A Pandora’s Battery (Pandora Battery or just Pandora) is a sort of lifeline for PSP users with the who have Custom Firmware installed on their units. It’s basically a special service battery that, along with a magic memorystick, can downgrade and unbrick any psp. Instead having to throw your bricked units away, you can now bring your dead (bricked) PSP back to life and/or downgrade any firmware psp – safely.

The homebrew community owes its roots to the Noobz! team for giving us such an amazing breakthrough.

While it’s an absolute must to have a Pandora Battery, if you’re a novice to the PSP world though, making one is a daunting task which requires you to have an original Sony PSP battery and a spare memory stick. Luckily, an innovative Filipino has provided a way of doing away with both requirements.

How? Read his Easy-to-follow guide for installation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Getting Started

1. Introduction
2. Tested OK Using the Following Systems
3. Things You Need
4. Optional Procedure Before Starting

II. Main Guide

1. Preparation
2. Jigkick Battery & Magic Memory Stick
3. Install Pandora Menu Launcher
4. Test

III. Troubleshooting Guides

1. To use PSP normally
2. To use Pandora to unbrick or downgrade a PSP
3. To revert your battery and memory stick to a normal one

IV. Additional Information

1. Notes on Pandora
2. Credits

I. GETTING STARTED

1a. Introduction

This installs a multi-boot IPL to create a MagicStick w/o reformatting (mspformat) and also w/o using a separate battery & memstick for your Pandora. The multi-boot IPL included in this package already has the sleep-mode fix.

Original readme files of the included tools/files are also included inside the “Other Files” folder.

If anything goes wrong with your PSP, the original owners of the files (including this repacked version), are not responsible.

Proceed at your own risk!

1b. Tested OK Using the Following Systems

psp-1000, orig 1800mA batt, orig 256mb MS, 3.52 m33-4, 3.52 kernel
psp-1000, orig 1800mA batt, class-A 4gb MS, 3.52 m33-4, 3.52 kernel
psp-1000, orig 1800mA batt, orig 8gb MS, 3.52 m33-4, 3.52 kernel

Kindly inform me if you tested this w/ other setups and working well.

1c. Things You Need

1. Your homebrew-enabled PSP (OFW 1.5, any CFW)
2. Your PSP battery
3. Your memstick (must be a Pro Duo, 256mb or higher)
4. Official Sony 1.50 firmware (not included in the package, get it yourself)
5. Official Sony 3.80 firmware (not included in the package, get it yourself)

1d. Optional Procedure Before Starting

You may also format your memstick if you really want using the “Format Memory Stick” option on your PSP.

Or you may still use the mspformat tool (used by the original Pandora installer) but you still have to recreate the folders needed (PSP, PSP/GAME, PSP/GAME150).

NOTE: mspformat is also included inside the “Other Files” folder

II. MAIN GUIDE

2a. Step 1: Preparation

1. Open Package Folder 1
2. Make sure you don’t have any external storage devices connected
3. Run start.bat
4. Connect your memstick using a card reader or via PSP USB mode
5. Press Y to install IPL
6. Open Package Folder 2
7. Copy the “ipl” folder to the root of your memstick. ms0:/ipl
8. Open Package Folder 3
9. Browse to the GAME folder in your memstick
   • PSP/GAME if you use FW1.5
   • PSP/GAME150 if you use CFW
10. Copy all 4 folders (pandora_battery, pandora_battery, pbfirm_install, pbfirm_install%) to the GAME folder
    • PSP/GAME if you use FW1.5
    • PSP/GAME150 if you use CFW
11. Copy the official Sony 1.5 firmware update to the root of your memstick. ms0:/EBOOT.PBP
12. Rename EBOOT.PBP to UPDATE.PBP
13. Copy the official Sony 3.80 firmware update to the root of your memstick. ms0:/EBOOT.PBP
14. Rename EBOOT.PBP to 380.PBP
15. Disconnect the memorystick from your PC (disconnect USB or remove card from card reader)
    • If you use a card reader, insert your memstick on your PSP

