Creating overclocked OFW (No ban risk)?

[cheesemania]

I asked in another thread if it was possible to add the overclock hack to the 4.90 OFW as the only modification, to have a faster machine that could still connect to PSN, PS store and sync trophies without any risk of getting banned. I don't care about homebrew and ideally I would like to keep using my old profile, but I don't want to risk a ban.

I was pointed towards MFW builder, which does look promising. But before I dive too deep into this I would like to get answers to a few questions:

1. Could this even work? Can Sony detect a faster GPU and memory?

1a. Right now I have Evilnat 4.90 installed. If I manage to build a successful "OC OFW" can I safely install that and be confident that all traces of Evilnat 4.90 are gone (no offence ).

2. What version of MFW builder should I go with? There are many modified versions and it's confusing. I downloaded ps3mfw-builder-0.2.1-mod from github which does appear to have the overclock option already built in.
https://github.com/haxxxen/ps3mfw-builder-0.2.1-mod

3. I believe I need updated PS3_KEYS for firmware 4.90. Can I extract those myself from my system, or can I find them elsewhere?

I have the flash dump I got when installing CFW backed up, and I'm pretty skilled with a soldering iron so if anything bad happens I could hopefully get the system back up and running using a hardware flasher.

Anything else I'm missing?

I don't think I am the only person who would like a firmware like this. (I know at least one of my friends would too ). Hope you guys can advice.

 

[Berion]

If You will modify OFW, it will no longer be OFW. And in theory, yes, Sony can detect it and ban You. Just like with CFW DualBoot. But it is high unlikely. What we see, Sony banning for multi use of IDPS, cheating in games, peek & poke etc.

On OFW You will not be able to control temperature until You will set it in SysCon. On OC environments it is more important than ever I believe (never tested myself, just from logic point of view).

For recovery from brick, You need full flash dump (NAND 256MiB / NOR 16MiB).

If You plan going back to OFW, before that, read EID Root Key and IDPS first. This allow You to get access to HDD on PC, system backup archives and allows of resigning saves and trophies.

 

[cheesemania]

If You will modify OFW, it will no longer be OFW. And in theory, yes, Sony can detect it and ban You. Just like with CFW DualBoot. But it is high unlikely. What we see, Sony banning for multi use of IDPS, cheating in games, peek & poke etc.

Haha yes, I'm aware I just used the term "OFW" to make it more clear what I would like to achieve

On OFW You will not be able to control temperature until You will set it in SysCon. On OC environments it is more important than ever I believe (never tested myself, just from logic point of view).

I think I will be delidding the RSX chip and replacing the paste with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, so hopefully that will solve potential overheating issues. Also I'm using a Slim model 2003 IIRC, so it's at least not supposed to get as hot as the older fat models.

For recovery from brick, You need full flash dump (NAND 256MiB / NOR 16MiB).

I have the PS3FlashDump490OFW_slim2003.bin at 16.8MB, I checked it with some checker software and it gave 0 errors.

If You plan going back to OFW, before that, read EID Root Key and IDPS first. This allow You to get access to HDD on PC, system backup archives and allows of resigning saves and trophies.

Is this the Key I would need to build the custom firmware too? I have the content on this PS3 already copied to my other console and I have a backup to external USB HDD using the tools in OFW.

 

[Berion]

No, those are per console keys used in tasks I mentioned. It doesn't have any connection for things which You want, it is just a good advice before will be to late. Imagine that Your OFW PS3 will die beyond repair or beyond Your wallet can afford. Without ERK, You will lose all data left, but with this key, You can read saves, trophies, licenses, games etc. and copy to another console or PS3 emulator. Without IDPS, You cannot move saves and trophies to other consoles/emulator (you can but they will be rejected due to different owner and lack of possibility to rebuild PFD) and don't have access to all useless System Backup archives.

From time to time, I recovering data from PS3 HDD for small fee, and almost all users don't know that PS3 HDD is encrypted, almost always overwriting partition table by MBR/GPT and even don't understand what encryption means. Imagine those souls with only one copy of family photos on PS3... So it is just my advice. While You going back to OFW, worth to be prepared (if You care of course).

