BIOS reset???

[Petry]

Hi, I'm totally newbie. I just start reading a lot (and still so much to read) about all this hacking-homebrew-cfw thing. It get me all excited about buying (finally) a ps3... until 8 days ago; now who know what measures would sony take (forced updates???). Anyway, I got a question, which is probably a stupid one and gonna make you slam your face and shake your head... but I'm gonna trow it because after all I'm a newbie

First I have to say that I have never see the inside of a PS3. But as far as I know, the PS3 is somehow build as a PC right? Assuming (and that's the point) that the FW work like a BIOS, my guess is that it is stored on a flash memory (chip) [that's actually consistent with what I have read]. So, every PC entusiast know that there is a way to reset your BIOS (for example in case it get corrupted during an update). So the big question would be (finally!!) if there is a way to "manualy" reset the FW (short circuiting??). Do you know if someone has tried? Could that even be posible (ie. does it make sense at all???) If no (to any or both) I let the work to developpers who have the resources and knowledge.

By the way, learn the lesson: if you found a exploit for the ps3, do us all a favor, don't post a video with your pretty face up front in youtube...

Sorrys: sorry for the sooo long posting; sorry if I post in the wrong place; sorry if I dont make any sense; sorry if I hurt your fellings (really??); sorry if my english is not good (que te jodan la madre cabron ); sorry if I forgot to apologyse for something (?????)

Please comment (or insult, or laugh, or cry, or whatever....)
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[InnocentSam]

I shortcircuited my PSP battery.
It's now a melted heap on my windowsill.

[Powerslave]

Maybe you should take a look inside a PS3, there are plenty of motherboard pictures for all versions out there on the net. There is no BIOS as you think as with a PC, there is no RESET, period. This is why you SHOULD have looked inside, at least read something about it.

They are somehow built like a PC? That's called manufacturing, not magic, heh heh. The PS3 and XBOX360 are what you may call a NON LEGACY PC. They have firmware, not BIOS in the terms you are thinking along, that gets updated, but with PS3 they also update the optical drive firmware when needed. Bios means BASIC INPUT OUTPUT SYSTEM, and is a pretty broad way of looking at it when you use the tern BIOS.

AS I said four or five or more times before, you can replace the NAND, but you can't do anything until you take a system update. This is why there is Custom Firmware.. Most of the important stuff is in the HAL, which is ON DIE code that cannot be changed.

By the way, they are not FORCING updates in the manner you think. You can always refuse the update, thus; no force being used. It's more like extortion, because you can't use PSN or play THIS game till you do - Ok, Tony, I'll update! Put the chopper down!

[Petry]

By the way, they are not FORCING updates in the manner you think. You can always refuse the update, thus; no force being used. It's more like extortion, because you can't use PSN or play THIS game till you do - Ok, Tony, I'll update! Put the chopper down!

Well, extortion is a form of cohesion, thus is a way of FORCING things Thanks for the answer, I well keep reading (hopefully I won't get crazy)

By the way InnocentSam: lol

[Erland]

From my understand of what you wrote, Yes you can "reset" the BIOS...

as in... if I understand you correctly...

You can hook up your own wires to the NAND (you are referring to it as BIOS) and use a programmer to look at it and change it as needed.

There is actually a program out that will do this for you and a "mod" chip of sorts that will allow you to have access to it. I don't have the name of it but, essentially it's possible. However to be able to actually do it and make it worth a damn you need a lot more knowledge then you appear to have.

[Petry]

However to be able to actually do it and make it worth a damn you need a lot more knowledge then you appear to have.

LOL fair enought, after all I say I'm a newbie on PS3 and PC enthusiast (not an IT). I do some more readings about the NAND and get across with what you mention, but as Powerslave comment it's not very useful right now, from an "end user" point of view (maybe for devs... and even so). As far as I have read, there is actually an exploit on FW 3.6, but it is very hard to implement (so far no one have made it) and very easy to correct for sony.

Also, with the BIG update coming, I'm guessing devs are holding, waiting to see what sony throw them. Sony have win this battle, let's hope they dont win the war. By the way, I know its kind of stupid question (but guess what, I'm still newbie ): if you stay offline (and I mean 0 internet connection to the PS3) can you bypass the updates check?? Will it only work with old games (do new ones come with a self update check request or something like that)??

Thanks all for participating. Specially Powerslave for his enlightenment on the NAND and HAL. By the way, when I say that PS3 is build like a PC, I meant that it work similar to one (my english... )

[Powerslave]

NO, you cannot reset it, AT ALL. You only have access to the first 16MB of the nand, of any size. The rest is locked. Second of all, there is no benefit in resetting it, it doesn't work like a PC BIOS does. All memory locations and detections of hardware, and their memory locations for PS3 are expected, not detected and allocated. When you reset a BIOS in a PC, it resets the date and time to a default, re-detects the hardware, and basically tells the O/S where they are. You cannot add memory to the PS3, you cannot add a video card... All you can REPLACE is the HDD, and the PS3 automatically does all that for you.

So for this reason, there is no need to reset a BIOS in the PS3. It will not allow you to downgrade firmware, because the BR-D would mismatch. There is absolutely no reason you would need to reset the BIOS.

If you are messing with dev-flash, using dev-blind or other mounter, and you mess it up? There is no going back, and resetting, PERIOD. You can read up on how infectus works with the PS3 NAND. It's useless now, that's why you are not hearing about it.

HOWEVER:
I read elsewhere that there is a BIOS type battery connected with a two pin connector to the Board, remove the connector, you will notice there are actually 4 pins, turn the battery connector around and connect to the other two pins. This resets the system BIOS to default. Reconnect the battery, put it back together and your system will boot as if you just took it out of the box on the day you bought it, except with the latest firmware you updated it to. Doing this from the RECOVERY menu, a full system format, will basically do the same thing, except will wipe out your HDD contents.

[Petry]

OK Powerslave, thanks for the answer. I have to say I have been learning a lot just reading the forum, make me wonder why I didn't study Computer Science (Economics... pfff). By the way nice tip about the battery thing, just really hope I never have to use it. And don't worry, I won't mess with the NAND, thats for sure

Right now is wait and see what comes next

See you around the forum.

[-GunslingerGirl-]

Is it literally impossible to access more than that 16mb nand, or is it just not something easy?

[Petry]

Well I'm not completely sure, but I think is because you need the right keys (apparently sony have them well hidden) or someway to bipass (no one has succed so far). My doubt comes from some posts I have read that say some PS3 models have a 16mB NAND (the slim models) while others have a 256mB NAND (some fat models). Now I know Gitbrew have fund a way to get total control of the VFLASH and are working on the NAND, lets hope they can "kick in the nuts sony" really hard by getting total control of the NAND