What files change when the CMOS fails on a PS3?

[BurritoBurro]

Does the act.dat get deleted or altered? How about the .rifs for purchased content?

Asking because I have a HEN PS3 that can't be counted on for internet access, and the Apollo Save Tool's offline account activation feature will not work on it, so I'm wondering if there's some way to manually get games/DLC working again when the battery fails and one is stuck offline only. Programs that cant be directly run off of the PS3 itself are not usable in my situation either.

If the act.dat or .rifs are altered or deleted when the battery fail occurs, can it be fixed by something like copy/pasting backups of the rifs and act.dat back to the original home folder, then doing a Rebuild Database?

 

[Berion]

I could be wrong but I think all those cryptic operations based on SSL certificates, which will not works with improper date and time. No files are changing or deleting (maybe except act.dat only).

Probably on CFW, it would be possible to create plugin which spoofing RTC or update date & time from different servers than Sony's (if this can be done on LV2 side, also possible for HEN users). But it not exist yet.

Licenses cannot be returned if they was deleted and if You don't have copy of them. That's why it is important to copy whole exdata folders of all users - or better - convert all RIF files to RAP form (decrypted, can be encrypted to RIF form on any target account).

 

[DoublesAdvocate]

Does the act.dat get deleted or altered? How about the .rifs for purchased content?

Asking because I have a HEN PS3 that can't be counted on for internet access, and the Apollo Save Tool's offline account activation feature will not work on it, so I'm wondering if there's some way to manually get games/DLC working again when the battery fails and one is stuck offline only. Programs that cant be directly run off of the PS3 itself are not usable in my situation either.

If the act.dat or .rifs are altered or deleted when the battery fail occurs, can it be fixed by something like copy/pasting backups of the rifs and act.dat back to the original home folder, then doing a Rebuild Database?

Maybe this works in a different way on HEN but for me on CFW I just set the time whenever I boot my PS3 up and I haven't had any issues with the CMOS being dead.
If I don't set the time, or I set it to a time to a date before some of the items were activated then they don't work for me, but you can just change the time and they'll start working again.

 

[Berion]

If CMOS is dead, You need internet access to update RTC setting. Time in XMB doesn't matter. At least in theory.

 

[NiQ]

Does the act.dat get deleted or altered? How about the .rifs for purchased content?

Asking because I have a HEN PS3 that can't be counted on for internet access, and the Apollo Save Tool's offline account activation feature will not work on it, so I'm wondering if there's some way to manually get games/DLC working again when the battery fails and one is stuck offline only. Programs that cant be directly run off of the PS3 itself are not usable in my situation either.

If the act.dat or .rifs are altered or deleted when the battery fail occurs, can it be fixed by something like copy/pasting backups of the rifs and act.dat back to the original home folder, then doing a Rebuild Database?

No files are saved in CMOS memory, they're all on flash or HDD. The CMOS on PS3 is only used to maintain the clock when power is down. When the CMOS battery dies whenever you power off your PS3 the clock gets reset. What does that mean? Not a lot - as long as you have Internet access, since the PS3 can sync time from Sony's server whenever you power on the console. You can also replace the battery without any issues.
Trouble will only start happening when Sony inevitably shuts down online PS3 services. The clock is used to determine licenses for game purchased on the online PS3 store. Once PS3 online services are down and your CMOS battery dies you will no longer be able to run online purchased games, but games on physical discs will still run. Note that the above only applies for OFW, I'm pretty sure CFW can bypass the time checks, and since all of those issues will only happen once online services end there would be absolutely no need for anyone to not jailbreak their PS3. It'll probably be more of an issue on PS4 unless a jailbreak is found that works the final firmware version to be released for it, but I suppose PS4 would continue to be supported for many years.