PS3 [GUIDE] How to install Custom firmware on your PS3 in 2023
- Thread starter Thibobo
- Start date
iScootfastafboii
Forum Noob
Hello! Followed this guide to success a few weeks ago and am now swapping the HDD for an SSD. I've searched a few different ways and still haven't found an answer. What exactly do I need to do to install Evilant on this SSD?? Download the Evilant 4.90 pup on a flash drive and plug it into the ps3 and power on after installing the SSD? Thanks in advance!
GuilloteTesla
Moderator
Yes. It doesn't matter what type of hard drive you install on your PS3. If you change it, the console will prompt you to insert a USB drive with the PUP for the current FW installed (if your console has CFW, you will can install CFW).
iScootfastafboii
Forum Noob
RoboKing's Cosmos
Member
Curious how can an Android user host the flash490.P3T without 404 error? Nvm
Last edited:
Yes. You keep all you content installed on HDD after you jailbreak the console and install CFW.
Although you can continue using your current PSN account, it is highly recommended that you create a new account and set it as the default user to log into PSN from a CFW (with CFW syscalls disabled).
The main reason is that if $0N¥ decides to ban your account on PS3 for any reason you won't lose your purchased content. Specially if you use the same account to purchase content for other systems (e.g. PS4 or PS5).
Some additonal recomendations after jailbreak are:
- Disable automatic system update and automatic PSN login
- Never log into PSN with CFW syscalls enabled
- Backup your idps, psid, act.dat and eid_root_key on a safe place on USB or PC.
- Enable QA flags
Once you install CFW, dump your ERK and keep it somewhere safe. If your new PS3 also dies you can use it to decrypt the PS3's hard drive on your computer.
pianohombre
Member
Hi, thanks for your guide. I have a couple newbie questions. Is 'installing CFW' different than 'jailbreaking your ps3', or the same thing? Do you need to downgrade the firmware/flash/whatever to a lower version first, before running some type of exploit to the put the CFW in there? It looks like everyone is recommended to use latest update 4.89-4.90 custom firmware over the OFW, rather than downgrading to 3.55 or whatever. I thought the software browser exploit required this version rather than any version after.
I was going to wait until Sony completely took the ps3 servers offline before risking hacking this thing, but I never even really use the online features or the PS3 at all, so will probably give it a try, and it looks like there's some ways to bypass PSN to avoid a ban and STILL keep online capabilities, however I'm not sure if i'll be so brave at first.
Also, lastly, aren't PSN purchases like buying a videogame from the PSN store, connected to your account? So if you create a new PSN account to avoid a ban how will you verify wallet to play purchased games or watch old movies? Thanks again.
I was going to wait until Sony completely took the ps3 servers offline before risking hacking this thing, but I never even really use the online features or the PS3 at all, so will probably give it a try, and it looks like there's some ways to bypass PSN to avoid a ban and STILL keep online capabilities, however I'm not sure if i'll be so brave at first.
Also, lastly, aren't PSN purchases like buying a videogame from the PSN store, connected to your account? So if you create a new PSN account to avoid a ban how will you verify wallet to play purchased games or watch old movies? Thanks again.
You do not need to downgrade and in fact you can't downgrade without installing CFW first, because only CFW allows you to enable the QA flag, which is required for downgrading (yes, this does mean that you cannot downgrade firmware on models that don't support CFW, such as super-slims).
Firmware 3.55 used to be a big deal some years ago because it was the highest firmware version that could be used for installing CFW, i.e., if you had OFW version greater than 3.55 you wouldn't had been able to install CFW - however this is not the case anymore. New jailbreaking platforms (the easiest one to use is bgtoolset) support all firmware versions, up to the very latest (4.90 as of the time of writing this). The only noteworthy thing related to 3.55 these days is that if you have 3.55 or lower, you don't need to use any jailbreaks, just install CFW like you would install any firmware update. If you have OFW greater than 3.55 then you need to use bgtoolset, then you can install CFW.
The most recent CFW is Evilnat 4.90. It has everything that virtually any other firmware ever had (even Rebug) so there's no point using anything older. There's absolutely no reason to continue using 3.55 or 3.55 based CFW - in fact, many games won't even work because they require a higher firmware version, as as I said if for any reason you do need to downgrade, once you have CFW you can turn on the QA flag, which will allow you to downgrade to any version higher or equal to the version your PS3 originally shipped with.
