PS3 FLASH and SA-CD

[caseyse]

Hi,

I'm looking for some guidance on restoring the ability to read SA-CDs on a CECHA01.

The battery for my flash memory died last week. After manually setting the date/time, SACD_Ripper would only return the error "libsacdread Can't open for read". The PS3's music player, while able to read the number of SA-CD tracks, would not play. The system also lost the ability to play old Blu-Ray movies.

I pulled a spare CECHA01 out of storage and tested that it would successfully read and rip SACDs. I quickly replaced the PROM battery, taking less than three (3) seconds for the change, but unfortunately not quick enough, as I lost the flash memory on this second PS3 and it now also can't read SA-CDs.

I have installed CFW 4.92 Evilnat and allowed the network update of the date/time. Inserted a Blu-Ray movie and had it update keys and the movie now plays. However, a SA-CD still does not play.

I downgraded back to my original firmware 3.55 KMEAW to try SACD_Ripper .36 and I'm getting the same error.

I've been using 3.55 KMEAW for about a dozen years only for ripping my SA-CDs. I still have my old development environment and SACD_Ripper package source up to version .38; however, I see SACD_Ripper will not run on the current 4.92 release.

Is there an AACS private key used for SA-CD decryption stored in flash? I have read posts indicating losing flash memory isn't an issue, but SA-CD functionality might not have been considered.

Any guidance on how I might go about restoring the reading of SA-CDs on CFW 3.55 would be greatly appreciated! BTW - This is a fantastic forum; nice to see it replace PSX-Scene.

Thank you.

Update: I was able to resolve the issue of SACD_Ripper not working. This was partially due to a "senior" moment and not following the PS3 hacking community for over a dozen years.

What I believe happened is my lv1 patched hypervisor was erased when I lost my flash due to a dead battery. Running the previously installed SACD_Ripper was not detecting the newly loaded hypervisor had not been patched and was not applying the needed lv1 patch. Reinstalling different CFW firmware did nothing, nor reinstalling SACD_Ripper didn't help.

What resolved the issue was installing OFM 3.55, then installing CFM 3.55 with a fresh SACD_Ripper install, which then performed the needed lv1 hypervisor patch.

As for my senior moment: I didn't realize the servers hosting CD information are no longer available, so I assumed the SA-CD media could not be read.

 

[Berion]

SACD Ripper working only on 3.55 fws. I don't know why. But very yet badly surprising for me is that SACD playing is behind some another ridiculously time bomb.

BTW: Best 3.55 CFW is Rebug 3.55.4. But Kmaew was fine too.

HV cannot be erased. It is crucial part of PS3 firmware. I'm not sure what you exactly refer to.

 

[caseyse]

Berion, thanks for your post.

I suspect there is a file (e.g., BIOS settings), related to SACD Ripper's patching of lv1 services, that's stored in the battery backed CMOS. When the CMOS was cleared on both of my consoles, SACD Ripper was not able to read SA-CDs. Only when the lv1 services were again patched could SACD Ripper read SA-CD media.

I don't know PS3 architecture, so I can't say for certain what was the root cause. At least on NAND consoles, when the CMOS battery dies, so does SACD Ripper, and it doesn't matter if you manually set the clock, or have the clock set via a network time server.

 

[Berion]

Any idea @Evilnat ?