Koller Blames Pandora Battery Hack for Lack of Removable Battery On PSPgo

by Mike Bendel on August 31, 2009 @ 10:22 am

sonypspgo
In case you hadn’t noticed from product photos and the like, the PSPgo lacks a user removable battery. Meaning, it can’t be replaced unless the unit is sent back to Sony, or you are a daring soul that doesn’t mind voiding the warranty.

The long and short of it is that this design decision was made solely in prevention of piracy. While Sony seemingly did a sound enough job of blocking the infamous Pandora battery hack on PSP-3000 units, it wanted to take things a step further with the PSPgo. SCEA marketing man John Koller explains:

You won’t be able to rip your games and play them on the system, the firmware precludes that, Koller explained. There’s no external battery, so there’s a number of protections put into place on the system.

Considering the situation at hand, we can understand the motivation behind this decision, but all things considered, this is stepping into the territory of punishing legit end-users for the nefarious actions of pirates.

Why You Can’t Remove the Battery From the PSP Go [PSInsider]

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Comments
Alex says:

im still debating whethere to buy one of these or not.

i've got a collection going, i got a 1k, a 2k and now i need a 3k and a go lol

x3sphere says:

I'm not interested in it. Honestly it seems Sony only released it to please the people that have been clamoring for internal storage. I bet in two years, maybe less, we will see a completely revised PSP.

Darkchild says:

and psp go CFW :D

jx233 says:

The Jigkick [0xFFFFFFFF] battery did not work on the PSP-3000 whether soft modded or hard-modded b/c s0nY patched the exploit already.

But, I find it strange that they are going to extreme methods of preventing any tampering with the battery. Personally, now that custom made ipl.bin fails to boot from MemoryStick, and battery exploit patched on TA-088 v3 and PSP 03g, why go even more to stop the exploit if it was fully patched?. :<

Hellcat says:

IMO this means that there's still an exploit left - and Sony knows about it already but can't/didn't fix it (in time).

So, by removing the removable battery they try to make it less likely for the exploit to be exploited - as pirats would care about warrenty and not be willing to open up the thing....

Alex says:

i agree with hellcat, we're prolly looking into it to deep and the exploit is right there infront of us. lol

B2K24 says:

Sony could also be pissed because so many "fake" batteries are being sold that they don't even profit from.

cory1492 says:

As long as they kept whatever process to build them in line with previous revisions, I'd bet there is still a way into their service mode without opening the unit up to access the battery.

Of course, as stated previously, no one ever mentioned to the 'boss' who runs his yap nor half the folks who have made or used a pandora battery that the magic isn't really in the battery, it's in service depos getting $75+ to do a 5 min job correcting something that a customer should be able to correct without hacks anyway.

angelsniper45 says:

I agree with alex_e. Its probablystaring us right in the face

as with the exploit though, if we are able to load our CFW into the psp3k, (chickHEN) we probably could find an exploit without even touching the hardware in the go! That seems more logical approach

Kwipper says:

Oh fucking great. So now if my battery dies on a PSP Go.. I gotta spend another 249 dollars to buy an new one?

BULL FUCKING SHIT!!!

A.0.A says:

Maybe there's still an exploit left., and SONY make sure of that there will be no leakages of exploits in the BATTERY..,

HMMM.. and I agree with alex_e and angelsniper45 that as a hacker you can find an exploits even without touching the hardware.

@ Kwipper : There must be a warranty and SONY can repair about something that will happens in the INTERNAL battery of the PSP

MenaceInc says:

I still say there's something about the USB port and the way that it can charge the PSP...

It makes sense in my head considering that the iPhone and iPod touch can't charge off just normal 5v since there has to be specific voltages applied to pins 2 & 3 on a USB cable...

Someones probally already thought of that though. xD

angelsniper45 says:

only one exploit left? if we were able to find it once we sure as hell should be able to find it again

seishinui says:

IMO, this is not a precaution as to what "hacking" or "piracy" might do to the PSPGo.. the way i see it, this is just a "business-wise" move because you NEED to send the unit just to have the battery "replaced" whenever the time it worn out.. so in that sense, might be a "get-back" to all the lose the CFW community has done to Sony..

and since it is Sony, it might also be like the phones in terms of setting the unit into service mode.. i agree to the USB view on this..

oh well, money makes the world go round.. so as far as i can see it, it was just all for the moey.. XD

Kurian..Of Borg says:

Its probably true that Datel hacked the 3000 service mode but Sony stopped them from releasing their Blue Tool Battery or whatever its called. So the 3000 service mode HAS been activated and SOMEONE knows how, hence they blocked it completely and removed the battery.

In any case I think its completely unnecessary as its more or less impossible to get the new pre-IPL at this point.

pspguru says:

Well if i get one? and i needed to void the warranty to get to the battery! i would! as the warranty on PSP'S only last a year! so i don't give a dam!

I would rather do it myself as it would be cheaper then sending it of to sony! aka rip you of before you can say what the f!!!

sony are stupid anyway, they thought oo oo oo i know lets get rid of the umd and make all games into file downloads, ermmmmmmm... bad move! sony!

people can crack games from psn so there just fueling piracy in a back handed way!

i mean how stupid? do you have to be! not to see that happening!

who the hell is running sony?! because it sure as hell can't be someone smart?

bnaughty18 says:

BULL FUCKING SHIT!!!, WTF SONY, if ur battey dies, you go to SONY, what if there's no SONY Center from your area, ur stuck...just face it SONY piracy is always der and hackers will always be der too...just accept it..

Simon19 says:

There HAS to be another exploit for to N1000! there has to be another backdoor, how would sce fix bricked go!'s exactly? same with the 3000. i think locking the battery in the shell may just be a way to distract devs from another backdoor. and who knows there might even be another TIFF exploit that may work on the go!'s or bluetooth hack. all in good time. and by the looks of things an ISO backups are the only way of playing your UMDS!

And to sony its about the money not the entertainment

january39 says:

Tottally agree with you, to seal the battery in makes limited business sense, what if the battery fails, a whole new unit is required?

My guess is the battery is the key, and datel knows hence the 'Extra' control method i.e seal the battery in - Radical but effective :ohmy:

XsavioR says:

i Agree, no user replaceable battery is why I refuse to use mac. By mac I mean Iphone, Ipod , Macbooks, basically any thing mac. But lets be honest do i care about this ? Absolutely not. Sony refuses to release any thing but a psp, a power cable and a screen protector. Ive still not bought into the whole "buy a cheaper built , lesser capable , poorly engineered slide game system" The rapid release of multiple gaming systems with out the release of the other things for the psp is actually dumber then releasing the original and failing (honestly can we call the psp any thing but a failure ?)

Lets be honest with our selves , and sony.. The only reason any of us bought a psp was because we could hack it . If we wanted a feature filled , accesory rich , game rich portable console we would have bought a DS.

All sony did was skuttle their niche , that psp reminds me of a 9.99 prepaid slide phone.

Pretty sure I know what they did but will have to see the hardware to say for sure.

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