[nouse10]

I successfully downgraded OFW 4.11 to CFW 3.55 using E3 flasher. That’s after 5 nights of desperate non-stop googling, continuous swearing and re-trying. Thank you to all those who contributed to the internet content on downgrading, which eventually saved my console.

This is my small contribution back to the community which helped me out. This post is intended to share my experience and tips in areas which I thought were tricky to noobs like me. I hope this will help the others in the same boat. As a consequence, the content is rather un-structured and making references to other’s contributions.

IMPORTANT: This is not an E3 flasher downgrading guide/tutorial/bible.

Please read this if you are (first time buyer) considering buying an E3 flasher:

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1. Be prepare that you may wasted your PS3
2. E3 flasher is very fragile and sensitive (it’s poor quality in my opinion) – it’s component can be broken with the force of a single finger. Tonnes of issues with the positioning of components…
3. Expect that you WILL brick your PS3 – I would *suggest* that there is a 75% chance (or above) that you will brick your PS3 during the process. Just google around.
4. According to the official guide, you have to solder a wire if you brick you PS3. I will explain my approach to this without soldering and to a different point other than the E3 flasher.
5. Google is your only friend when you have problem. E3’s documentation is... unbelievably rough and rubbish (even the Chinese version). Do not expect any help from the E2 flasher manufacturer – they never reply any email.
6. Last but not least – if you are a first timer, don’t bother with whether you can re-use your E3 flasher with multiple PS3. You will be lucky to just get away without bricking it. Let’s leave the multiple use approach to the pro.

If you still want to proceed, read the following to understand the basics:

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1. Read all E3’s documentation as a reference (you will not be able to make sense of anything, but never the less, a base knowledge).
2. Read TDCroPower2’s [TUT] E3 Flasher Downgrade on different PS3 guide here: http://www.ps3hax.net/showthread.php?t=30815 . In my opinion, this is by far the best guide on the net, and covered a range of problems during the downgrading. It takes time, but reading through all 33 pages of discussion will solve majority of your problems.

Tips with Downgrading,

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1. Once you have read through the above, I would suggest you to follow TDCroPower2’s guide to proceed. Not because it allows you to use E3 on multiple machine, but because there are many contributors willing to help if you are stuck.
2. Putting a coin on top of the E3 clipper helps. The easiest way is to sticky tape a coin on top of the clipper like this:
   
3. Be extra-ordinarily careful with the connector on your E3 hard disk insert. I managed to damage it after my second careful attempt to connect the E3 soft cable to it (see picture below). I managed to get away by carefully re-align the copper connection lines using a sharp cutter.
   Damaged connector before fixing using a sharp cutter:
   

If you are bricked (i.e. most commonly your PS3 starts in green light for a few seconds and then switch off automatically) follow the guides above to resolve the situation. Here are some tips (in additions to the guides above, so you must read the guide!! In particular, TDCroPower’s guide.):

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1. Connecting SE0 to TRISTATE (without soldering; and not to the SE0 point)
2. The only (and must have) purpose of this connection is to keep your PS3 power up the motherboard and E3 flasher without shutting down. This allows the E3 flasher to flash a working copy of the firmware into its storage in its memory board (commonly known as the NOR processor).
3. It works by connecting the TRISTATE to a 3.3 voltage. So happen that the SE0 of the E3 board is 3.3 voltage, hence the official instruction is to solder these two points together. There are many issues with this soldering – the distance is far too long between these points, the connection pad on the E3 flasher is way too small, in particular it makes disassembling the PS3 extremely difficult once soldered. I do not recommend soldering these points.
4. Instead you can try connecting the TRISTATE point to other 3.3 voltage points on your PS3 board (there are plenty of them). These points are different depending on the different version of PS3 you have. At the bottom of this site http://www.ps3devwiki.com/wiki/Hardware_flashing has a lot of photos with test points mapped.
5. Instead of soldering, try use any wire/cable and sticky tape to connect these two points – that’s how I got it to work without soldering. Remember – it’s the objective that matters. Don’t hang on to the soldering comment from the official site. Note: picture has some sticky tape taken off for demonstration purpose, please ensure all metal parts are covered by tapes.
   

A practical approach to finding the TRISTATE connecting point (how do I know that I have this done properly without assembling and disassembling the PS3 again and again):

