UPDATE: Since this how-to was first written things have changed. Sony has released firmware 2.01 which makes this downgrade impossible. A PSP bricker trojan was released because of this antivirus software will classify both the good and bad downgrade files as harmful. You should do more research into the current state of the downgrade before attempting. As far as we know our firmware links are still good, we are not hosting them so we can not vouch for their safety.
C.K. Sample, III, TUAW / WIN Blogger and author of the forthcoming book, PSP Hacks, got his hands on the version 2.0 downgrader and wrote up a thorough how- to complete with pics for us. He even takes the extra steps to upgrade and downgrade yet again, just to make sure such a thing is possible.
As you can see, I have 2.0 running with the browser on my PSP. 
Step 1: Download the downgrader from either here, here or here. Then make sure you get a copy of the original 1.5 firmware upgrader. I found my copy here.
Step 2: Connect your PSP to your computer via USB. On your memory stick, create a folder called UPDATE inside /PSP/GAME/ and place the EBOOT.PBP file from the 1.50 update inside this UPDATE folder.
Step 3: Unzip MPHDowngrader.zip. Drop overflow.tif into your /PSP/PHOTO/ folder. Put both h.bin and index.dat in the root of your Memory Stick.
Step 4: Disconnect your PSP from your computer and plug in the AC adapter.
Step 5: Navigate to Photo then Memory Stick via the PSP’s menu system and start scrolling down through your photos until you reach the overflow.tif picture.
You’ll know you’ve hit it when everything freezes and you get a black screen with a bunch of white text output.
If your PSP freezes without going to this black text screen, then hold the power button for about 10 seconds until the PSP shuts down, then hit the power button again to start it back up. Repeat this step until you get that black screen.
Step 6: Don’t panic. Hold the power button for about 10 seconds until the PSP powers off. Hit the power button again. Your PSP will start up, and if you navigate to your System Information, you’ll discover that your PSP thinks it is running version 1.0 of the firmware. It isn’t and you cannot run homebrew (yet).
Step 7: Navigate to Game–>Memory Stick, hit the X button, and navigate to the 1.5 updater. Make sure you have your PSP plugged in or the upgrade won’t work. Click the X button and update like you normally would. At the end of the upgrade you will receive an error saying that the upgrade failed and to contact Sony. Don’t panic. Ignore this and again force your PSP to power off and reboot.
Step 8: After the PSP reboots you will receive an error screen that is scary and confusing because it is in multiple languages. Don’t panic. Find the language you can understand and read the corresponding line. It notes that your preferences are fragged and that you need only hit the O button to restore some default-ish settings. Hit the O button. 
Step 9: The PSP will start back up and you will go through the initial setup like the day when you first bought your PSP. Do so and then go to the system info pane again, where you will see that you are rocking version 1.5. Run homebrew at will.
I ran through this entire procedure, then I downloaded the 2.0 update and installed that again, and then yet again went through the entire procedure again. It works like a charm. It’s a little time-consuming, but you can have the best of both worlds. Have fun!
I’m trying to downgrade my version 2.01 to 1.50 but every time I copy the overflow.tif file.
When I go to the photo menu it said that I have a corrupt file What am I doing wrong ? Please advise
hi yes this worked great . downgraded my uk psp from 2.0 to 1.5 no problem.but how do i play homebrew games . i have them on my pc ready to play but in which folder do they go.
Why not offer md5 sums of the known good files?
i have some error it says sorry you have version 2.00 no need to upgrade. know how to fix it?
Yeah my norton antivirus delete’s the overflow.tif instantly cause it says it’s a trojan virus.
Great.
Hi all If your having problems go to http://www.freewebs.com/pspcrack/ Its only a new forum but there is plenty of free hints and advice
cheers darren
#202
Why not disable Autoprotect?
.:shrugs:.
Wait…so are you completely screwed if you have 2.01 and not 2. Someone respond so I don’t get my hopes up.
yes you are completely screwed – no way of running homebrew or downgrading with a 2.01, and i dont think the DEV community will work on it either, because EVERYONE now has the chance (or had the chance, assuming they didnt upgrade to 2.01) to run homebrew. so yes, you are officially screwed. sorry dude, break it and get warranty on it, get a new one, and then upgrade that one to 2.00 then downgrade to 1.50, coz i believe all the PSPs in the states now have 1.51 or 1.52 unless your lucky enough to find a 1.50. anyways your screwed, get a new one :-) sorry
yes you are completely screwed – no way of running homebrew or downgrading with a 2.01, and i dont think the DEV community will work on it either, because EVERYONE now has the chance (or had the chance, assuming they didnt upgrade to 2.01) to run homebrew. so yes, you are officially screwed. sorry dude, break it and get warranty on it, get a new one, and then upgrade that one to 2.00 then downgrade to 1.50, coz i believe all the PSPs in the states now have 1.51 or 1.52 unless your lucky enough to find a 1.50. anyways your screwed, get a new one :-) sorry
hi still havin problems runnin my homebrew games.i get the games onto my psp and look in the fastloader for the file ,when i select it it initialzes but nothing else happens …please help what am i doin wrong
In Step 7 When i navigate to the game —> memory card i dont have a updater for 1.50!
somebody can help me plz?!
its say “There are no games”
where da hack is that motha *** updater :S
SONY PSP TROJAN,
As most psp owners are already aware there is a psp trojan going around the net.