If you're not logged to PSN then using CFW is 100% safe. I'm not sure which online capabilities you're talking about though, because PS3 online capabilities are basically PSN.
Regarding the PS3 store - It's considered generally safe to use even on CFW (just remember to disable syscalls) and I've purchased multiple games from it without any issues. Of course there's no such thing as 100% safe, but I don't recall a case where someone got banned when they used PSN only for the PS3 store. I'd say that around 95% of the people who do get banned get banned for cheating, using game mods and/or trophy hacking.
Both the hardware and the account are banned. The IP is not.
Please note that when the account is banned, that applies not only to PS3 but also to PS4 and PS5 games you may have purchased and/or played on the same account, though the ban does not extend to other hardware that has previously logged in with the same account. Anyway, using modded consoles and unmodded consoles (whether PS3, PS4 and/or PS5) on the same account is highly discouraged. Use a separate account for your modded PS3. Banned accounts cannot be reactivated; you would have to create a new account.
Regarding the hardware ban - A previously banned PS3 can be brought back online by spoofing its PSID (that's the hardware unique identifier used by PSN). You will need to obtain a valid, unbanned PSID, which is usually obtained from broken units using a hardware flasher. There are people selling them online but they're not always reliable.
As I said, the overwhelming majority of people who get banned actually deserve to get banned - it's almost always for cheating (using game mods) or trophy hacking, but yeah, there's no such thing as 100% safe. The only 100% safe way is to keep a 2nd PS3 unmodded for PSN. If you want to access PSN on a modded unit then use an alt account.
pianohombre
Member
Hi, thanks for filling in that information. One thing I have been confused about since learning about hacking this unit. Biggest worry is reading about that Russian clone mirror that posted incomplete toolset that will brick your console, and it looks like the old ps3exploit website was taken offline, so I just wanted to make sure I was going to the official website, but I have the correct link.
I use PSN like most people to play online games such as COD, to buy games and DLC, or to watch Netflix. (But I mainly use a streaming stick for that). I don't plan on modding COD to enable cheats and win, although some games it might actually even it out lol. I'm going to try and create a dummy account specifically for the modded console if I ever do decide to go online and try to do all that other stuff like disable CFW-calls, SYS-calls, etc. Thank you for your input
Both ps3xploit and bgtoolset are online, though their addresses have changed. Here are the new links:
PS3Xploit Team -[ Making The PS3 Great Again!!! ]-
PS3 Toolset by @bguerville
These are not clones and are safe to use (obviously no warranty though).
You should be careful with CoD specifically. Everything before BO2 should be safe. BO2 / BO3, AW and possibly later titles in the franchise are notoriously known for actively scanning the console for files associated with common homebrew and reporting to PSN, resulting in a ban the moment you click the online play option in the game menu. Even reverting to OFW does not always help since the game can detect residual files, so to be safe playing CoD you need to both revert to OFW (or DB) and do a factory reset (i.e., wipe the HDD).
There are very few games that do this, btw, I think CoD is the only one worth mentioning these days (GTA V also did this but iirc the PS3 online service has been discontinued so it's no longer an issue).
There are so-called anti-ban eboots, basically modded game executables with the CFW check removed, but AFAIK only the one for BO2 is available publicly.
or thatdualboot fw with a second hdd.
Kane Evans
Forum Noob
The link for the PS3 Dump Checker is dead, says the hosting period is over unless you pay for premium, I put a SS below. Can someone please reupload? I am stuck at this step now as I cannot get the tool 
EDIT: I was able to find build 503 on Github, is that the same thing as the 4.90 compiled one from the dead link?
EDIT: I was able to find build 503 on Github, is that the same thing as the 4.90 compiled one from the dead link?
Similar threads
-
PS3Xploit Flash Writer (4.93 HFW Req)- Started by Evilnat
- Replies: 10
-
PS3 [Tutorial] Update Frankenstein PS3 Firmware That is Too Low to Initialize RSX (< 3.41) (NAND Models)
- Started by byt3swap
- Replies: 0
-
PS3 [Tutorial] Update Frankenstein PS3 Firmware That is Too Low to Initialize RSX (< 3.41) (NAND Models)
- Started by byt3swap
- Replies: 0
-
PS3 BadWDSD/qCFW + HW Flasher/NoBT Thread
- Started by aomsin2526
- Replies: 20