games.

 

[Zero72463]

ya, ive had to do that once, had to take the heat gun to the chips, and replace the thermal paste, ever since the fan kicks up to high gear after playing for a few minutes. so im hoping its because there is better heat transfer and its sensing the heat, and working better than it did originally (i may be kidding myself)

but i havent had any problems with it since i did that, its been a year or two. im too lazy to unhook everything to get to the back and see which model i have. apparently the 40 gig was available in both nand and nor. but the e3 flasher doesnt look that hard to install.

i just feel like it may be on borrowed time. i hadnt checked in a while, but when i saw that there was a potential "softmod" available i figured i didnt have much to lose. shame on all the scammers, and shame on me for not doing a little more research first.

its not like used ps3 games are that expensive now anyway.... which or course has no bearing whatsover on this thread.... cuz... you know.... i was just planning on backing up my existing perfectly legal games.

Are you on a NAND or NOR PS3 Phat? Because the E3 flasher only works on NOR.

 

[Lunchbox7985]

Haven't checked, what I was saying was it looks easy, if that's the one I have. but Im not sure now if I want to deal with a mod chip situation. I'm sure I can manage, but I only got all excited about this because I thought it had become as simple as software.

I've got my modded ps2, wii, and ds lite to hold me over until I get the itch to mod this. I'll probably hold off til I get a ps4 now tho. But thanks for answering my questions.