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| IMPORTANT PSP OWNERS INFORMATION |
PSP REPLACEMENT PARTS
I've been fixing PSP's since they came out and I've come across a lot of different types of PSP
problems. Most of the repairs I'm asked to do are the result of standard wear and tear or
accidental breakage but quite a few are due to people trying to fix it themselves and really
messing things up. This isn't because they're not intelligent careful people it's because they were
going by one of the incorrect or incomplete instruction guides found all over the Internet. As time
goes by though I've been seeing more and more PSP's come in with non-Sony parts, either already
installed or sent along as an extra and I usually also get a short story as to what they were trying
to do and where everything started to go wrong. For instance somebody might install a new power
switch and all of a sudden the PSP won't charge anymore, something that appears to be an entirely
separate problem, so they give up and send it to me. Bad instructions aside, the new part they
bought is almost always at least part of the problem. After PSP's had been available for a year or
so a few companies in China started making after-market, or non-Sony brand replacement parts
for them, all of which exit China via Hong Kong. Some of these parts are OK and some are literally
worthless but there's no way for the average Joe to know the difference which this information is
here.
I completely understand wanting to save a buck and for a person to look at my PSP part prices and
think they've found a great deal when they see what appears to be the same thing on Ebay for a
quarter of the price. I took some time to get on Ebay and shop for PSP parts like a normal person
would do and discovered just why I've been seeing so many after-market part repairs coming in.
There was one person on Ebay that sold genuine Sony PSP parts and it was only as a sideline.
Every single vendor except him was a company either physically in Hong Kong or selling the exact
same parts in the USA via a distribution company.
They say picture's worth a thousand words so here's exactly what we're looking at when it comes
to buying PSP parts. I know this may sound like a bunch of sour grapes or a sales pitch but you can
see for yourself just what I'm talking about. I'm in business to make a buck myself and I do
understand why so many people are in the after-market game parts business. There's a lot of
money in it, for instance I can buy Chinese power switch PCB's for 50 cents each and sell them all
day long on Ebay or my website for $5 a pop. That's a big profit when you have hundreds of orders
coming in but I'm looking at all this from the customer's point of view also. I won't sell you a 50
cent PCB because I certainly wouldn't buy one myself if I needed it for my son's PSP nor do I want
a bunch of angry customers. Anyway, video game parts are firmly set in the "you get what you pay
for" section and you can see why...
I've been fixing PSP's since they came out and I've come across a lot of different types of PSP
problems. Most of the repairs I'm asked to do are the result of standard wear and tear or
accidental breakage but quite a few are due to people trying to fix it themselves and really
messing things up. This isn't because they're not intelligent careful people it's because they were
going by one of the incorrect or incomplete instruction guides found all over the Internet. As time
goes by though I've been seeing more and more PSP's come in with non-Sony parts, either already
installed or sent along as an extra and I usually also get a short story as to what they were trying
to do and where everything started to go wrong. For instance somebody might install a new power
switch and all of a sudden the PSP won't charge anymore, something that appears to be an entirely
separate problem, so they give up and send it to me. Bad instructions aside, the new part they
bought is almost always at least part of the problem. After PSP's had been available for a year or
so a few companies in China started making after-market, or non-Sony brand replacement parts
for them, all of which exit China via Hong Kong. Some of these parts are OK and some are literally
worthless but there's no way for the average Joe to know the difference which this information is
here.
I completely understand wanting to save a buck and for a person to look at my PSP part prices and
think they've found a great deal when they see what appears to be the same thing on Ebay for a
quarter of the price. I took some time to get on Ebay and shop for PSP parts like a normal person
would do and discovered just why I've been seeing so many after-market part repairs coming in.
There was one person on Ebay that sold genuine Sony PSP parts and it was only as a sideline.
Every single vendor except him was a company either physically in Hong Kong or selling the exact
same parts in the USA via a distribution company.
