Remarrying drives, but with a twist.

[BombTickTick]

I was given a ps3 with no bluray drive in it. The firmware it is on at the moment is 3.55 but here's where it gets tricky.

The previous owner attempted to update the ps3 to 3.56 when it had no bluray drive in it. This ended up putting the ps3 in a state of update looping since the update he attempted never finalized due to there being no drive in it. It now requires a FW of 3.56 or later to update.

Is or is it likely there will be a CFW that will update the ps3 without checking for the drive? For example upgrade to a CFW with no drive check then downgrade back to a CFW 3.55 with no drive check to remarry drives.

Or would the update go through if I put in a new drive without it being remarried first. Hopefully all this made some kind of sense.

[GlorisPS3]

you can use MFW builder to make a firmware that doesn't require a blu ray drive to be present at all....however, i think that because it's already asking for v3.56 or higher, you probably won't be able to go straight to cfw 3.55? even through recovery mode?

I don't think you'll even be able to use a dongle to get to service mode, as this doesn't work on fw above 3.55 :\

maybe you can use a hardware flasher to dongrade or something?

(soz, i'm quite new to all this, but hope this makes sense).

[BombTickTick]

you can use MFW builder to make a firmware that doesn't require a blu ray drive to be present at all....however, i think that because it's already asking for v3.56 or higher, you probably won't be able to go straight to cfw 3.55? even through recovery mode?

I don't think you'll even be able to use a dongle to get to service mode, as this doesn't work on fw above 3.55 :\

maybe you can use a hardware flasher to dongrade or something?

(soz, i'm quite new to all this, but hope this makes sense).

Yeah I'm wondering if I can make a BDB CFW off a 4.** CFW that has been released since it's still built off 3.55 fw. rather not try til someone chimes in on this.


Edit: Not sure if this would work but it's an idea I had. What if I used Mfwbuilder on the rogero 4.21 v1.09 to remove the BR drive check and then flash that, then downgrade from that back to a 3.55 BDB CFW and remarried drives. Can't be that simple can it?

[Vallachia]

Interesting and I like the creative thinking involved but it may not be a really good idea.

If the PS3 did go as far as flashing the NOR/NAND to 3.56 then doing what you suggested will absolutely brick it with no chance of recovery as you have no flash backup.
If it didn't actually flash 3.56 to the NOR/NAND (but stopped during the PUP validation sequence which happens before flashing occurs) then what you suggest should work. Care to try your luck?

A better option is to get someone with a hardware flasher to sort it out for you. But you may not want to spend $$ on a possible broken console with missing parts etc. I understand that completely.

There is another option that might be worth trying. I just spent the last 20mins typing it up for you step-by-step but the stupid forum won't let me post it. It says some crap about links (there are none in the text I wrote).

[Vallachia]

Here is what you could try. If it bricks don't blame me, I'm not the god of PS3.

If you are stuck in the update loop then you will need to pull the HDD out to stop the infinite updating and failing. Once you do that you are gonna be stuck with no video output.
So you will have to do everything listed below blind.

1. Get a dongle which can be used as a FSM mode jig and flash it with the FSM hex.
2. Get the needed files for downgrade for your dongle/jig.
3. Get yourself any spare 2.5" hdd (beg/borrow/etc.)
4. Remove the HDD from the PS3 but do NOT format it it or even hook it up to a pc. Just put it aside.
5. Now put the spare HDD in the ps3.
6. Turn on the PS3. You will probably get a black screen. After a while (30-60 secs) the PS3 will turn off.
7. Now try your jig in the LEFTMOST USB slot. From a cold boot (power unplugged and plugged back in) hit power then quickly hit eject on the PS3.
8. If the PS3 recognises the jig it will power off by itself after 5-10 seconds. This is GOOD. It means you are still on 3.55 and the 3.56 update did not complete to the point of actually flashing the NAND/NOR.

[Vallachia]

9. If it doesn't turn off after 10 seconds or so then you could try it again, but if you have no luck here just put the original HDD back in and you will need to get someone with a hardware flasher to downgrade it for you.
10. If it did work you are in luck!! Remove the jig. Now you can put lv2diag self (file 1) and a 315 BDB PUP on a FAT32 flash drive and put that in the RIGHTMOST USB slot. (315 seems the most reliable for doing the BluRay drive remarry procedure).
11. Turn it on and let it go for 20 mins or however long it takes before it turns itself off. Now put the usb stick in your pc and check the log file. Most likely you will see a bunch of crap ending in UPDATE FAILURE. That is ok, just delete the log file from the usb stick.
12. Now turn it back on and let it do the flash again. THIS IS IMPORTANT! BDB PUP's always fail the first time! That is normal. They need to be installed twice to work.
13 Now after checking the log on your USB drive you should see update success. yay!
14 Remove the usb drive and turn the PS3 on. You should now have video (yay again) and you can move through the XMB etc.
15 You can now take it out of FSM - put lv2diag self file 2 on your fat32 drive, delete any other files from the drive then put in the rightmost port and start the PS3. It will turn on then off again. Now remove the usb drive and turn the PS3 on.
16 Or leave it in FSM since you will want to remarry it to a replacement drive anyway.

[Vallachia]

Ok so I took out some punctuation from the last 2 posts and it let me post it finally. I think it still makes sense. Good luck with it!

[GlorisPS3]

i thought that the fsm jigs need to be in the rightmost port? i guess try both though.....also, depending what you're using, try HOLDING DOWN the power button, quickly pressing eject, and keeping the power button held until the console beeps once. this was what i finally worked out i had to do when using my psp with ps3jig to get into fsm....

[BombTickTick]

Well it was free and I am a gambling man so I'll give it a go. Thanks everyone for all the advice.