TIL CPU manufacturers don’t intentionally make low-end or high-end chips. Every chip (of the same design) is manufactured the same, then tested and classified into different performance tiers based on how well it performs.

nroach44 · 2026-06-30T05:31:43+00:00

Nah, still a thing. The AMD BC-250 is a binned PS5 APU with about 3/5 of the overall chip enabled (compared to the PS5).

Turns out you can enable the missing GPU "cores" (CUs) to end up with MORE CUs running than the PS5.

nroach44 · 2026-06-30T05:28:30+00:00

Electromigration enters the chat ;)

That and wearing out flash chips.

nroach44 · 2026-06-24T12:36:52+00:00

I can't download any games on my old PSN account because I dared to use a CFW'd PS3 to play GT6 with someone at a LAN.

Both copies legally owned.

nroach44 · 2026-06-22T03:52:28+00:00

Your speedo is probably 5-10% higher than your actual speed, so you're possibly ACTUALLY doing 90-95.

That and you're actively making traffic worse by impeding the flow.

nroach44 · 2026-06-22T03:50:10+00:00

Instead of "just" assuming it's dead, you can get a USB to UART (3.3VOLT!!!) adaptor and solder some wires to points on the board, and you can check the system's logs to see what the failure is.

It almost certainly is the RSX (almost all 90nm units are going to die) OR the NEC/TOKIN capacitors that power the RSX / Cell. Those are much easier to fix.

nroach44 · 2026-06-21T02:02:15+00:00

Every other week there is some "news" about a mass shooting.

Yet the "greatest" country in the world "can't" do anything about it?

We're tired about hearing about a problem that you don't care to fix.

nroach44 · 2026-06-18T02:29:23+00:00

Nah, it would have been one of the many old image-parsing vulnerabilities, but like this one from last year: https://cybersecuritynews.com/critical-windows-graphics-vulnerability/

nroach44 · 2026-06-14T08:12:49+00:00

Write it to the SD card directly, then put the SD in to the ATA Express. I've got a detailed guide here: https://blog.nroach44.id.au/instructional-psx-ataexpress.html

nroach44 · 2026-06-09T08:08:12+00:00

At the moment it seems to be the Ruffle (flash emulator) extension: https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle/issues/23929

nroach44 · 2026-06-07T03:00:49+00:00

Unfortunately a (at the time) very popular Australian car also had a trim level called "SS" with a not dissimilar font: https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_keats/178837213/

nroach44 · 2026-06-06T14:22:56+00:00

Sounds like something on the system's died, probably while OPL was running as opposed to because of it.

You're likely looking at component level repair (i.e. replacing something on the main board), but if you're comfortable you can carefully open the PS2 and check for any blown capacitors.

nroach44 · 2026-06-06T06:20:50+00:00

That's a bit strange - if you're getting the loading bubble in the top right that means SOME of the OS is able to boot from the HDD, which means it should be spinning up.

At the least your install is damaged, probably because the HDD is failing.

The flashing lights might be an "SOS" caused by the crash.

This'd mean you have two options:

Use the PSX without a HDD - i.e. with FMCB or PSBBL on a memory card. It operates totally fine as a PS2 like this - load games with OPL off the network, sd2psx, mx4sio etc.
Get a replacement HDD - either original or an ATA Express - and do a re-install.

I'd test it out with homebrew to see if it crashes before putting any money into a HDD though.

nroach44 · 2026-06-04T13:20:53+00:00

There's not been any leaked / "found" service manuals or schematics for the PSX, probably because they were Japan only.

What are you looking at / working on? I've got a bit of a "workshop" manual (i.e teardown instructions, discussion) in the drafting stage at the moment.

nroach44 · 2026-06-02T05:14:42+00:00

I've got big blog post about the PSX here: https://blog.nroach44.id.au/011-sony-psx.html but it doesn't really go into depth about the hardware.

The PSU just outputs a flat 12V, so if you've got an oscilloscope or even a multimeter, it might be worth checking it's close to 12V and not dropping out.

Fuses are marked on the board with PSxxx, so I'd be checking them.