They say picture's worth a thousand words so here's exactly what we're looking at when it comes
to buying PSP parts. I know this may sound like a bunch of sour grapes or a sales pitch but you can
see for yourself just what I'm talking about. I'm in business to make a buck myself and I do
understand why so many people are in the after-market game parts business. There's a lot of
money in it, for instance I can buy Chinese power switch PCB's for 50 cents each and sell them all
day long on Ebay or my website for $5 a pop. That's a big profit when you have hundreds of orders
coming in but I'm looking at all this from the customer's point of view also. I won't sell you a 50
cent PCB because I certainly wouldn't buy one myself if I needed it for my son's PSP nor do I want
a bunch of angry customers. Anyway, video game parts are firmly set in the "you get what you pay
for" section and you can see why...
| THIS IS THE REAL THING. A GENUINE FACTORY ORIGINAL SONY POWER SWITCH PCB. NOTE THAT BOTH THE GREEN AND ORANGE LED LIGHTS ARE IN A SINGLE CASE. |
| AND THESE ARE THE COPIES - NOTE THE COLOR DIFFERENCE TOO, IF YOU SEE A BLUE OR BRIGHT FLUORESCENT GREEN PCB FOR SALE THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE LIKELY TO GET. |
Bad power switch PCB's are
by far the most common
cause of the "avoidable"
repairs I have coming in. I
could keep writing for days I
PSP problems there are but
for now I have to just focus
on the worst. About 20% of
the after-market power
switch PCB's don't work at
all to start with. The vast
majority of the ones that do
work usually will only work
partially, like it'll turn on but
the volume buttons all of a
sudden won't work. The
majority of the PSP buttons
rely on the power switch
PCB to function properly as
it transfers all the data to
the motherboard. A bad
power switch PCB can make
it look like a different
component is causing the
problem and there's no way
to tell what the problem is
without swapping out new
parts to help locate the
culprit. Of course not many
people have a bunch of extra
PSP parts laying around and
are therefore unable to do
this. The lifespan of an
after-market PCB that does
work is probably about 3
months if you're lucky.
by far the most common
cause of the "avoidable"
repairs I have coming in. I
could keep writing for days I
PSP problems there are but
for now I have to just focus
on the worst. About 20% of
the after-market power
switch PCB's don't work at
all to start with. The vast
majority of the ones that do
work usually will only work
partially, like it'll turn on but
the volume buttons all of a
sudden won't work. The
majority of the PSP buttons
rely on the power switch
PCB to function properly as
it transfers all the data to
the motherboard. A bad
power switch PCB can make
it look like a different
component is causing the
problem and there's no way
to tell what the problem is
without swapping out new
parts to help locate the
culprit. Of course not many
people have a bunch of extra
PSP parts laying around and
are therefore unable to do
this. The lifespan of an
after-market PCB that does
work is probably about 3
months if you're lucky.
| SEVERAL EBAY VENDORS HAD PICTURES OF A SONY BUT THE DESCRIPTION AND PRICE OF A COPY. ORIGINAL SONY PARTS COME OUT OF DISASSEMBLED PSP'S ONLY. SONY ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT SELL PSP REPLACEMENT PARTS TO ANYBODY INCLUDING PROFESSIONAL REPAIR SHOPS, TRUST ME I'VE TRIED:-) THE ACTUAL FACTORY MANUFACTURERS OF THESE PARTS ARE ON CONTRACT TO SONY ALSO AND SELLING SONY'S TECHNOLOGY TO OTHER PEOPLE IS NUMBER ONE ON THE LIST OF LAWSUIT STARTERS. |
| OTHER COMMON AFTER-MARKET PSP PARTS. THESE AREN'T QUITE SO OBVIOUSLY MESSED UP BUT THE PICTURE SETS BELOW SHOW THE MAIN PROBLEM IN CLOSE UP. ALL THREE PARTS ARE LAYERED PLASTIC DATA CABLES IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER. EACH ONE FITS INTO IT'S RESPECTIVE CONNECTOR ON THE PSP MOTHERBOARD. THESE CONNECTORS ARE RATHER FRAGILE AND TRYING TO CRAM SOMETHING INTO IT THAT DOESN'T FIT WILL CAUSE EXPENSIVE DAMAGE. |
The first set of pictures is the end of a genuine Sony cable and it's copy. The brown part in the first two is a slightly thicker
piece of plastic glued to the end of the cable that let's you fit it into it's connector easier. The copy has the same piece glued
on except it's clear, crooked and too wide. The black lines are the data traces themselves, each one performs a certain
action, like up, down, left, right etc. When they're all glommed together you can image what happens.
piece of plastic glued to the end of the cable that let's you fit it into it's connector easier. The copy has the same piece glued
on except it's clear, crooked and too wide. The black lines are the data traces themselves, each one performs a certain
action, like up, down, left, right etc. When they're all glommed together you can image what happens.
