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Introduction.


Hello guys, today I will be showing you all how to downgrade your PS3 to 3.55 OFW with an E3 Flasher. The method I will be showing you is if you do not have a downgrade dongle or the eSata station that comes with the limited edition version of the E3 Flasher.


This is an up to date guide and will work on your NOR model PS3. It works from 3.56-4.55 and on. Please note this guide is only for NOR chip models!


If you have any trouble, post in this thread or refer to the You must login or register to view this content..


When following this guide make sure that you take your time and do not rush. It is vital that you do not miss out any steps as it may result in you bricking your console.


Let's begin.


Things you will need:

• NOR model PS3 - Check You must login or register to view this content. to see if your PS3 can be downgraded.
  
• E3 Flasher
  
• MicroSD card formatted to Fat32
  
• USB adapter for MicroSD card
  
• USB Flash Drive formatted to Fat32
  
• NOR Inspector - You must login or register to view this content.
  
• PS3 Flash Tool (Download depends on what firmware the PS3 is on - 4.50, 4.53, etc)
  
• A lot of patience and the ability to understand instructions.
  
• The following files - You must login or register to view this content. - You must login or register to view this content. - You must login or register to view this content.
  

Part 1
I am assuming that you already have the PS3 stripped down to the motherboard, so let's look at we should install the E3 Flasher itself.


Installing the E3 Flasher:
When installing the clip, make sure there is a reasonable amount of pressure applied to the clip throughout the procces. This is just to make sure we get a good connection between the E3 Clip and the NOR chip. Don't worry about pushing too hard on the clip.


Use the images in the spoiler below as a guide to how to attach the clip

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Now, put the Hard Drive in the Hard Drive Port on the motherboard.
Then, place the E3 Flasher Board on top of the Hard Drive and connect the clip.
Lastly, connect the fan and the power brick to the motherboard and connect the power cable.


You are ready to go!



Part 2
Making some BIOS backups.


Updating the Flasher
Note: If this is NOT your first time using the E3 Flasher, then there is no need for you to update it. Updating the E3 Flasher is only required once.

1. Take you MicroSD card and format it to Fat32 if you haven't already.
   
2. Download You must login or register to view this content. and place it on the root of your MicroSD card, rename it to "update.bin"
   
3. Take the SD card and place it in the slot on the E3 Flasher.
   
4. Set the switches on the TF board to the following - 1 & 2 DOWN - THE REST UP - You should get 8 blue LEDs lit up. This means the E3 Flasher has accepted the update. Now press the Reset button under the eSata port.
   

Making some backups

1. Set the switches on the TF board to the following - 1 & 2 DOWN - 3 UP - 4, 5, 6 DOWN - Press Reset
   
2. Press Start on the TF board and wait for the blue LEDs to light up in sequence. Once lights start to alternate flash, the backup is done.
   
3. Take your SD card out and plug it into your PC using the SD card adapter.
   
4. On your PC, create three folders called "1", "2", "3". We will be creating three backups.
   
5. On your SD card, you should have these two files You must login or register to view this content. - Move these two to the folder called "1".
   
6. Run NorInspector and you should get this window: You must login or register to view this content. - Drag and drop the "bkpps3.bin" file from your new folder into NorInspector. If your backups are valid, you should get all "OK" in the status tab of the program, like so: You must login or register to view this content. - If you get any error at all, DO NOT continue. Go and redo the backup.
   
7. Repeat this another two times until you have three valid backups. More info on validating dumps can be found here: You must login or register to view this content.
   

Part 1
Downgrading the PS3

1. Go to where you downloaded the PS3 Flash Tool and extract the folder to your desktop or where ever you find easiest to access.
   
2. Put the bkpps3.bin file in the folder of the patcher.
   
3. Drag and drop the bkpps3.bin onto the ps3_dump_tool.exe.
   
4. The tool should open and validate the dumps. You will get a pop-up asking if you want to patch the image. Click yes, another window will open showing the process of the patch. Once prompted, close the window.
   
5. You will now have a file in the Flash Tool folder called "bkpps3_NOR_patched.bin". Copy this to the root of your SD card and rename it to "bkpps3.bin" or "bkpps3".
   
6. Put the SD card back on the Flasher.
   
7. Put all of the switches on the TF board DOWN.
   
8. Press Start and wait for the blue LEDs to light up one by one. Note this part takes a while. When it has finished the lights will alternate flash.
   
9. For the next part you will need the Bluray drive, so remove the E3 Flasher and reassemble the PS3 replacing the thermal paste etc.
   
10. Reboot the PS3 and it should boot as normal.
    
11. Take the Rogero 3.55 Downgrader and place it on your USB flash drive in the following directory... [PS3>UPDATE>PS3UPDAT.PUP] - Update as normal and wait for PS3 to reboot.
    
