Pandora’s Battery (unbrick Your PSP)


[krazywhiteguy310] let me know about the announcement of the Pandora battery hack. It’ll cost you a Sony PSP battery to pull off the hack, but once you’re done, you can use it to jump start your bricked PSP to load up a memory imaged designed to unbrick the PSP. (I haven’t tested it, so I’m taking this on faith) Excellent news if you’ve bricked your PSP.

124 thoughts on “Pandora’s Battery (unbrick Your PSP)

  1. WAIT!!! yes this works but you can save your battery!!! just hit triangle while in the pandora’s battery program to back up your battery info, then hit x, follow instructions. then start up the psp w/o battery (meaning on power cord) and put the battery back in. run pandora’s battery again but hold down l+r shoulders and it will restore your battery!

  2. Can someone explain what the battery has to do with any of this? What’s Sony’s logic for putting programming code in the battery in the first place? I bet they have a good reason, but to us laymen it certainly seems odd.

  3. Im not totally sure on this but its from what i have read around a few sites/forums.

    The idea is that the battery would not only be something that most people wouldn’t suspect (which up until recentally was true) but would also be something that could change the power levels going into the system to drop the chip into a debug mode allowing a more direct way of programming or flashing the main firmware chip.

    To those with much better knowledge on this subject please do feel free to point out where i am wrong. This is just a very simple explanation from what i have read online.

    With that being said. This is exelent. I have a bricked PSP motherboard just sitting right here…on my desk… Ill be getting a new cam this week and will make a pic/video tutorial on the process and post back with the location.

    -Eureka

  4. If u have already done this with out savin the info from ur battery no problem. Grab a friends battery and run pandora and save the their battery info. Pop out that battery, turn on the psp with charger plugged in and and put the Pandora battery back in the psp after the psp has booted and run the program again with the triggers held down.

  5. i think this is fake ive taken apart the sony battery after my psp got “accidentally” burned and all there is is a li-ion battery safety circuitry and a battery lvl indicator that adds resistance during the battery’s drain (works like a motor controller) it has an eprom but theres no way it can be reprogrammed with the psp

  6. I used this and it worked like a charm. I couldnt believe it at first but it works. It can downgrade any PSP firmware so far up to 3.52 as I know of. Though when you use this method I heard that it isnt a full 1.5 firmware so you have to update to like FW2.0 and downgrade to 1.5 again so you can get a full fw1.5. It also works for TA-082 and TA-086 motherboards and another thing your PSP doesnt need to be bricked to use this hack.

  7. If I remember correctly, Lithium ion batteries have control circuitry on the battery to help keep from over charging them, which could be pretty disastrous, thats why some batteries have extra terminals even though they dont supply a different voltage ;)
    Are they reprogramming the interface? I thought those where read-only but guess not. And a few eeprom have voltage sensing to detect if its in programming mode or standard mode. unless I read that wrong.

  8. The “Pandora’s Battery” as they call it, is just a regular psp battery. The battery of a psp has flash memory on it with boot information for the system. When converting the battery for this downgrade procedure, the psp program that you use actually dumps the batteries flash and puts a bin image with official sony firmware 1.50 and some developer code. When you place the converted battery into the psp it boots and runs the developer code and downgrades the psp. At this point, they say that the battery is useless. They have come out with an update that will convert the battery back and thats why they dump the flash first. After the psp is downgraded, if you use the converted “pandora’s battery” as your power source, it will only run a partial of the 1.50 firmware because of the missing battery flash files. in order to have full 1.50 you must convert your battery back into a normal one. hope that all clarifies

  9. hehe well i was modding psp about 3 months back i had the luck to be working at the local walmart at the time and have a friend in electronics dept. so i actually was a ble to leaf through and pick out a 2.0(i think?) and then i tried firmware downgrade and then S#!t power outage and instant $170 paper weight so i was crying my eyes out!!! then i turned it in and got a replacment and i bricked that one too! i was ripping my freaking hair out because ppl said u cant redo the firmware! i ask why? isnt there like a technicians debug port on the board!?

    well anywho now ill be looking into buying bricks off ebay!

    my gods i hate to love tech!

