How to prevent your PSP from getting dirty?

When you are dealing with dirt, the best offense is always a good defense. It may sounds like cliches but that a sound advice. If you do not want your PSP to get dirty, keep it in an environment which is free of free of dirt. Do not leave it lying around your home uncovered, put it in the drawer or best on its package box. If you want to keep the PSP clean, yous must make sure that you keep all related devices of the PSP and clean. Keep your UMD discs in its cases and use clean USB cables to connect your PSP to your computer. If you find an old USB cable sitting in the corner of a drawer that, for some unknown reason, had crumbs and dirts across the bottom, you must take the time to ensure that all dust or pieces of crumbs that were in the drawers were carefully cleaned before you put the connector in your PSP.

In addition in maintaining your PSP and all devices of the PSP own, be sure that you are clean yourself. If you find your PSP always greasy and smudged look no farther than your own greasy hands, wash hands before playing. Make sure that they are clean, dry and free of grease when you want to play. If you do not want smudges on the screen, do not to touch the screen.

Frequent PSP Problems

All of the buttons of my PSP suddenly stopped working.

Be sure that you during playing you have accidentally slide the power button into the Hold position.

My PSP abruptly enter sleep mode during a game/movie/etc.

Be sure that you didn't accidentally slide the power button up into the Sleep position.

There's no sound/the sound too low.

Be sure that you have the sound volume turned up and you didn't accidentally hit the music note button (which mutes the console), and that you do/don't have the headphones plugged in (depending upon whether you are wearing headphones or not).

The picture on the screen is too dim/too bright.

Hit the little square button underneath the screen. This toggles through different screen brightness settings.

I cannot connect to my wireless network.

Be sure that you have turned on the WLAN switch on the bottom-left corner of your PSP.

My PSP's screen has a dead pixel.

If it is an actual dead pixel, then it isn't fixable. Learn to live with it, or try to sell it online and buy a new PSP. However, you may just have a stuck pixel. This may be fixable. There's an MPEG4 video available from various online PSP-associated sites, such as PSP Hacker (http://www.psphacker.com), called Dead Pixel Cleaner by Placasoft. This two-minute video will need to be loaded onto your Memory Stick. It flashes through red, blue, and green repeatedly and rapidly, filling your PSP's screen. The rapid instructions to change between these three key RGB colors can sometimes stimulate a frozen/stuck pixel, knocking it back to full functionality. So, if you have what looks to be a dead pixel, give this video a try. I've read several recommendations online that say you should leave it running in a loop for a good couple of hours, checking intermittently to see whether it has had any effect. You might learn that your dead pixel is just a stuck pixel when you find it quickly unstuck.

What to do if your PSP cannot be turned on?

• If your PSP can't be turned on, naturally you need to check the power first. Hopefully the battery has been fully depleted. Plug in the AC power adapter and see if the power indicator light turn orange which indicates charging. If that's happen, see if the PSP can now be turned on. If so, luckily your battery simply depleted.
• If the power indicator light did not turn on or turn orange when you plugged in the PSP, then see if you can turn the PSP on. If the PSP can be turned on then look on the upper-right corner of the screen. Is the battery indicator is stills shown? Then, perhaps the battery is simply discharged and being charged, but for some reason the charging indicator light won't turn on. Unplug your PSP and see if it stays powered.
• If it is completely shuts down, then it is most likely something is wrong with the device or the battery. It is best to contact your local vendor.
  

However, if you want check your PSP before sending it to the vendor, you can open the battery cover on the back of your PSP. Remove the battery and check the metal contacts, be sure that they are clean. Wipe gently with soft cloth when dirty. Insert the battery and repeat the above steps. If it still fails to work, lend a good battery so you can sure that the battery or your PSP is the culprit. If your PSP turn on with your friend's battery, then luckily your device is OK, it is better to replace the battery than sending your PSP to your local vendor for repair.

What to do if your PSP can't read the memory stick?

First of all, remove your memory card the put it back into your PSP and make sure it is firmly and properly inserted into your PSP.