| HERE ARE EXAMPLES OF ALL THREE SIDE-BY-SIDE AND IF YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR YOU KNOW WHICH ONE IS THE SONY. MOST ALL OF THE AFTER-MARKET DATA CABLES ARE GREEN, THERE ARE NO GREEN ORIGINAL SONY CABLES SO IT'S EASY TO SPOT. THE COPIES WILL ALWAYS COME AS A FLAT PIECE OF PLASTIC ALSO WHICH OF COURSE SAVES ON POSTAGE. THE SECOND OF EACH SET IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU TAKE A PSP APART. |
BUTTON BAR CABLE MAIN CABLE DIRECTIONAL PAD CABLE
Sony originally designed a PSP to do certain things like play games and music and over time they've created better out and
way a PSP works you basically have to delete and replace all the computerized memory that's in there that makes a PSP do
the things it does. This memory is called the firmware and Sony has set up a few different ways to update it. One method is
to download the information off of the Sony website through your computer and on to your PSP memory card, put the card
in your PSP and then run the update. This does get a bit complicated and not everyone has the right computer equipment to
Sony originally designed a PSP to do certain things like play games and music and over time they've created better out and
do this. The most common updating method is therefore the one that everybody has access to, UMD games. Sony originally
buy a brand new PSP in order to get the advantages of having a newer model but there's a downside too. To change the
designed a PSP to do certain things like play games and music and over time they've created better When new games come
out they're pre-loaded with the newest firmware version and you have to load this version before you can play the new
game. This is where all the trouble starts. Another reason why Sony changes the firmware, other than you can play the new
game. This is where all the trouble starts. Another reason why Sony changes the firmware, other than making a PSP work
better, is to stop the computer hackers from getting into the PSP's "brains" and changing the way it works. Like allowing
you to download games for free rather than buy them from Sony. This is all called 'home-brew' firmware and lot's of
teenagers just love it though I don't know why. The time and trouble it takes just to play Pac-man for free doesn't make any
sense to me but I digress...
As mentioned above, updating the firmware requires first that you erase what's already in there. If you start an update and
don't finish it for some reason, like the battery dies or you just turn it off, you end up with a completely dead PSP. The
'brains' are gone and you have what's called a 'bricked PSP' because it's about as much fun as a brick just sitting there.
Many people have bought PSP's for their younger kids which is fine when the kids are just playing their games. Sooner or
later though the kid's going to get a new game and all this weird stuff will come up on the screen telling them what to press
and "accept or reject" etc. To them obviously something's wrong and they just turn it off to go ask Dad what happened and
of course by then it's too late. Lot's of other things can go wrong too so it's not just a kid's problem. If the PSP accidentally
gets dropped, a power surge, the battery falls out, the UMD disc won't read, all sorts of things can go wrong.
The good news here is that the same computer hackers who efforts Sony's trying to foil eventually came up with a way to
"un-brick" a PSP. I offer PSP un-bricking/firmware replacement for $49 which includes the other PSP maintenance
services and cleaning like I do with all the other repairs. This is on the "Repair Requests" page if you already have a bricked
PSP but that's not what this is about. All I want to achieve here is to pass on the information as to just how important it is
to understand PSP updating and to follow the instructions to the letter. It's all in your PSP owner's manual if you still have it
or you can get it at http://www.us.playstation.com/psp along with Sony's actual firmware download.
For those of you with small children awareness is key. Familiarize yourself with how this all works and when you buy a new
game YOU load it first. If your PSP is having trouble reading the UMD games it may be that the laser's getting worn or dirty
and if so you really don't want to take the chance of it giving out during an update. You can use the memory card/download
method or even use the wireless Internet function but that's kind of iffy in itself. Just pay attention and be careful. I love
having your business but I'd rather be fixing genuine PSP hardware problems rather than something that could have been
avoided with just a little bit of information.