  10. Lemme clarify the battery confusion. The only thing that pandora changes on the battery is the serial number of the battery. There isn’t any ‘code’ in the eeprom of the battery, just information about the battery (i.e. manufacturer data, capacity, serial number, etc). The pandora battery changer just changes the serial number to all 1’s in binary. The rom firmware in the PSP reads this serial number when you power it up. If it sees that serial number, it looks for the IPL code on the memory stick instead of the system flash. That’s why pandora’s ‘battery’ isn’t just a battery. It’s a battery and a memory stick. That’s also the reason you can’t use the battery like a normal battery, because it always tries to load the IPL from the memory stick if you boot with that battery in, which obviously won’t work if you have a regular memory stick in. Plus it won’t boot whatever firmware you may have installed on your PSP. It just boots the IPL on the pandora stick. Hope this clears some things up.

  11. excuse me but i just learned about pandora’s battery. i just downloaded it and really the explanations arent that clear to me. if someone can guide me through this, i will be very happy. so in order to do this opperation, do i need a whole new battery and a psp that is at 1.5 right? or can i simply use the current one? im really confused here.
    i knew i should have stopped updating my psp when my friend told me he put windows vista on his. for some reason i didnt care but now i really do. i want to be able to pimp my psp.
    i have another question that has nothing to do with pandora’s battery. i wanted to know why the 8gb memory stick would not work with version 2.80 and below. is there a way to make it work with those versions?

  12. The reason a PSP running 1.50 or custom firmware is required to create a pandora’s battery is that you have to run some unsigned (i.e. homebrew) programs from the PSP itself to create the battery. Also, a memory stick pro duo is also required. Most people are suggesting to use a 256MB one, as it is the smallest pro duo you can get, plus it’s guaranteed to work on one that small. You can’t create a ‘jigstick’ (that’s what they call the memory stick that works with the battery) out of a 4GB or larger one. A jigstick will work as a normal memory stick, but you have to have a jigstick to use the pandora’s battery. Creating the jigstick is part of the process of creating the battery in the first place, so if you get a spare battery, a 256mb-2gb memory stick pro duo, and have access to a 1.5 or custom firmware PSP, just follow the instructions and you’re set.

  13. Heey people…right jus a quick question..i have a psp on custom firmware and it bricked whilst trying to install pandoras battery aka “jigstick” i was jus wondering if i have a pandoras battery and mem stick, can i still use the battery that was in the bricked psp after ive unbricked it using pandoras battery ?

    Please comment back

    thanks :)

  14. Raelik: Thank you very much for the explanation (comment number 14). I wanted to know a little more about how it worked since the whole “jump starting” the psp analogy sounded somewhat dangerous. But this sounds good!

  15. Hey Frank if you still need assistance running pandora just im me at yahoo messenger id wildbill2004hidden

    19. excuse me but i just learned about pandora’s battery. i just downloaded it and really the explanations arent that clear to me. if someone can guide me through this, i will be very happy. so in order to do this opperation, do i need a whole new battery and a psp that is at 1.5 right? or can i simply use the current one? im really confused here.
    i knew i should have stopped updating my psp when my friend told me he put windows vista on his. for some reason i didnt care but now i really do. i want to be able to pimp my psp.
    i have another question that has nothing to do with pandora’s battery. i wanted to know why the 8gb memory stick would not work with version 2.80 and below. is there a way to make it work with those versions?

    Posted at 12:43PM on Sep 10th 2007 by Frank Castle

  16. hey guys,anyone know if the pandora battery will work on the newest psp available now in stores.(the thiner version of the psp) greatly appreciated if anyone could let me know.email=ses319@gmail.com

  17. My God- Had I known it was this difficult… I have been reading up on the whole pandoras this, firmware that.. is there a place to set out specific directions, as I have firmware 3.60 and some say I just need pandoras batter, others say it cant be downgraded, and some say it has to be.. I am to say the least..LOST!… anyone who actually knows what I should do, so I dont end up with a spacer for the corner of the couch with the broken leg… I dont wanna fry this thing.. I just bought it-

    WiL

  18. i have the new psp slim/lite w/filmware 3.71 and want to get homebrew 3.71 m33 installed onto it. i have been doing research about pandora battery and the magic mem stick. one site says i can do it i even seen a vid on youtube. one sec a guy had 3.71 and swapped batteries turned it on hit a few buttons swapped in the original battery and poof he had the 3.71 m33 custom filmware. does this sound right or am i going to end up “bricking” my new psp?

