Hacking PS3 newb, obtained a modded PS3, where to begin?

[rehevkor]

I have recently obtained a 3.55 Euro PS3, it has been modded to some degree, apparently enough to use a True Blue dongle (?) which I don't have. Beyond that I have no idea how it's been modded and to what extent. I'd like to start over and re-softmod myself, is this safe, and what is the best method to do so?

Per the softmod guide above it seems to be best to reinstall the vanillia 3.55 then mod from there. Are there any situations where doing that would not be safe?

Cheers, I am rather clueless with PS3s here, although I have modded almost every other console I own.

 

[Pong20302000]

just dont update the firmware higher than 3.55 and your fine

id suggest biting the bullet and buying a TB dongle
then you can play games that require higher firmware than 3.55

 

[rehevkor]

Cheers.

It's on the list to buy eventually, but there are plenty of games I can play before TB should be necessary.

 

[Pong20302000]

yea there is,

you will have to change the firmware tho if it is loaded with the TB firmware as that requires the dongle as a key to do anything

 

[Cyan]

Or wait a little, and buy a TB only when you need it.
There are actually developers reverse engineering the TB dongle to remove DRM protections. I think once done it will work on any custom firmware without a need of a dongle.

A lot of people don't like TruBlue dongle because of the DRM, but it's up to you to choose to buy one or not.

 

[Snailface]

Or wait a little, and buy a TB only when you need it.
There are actually developers reverse engineering the TB dongle to remove DRM protections. I think once done it will work on any custom firmware without a need of a dongle.

A lot of people don't like TruBlue dongle because of the DRM, but it's up to you to choose to buy one or not.

Exactly, progress is moving along swiftly towards a free homebrew solution.
This just today:
http://www.ps3hax.ne...ows-cobra-gift/

Somebody has already reversed it, and only finishing touches need to be applied.

 

[rehevkor]

Well fuck. I tried to install OFW 3.55, it crashed half way through and the console is apparenlty yloding.

Highly unlikely to be a hardware failure. Any advice?

 

[Magsor]

Well fuck. I tried to install OFW 3.55, it crashed half way through and the console is apparenlty yloding.

Highly unlikely to be a hardware failure. Any advice?

Highly unlikely or likely? if its a fat id say likely.
Have you tried to boot in recovery mode?
did you check the pup md5 before installing it?

 

[rehevkor]

Highly unlikely or likely? if its a fat id say likely.

Considering it had been turned on for a grand total of 5 minutes, unlikely. It's a slim.

Have you tried to boot in recovery mode?

Yes, can't get into it.

did you check the pup md5 before installing it?

I don't know what that means.

Apparently it's just bricked at this point, installing OFW 3.55 over the True Blue 3.55 is something I just shouldn't have done.

 

[Annieone23]

I don't know what that means.

That gave me a good long laugh haha. Sorry to be a dick but really, whenever you are monkeying around with something, especially something homebrew on the most expensive of the three gaming consoles (arguably), you should really do all your research. Measure twice, cut once kinda stuff. TB has specific uninstallation instructions, both from themselves and third-parties. Also for future reference MD5 is, in layman's terms, kinda like the blue prints for a file. When a file is uploaded the uploader will measure the MD5 for said file. The MD5 is EXACT. So when you download something, if their MD5's don't match, then something went wrong and your file, despite saying it was fully downloaded, got corrupted or broken somewhere along the line while you downloaded it. All CFW pups for the PS3 scene come with an MD5 in their post/description. There are a lot of free MD5 checking apps which can be built into your web browser, or any number of things. I use http://webgapps.org/add-ons/checkit/ this add-on for firefox. It lets you highlight the MD5 on the webpage and automatically check it against the file you just downloaded.

Good luck fixing your PS3 mate. I recommend getting into the recovery menu and trying to flash back to your TB FW or the OFW if that didn't work. Otherwise you will either need to scrap the boy or attempt to reball the CPU and hope your PS3 stops overheating, the ultimate cause of a YLOD mind you. If you get it working, buy an external snap on fan to help prevent future YLOD.

 

[rehevkor]

I checked the MD5 since and it was fine as far as I can tell. I did what I thought was enough research, I still had my doubts so I asked here too, nothing I looked at suggested that installing the generic 3.55 would totally brick my system. Either way, I've since gotten it repaired. The person who fixed it was adamant that it was a software/firmware issue, rather than an overheating one.

I refuse to believe that it being sat at the home screen for 10 minutes would cause a catastrophic failure from overheating. That, and it wasn't actually hot.

 

[Magsor]

I checked the MD5 since and it was fine as far as I can tell. I did what I thought was enough research, I still had my doubts so I asked here too, nothing I looked at suggested that installing the generic 3.55 would totally brick my system. Either way, I've since gotten it repaired. The person who fixed it was adamant that it was a software/firmware issue, rather than an overheating one.

I refuse to believe that it being sat at the home screen for 10 minutes would cause a catastrophic failure from overheating. That, and it wasn't actually hot.

Its fixed now? How was it fixed?

 

[rehevkor]

I dunno. But I'm going to try to find out.

 

[rehevkor]

Its fixed now? How was it fixed?

Got it back yesterday and it's working just fine now. The (possibly simplified) description of the fix I got was:

install a dummy firmware onto the PS3 and then retrieve the original copy of the bios... basically, the dummy firmware told the PS3 to stay-on while he was able to extract the PS3 bois. He then rewrote the bois back to the PS3 while installing the correct firmware and update file.