Check the parts
If it still cannot read, remove the card again and examine closely the metal conductors contacts of the card, there should be slight abrasion present, it's OK, but if you find dirts , clean it off. Take a soft cloth and wipe gently. If the metal contact is badly scratched, your card beyond repair. You can avoid scratched contacts by limiting the frequency of swapping in and out the memory card. Backup the data often! With prolonged use, memory cards would eventually damaged.

Check inside the card slot.
Make sure that the slot is physically in normal condition, if the area around the slot dirty, hold the cover open, turn the PSP on its other end, and shake gently to try to remove any dirts. Compressed air is the best way to loosen up dirts. Blow short bursts of compressed air on the slot to loosen up anything that stuck in there, and your PSP on its end and shake again.

Check the data integrity
If you have a card reader, connect the Memory Stick up to your PC. If your PC can't read it, your memory card is already unusable. However if the card can be read by your PC, backup the entire data of your memory stick, then delete all files inside your memory stick, format the memory stick then restore the data back to the memory stick.

For best result, format your memory card in your PSP not in your PC

1. Goto Settings System Settings and hit the X button.
2. Select Format Memory Stick from the list of settings and hit the X button.
3. The PSP will ask you twice if you are sure that you really want to format the Memory Stick. Select Yes and hit X, then select Yes again and hit X again. This will erase all of the data on the Memory Stick.
4. Restore the data

If all these efforts fail, there are only two possibilities, your card is damaged and the PSP memory slot is damaged. Try to insert another good memory card in your PSP, if it is cannot be read, then the problem is with your PSP. Contact your local vendor for repair arrangement.

What to do if UMD Game/Movie Won't Load?

This problem is the most common for PSP

1. Clean the disk
Breathe lightly on your disk, take a non-abrasive wiping cloth, clean the UMD disk just like cleaning a DVD/CD. You may also try the compressed air cans, which is available in computer/electronic store. If there are any particles or dust on the disk, try blowing these particles off. Consider using a compressed air can to blow particles from the inside of the disk; you can find these cans in any computer or electronics store. There is also UMD disk-cleaning solution available, which would clean your disk as clean as it can be.

2. Check the clear plastic cover on the disk.
If your hard UMD has been put under pressure inside a bag, the plastic cover on the top of the disk may snap loose from the frame of white plastic disc. The plastic cover will put pressure on the back of the disc, which prevent it from spinning when the UMD is placed inside the PSP. If this happens, you may hold the UMD disc on the edge of the white plastic casing, and then take your index finger and gently push up against the middle of the disk until you hear a slight clicking noise. If all goes well, you have successfully putting back the plastic lid in place and the disk will rotate correctly the next time you insert it in the PSP.

3. Is it a bad UMD?
Even after you try to clean the UMD with the cleaning solution and it is still fail to load, then the bad news is that the game or film is dead. It's time to buy the replacement.

4. Check your PSP.
If none above works, things may be worse than it should, but there is absolutely no reason to panic. The inside of your PSP may be dirty, open the tray door and shake slightly to get dirts and bits out from your PSP, it is better if you use the compressed air cans to loosen dirts inside your PSP.

Still not work? Then you need a professional repair help. Contact your local vendor.

How to make wireless network most secure for your older PSP versions?

If you have a PSP with the older version 1.01.52 firmware, your only option for wireless security at your disposal is only WEP, which is most easily cracked protocol for wireless encryption. WPA is a more secure solution for PSP.

However, WEP is better than nothing at all. If you use the older firmware, you should configure your network WEP with a password in order to access your network settings on your PSP (Settings>Network Settings, press the X button and choose Infrastructure mode, and again hit the X button). Choose the connection that you want to change and move forward until you reach the WLAN Settings pane.

Make sure your wireless network appears under the name SSID. If it does not, scroll to Scan, hit the X button, select your wireless network from the list that appears on the next page, and click the X button again. This will take you back to the Settings page wireless network.

