PSP 1000 (Phat) Disassembly

PlayStation Portable 3000 Series Disassembly

Bricked PSP?

How do you know if you have a bricked PSP?

Generally if you have a bricked PSP, your Sony PlayStation Portable will still switch on, as in the green light shows but there will be no picture showing on the LCD screen and there will also be no sound. The green light will stay on for approximately 30-40 seconds and then shut down.

A PSP generally becomes bricked if it is turned off or runs out of battery during a firmware/software update. The best way the unbrick your PSP is to buy a Pandora battery and Magic Memory Stick. Using these two items you will then be able to unbrick/reboot your PSP to full working order. If you have any questions regarding unbricking a PSP or where to purchase Pandora Batteries and Magic Memory Sticks from please email me.

PSP Advice - Removing The Power Switch Board

This is based on removing a power switch board from an original PSP (1000 series)

There are no screws attaching the power switch board to your PSP console, they simply click into place but there is one cable ribbon attached so please bear this in mind when removing. The only tool you will need is a small flathead screwdriver.

First of all you need to take off the right hand shoulder button aswell as the metal clip in which holds down the rubber pad for said shoulder button. To remove the metal clip use your small flathead screwdriver and gently lift it up from where it connects to the PSP console.

When that is done you should then be able (with flathead screwdriver again) start to gently prise the PSP power switch board away, there is a small gap in which you can put your screwdriver to slowly lift it up. Do not lift up fully as it still has a ribbon cable attached, slowly turn over to one side and undo the brown cable clip, therefore releasing the cable and releasing the power switch board from your PSP console.

A Brief History Of The Sony PSP

The Sony PSP comes out on sale in Japan in October 2004 for ¥19,800 for the basic model and ¥24,800 for the value version. It sells 200,000 units on the first day.

In March 2005 the Sony PlayStation Portable launches in North America for $249, approximately $20 more than the Japanese price and $100 more than the Nintendo DS. 500,000 PSP units are sold in the first two days.

The UK version of the PSP is released (1000 series) in September of the same year for £179, at the time over $100 more than the US price. All 185,000 units sell out in the first three hours doubling the Nintendo DS record on launch.

In June 2007 the next generation of Sony's PSP is announced (2000 series) as the 33% lighter, 19% thinner PSP-2000 and is the first of the Slim and Light series. It supports USB charging, has a composite TV-out and twice the RAM taking the memory up to a healthy 64MB. The screen is brighter and the UMD speedier to load.

In September 2007 the Sony PlayStation Portable-2000 series goes on sale worldwide.

The PSP-3000 is announced in August 2008. The 3000 series is virtually identical to the previous 2000 series version, but does feature an improved LCD screen with a better contrast, a faster response time and an anti-reflective coating.

In October 2008 The PSP-3000 series version goes on sale worldwide

The new PSP Go officially launched in June 2009, the latest Sony PSP version comes with Blue tooth, a smaller 3.8-inch screen and at 43% lighter than the original PlayStation Portable. The UMB has vanished and instead is replaced by 16GB of internal flash memory for digital downloads plus a Memory Stick Micro port.

In October 2009 the PSP Go is released in the US and the UK.

In March 2010, 60 million PSP units reported sold worldwide in total making this console a true global phenomen.

The PlayStation Go is the fourth model / version of Sony's hugely successful console and with technology changing all the time it will be interesting to see what Sony can come up with next for the PSP.

Buying and Selling PSP's on EBay

I have been buying and selling Sony PSP Consoles successfully on EBay for several months now. Simply purchasing broken and faulty PlayStation Portables, finding the problem, fixing the problem and then selling them on as working consoles.

There is an opportunity to make some money doing this, now you are not going to become a millionaire but a small amount of money extra coming in, can be a big help especially in this so called recession. At times I have bought a faulty PSP for as little as £12.50 and sold it as high as £65, sounds good but if you are selling on EBay you have certain fees and of course you will need to pay out for parts in order to fix the problem.

As for selling on EBay the fees include, a small fee for listing it on there auction site, they then take a 10% cut of your final selling price (This is based on the UK version). So if you sell your Sony PlayStation Portable for £60 (not including post and packaging) EBay will charge you a £6 final selling fee.