way a PSP works you basically have to delete and replace all the computerized memory that's in there that makes a PSP do
the things it does. This memory is called the firmware and Sony has set up a few different ways to update it. One method is
to download the information off of the Sony website through your computer and on to your PSP memory card, put the card
in your PSP and then run the update. This does get a bit complicated and not everyone has the right computer equipment to
Sony originally designed a PSP to do certain things like play games and music and over time they've created better out and
do this. The most common updating method is therefore the one that everybody has access to, UMD games. Sony originally
buy a brand new PSP in order to get the advantages of having a newer model but there's a downside too. To change the
designed a PSP to do certain things like play games and music and over time they've created better When new games come
out they're pre-loaded with the newest firmware version and you have to load this version before you can play the new
game. This is where all the trouble starts. Another reason why Sony changes the firmware, other than you can play the new
game. This is where all the trouble starts. Another reason why Sony changes the firmware, other than making a PSP work
better, is to stop the computer hackers from getting into the PSP's "brains" and changing the way it works. Like allowing
you to download games for free rather than buy them from Sony. This is all called 'home-brew' firmware and lot's of
teenagers just love it though I don't know why. The time and trouble it takes just to play Pac-man for free doesn't make any
sense to me but I digress...
As mentioned above, updating the firmware requires first that you erase what's already in there. If you start an update and
don't finish it for some reason, like the battery dies or you just turn it off, you end up with a completely dead PSP. The
'brains' are gone and you have what's called a 'bricked PSP' because it's about as much fun as a brick just sitting there.
Many people have bought PSP's for their younger kids which is fine when the kids are just playing their games. Sooner or
later though the kid's going to get a new game and all this weird stuff will come up on the screen telling them what to press
and "accept or reject" etc. To them obviously something's wrong and they just turn it off to go ask Dad what happened and
of course by then it's too late. Lot's of other things can go wrong too so it's not just a kid's problem. If the PSP accidentally
gets dropped, a power surge, the battery falls out, the UMD disc won't read, all sorts of things can go wrong.
The good news here is that the same computer hackers who efforts Sony's trying to foil eventually came up with a way to
"un-brick" a PSP. I offer PSP un-bricking/firmware replacement for $49 which includes the other PSP maintenance
services and cleaning like I do with all the other repairs. This is on the "Repair Requests" page if you already have a bricked
PSP but that's not what this is about. All I want to achieve here is to pass on the information as to just how important it is
to understand PSP updating and to follow the instructions to the letter. It's all in your PSP owner's manual if you still have it
or you can get it at http://www.us.playstation.com/psp along with Sony's actual firmware download.
For those of you with small children awareness is key. Familiarize yourself with how this all works and when you buy a new
game YOU load it first. If your PSP is having trouble reading the UMD games it may be that the laser's getting worn or dirty
and if so you really don't want to take the chance of it giving out during an update. You can use the memory card/download
method or even use the wireless Internet function but that's kind of iffy in itself. Just pay attention and be careful. I love
having your business but I'd rather be fixing genuine PSP hardware problems rather than something that could have been
avoided with just a little bit of information.
| PSP FIRMWARE VERSION UPDATES |
I was originally baffled by the high Ebay feedback ratings for the vendors that sell this sort of thing as I know for a fact how
rare it is to get a perfect part that works right straight off the bat. It dawned on me that that's why a lot of vendors press
people to hurry up and enter their feedback, immediately upon arrival of the new part preferably. Installing the new part
takes quite a while for a beginner so by the time the weekend rolls around and they have their new part installed it's a
major pain to go back and change their feedback, if they have the option to do so at all. For the folks that do wait until after
the install to report feedback there's a good chance they'll think they themselves messed something up during the install
and either don't want to admit it or have the good ethics not to blame someone else for something that may not be their
fault. There's also the people that end up with what looks like an entirely different, unassociated problem like the volume
not working as mentioned above. To them that has nothing to do with the new power switch PCB they just installed hence
more positive feedback, if only to have positive feedback returned.
rare it is to get a perfect part that works right straight off the bat. It dawned on me that that's why a lot of vendors press
people to hurry up and enter their feedback, immediately upon arrival of the new part preferably. Installing the new part
takes quite a while for a beginner so by the time the weekend rolls around and they have their new part installed it's a
major pain to go back and change their feedback, if they have the option to do so at all. For the folks that do wait until after
the install to report feedback there's a good chance they'll think they themselves messed something up during the install
and either don't want to admit it or have the good ethics not to blame someone else for something that may not be their
fault. There's also the people that end up with what looks like an entirely different, unassociated problem like the volume
not working as mentioned above. To them that has nothing to do with the new power switch PCB they just installed hence
more positive feedback, if only to have positive feedback returned.
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