[Bubbletune]

[HEN] Read this before you brick your PSP

What you can and can not do with ChickHEN
A must-read if you don't want to damage your PSP

Introduction Just after the release of HEN, people are already trying to flash all sorts of things to it. Even though the readme clearly stated the following, "Flashing onto your PSP WILL BRICK IT!!", I feel it's necesarry to do a more in-depth explanation of this situation. Note that the HEN itself shouldn't be able to brick your PSP, but that any of the programs you run can very easily do so. When a PSP does not have a firmware installed, or if the firmware files have been damaged, your PSP is called a 'brick'. This term is used to describe the state in which your PSP cannot successfully load the system files and boot into the firmware, thus rendering it as useless as a brick. This is something you want to avoid happening to your PSP, and this guide aims at helping you archieve that. Note however, that it's still fully your own responsibility on what you do with your PSP. As you violate the Sony license agreement by using this HEN, it can't be guaranteed that your PSP will still fall under warranty. In this case, Sony can charge relatively high sums of money to unbrick your PSP, which in turn will bring it up the to latest 5.50 firmware, rendering the TIFF exploit useless.

Flashing files in general Those old-school sceners will remember the flashing of themes and other goodies. No matter how stable this works under custom firmwares, it's not the same as HEN. You need to take in to account that you need to keep the official firmware working, as if you reboot you return to it and you need to pass it to enter HEN again. For example, PRX files included in themes won't be encrypted, and even though the HEN core will patch the kernel to allow them to load, on reboot, returning to official firmware, you will be sitting with a brick as the files are now 'damaged'.

Flashing entire firmwares In general, flashing custom firmwares on PSP's other than the TA-088v3/PSP-3000 should work. I'm not going to go in depth on how to do this, but as long as you're careful and using well-known applications tested by other people on the HEN (it's helpful to have Pandora at hand while testing), you should be alright. For the TA-088v3/PSP-3000 it's another story however. Both of these PSP's can't handle custom IPL blocks, which makes custom firmwares and Pandora run. And if they don't work, it will get stuck at them, and never finish loading the actual firmware. This also ends up as a brick. This is the main reason why you shouldn't just blatantly flash stuff like this on to your PSP. A PSP-3000 can be recognized with ease, like it's brighter screen, and different home button. TA-088v3 is a different story however, as it looks like all the other Slim's. One of the best ways to figure this out is using jas0nuk's pspident application, which can be found here. Simply run this like any other homebrew and it will show what motherboard you're equipped with. Anything higher than TA-088v2 is not able to run custom firmware, or install any of the older firmwares (say, under 5.00). If it does support custom firmware however, it doesn't mean you don't need to be cautious. A good idea would be to make Pandora using the usual tools, just like you would under custom firmware. This will significantly decrease the chance of anything going wrong.

Breaking the TIFF exploit Finally, there is a slightly less critical issue that can occur, but it needs to be taken in to account. Like I said before, I suggest you don't flash anything at all, and just wait for the things you want to be made flashless. Like waiting for CXMB to work on the HEN to use your precious themes. However, if you, for whatever reason, flashed a file which didn't break the official firmware, like the waves, you might end up with the TIFF no longer launching, for the simple reason that the exploit was build to run on an unmodified PSP. Keep in mind that if these files are damaged or incorrect, they will still cause a full brick.

Determining homebrew that flashes In general, no files will be flashed without the user being acknowledged. Just keep an eye on what you run, always read the readmes and you should be fine.

Can I flash ... ? Short answer: NO. Long answer: You should ask around and wait for the opinion of experienced developers (I'll try to answer some of the questions regarding this aswell). But even then, I can't stop suggesting against it. There are lots of things you don't need to test to know. Like the fact unsigned PRX's won't load on official firmware, and that a custom IPL block won't load on the TA-088v3/PSP-3000. Don't do pointless tests to see if they work, there are so many things that can be worked out using just theory, and there is no need to waste a costy PSP for that. Lastly, do not trust random guides posted by people with few posts. Wait for a more experienced member to judge it.

Thanks for reading, and have fun with the ChickHEN.