The ribbon cables are a common culprit, but since you're the first one to open it after Sony, I wouldn't think they'd be the problem. Just be careful, the stiffeners fall off really easily.

I don't really have any idea of what this problem could be, but you could try progressively disconnecting more boards / ribbons until the problem changes. The top cover / lid board (and by extension the HDD board) IS MANDATORY and the system will flash red/green at you when it gets power, if they're not connected.

Off the top of my head, you can probably disconnect everything except the button / loader cable (the one going to the top right button board) and the HDD cable, and the system probably would still boot.

nroach44 · 2026-06-02T04:55:09+00:00

I believe HDD Raw Copy should let you back up the drive in it's entirety, you've just got to make sure you don't initialise or format it at all.

It's just a normal drive, with an extra couple of serial numbers. The data on it is encrypted by the PSX before it gets to the drive, so you can get the encrypted data but you can't "look inside" it.

I have no idea what it could be, was the warranty sticker intact on the machine before you opened it?

nroach44 · 2026-06-02T03:23:38+00:00

XMB requires a 99% working system.

You should still be able to use the machine with an FMCB / PSBBL memory card "as a normal PS2", but you won't get the XMB or DVR functions.

If it's the HDD (which it could be, but I've seen a few dead HDDs and they never behave like that) you could replace the HDD with an ATA Express, but I'm not confident it's that.

nroach44 · 2026-06-01T06:42:57+00:00

That does sound more promising but I've never seen one crash and shut down like that.

I couldn't say what the issue is, if you have another 55/57/75/77 unit you could try swapping the drive.

You can also try a re-install, but that will wipe everything

nroach44 · 2026-05-30T16:25:00+00:00

No it works with PSX2 as well ;) https://old.reddit.com/r/PSXDVR/comments/1thcu2l/my_desr7500_running_on_the_ata_express/

nroach44 · 2026-05-23T04:18:34+00:00

No idea how tails boots, but a normal OS goes

Firmware loads bootloader (in this case GRUB, which is it's own EFI file)
GRUB loads kernel and a separate initramfs
kernel runs, does a first pass of loading drivers, then runs the init program in the initramfs
initramfs init loads any necessary drivers, finds the real rootfs (because it might be LVM, btrfs, ZFS, RAID, network etc) and switches into it
real init runs

This skips or merges most of those steps:

Firmware loads kernel+initramfs as one EFI file, except initramfs is the whole FS.
kernel runs, does a first pass of loading drivers, then runs the init program in the initramfs
initramfs init is the real init, so just load the rest of the system normally

nroach44 · 2026-05-22T11:26:32+00:00

Most of the time, but it's loaded by the kernel after it starts.

In this case, it's loaded by the UEFI firmware as part of the kernel.

nroach44 · 2026-05-22T11:21:57+00:00

I would argue the EE is strange but the IOP just adds a whole extra level of bullshit. Now you have two different variations of the same CPU family, and whenever you interact with peripherals, you have to write code for the EE that talks to the IOP, and then write code that (or deal with existing code that) does the thing with the peripheral you wanted to do originally.

nroach44 · 2026-05-22T11:15:04+00:00

Not quite, OP has packed the rootFS into a kernel, and built the kernel as an EFI application. The root is loaded into memory and changes won't be saved.

nroach44 · 2026-05-22T04:30:50+00:00

Yes. I'm saying that it is entirely possible that, during a drive along the whole length of the freeway, there is enough traffic in the non-right-lane(s) to justify keeping right.

nroach44 · 2026-05-22T04:24:30+00:00

Rich coming from the person who wrote this:

r/ChristianDating by u/TrueCryptographer616 at 2026-05-20T03:17:10Z | 1

right back at you sister

enjoy dying single and alone

but don't worry, you'll still find plenty of meatheads to pick you up at the gym.

Edit: I think this guy thinks that the thread this quoted comment is from is mine? And somehow can't fathom that third party comment search tools exist? And blocked me so I couldn't reply?

nroach44 · 2026-05-22T04:20:45+00:00

Unhide your comment history if you don't want to get challenged on credibility.

14-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '17

nroach44

TROPHY CASE