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1. Disassemble the PS3, try to identify the TRISTATE point and a 3.3 voltage VCC point on the board.
2. Once identified (not connected yet), assemble ONLY the following components together (minimum requirement to detect whether we have got these points)
   1. PS3 mother board (without its metallic plate)
   2. PS3 power unit
   3. PS3 power and eject buttons panel
   4. E3 flasher soft cable and hard disk insert (actual hard disk connected
   via sata cable is NOT required)
3. Hand connect the two points using whatever you have (e.g. the little plastic covered wired that is used to tie up cables from your E3 flasher pack is a good choice. Use a cutter and carefully cut away a small opening on two ends of the wire.). I mean use two hands to hold the wire connecting the two points.
4. Power up your PS3 and check if it stays on. Expected behaviour of PS3 in this configuration should be:
   1. Power up in green light
   2. Exhaustion fan speed started to increase after a few seconds
   3. Exhaustion fan speed continue to escalate progressive in the next 5 seconds or so
   4. PS3 automatically shut down (red light again)
   5. Note: Wrong behaviour is that it power up in green light for two seconds, then beep and turn into red without the exhaustion fan increase in speed
   6. [Optional for reader to understand] Explanation of the expected behaviour: Basically PS3 is powering up correctly (stay on green light for a few seconds). Motherboard overheats because the metallic plat is not attached to the motherboard (it is acting as heat dispenser, which is now absent). This causes the exhaustion fan speed to escalate. Finally the PS3 mother board overheat protection mechanics kicks in and automatically shuts down the unit for protection.
   7. Note: Before anyone jumping up and down for overheating the PS3 – the protection mechanics is very solid. I did this >20 times without killing it.
5. Once confirmed that you have the two points identified, use sticky tape and tape down the connecting wire. Making sure no the connection is solid and that no metal part of the connecting wire is exposed or connected to anything else on the mother board.
6. You can then re-assemble PS3 motherboard silver colour metal plate (and its two smaller metallic plates) into the PS3 unit. Try power up, and the unit should stay on green without shutting down now. Note: The connection of TRISTATE may be unstable, as we did not solder the connection. Experience is that screwing down the metal plate itself may alter the connection point. Try screw down the metal plate half way through to kick start your PS3, when it starts properly, quickly screw down the metal plate to help dispatching the heat and keep the PS3 running.
7. If your unit stay on green power >5 seconds without the exhaustion fan escalating, then you are good to proceed with un-bricking or downgrading of your PS3. (i.e. continue to Step 2.2 in TDCroPower2’s guide. OR continue to Step 2 in English - E3 FLASHER repair method if console bricked.pdf).

Other tips during flashing (on top of many other tips other has to offer):

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1. Check connection between your E3 soft cable and the E3 hard disk insert. My connection problem stems from this part of the connection, not the E3 clip.
2. If you failed to flash your NOR, try move the E3 hard disk insert left or right a bit before checking the E3 clip. I found that the connection between the E3 insert and PS3 hard disk connector is very sensitive (normally one would expect this to be very solid).

Continue with installing CFW in case of certain accident happened during the downgrading processes (which interrupted the downgrade process),

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1. Entry criteria
   1. A certain version of the firmware is in NOR (i.e. you may have flashed the NOR with some bkpps3.bin file)
   2. PS3 can be powered up without shutting down (whether there is a screen requesting a controller be connected via USB cable is not a necessary requirement)
2. Have CFW 3.55 in USB key ready for PS3 to read
   1. Have you PS3 powered, but not turned on (red light)
   2. Press and hold the PS3 power button until PS3 shutdown again, then release the button (PS3 will turn from red light to green light, then back to red light after quite a few beeps)
   3. Then press and hold the PS3 power button again until you hear two quick consecutive beeps, then release the button
   4. Wait for the instruction to connect a PS3 controller using an USB cable, and do as it said
   5. PS3 should launch into service mode now
3. Launch PS3 into service mode and select option 6 to upgrade/restore firmware (this will format your hard disk)
   1. Have the CFW 3.55 firmware (in filename of PS3UPDAT.PUP) copied to the USB key folder /PS3/UPDATE/ (note: use the PS3UPDAT.PUP in the step 2/ folder provided by E3 Tech)
   2. Insert the USB key to PS3
   3. Select option “6. System Update” and follow screen process to complete
4. Tips and potential errors
   1. You can keep repeating this process again and again, as long as your PS3 would power up without shutting down (after removing the connection between TRISTATE and 3.3V point)
   2. In theory, you can remove E3 flasher altogether by now. The remaining process does not require E3 flasher anymore. In practice, I suggest you to leave it in the tray until you are confirmed that you have CFW installed.
   3. Don’t panic if you encounter any error during this part of the process, because it’s relatively very risk free and does not involve hardware flashing. Just google for error code for solutions. A few that I encountered are listed below
      1. 8002F281 error – solve this well documented error by doing a *FULL* format the hard disk using any Window system, and then back to service mode for re-installation http://forums.demigodthegame.com/386771
      2. Format hard disk hangs at 99% - solution same as 8002F281 error
      3. 8002F147 error – means PS3 refused to install the firmware. To solve this, install the firmware via PS3 service mode

Good luck to all of those who decided to take part in the challenging adventure. The fun and satisfaction in achieving the downgrading is incredible (the journey itself is the reward).

[Tokobo]

Hey, but in the picture didn't you solder it? o_O

Oh right my mobo is this:


I tried connecting a wire to the GND point just beside the Tristate point to the Tristate, but it's not working, any ideas?

