[euss]

Actually, you are adviced to validate the dump before doing any write access to flash (e.g. restore), to prevent permabricking the console by bad clipping.

The quoted metldr values are from the last downgradeable 0E92 of size E960, most commonly seen with bootldr 2F5B of size 2F5F0 - which indeed has a minver lock of 3.50/3.55.

http://www.ps3devwiki.com/index.php?...Bbootldr_sizes

So now we can only hope 2 things:
* that the first dump is 100% valid and not bad clipped
* that the changes made by the e3_downgrade.bin (aka quick E3 permabricker) are valid

The only way to verify that, is in the 2 dumps (the original untouched and the one that is now in NOR) themselves.
Pleasy upload them (mediafire.com e.g.) so we can take a look (and join the IRC channel @alex-07 mentioned for live talk)