There are other fees to take into consideration as well, I always use Pay pal as it is the easiest and safest way. If you sell your item and the buyer pays via Pay pal, Pay pal will charge a small amount for the privilege. In fairness this is well worth it as you know that your item has been paid for as it goes direct into your account, so you can then post it out to the said buyer. This then leads us onto the cost of posting, which can vary depending on size, weight and location. You also need your packaging materials like bubble wrap, parcel paper and tape.

As to the repairing of the faulty or broken PSP, depending on the problem you could spend anywhere between £2.99 up to £35 on any one part in order to fix a PSP and then sometimes you may need more than one part. The most common repair I have come across is replacing the LCD screen, these can easily be broken by either dropping or sitting on the console. A screen for an original 1000 series PSP would cost about £15, whereas for a Slim & Lite 2000 series PSP the screen would cost more like £35. These are a straightforward repair and could be done within 15 minutes. Other common repairs are broken UMD doors or missing analog caps which are both very simple fixes or a faulty UMD drive which takes a bit more time, as in you have to investigate the problem by testing and cleaning and if not resolved removing and replacing the UMD drive itself.

So you need to write down and keep a track of all your costs in order to know what you need to sell your PSP for in order to make a decent profit per item. When looking for faulty PlayStation Portables on EBay, always check the product description to see what the fault is then research how much it could cost to repair. With this in mind you will then know a figure in which you are willing to bid up to but not beyond in order for you to make a profit. Please bear in mind though that when you receive your item there may be further faults that where not mentioned on the original auction listing.

Now when it comes to selling especially on an auction website you are by no means guaranteed to get the price you want, you run the risk so to speak. You can set a reserve price so it does not sell below a certain price but EBay does charge you a small fee for having this. You may find that you may only make £5 - £10 profit per console, which does not sound like a lot, but as you get more experienced you could then be able to turnover a higher amount therefore making yourself a decent bit of spending money.

Hope you have enjoyed this post, within it there are positives and negatives as to buying and selling on EBay, I did not want to come across as saying that buying and selling PSP's is easy and if you buy as faulty PSP, repair it and then sell it you can make a load of money. There are pitfalls as with everything in life, some repairs are simple, some are not. Repairing consoles and gadgets is not for everyone, you have got to want to do it.

PSP Advice - Removing The UMD door

A common PSP problem is a broken UMD door, it can quite easily happen, certainly if the PSP console has been dropped for example. Now first of all there are two screws that hold the UMD door in place and they are two of the seven screws as mentioned in previous post from the LCD screen housing plate. So basically when you have removed the LCD plate all you need to do is place the PSP console face down and gently slide your Flathead screwdriver as picture above shows into the bottom left hand side and slowly prise it away from the console. Once you have that side out you can then pull the other side free.

I have found this the easiest way of removing the PSP UMD door, I have read that you can also pry the hinge from the other side or just wiggle it free. You may find another way easier but the main thing is to take your time as on many occasion when I first started repairing PlayStation Portables I ended up breaking off parts of the UMD door and therefore needing to replace it, which at approx £4.99 for a new UMD door is not worst thing to break but nonetheless not ideal. Once you have removed the PSP UMD door you will then see the UMD game housing, of which we will go through in future posts on how to remove.

To replace the UMD door, just simply take your new door and slide it back down into its place, then re-attach the LCD housing plate with the relevant screws and your PSP console will again have a fully functioning UMD door.

PSP Advice - Removing The LCD Screen Housing Plate

The LCD screen housing plate / brace is what keeps the LCD tight and secure within your PlayStation Portable Console. The picture below shows what the plate looks like when the actual LCD screen has been removed. There are seven screws that you need to remove to enable you to take off the housing plate. There are three screws along the top and four along the bottom.

Once you have undone these screws, you then need to gently pry the housing plate outwards, with a small Flathead screwdriver separate the tabs between the D-Pad (where the directional buttons would be if the faceplate was attached) and the LCD housing plate. Once this is done slide the UMD door latch over so the UMD door comes open, as before gently prise the LCD housing plate from your PSP console.

Once you have removed the plate, you will then have clear visibility of the MBO (Motherboard) as the picture shows above. From here you can then go on the fix / repair other parts of your PSP.