[nouse10]

I am guessing that you may have connected to the wrong point.

Have you try other connecting points?

What Is the model number of your mother board?

[Tokobo]

Originally Posted by nouse10 I am guessing that you may have connected to the wrong point. Have you try other connecting points? What Is the model number of your mother board?

Got it working already.

Just that now I'm stuck at trying to get it into FSM, TI-84 and PSP aren't working on either USB side (yet there's power to the ports, it charges my phone), but strangely plugging controllers and pressing the PS button doesn't work either.

[haz367]

it really works, i had it soldered..for fun just tested it, tristate is soldered in vid tho, it needs good sticky tape, usefull if nobody arround to solder, be sure tho the connection is firm as nouse10 pointed out

a solder would be best, its a good fix nontheless..check the vid
to bad this one aint fixable

great tutorial nouse10!




edit
yup, noticed also = 3.3v, forgat to mention it..

its tristate to gnd if using points MB), if doing properly it goes alright tho
now where's that progskeet hehe

[nouse10]

Originally Posted by Tokobo Got it working already. Just that now I'm stuck at trying to get it into FSM, TI-84 and PSP aren't working on either USB side (yet there's power to the ports, it charges my phone), but strangely plugging controllers and pressing the PS button doesn't work either.

From what I gathered, any downgrade dongle should work. Not sure about PSP. I used AmazeBreak (in downgrade mode). It's nice and cheap if you want to give it a try.

[euss]

It works by connecting the TRISTATE to a 3.3 voltage.

VERY WRONG!

If you read ps3devwiki, you will see it explains tristate/SBE is _grounded_ !!!

It even lists alternate points for E3 SBE point, on back of subboard and manual tristating on talkpage.

[Tokobo]

Originally Posted by euss VERY WRONG! If you read ps3devwiki, you will see it explains tristate/SBE is _grounded_ !!! It even lists alternate points for E3 SBE point, on back of subboard and manual tristating on talkpage.

Could you clarify yourself (ps3devwiki isn't working for me for some reason)?

I soldered a cable from the nor tristate to vss/gnd point on the motherboard is that correct? (I'm now worried if I shorted something =( ).

[euss]

Originally Posted by Tokobo I soldered a cable from the nor tristate to vss/gnd point on the motherboard is that correct? (I'm now worried if I shorted something =( ).

VSS/ground is fine.

Originally Posted by Tokobo Could you clarify yourself (ps3devwiki isn't working for me for some reason)?

ps3devwiki server is dead, we are resurrecting a new one though, it will take some time.

From wiki:

TriState on NAND consoles using Starship2 to southbridge /SB_EBUS_ACK @ SB_MAIN(P30) (numbered 52 in File:SS2_NOR.JPG) - CECHA (COK-001): IC3801:CXD4302GB-T6 pin:C1/ ebus jl:9308 (page 20 of servicemanual) - CECHC + CECHE (COK-002): IC3801:CXD4302GB-T6 pin:C1/ ebus jl:9308 (page 20 of servicemanual) - CECHG (SEM001): IC3801:CXD9909GB pin:C1/ ebus jl:9308 (page 21 of servicemanual)

and

Tristate Tristate, or as it is referred to in the service manuals SB_DISABLE exists solely for the purpose of placing the South Bridge pins into high-impedance (the third state) so that we can access the flash without the South Bridge interfering. Because the tristate pin is not connected to the NOR flash TSOP package, but to the South Bridge BGA package, this makes tracing the pin quite difficult. One should be able to locate it by having the running you could ground out the unknown pins whilst checking the continuity of a known address or data line against ground. These should enter high-impedance or no-continuity when you ground out SB_DISABLE.

and

E3 debricking notes Requires soldering wire from SBE (solderpad on NOR flatcable) to TRISTATE (NORpoint on PS3 motherboard) Make sure you have correct firmware on SD/TF card E3 switches set as 1:Flash fun, 2: OFW, 3: Prog, 4: microSD, 5: PS3 Flash, 6: Lock with the console power disconnected. Turn on console to restore (progress LEDs will light up one by one and blink if successfully). Unplug powercable and set 1:Flash fun down to PS3 Mode and turn on the PS3, if everything went fine, it will now be debricked (remember: in case syscon has 3.56+ hashes, you need prepatched LV1, see downgrader guides).

Good luck

[arcadekidflo]

Instead you can try connecting the TRISTATE point to other 3.3 voltage points on your PS3 board. The only (and must have) purpose of this connection is to keep your PS3 power up the motherboard and E3 flasher without shutting down.

A friend of mine bricked after trying to install OtherOS firmware over Rogero , after a downgrade . Now the console shuts down after a few seconds , he tried to put it into FSM but it doesn't stay on, it shuts down because of the brick . If he solders Tristate to a 3.3V on the MB like in your picture will the console stay on and he will enter FSM ? Will it work like this or he needs to put the flasher back on and reflash the backup ?