 

[Louay]

I asked in another thread if it was possible to add the overclock hack to the 4.90 OFW as the only modification, to have a faster machine that could still connect to PSN, PS store and sync trophies without any risk of getting banned. I don't care about homebrew and ideally I would like to keep using my old profile, but I don't want to risk a ban.

I was pointed towards MFW builder, which does look promising. But before I dive too deep into this I would like to get answers to a few questions:

1. Could this even work? Can Sony detect a faster GPU and memory?

1a. Right now I have Evilnat 4.90 installed. If I manage to build a successful "OC OFW" can I safely install that and be confident that all traces of Evilnat 4.90 are gone (no offence ).

2. What version of MFW builder should I go with? There are many modified versions and it's confusing. I downloaded ps3mfw-builder-0.2.1-mod from github which does appear to have the overclock option already built in.
https://github.com/haxxxen/ps3mfw-builder-0.2.1-mod

3. I believe I need updated PS3_KEYS for firmware 4.90. Can I extract those myself from my system, or can I find them elsewhere?

I have the flash dump I got when installing CFW backed up, and I'm pretty skilled with a soldering iron so if anything bad happens I could hopefully get the system back up and running using a hardware flasher.

Anything else I'm missing?

I don't think I am the only person who would like a firmware like this. (I know at least one of my friends would too ). Hope you guys can advice.

1- Changing one rco or even unpacking OFW then repack it with zero file(s) modified will still result in an error as the signing keys are rejected by the console let alone applying patches to LV1 for overclock purpose also no one knows if sony can know that maybe they can/cannot

1-a most like DB OC (Dualboot overclock) patch (isoldr inside lv0 and spu_pkg_rvk_verifier to disable ECDSA protection & maintain ability to install CFW from USB only so you don't need to use PS3Xploit flash writer or hardware flasher) & patch lv1 to apply overclock

2- i have no idea about it since i didn't saw it in few years

3- keys are same since 4.8X just duplicate them and rename to 4.90 or rename them to 9.99 so keys will work for any new firmware that may come in future

 

[cheesemania]

No, those are per console keys used in tasks I mentioned. It doesn't have any connection for things which You want, it is just a good advice before will be to late. Imagine that Your OFW PS3 will die beyond repair or beyond Your wallet can afford. Without ERK, You will lose all data left, but with this key, You can read saves, trophies, licenses, games etc. and copy to another console or PS3 emulator. Without IDPS, You cannot move saves and trophies to other consoles/emulator (you can but they will be rejected due to different owner and lack of possibility to rebuild PFD) and don't have access to all useless System Backup archives.

From time to time, I recovering data from PS3 HDD for small fee, and almost all users don't know that PS3 HDD is encrypted, almost always overwriting partition table by MBR/GPT and even don't understand what encryption means. Imagine those souls with only one copy of family photos on PS3... So it is just my advice. While You going back to OFW, worth to be prepared (if You care of course).

Sure, that's good advice. If my PS3 dies beyond repair I can see how having an official backup on external disk is worthless

1- Changing one rco or even unpacking OFW then repack it with zero file(s) modified will still result in an error as the signing keys are rejected by the console let alone applying patches to LV1 for overclock purpose also no one knows if sony can know that maybe they can/cannot

1-a most like DB OC (Dualboot overclock) patch (isoldr inside lv0 and spu_pkg_rvk_verifier to disable ECDSA protection & maintain ability to install CFW from USB only so you don't need to use PS3Xploit flash writer or hardware flasher) & patch lv1 to apply overclock

I was wrong when I used the term "OFW". I just want a firmware that is as close to official as possible but with overclock enabled. I understand that I wouldn't be able to install it on a stock console, and that it needs to have been exploited first. Sorry I made this a whole lot more confusing than it needed to be

3- keys are same since 4.8X just duplicate them and rename to 4.90 or rename them to 9.99 so keys will work for any new firmware that may come in future

Thank you

 

[Berion]

If my PS3 dies beyond repair I can see how having an official backup on external disk is worthless

That will be painful lesson.

