PS3 CECH-H Fat PS3 with CFW - Shuts Off Trying to Boot PS2 Games

Zik_39

Member
I was recently gifted a Japanese-import, fat PS3 CECH-H00 MG (Hagane Edition) console for my birthday. It looks like this.

I replaced the 40GB HDD original internal storage with a 1TB SSD. I also followed this tutorial to install 4.90 EVILNAT CFW:

Yesterday I had loaded a few games onto my PS3's SSD via FTP. I tried the games Kuon and Rule of Rose, both worked fine yesterday. Today, however, the moment I click either of those PS2 games the TV screen clears out and the console powers off, beeping 3 times and continuously blinking red.

What's going on? Is this something I have to fix in the settings? Is it hardware related?

Here's what I've tried:
  • I used webman to increase my fan output for PS2 games to 65%.
  • I tried uninstalling webman, just to make sure that wasn't somehow impacting the PS2 emulator.
Short of re-installing the CFW from scratch...any suggestions?

EDIT:

Something I just noticed while in FileZilla is that now some of the games I've been trying to run have a .CONFIG file. I haven't seen that before.
jo14ufO.png
 
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The CONFIG files have nothing to do with your console's shutdowns, I suspect it's the SSD.

To validate if the SSD is the culprit, put your original HDD back and load to it another PS2 game. If it doesn't shutdown, then your SSD is not compatible with your PS3. If it does, then your console may have another problem (probably a power issue).

Check this with the original HDD first.
 
The CONFIG files have nothing to do with your console's shutdowns, I suspect it's the SSD.

To validate if the SSD is the culprit, put your original HDD back and load to it another PS2 game. If it doesn't shutdown, then your SSD is not compatible with your PS3. If it does, then your console may have another problem (probably a power issue).

Check this with the original HDD first.

Strange, considering these PS2 games worked just fine a couple of days ago.

This is the SSD I bought, does anything stand out to you about it?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CKFDPJ3?th=1
 
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Strange, considering these PS2 games worked just fine a couple of days ago.

This is the SSD I bought, does anything stand out to you about it?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CKFDPJ3?th=1

That's the problem with PS3 and SSDs, if the disk is incompatible it will not perform correctly, even to the point of corrupting the file system itself (this happens with disks over 1TB).

Try with the original HDD, it's better to discard most of the possible problems first.
 
That's the problem with PS3 and SSDs, if the disk is incompatible it will not perform correctly, even to the point of corrupting the file system itself (this happens with disks over 1TB).

Try with the original HDD, it's better to discard most of the possible problems first.

My SSD is 1TB (less, when you take into account the operating system taking up like 60GB).

If I can avoid having to go back to the 40GB HDD it came with, I'd prefer to try other options first. Could my issues somehow be related to using EVILNAT? I've been out of the PS3 CFW scene for quite some time, but I used to have a PS3 with REBUG on it and it worked fine.

Even though I'm on EVILNAT 4.90 PEX CEX, is it possible to easily switch over to REBUG?
https://www.psx-place.com/resources/4-84-2-rebug-rex-cobra-8-1-cfw.1229/

Not sure if I can since that REBUG software is on 4.84, but I just want to make sure it's not a CFW issue specific to EVILNAT, specifically with PEX CEX.
 
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My SSD is 1TB (less, when you take into account the operating system taking up like 60GB).

It doesn't matter if the OS takes 60 or 500GB of space. The PS3 has issues with internal drive capacities from 1TB onwards.

Source: https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Talk:Harddrive#maximum_size_internal_drive

If I can avoid having to go back to the 40GB HDD it came with, I'd prefer to try other options first. Could my issues somehow be related to using EVILNAT? I've been out of the PS3 CFW scene for quite some time, but I used to have a PS3 with REBUG on it and it worked fine.

What's the problem?, it's just a simple drive swap. No need to tight any screws.

Regarding the FW version, I have the same Hagane console with Evilnat 4.90.1 and no issues at all with the original 40GB drive.

Even though I'm on EVILNAT 4.90 PEX CEX, is it possible to easily switch over to REBUG?
https://www.psx-place.com/resources/4-84-2-rebug-rex-cobra-8-1-cfw.1229/

Not sure if I can since that REBUG software is on 4.84, but I just want to make sure it's not a CFW issue specific to EVILNAT, specifically with PEX CEX.

You can. First you need to enable QA Flags on Network -> CFW Tools -> QA Tools.

After the QA flags are enabled, you can install any CFW you want.
 
It doesn't matter if the OS takes 60 or 500GB of space. The PS3 has issues with internal drive capacities from 1TB onwards.

Source: https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Talk:Harddrive#maximum_size_internal_drive



What's the problem?, it's just a simple drive swap. No need to tight any screws.

Regarding the FW version, I have the same Hagane console with Evilnat 4.90.1 and no issues at all with the original 40GB drive.



You can. First you need to enable QA Flags on Network -> CFW Tools -> QA Tools.