2b. Step 2: Jigkick Battery & Magic Memory Stick

1. Connect PSP power cable and make sure the battery is also inserted
2. Run “Pandora’s Battery Firm. Installer” (PSP Game Menu -> Memory Stick)
3. Press X to install the firmware to the memstick
4. Wait until it returns to the XMB
5. Run “Pandora’s Battery Creator” (PSP Game Menu -> Memory Stick)
6. Press triangle to backup your battery’s EEPROM to ms0:/eeprom.bin (just in case you want to revert your battery to a normal one)
7. Wait until it returns to the XMB
8. Connect your memstick to your PC again
9. Rename the msipl.bin file located in the root of your memstick to 150ex.bin
10. Move 150ex.bin to the ipl folder in your memstick. ms0:/ipl/150ex.bin
11. Backup the eeprom.bin file located in the root of your memstick to your PC
12. Disconnect the memstick from your PC
13. Run “Pandora’s Battery Creator” (PSP Game Menu -> Memory Stick)
14. Press X to convert the battery to Service Mode (a.k.a. Pandora’s battery)
    • After creating the battery, your battery should now be able to auto-boot your PSP when inserted
15. Wait until it returns to the XMB

2c. Step 3: Install Pandora Menu Launcher

1. Open Package Folder 4
2. Make a copy of the ms0:/kd folder to your computer
3. Rename ms0:/kd to ms0:/kdpandora
4. Copy the kd folder from the package to the root of the memstick. ms0:/kd

2d. Test

1. Turn off your PSP (hard-reset) and disconnect the power supply and USB cable
2. Hold the L-Trigger button then turn on your PSP
3. Release the button if you see a green screen or the menu

III. TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDES

3a. To use PSP normally

Turn off your PSP (hard-reset) then turn it on again w/o holding the L-trigger.
You can still use the R-trigger for the Recovery Menu (for CFW)

3b. To use Pandora to unbrick or downgrade a PSP

1. Remove the memstick and battery of the PSP
2. Insert the MagicStick
3. Hold the L-Trigger button
4. Insert the battery
5. Release the button if you see the pandora menu
6. Follow the instructions, depending on what you need from this point

3c. To revert your battery and memory stick to a normal one

1. Connect your memstick to your PC
2. Open Package Folder 3
3. Browse to the GAME folder in your memstick
   • PSP/GAME if you use FW1.5
   • PSP/GAME150 if you use CFW (OE, M33)
4. Copy the 2 folders (pandora_battery, pandora_battery%) to the GAME folder
   • PSP/GAME if you use FW1.5
   • PSP/GAME150 if you use CFW (OE, M33)
5. Copy your backup of eeprom.bin to the root of your memstick. ms0:/eeprom.bin
6. Disconnect the memstick from your PC
7. Run “Pandora’s Battery Creator” (PSP Game Menu -> Memory Stick)
8. Press square to convert Pandora’s battery to a normal one
9. Wait until it returns to the XMB
10. Run “Pandora’s Battery Creator” (PSP Game Menu -> Memory Stick)
11. Press L-Trigger + R-Trigger to restore EEPROM data (don’t worry about the error message)
12. Wait until it returns to the XMB
13. Format your memory stick using the “Format Memory Stick” option on your PSP.

IV. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

4a. Notes on Pandora

Make sure you dump the NAND Flash of your PSP before doing a downgrade or unbricking.
Do not restore a NAND dump of other people’s PSP.
Do not remove the UPDATE.PBP from your memstick.

4b. Credits

Pandora: Dark_Alex & Mathieulh
Pandora Menu Launcher: TheJoker
mspformat: Team C+D
multi-boot IPL: Booster

Author’s Home page

Tutorial Video (PandoraRepacked 0.2): 1 | 2

After you’ve created your Pandora battery, you’d definitely want to upgrade your custom firmware and this guide to upgrading will definitely help. After that, you might be interested in some PSP game downloads