advice/clarification needed on PS3 fault

[nemesis]

Hey all,

Hope everyone's having a good day! I am in need of some advice/clarification as to what other steps i can take to fix my PS3.

I will try to make my post as detailed as possible. Basically i came into possesion of a broken PS3, it's a CECHL 80GB 16MB NOR model (2008 release). Upon firing it up a screen saying 'cannot start, correct hard drive not found' came up. After taking out the HDD and connecting it to my computer i've determined that it suffered a head crash and was completely dead. I had a spare 20GB HDD from and Xbox 360 which i formatted through my PC and used for some low volume storage. I re-formated it again and pluged it into the PS3 unit, getting the same message as before. I then booted into Recovery mode, and first tried the 3rd option (restore filing system) which gave me a 8001002b error. Google'ing the code came up with hard drive problems which i don't believe is the case since the HDD is working fine and can be used through my PC without any problems. I then tried the 5th option ( System Restore) it asked to provide an OFW file 4.0 or newer, so i downloaded it to my USB and performed the restoration - it completed fine and after rebooting i got the Red Screen error. I then tried the 6th option (System update) with the same result - Red Screen after re-boot.

So far i have tried a lot of stuff that i came across while researching these errors in Google, like taking the system apart and inspecting for obvious faults, taking out the tablet battery that powers the BIOS for a good hour and shorting the pins as well.

From all this i came to a conclusion that the NOR chip that stores part of the firmware had become corrupt, i dont know whether the previous owner tried to jailbreak this unit or not.

So here is my first question - if the VTRM had become corrupt and the RSOD is due to that, shouldn't the 6th option in Recovery menu overwrite the bad memory sectors?

While surfing a bit more on the interweb i started looking into hardware flashers like Progskeet, and as i was reading the PS3 WikiDev page i noticed that it said the following - you need to have an accurate copy of your flash store before attempting to write to flash memor, or you can permanently brick your console.

So my second question is - even if i get a progskeet kit, will i be able to re-flash the NOR memory? If it is already corrupted , how will i get a refference copy of my flash?

I apologise for the long post, this thing had been driving me crazy as i had to read through so many empty/useless post while researching this issue.

I appreciate your input ! :joyous:

[afiser]

before going through all of the trouble of getting a nor flasher, i would just try another HDD if i were you. the xbox hdd's have special information in the beginning of the drive and its possible that it could be messing with your ps3, but pc's are able to cope with it. since all of your error's seem to be hard drive related i would do that before going through the trouble of flashing.

and from the looks of things, all of your per console stuff in nor should be fine if it still boots into recovery mode. so yeah, a reflash is very possible. but like i said, i would try another drive just to be sure.

[nemesis]

Thanks for your reply, i will try and find another HDD to try! On a side note, even though it's an xbox 360 HDD, does formatting it not remove all of the xbox specific info?

[afiser]

There is a security sector on the xbox360 hdd's that are not a part of the filesystem, so they do not get formatted when you format the drive.

and btw have you tried this? http://www.ps3devwiki.com/wiki/RSOD_Fix

[nemesis]

Well i read through it all, however all these fixes require 3.55 firmware, and this unit is unfortunately on 4.00! And to downgrade i would need a flasher , as i understand.

[afiser]

Well i read through it all, however all these fixes require 3.55 firmware, and this unit is unfortunately on 4.00! And to downgrade i would need a flasher , as i understand.

awh, i see. okay. well. good luck, if it doesn't work with a different drive then you are most certainly going to have to flash it sadly. best of luck!

[nemesis]

thanks, ill post back when i make some progress!

[master737373]

It's not a hardware problem so that's good. If you do decide to get a progskeet, don't get the 360-clip. It's actually easy soldering to the nor than nand and the solderless clip sucks. But you can use progskeet to fix your nor. Just make multiple dumps. But you won't be able to follow the downgrade instructions since this isn't a coreos problem.

[nemesis]

There is a security sector on the xbox360 hdd's that are not a part of the filesystem, so they do not get formatted when you format the drive.

and btw have you tried this? http://www.ps3devwiki.com/wiki/RSOD_Fix

Would the security info be in a hard drive firmware? If i somehow re-flash the HDD's firmware to original manufacturer's version, would that get rid of any xbox 360 codes?


It's not a hardware problem so that's good. If you do decide to get a progskeet, don't get the 360-clip. It's actually easy soldering to the nor than nand and the solderless clip sucks. But you can use progskeet to fix your nor. Just make multiple dumps. But you won't be able to follow the downgrade instructions since this isn't a coreos problem.

Yeah , ive tried most of the options now, the only thing thats left is a new hdd or a flasher kit! progskeet looks good and soldering won't be a problem! It just bad luck that the system is on 4.00 OFW, i could have potentially fixed it through factory service mode...

[afiser]

Would the security info be in a hard drive firmware? If i somehow re-flash the HDD's firmware to original manufacturer's version, would that get rid of any xbox 360 codes?


I really don't know. All i know is I suffered from a problem very similar to this and i had to try 2 different hdd's before it would recover it's self in the recovery menu.

[nemesis]

I really don't know. All i know is I suffered from a problem very similar to this and i had to try 2 different hdd's before it would recover it's self in the recovery menu.

I see. Damn, im uncertain now. I'm looking for a hard drive on ebay, like a 40-80Gb one, but since they are all used there might be a chance that they came from an xbox 360 system. Its a close loop ! :numbness: I guess i'll just have to go for it and see what happens!

Thanks for your help, ill post back when i get it!

Peace!

[Misfit]

I see. Damn, im uncertain now. I'm looking for a hard drive on ebay, like a 40-80Gb one, but since they are all used there might be a chance that they came from an xbox 360 system. Its a close loop ! :numbness: I guess i'll just have to go for it and see what happens!

Thanks for your help, ill post back when i get it!

Peace!


Nemesis, i think only the 60gb, 120gb, 250gb and 320gb have a chance of being from an xbox. If you want something smaller it's probably from a lappie.