After the QA flags are enabled, you can install any CFW you want.

Okay, first I tried switching the firmware to REBUG 4.84 and keeping my 1TB SSD, but PS2 games still didn't run, I was having the same issue as before where the console would just power off as soon as I tried to run the PS2 game.

Then, I switched back to my original 40GB HDD, loaded EVILNAT 4.90 back onto it, just as you have it on yours, and it runs PS2 games just fine now.

My issue with the original drive is that 40GB is easy to fill up. What's the largest storage-capacity hard drive that I can get? Are there any that you recommend? Should I stay away from SSD for this reason?
 
Okay, first I tried switching the firmware to REBUG 4.84 and keeping my 1TB SSD, but PS2 games still didn't run, I was having the same issue as before where the console would just power off as soon as I tried to run the PS2 game.

Then, I switched back to my original 40GB HDD, loaded EVILNAT 4.90 back onto it, just as you have it on yours, and it runs PS2 games just fine now.

My issue with the original drive is that 40GB is easy to fill up. What's the largest storage-capacity hard drive that I can get? Are there any that you recommend? Should I stay away from SSD for this reason?

As I thought, it was the SSD all along.

Max supported size for the PS3 is 1TB, HDD or SHDD.

SSDs are a hit-and-miss, bringing more headaches than benefits.
 
As I thought, it was the SSD all along.

Max supported size for the PS3 is 1TB, HDD or SHDD.

SSDs are a hit-and-miss, bringing more headaches than benefits.

Understood. Thank you for your help!

Do you, or anyone else, have a suggestion for the largest and best storage option for PS3s?

Preferably a specific seller/item to link me to.
 
Any Seagate or Western Digital are good.

Also, you can get some Hitachi, Toshiba or Samsung drives.

Great, I've found these two options:

500GB:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-Solid-MZ-77E500/dp/B08T1QQZ1T/ref=sr_1_2_mod_primary_new?crid=8K2SZXP4DZ1E&keywords=Samsung+870+EVO&qid=1700692399&sbo=RZvfv//HxDF+O5021pAnSA==&sprefix=samsung+870+evo,aps,112&sr=8-2&th=1

1TB:
https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Inch-Internal-MZ-77E1T0B-AM/dp/B08QBJ2YMG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2N6VPZVBNFCJI&keywords=Samsung+ssd&qid=1700692623&sprefix=samsung+ssd,aps,196&sr=8-3&ufe=app_do:amzn1.fos.17d9e15d-4e43-4581-b373-0e5c1a776d5d&th=1

From my readings these are far more reliable than my previous SSD. However, I would like someone to confirm that these will work with my PS3 and that they will be able to load PS2 games. Should I try the 1TB? Or do you think I'll have issues with PS2 games again?
 
Well, you are in the SSD Roulette again. Some SSDs work, some don't, as you've already experienced.

I highly recommend an internal HDD, and connect your current 1TB SSD as an external drive.
 
Well, you are in the SSD Roulette again. Some SSDs work, some don't, as you've already experienced.

I highly recommend an internal HDD, and connect your current 1TB SSD as an external drive.

I am currently trying the 1TB SAMSUNG 870 EVO SATA III SSD. I've loaded EVILNAT 4.90 onto it and several PS2 .iso game files. I've tested a couple so far and they've loaded without issues. I'll keep testing it throughout the coming days and report back if anything goes wrong, and if it does I'm just going to switch to a 1TB HDD with 5800RPM speed so that it stays consistent with the OEM HDD's speed, avoiding warmer temperatures.

GuilloteTesla, I have a question for you that's separate from all this; with your Hagane PS3, were you able to figure out a way to switch the X and CIRCLE button functionality on the XMB? Since it's a Japanese-import PS3 the X and CIRCLE are switched...is there a way to switch their functionality with CFW?
 
The issue with SSDs higher than 1TB is that, with time, the PS3 wants to run a filesystem check and then this process corrupts the disk. Hope your SSD has no issues, make a backup of your savefiles.

On the swapping the X/O buttons, you can do it from the XMB bar:

Network -> Custom firmware tools -> Basic Tools -> xRegistry Tools -> Button Assignment (Switches O and X buttons).
 
The issue with SSDs higher than 1TB is that, with time, the PS3 wants to run a filesystem check and then this process corrupts the disk. Hope your SSD has no issues, make a backup of your savefiles.

On the swapping the X/O buttons, you can do it from the XMB bar:

Network -> Custom firmware tools -> Basic Tools -> xRegistry Tools -> Button Assignment (Switches O and X buttons).

Hopefully that won't be an issue with this SSD since it's 1TB. I really like that SSDs run a lot cooler than HDDs, as I'm trying to prolong the life of the console before I have to open it up for services. That's why I'm trying multiple SSDs to make sure one works well, but I'm staying within that 1TB threshold.

Do you have suggestions for the easiest way to make backups of my save files?

And thank you so much for walking me through the button re-assignment! It's so much easier now.
 

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