However i think there is more to the story than a couple of geeks writing up a program that would brick your psp.
What is said from here on is speculation that may or may not be true.
It is my guess that SONY, YES YOU HEARD RIGHT, SONY IS BEHIND THIS. If you analiyse the situation you will find that this benifits sony in almost every way. suprise suprise the trojan came out on the same day as the downgrader. If sony used these codes to create a similar program that uses the same overflow techneque but it erases the internal flash memory it would scare psp owners from downgradeing therefore stopping a great deal of piracy and people using there psp for other reason then playing their rip off umds. it would also scare people into upgrading to 2.1 totally elimating running non verified codes. The trojan would also brick some PSPs increasing the impact of stopping other owners from running homebrew. Sony are clever in a way of making the overflow files EXACTLY THE SAME as the downgrader thus casting a shadow on the downgrader, SCARING PEOPLE FROM USING IT. Think about how easy it is for sony to do something like this, they have hundreds of programmers it would be entirely easy to rip the overflow off the downgrader modify a couple of external files and voila you have a psp bricker.
SHAME ON YOU SONY IF YOU HAVE DONE THIS!!!!!
But please remember as much as i beleve this to be true but i cannot prove it.it is speculation that i beleve may be true or may not be true. it does however make perfect logicical sense. remember im not blaming sony till i have solid proof. you may spread this speculation as long as you provide that it is not proven to be true. I dont want to point a finger at someone that could be entirely innocent.
THE HARBINGER
i like the guy that did this step-by-step, whilst everyone that attempts this for the first time is scared of what is to come, the guy adds a bit of serious comedy in the intro!
this step-by-step is so good that when i first did it i saw this and realised i did i right when it felt like a stab in the dark. i added this url to a comment on psp-vault.com and has already helped a dumb bastard do it right!
cheers!
The psp mphdowngrader is not the trojan, so if you have norton autoprotect disable it or it will delete it becouse it thinks it is the trojan.
I’m scared shitless. If this bricks my PSP, I swear i’ll kill myself! Somebody tell me, straight up, what is the % of my PSP becoming a chew toy? Thanx.
is anyone gonna post some md5’s or something, or am i just lind?
*blind oops
I hate myself.
My PSP is broken now. =(
ok, this might be a noob question but i cant see the overflow.tif when i unzip MPHdowngrader.zip, i can see it when i browse thru the zip file though.
i dunno why but i cant save to my desktop, it keeps disappearing, and if i go Zip file -> PSP it says “the system cannot find the file specified” ive downloaded like 10 times from different websites… can any1 help?
yeah man have u got norton or another anti-virus enabled because anti-virus progs delete the file automatically detecting its a virus – disable ant-virus then extract, or extract in safe mode if you cant disable it, or just extract it on another computer. hope that helps
God…Thank you for telling me to buy the PSP on launch date…I am forever your humble servant. Homebrew rules. 1.5 rules…but…most of all…you rule, God. Your infinite wisdom has taught me a fine lesson this day. Even though my wife bitched me out, and told me I was spending unwisely..(Until she played with it) and even tho every thing in my core said don’t buy this you jsut came in for a pre owned game or something. I did it anyway. Through your sweet mercy I have been spared from certain damnation. I will bask in your radiance as I play Zelda 3 A link to the past, and Blaster Master….I will drink deeply of thine holiest waters as I run multiple homebrewed apps on my PSP, and revel in the glory of your sweet love, dear Lord. Please, dear Lord, if it be your will, spare these unfortunates the despair of wandering the wastelands with their updated psps. For they know not what they are doing. Let us all one day meet in that big arcade in the sky,
In your Name,
4M3N.
Lots of luck guys..My buddy has given me his new bought psp to “FIX” I hope I don’t screw his up. ;)
Yo harbringer now that i read ur comment ur right it is a huge “coincedence” or maybe sony has *spy* hackers monitoring this forum every second of the day. Hacking the internal hard drive to see who posts. Sending Viruses to any psp’s with 1.5 that have homebrew. Maybe sony is monitoring every PSP news site and .ISO sites to find who downloads something and then when they open that download SUPRISE! Embedded Sony program stating…
“Hello User, You have successfully download this psp file, sucks for you thought because this is really just a 1.5-2.01 upgrade file that takes away the browser compatibility along with the homebrew. HEHE u got fucked. As u read this a virus is being uploaded to your PSP flash memory, Upgrade in the next 10….9….8………… seconds before ur psp gets bricked.”
Yea Cause of sony………
We
Is
FUCKED!
if you have an antivirus progran it may be deleting it every time you unzip it. disable your antivirus
Okay, so let’s say I do this and it works. If I wanna play some Chrono Trigger (SNES) or some Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA) and I have the emulator…is it gonna run worth a crap or is it going to be a waste of my time?