Now, scroll down to where it reads 'None' for the encryption and then click X. Use the arrow up or down on the keyboard to change from 'None' to 'WEP' and then press the start button X. Now hit the right arrow keys to bring up a screen asking you to enter your WEP key. Hit the X button, and the PSP of the screen text entry will be displayed. When you are finished entering your password, scroll to the Enter key on-screen text entry and click the X button again.

If you already have newer firmware with WPA established in your current network, you need to disable it, in order to allow PSP with version 1.01.52 firmware to access your network. If you have a PSP with version 2.0 firmware, however, you can define the parameters WPA on your PSP to work with your network WPA enabled. It will be almost identical to the procedure to enable WEP, except you switch down to 'WPA-PSK' for the WLAN Security Configuration and enter your password WPA.

Network performance would be better without these security measures, so if you connecting to a wireless network in a thick walled room, just disable this security settings for maximum network performance.

PSP background color by month

Month	PSP background color
1. January	White/grey/silver
2. February	Light yellow/gold
3. March	Light green
4. April	Pink
5. May	Dark green
6. June	Blue/purple
7. July	Ocean blue/teal
8. August	Dark blue to light blue
9. September	Purple
10. October	Dark yellow/gold
11. November	Sepia/brown
12. December	Red

How to permanently change background color?

PSP background change on monthly basis, however you can make it stay with only one background color. This trick is only applicable with Version 2.0 firmware,
1. Go to Settings > Theme Settings, hit the X button, select Theme, hit the X button again
2. Select a color from the menu that is shown on the right. The colors will change when you select any options in the list. However if you choose Original, then the color will change each month. Then select the X button to make your selection and your PSP will permanently have one background color.

How to connect PSP to Linux?

Latest Linux distributions should be able to detect PSP automatically. You may want to examine the kernel messages with dmesg to see what device the PSP was recognized as:

 $ dmesg
 Linux version 2.6.8.1-5-686 (buildd@vernadsky) (gcc version 3.3.4 (Debian 1:
 3.3.4-9ubuntu5)) #1 Wed Aug 17 23:34:53 UTC 2005
 BIOS-provided physical RAM map:

 […] lots of output deleted […]

 scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
   Vendor: Sony      Model: PSP               Rev: 1.00
   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
 USB Mass Storage device found at 2
 usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
 USB Mass Storage support registered.
 SCSI device sda: 487936 512-byte hdwr sectors (250 MB)
 sda: Write Protect is off
 sda: Mode Sense: 00 6a 20 00
 sda: assuming drive cache: write through
  /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1

If however your PSP is not automatically detected, run the command modprobe usb-storage as the root user and run dmesg again, check its output. You should be able to identify the device, you can mount it with the following commands (if it was identified as sda, you want to use sda1, as the first partition):

 $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt -o uid=$USER
 $ ls -l /mnt/
 total 128
 -rwxr--r--    1 me root          5125 2005-09-04 12:35 index.html
 -rwxr--r--    1 me root          4060 2005-09-04 12:34 make_index.pl
 -r-xr--r--    1 me root             0 2005-01-30 22:28 memstick.ind
 drwxr--r--    4 me root         32768 2005-09-02 22:50 mp_root
 -r-xr--r--    1 me root             0 1979-12-31 23:00 mstk_pro.ind
 drwxr--r--    9 me root         32768 2005-04-08 23:55 psp

The sudo command will let you to run mount as root user, and the -o uid $USER tells Linux to mount it so that the currently logged-in user is the owner of the files on the stick.

How to quickly copy PSP files in Windows?

1. Let's assume your PSP memory card location is E:\PSP\SAVEDATA

2. Create a new folder in your hard drive for example C:\gamesaves\

3. Open Notepad, type the following

cd e:\PSP\SAVEDATA\
xcopy e: c:\gamesaves\ /S

Hit Return between each line.

4. Save the file as, 'copyPSP.bat', put the file wherever you want for example in your desktop, now whenever you want quickly copy all files in your memory card to C:\gamesaves\, just double click this file.

