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resurrecting a fat PS3

found a Playstation 3 (model CECHH04) by the dumpster. cleaned it up and inspected - it's missing the BD and the HD and its cage; I jammed a normal 2.5" HDD in there and stuck some cardboard around. the light turned green, the HD spins up, the fans are spinning and the TV shows it's alive - no OS though.

I've downloaded Sony's official firmware and also some evilnat CFW jailbreak; tried both but the prompt on the TV is to attach a controller to the USB and press the PS button, which I haven't got. can I do something without it? tried a noname PC gamepad and keyboard but no go...

7 comments

Sabin10

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You will need an official controller and if the bd is missing you will want the nobd version of evilnat. I don't know if you will be able to use OFW without a bd so better to skip direct to a CFW.

dingdongitsabear

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got me a fake PS3 controller. looks the part and what's more important - the PS button is detected!

however, I can't get to load the update from the USB. possibly because I'm missing the BD...? I got the noBD CFW but how can I get it to load? after pressing the start+select combo it's supposed to load the update from the USB but that's not happening, it just says "Checking... Please wait.". the USB drive shows no activity (it's got a LED for r/w activity).

edit: after like a year and a half of just sitting there, it finally prompted me to press start+select for five seconds to format. upon complying, another decade or so passed before it began to install the OFW. fingers crossed!

edit 2: musta crossed those finger wrong, it's now stuck in an update loop... starts installing and at 41% it stops with error 8002F114E. upon restart, it begins again.

~~final~~ edit: you can't install the CFW without the OFW. and you can't install the OFW without a present and functioning BD. so, this thing goes back to the dumpster as it's useless as is. at least I have a fake dualshock controller that doesn't work with my BT adapter...

last edit so far: I got me a defunct PS3 that the same generation and transferred the BD over and... it worked, flash completed and latest OFW 4.91 works! now I'm off to install the CFW!

MentalEdge

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The OS installs onto the drive, so yeah, it won't have anything without it.

Also no. The PS can only be interacted with by using a proper controller (official or third-party).

I don't know what "evil something" you're referring to, but an official firmware .PUP file can be download from sony here.

dingdongitsabear

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thanks. curse those evil bastards who didn't have the decency to also throw away a functioning controller... I guess I'll give up for now.

thought about maybe installing linux or something, but this thing has like 256 MB RAM, so not much point to it.

MentalEdge

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The OtherOS feature still requires using the firmware to get things running I think.

You'll have look up some info on how things work and go step by step.

ShinkanTrain

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If you're like me and you insist you getting a real controller, be careful. it's a minefield of very convincing fakes. They will work, including on recovery mode, but usually have shoddy SIXAXIS and drift.

Even looking at comparison pics, the only way I could be sure was by looking at the PCB and cross referencing with this

dingdongitsabear

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I got ahold of another CECHH04 that doesn't work and transferred the BD over annnd... it worked! the flash completed and the latest OFW 4.91 is installed. now I'm off to install the CFW with a noBD patch. yay me!