 

[Joonie]

Yeah we could probably do OC Enabler over HFW 4.90.1 and restore all of the missing files or just make a DBOFW + lv1ldr and lv1 patched for OC. That'd be the best you could get. I wouldn't do either way since PSN has always been whatever to me. My E01 still hasn't been banned since 2015. And I go online for testing.

when using PSN, I always use a separate user profile that would have the least / untouched history and telemetry data. I prefer doing this over disabling syscalls or deleting history files.

 

[STLcardsWS]

Yeah we could probably do OC Enabler over HFW 4.90.1 and restore all of the missing files or just make a DBOFW + lv1ldr and lv1 patched for OC. That'd be the best you could get. I wouldn't do either way since PSN has always been whatever to me. My E01 still hasn't been banned since 2015. And I go online for testing.

when using PSN, I always use a separate user profile that would have the least / untouched history and telemetry data. I prefer doing this over disabling syscalls or deleting history files.

My Slim been going online since 3.41 (has been awhile since i used it, but had alot of use in the past)
How i stayed safe,

1.) When i clear system sycalls, before going online, i boot a few media apps/official apps and exit (clear history i think is a easy
potential to flag, i like to blend in on that aspect)

2.) I used it like an official console on PSN, though i never cared what was on the HDD (only history logs) or on my XMB, i had 250 RetroXMB roms on the XMB (stress testing before release) with each having it's own TitleID and such. So i knew that was never a flag from personally experience of a scan of entries or looking for homebrew installed,. I have not done a separate user profile ,

3.) Some old school user's will know what i am talking about around firmware 3.41 and the USB Jailbreak's, Sony gave out some warning letter's. They did not ban, but they warned not to use the device on PSN (or launch homebrew on PSN, which is what i believe raised many of the warnings.) Back then we had not clearing of History or disabling of cfw syscalls. That was after the first PS3 jailbreak. Sony's first policy is not to ban IMO, usually you have to give them reason's IMO..


With PSN bans you never know and you never get accurate data from user's. You get so many theories and so many variables from case to case. Respect the network and blend in has been the best approach, but then some Games that have their own private servers do have checks from within the game, so alot does vary from game to game even.

 

[NiQ]

My Slim been going online since 3.41 (has been awhile since i used it, but had alot of use in the past)
How i stayed safe,

1.) When i clear system sycalls, before going online, i boot a few media apps/official apps and exit (clear history i think is a easy
potential to flag, i like to blend in on that aspect)

2.) I used it like an official console on PSN, though i never cared what was on the HDD (only history logs) or on my XMB, i had 250 RetroXMB roms on the XMB (stress testing before release) with each having it's own TitleID and such. So i knew that was never a flag from personally experience of a scan of entries or looking for homebrew installed,. I have not done a separate user profile ,

3.) Some old school user's will know what i am talking about around firmware 3.41 and the USB Jailbreak's, Sony gave out some warning letter's. They did not ban, but they warned not to use the device on PSN (or launch homebrew on PSN, which is what i believe raised many of the warnings.) Back then we had not clearing of History or disabling of cfw syscalls. That was after the first PS3 jailbreak. Sony's first policy is not to ban IMO, usually you have to give them reason's IMO..


With PSN bans you never know and you never get accurate data from user's. You get so many theories and so many variables from case to case. Respect the network and blend in has been the best approach, but then some Games that have their own private servers do have checks from within the game, so alot does vary from game to game even.

I think the only modded firmware that can't easily be detected by games doing their own check is DB right?

 

[STLcardsWS]

I think the only modded firmware that can't easily be detected by games doing their own check is DB right?

Yes as Dualboot Firmware is just an OFW, that has a small modification to allow for re-installing and returning to a CFW.
That small modification is very doubtful to be detected as its not changing the functionality of the firmware.. Honestly, It's something that Sony actually should like, just the the disabling of cfw syscalls and i am sure they do. . psx-place has always tried to respect them as much as possiable,

The same would be for HFW as well without PS3HEN (in that case replaced webkit)