How to connect PSP to Mac OSX?

First of all, you need to have a PSP folder on your desktop for this procedures to work

1. Run the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/ then type the following in command line,

 open /Volumes//PSP/SAVEDATA/

2. Replace with the actual name of the memory card as it is displayed as mounted on the desktop. Usually, it will be "Untitled." If the name has been changed to something like "My PSP Card," then you will need to add an \ before the space in the name. For example, if your Memory Stick were named "My PSP Card" you would type the following:

 open /Volumes/My\PSP\Card/PSP/SAVEDATA/

3. Press Return. Then the folder in the Finder would open, then drag all the files that you want to your Mac.

However, if you want this process to be GUI-free, just type the commands:

 cd /Volumes/Untitled/PSP/SAVEDATA/
 cp -R * ~/Desktop/PSP/

Hit Return after each line. The first cd command will change the directory of the mounted Memory Stick (In this case it called Untitled) to the SAVEDATA folder. The cp -R command will then copy all the files and folders within this folder into a folder called PSP on your desktop.

Things to remember when connecting PSP to your computer

Improper connection between PSP and PC may damage data inside the memory card.

• It is happen whenever you connect a PSP that is still in Sleep Mode to your PC using USB cable.
• Always dismounting the memory card before disconnecting your PSP from your PC
• Make sure PSP would not fall into Sleep Mode when it is still connected to the PC, you can avoid this by turning off the Auto Sleep feature inside the Power Settings menu. You can still conserve power by turning on the Backlight Auto-off setting, also under power settings into two minutes (the lowest setting)
  

You may consider buying an USB cord to supply power to the PSP.
Your saved games are all stored inside PSP>SAVEDATA subfolder inside the memory card. Copy it to your PC hard drive or burn it to a blank CD.

Always remember to dismount the memory card before disconnecting the PSP, in Mac you do this by dragging the Memory Card icon into the trash or in Windows by "Safely Remove Hardware". After PSP is dismounted, then press O button in your PSP to fully disconnect the PSP from the PC, then you may unplug the USB cable from the PC.

Copy and Delete files in your PSP

On the game menu, between Game Sharing and UMD/Memory Stick (if you have a UMD disk inserted), there is the Saved Data Utility. Highlight it and hit the X button.

You'll be shown the list of saved game files, along with the screenshots and all related informations. If you hit the triangle button you can Copy, Delete or just want to see the detailed information of the file. A dialog will tell you "You will be asked to change the Memory Stick 3 times. Press the X button to begin." Hit X to begin the copy process or O to go back to the previous menu

This way you can copy your saved games to let friends play it in their own PSP or you just want to make a backup in other memory card. So even you already have the 2 Gb memory card, you can still use the 32 Mb memory card included with your PSP to backup your important saved games. The file copying process between memory cards actually involves a few minutes of swapping out two memory card for a total of six times.

The Delete and Information options are quite straightforward.

Boss is coming! How to quit PSP instantly?

So you're in a busy project, feeling so bored and tired and you pull out your PSP and start up a quick game, just to relax for 5 minutes. Then the boss walks in. How can quit the game, save your game and save your job at the same time?

The power button on the right bottom corner of PSP can be pressed quickly to turn off without ruining the game you are currently playing. The quick push of the power button up and then back down to the locked position can become rather habitual when the phone rings or some other emergencies.

Do remember that make sure, PSP is not writing anything to the Memory Stick Duo while you quickly turn off the device. It is indicated by the flashing orange light at the bottom left of PSP. If there is no light you are safe.

If you want to play your PSP in your cubicle safely, make sure you have the bottom drawer of your desk open and filled with cotton or clothes to cushion the shock subjected to your PSP when you need to toss it real quickly.

When the boss approach, quickly and calmly turn it into power save mode and drop it to the bottom drawer. While you are playing always, keep part of your hearing and other senses to detect movement and noises outside your cubilce. Practice for a couple of time, it would be quite easy.