Okay, so let’s say I do this and it works. If I wanna play some Chrono Trigger (SNES) or some Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA) and I have the emulator…is it gonna run worth a crap or is it going to be a waste of my time?
Okay, I downloaded the MPHDowngrader. My Norton Anti-Virus scanned it and said the overflow thing is a trojin.PSPBrick. Is this normal? Please Help!!
ok my AV is disabled but i still cant see the overflow.tif when i unzip MPHdowngrader.zip, i can only see it when i browse thru the zipped file.
i still cant save overflow.tif to my desktop, it keeps disappearing, and if i go Zip file -> PSP it says “the system cannot find the file specified” any1 noes why?
i did this awhile ago and now i hacve tons of games and emulators on my psp and now that i have a 256 i wont really need umds to have any fun atal
i did this awhile ago and now i hacve tons of games and emulators on my psp and now that i have a 256 i wont really need umds to have any fun atal
how long does ur screen have that wierd stuff on it mine has been like this for a half hour
Sup Gamers, Geeks, and Hackers.
I’m Having trouble on that downgrader thing, I did everything you said and i’m stuck on step5.
I’ve done it like 100times and the blank screen still doesn’t show. What do I do now? Someone help me.:(
thank u!!! finally!! whoever made this…i want to have ur babies!!!!!!!!!11
can any1 tell me how to get overflow.tif to psp? windows always says “the system cannot find the file specified” and i can never get it to my psp or even to my desktop, im not runing NAV or have auto protect on and it still says that
Can any1 help???
I have everything set up, and followed all then instructions, but when I go into the photo folder, it freezes and turns off. No black screen, no text, it just turns off. I’ve tried it with and without the charger, and it still turns off. Can anyone help me?
i have psp version 2.01, will the downgrade work on it too??
i went to the pictures file, but it says file corrupted, is this because i have version 2.01?? plz i really need an answer
Some one help me pls. seriously im beginning to lose faith everytime i try the overflo pic thing my psp screen freezes and then shuts off and i have tried this all night i really need help with this jus e-mail me at andre.johnson@greatoaks.com or on yahoo messenger-throwbk_kid4
first of all i want to say …shazam to you guys for posting and continueing to keep info like this on the internet…i have spent the last week trying to find a way to upgrade then downgrade…i had 1.52…oh yeah to the guy on post 227 i had that same prob…..make a new folder in the photo folder…and put a couple of photos after that drag the overflow.tif into that..good luck dude i am releaved to final have my psp down to 1.50 …thanks again to those hard working coders …and to the makers of this site ..i have a web hosting server…if you would like to make somekind of a deal…i would not charge. You have my email
I am in step 7
i nevigate to Game—>MemoryStick and i dont see the 1.50 updater!
its say: “There Are No Games”
Somebody can help me please?!
Hello. I
THIS WILL NOT WORK ON 2.01 OR 2.50 SONY KNOWS ABOUT THIS AND IS FIGHTING THE “HACKERS”
can any1 help me with the overflow.tif, it keeps disappearing on my desktop when i try to save it
my AV is disabled but i still cant see the overflow.tif when i unzip MPHdowngrader.zip, i can only see “overflow.tif” it when i browse thru the zipped file.
and if i go Zip file -> PSP it says “the system cannot find the file specified”
any1 noes why?
can any1 help me with the overflow.tif, it keeps disappearing on my desktop when i try to save it
my AV is disabled but i still cant see the overflow.tif when i unzip MPHdowngrader.zip, i can only see “overflow.tif” it when i browse thru the zipped file.
and if i go Zip file -> PSP it says “the system cannot find the file specified”
any1 noes why?
go to my site to read about the psp trojan and how to avoid it.
*I’m not worthy, i’m not worthy!!! Holy crap boyz it works! Thank you sooooo much for all the help. Peace out!
–>PuNn
The TROJAN version can be identified as per Symantec writeup details:
Trojan.PSPBrick arrives as an archive file named EXPLOIT 2.0 PSP Team V1.RAR which consists of the files overflow.tif and h.bin. Instructions call for the file h.bin to be placed in the root of a USB device and overflow.tif in the folder /PSP/PHOTO/. This archive may also contain a text file called PSPTEAM.NFO.
//
See my site for best anti virus ;) and free help! send a hijackthis.log
I have installed all Programms, but when i go to the overflow.Tif then the PSP get stocks. I dont see any Codes. The psp turn off itself and when i start it again, its the old Version of 2.0. Can you help me ? What I
WoW!!
thx guys i know what was the problom you need to have a game in or somthing in the psp–game folder and then it wil show you the updater!!
thx guys your da best!
i have downloaded each mphdowngrader that is supplied at the top of this page but when i go to copy the overflow.tif file my nortons antivirus thingy comes up and says that nortons antivirus has found a virus and deleted it and its from the overflow.tif file and it says its called Trojan.PSPBrick. Does anyone know where i can download a downgrader without this virus?