  19. I have a problem, I did not back up the battery information that’s why I cannot restore my pandora to normal battery…. please send me your battery info so that I can revive my battery….. please share the link

  20. Ok i have used my shiny white psp (3.52 M33 fw) to create the pandora’s battery, unbricked a friends psp, so i know it works. i tried to dg mine back to 1.50 so i could do the all psp downgrader to help a friend with his slim and lite, and some where along the line, my ms messed up leaving me with a white psp brick (bugger) i have a mates psp fat running 3.52 M33 fw and am trying to recreate the ms side of it as my battery never changed (well dont think it did) and every time i try to run the PB firm installer, i get a “incorrect or corrupt updater file”, im assuming its the 1.50 eboot thats at fault, and i have several versions of the pandora files, i have evern tried mixing and matching, im getting to the piont where im about to throw my psp at the nearest wall with great force, please someone help me???????

    btw my psp is less than a year old

    J

  21. To number 20, there is a way to use the pandora battery and mem stick on the newer version of psp. Just google it to find out how to do it. Or head to qj.net and do a little research on that site. You will need a mem stick and battery then special files to allow your mem stick to run 3.60 m33 instead of 1.50.

  22. hey nah yeah you can change a Pandora battery back to normal easy……..you leave your magic memory stick in the unit with the pandora files still on it take your (pandora) battery out……plug in Charger wait for PSP to Boot….then put battery in im assuming you have used it to downgrade to 1.5 or CFW run the battery installer program and convert it backfollowing the options given on the menu

    Um one question though……. i have two PSP one Bricked, 1 downgraded to 1.5…..used Pandora for Downgraded 1 ….WORKED…..tried on Bricked???????
    downgrade Procedure follows through and press X to shut down then when Manual Restart required with normal battery screen doesnt come on and still bricked……ran pandora on it heaps of times still no luck

    Anybody that can help:
    Email:poo.u.farted@gmail.com
    Or comment me:http://www.bebo.com/HonEst-2-Hu

  23. PLEASE REPLY!! but will any changes go on with my psp if i put a 4gb memory card in my psp,cause i already had it downgraded,i already have the pandoras battery and the jigstick thing,but will my psp change??cause im tryin to fit more music and games and vids,and with this small 1gb i cant,only one game(homebrew),maybe4-5 vids,and about 13-14 songs,and i wanna fit about 4 more games

  24. Silly question (maybe)…
    My bricked PSP was running one of the more recent official firmwares – Can I create the Pandora battery on another hacked machine and use it to fix mine?
    Equally, is there no way just to download an image of the memory card already set to go ?
    Cheers

  25. when i done everything right to convert my batt into a pandora batt, i run the pandora’s battery firmware installer, it says updater file could not be read. how can i fix this problem?

  26. Can anyone help, i’m new to all this tech stuff and i’m very confused? I have a psp 1000 (phat) running ofw v4.0 and want to install cps2psp emulator. Do i need to downgrade the firmware and if so which is the best version suited. I have purchased a pandora battrey and 2g mem stick pro duo but dont know where to go from here. Do i need to create a magic stick? Where can i get step by step instructions?

  27. hi ijust got a new slim psp last week with a 3.90 official firmware. i want to install the 3.90 m33 version bt evrywhere i read they say that i need to already have a custom firmware to do so. cud anyone tell me exactly what to do as im very confused about the whole pandoras battery and 1.5 firmware.

  28. Just make a standard 3.71m33 Pandora and that should put you onto CFW 3.71M33-3 directly (no need to downgrade). Btw the new PSP Slims that come with 4.00 firmware or over cannot be hacked with Pandora (for now anyway) so until a hack is made everyone is better off staying at their current firmware until DAX works his magic again =P. Plus the PSP-3000 is gonna make things interesting.

  29. i have a fat psp with no custem firmware but it has regular firmware so will a pandora battery work(i was in the middle of downloading verson 5.01 and the battery fell out)will it work if i take the battery apart and make the pandora battrey (and i dont care if i spell some thing wrong im only 11 fucking years old damn it!)

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