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How to Make a Pandora Battery & Magic Memory Stick

The Sony PSP can run a variety of homebrew applications, such as third-party games, programs and utilities. To run homebrew applications on your PSP, you must replace the official Sony firmware installed on the console with custom firmware, or CFW. To do this, you need a Pandora battery and a magic memory stick.

During the installation of CFW on your PSP, the console's firmware can become corrupted and the PSP may cease to function, or become a brick. The Pandora battery allows you to both install custom firmware and unbrick your PSP. The magic memory stick contains all of the files used by the Pandora battery to install the CFW.

Things You'll Need

Extra PSP battery
PSP memory stick
Butter knife
Large safety pin
PSP USB cable
Downloaded magic memory stick files

Instructions

Creating the Pandora Battery
- 1
  Hold the PSP battery firmly in your hand and gently work the edge of the butter knife between the sides of the battery's casing. Break the seal holding the two sides together and pry them apart. Be careful not to bend or damage the three metal prongs at the top of the battery, which will be exposed when the casing is removed.
- 2
  Remove the top casing from the battery to reveal a small circuit board. In the center of the board is a large black chip with a smaller black chip beside it. Three sides of the smaller chip have pins connected to it. Look along the right side of the chip for a set of four pins, which will be labeled either "IC04" or "C04" depending on your battery. Use the large safety pin to carefully pry up and remove the fourth pin. This will be the one in the lower-right corner of the small chip.
- 3
  Replace the top casing on the battery. Note that, because the two sides are no longer sealed together, the cover may fall off occasionally.
Creating the Magic Memory Stick
- 4
  Turn on the PSP and format the memory stick by going to the "Settings" menu and selecting "System Settings" followed by "Format Memory Stick."
- 5
  Connect the PSP to your PC using the USB cable. Select "USB Connection" from the "Settings" menu to enter USB mode.
- 6
  Download "Catb50 Team's Magic Memory Stick Creator v2.0" or a similar program. A number of user-created programs are available online, and most of them follow the same basic steps. The zip file will contain all of the files you need to create the magic memory stick. Extract the files to a single directory on your computer. Follow the instructions provided by the software developer to launch the program. Follow the onscreen prompts to complete the magic memory stick creation process.
  
  When creating the magic memory stick, you have the option to install the universal unbricker. Make sure to select yes. This will allow you to use the Pandora battery to unbrick your PSP if things go wrong.
Installing the Custom Firmware on the PSP
- 7
  Place the Pandora battery in the PSP and power on the console. The screen will be black, but the power light will turn green to show that it is working.
- 8
  Insert the magic memory stick. The PSP will automatically boot up using the files on the memory stick.
- 9
  Press the "X" button to select the custom firmware 3.80M33-5 option. This will begin the installation process, which can take a few minutes. You will receive a message that reads, "Installation successful." Press "X" to shut down the PSP.
- 10
  Remove the Pandora battery and insert the original unmodified PSP battery.

Sony PSP