12. You should now be on Rogero 3.55.
    

Part 2
Enabling QA Flag..

1. Take the "toggle_qa.pkg" file you downloaded earlier and place it on the root of your USB Flash drive.
   
2. Put the Flash Drive in your PS3 and install the PKG.
   
3. Run the Toggle QA app on the XMB.
   
4. You should get a black screen and 3 quick beeps before the PS3 reboots itself. If it doesn't, just try again.
   
5. You are now finished.
   

Part 3
Installing OFW - Recovery Mode

Make sure you do not have a disc in the drive before proceeding!

1. Download You must login or register to view this content. and install on PS3.
   
2. Run the app on the XMB.
   
3. You will now be in recovery mode.
   
4. Take the OFW 3.55 and place it in the UPDATE folder on your Flash Drive, renaming it to "PS3UPDAT.PUP"
   
5. Place the USB in the right hand slot in your PS3 and follow the on-screen instructions.
   
6. After the update has finished, the PS3 will reboot and you will be on 3.55 OFW.
   

Now you can install any CFW you wish by placing it in the UPDATE folder on your Flash Drive and going to System Update > Update via Storage Media.


Well done, you have successfully downgraded your PS3!

If you have bricked your PS3, follow this guide: You must login or register to view this content.

Here is a video in case you didn't understand a part of this tut

Got my flasher...and a headache j/k lol

ugh, I got three beep turn off syndrome. the blasted clip didn't make great contact apparently and I got a 00001111 error, I pushed stop [not power, but stop on TF board] then the system turned off and now the three beeps. I got lucky a couple of times and it stayed on in a dead state but I wasn't sure what to do and I turned it off.

THE QUESTION: if I can get lucky again (I have what I call technicians touch) and it stays powered can I flash it, even if its just power. OR is the only way to solder the tristate to the SBE spot on the clip ribbon -or- to a ground on mother?

I have model cech2001b with DYN-001 board. I have 6 good dumps, but from two different OFW [original was downloaded via playstation, the other was from SCE website via PC+USB. why: I got my e3, installed it..updated it..dumped my bios, flash tool had 4 errors of the MD5 nature...read an exact same problem thread where people said it was ok, patched the file, flashed my NOR, and got a screen that said I had to install firmware of 4.65 or higher, tried the 999 program...wouldn't work. not matter which file I tried. then I tried rogero downgrader... read the screen before accepting and saw I was going to make a mistake and backed out. I googled sce update and installed it via USB. Then ... I started over got to the part where I needed to flash my newly checked and 100% clean dump and the clip must not have made good contact because half the lights were blinking so I pushed stop and now I have the beeps. I feel like I got herpes. I can fix it because I have clean dumps but I am nervous about the solder part because I don't have a great soldering iron but I can weld and braise and have soldered a few things that didn't look awesome even when I used flux...I just suspect the cheap solder that came with the iron.... anyone wanna help?

have a cech 2001B that I went through the whole process of flashing/etc. using this tut. got everything back together, went to update using 3.55 rogero downgrade tool, And every time it tells me that the update is not supported on this system. I have no clue what I'm doing wrong here...I know the ps3 is jailbreakable.....I know my dumps were all good.....could I have a bad version of the downgrader or something(downloaded link from this thread)? Literally at my wits end with this....Going to be very upset if I spent all this time disassembling and reassembling this....any help would be appreciated.

Im not sure what firmware the system was originally on when I bought it as I never checked. I do know, that before downgrading, I installed a 500GB HDD out of a new super slim(don't know model number) and did a 4.65 update via Playstation USB download. I played the system for a day on 4.65 to make sure it still functioned properly, to which it did. I then parked they system until I had everything required for the downgrade.

Then went through the whole process of gathering my three dumps, verifying them in NorInspector, then using a 4.65 downgrade tool to patch the profile, to which my E3 flasher said was completed properly(alternating blue flashing LED's). Then put everything back together, and went to update via storage media with Rogero's 3.55 downgrade "updater" At this point I thought I was almost done, then I got the message "This update not supported by this system" or something along those lines.

Only possibilities I can think of are
a.) My patched profile didn't actually patch, and just put the original dump back on the system
b.)the Rogero downgrader was faulty and I need a new downgrade tool.

I really don't know what to do. I thought about trying to install it using safe mode, but dont think thats gonna help if trying from xmb says not compatible. Should I try another downgrader or just assume that my "patch" was the original dump?

bump. Help?

So if I understand you correctly, I should try the Rogero 3.55 downgrade tool in recovery mode first? Even though it will not accept it as a supported firmware in XMB? I was afraid of doing this in recovery mode as I wasn't sure if I could do any harm this way if it didn't accept the upgrade in recovery. Because as it sits now, I have a ps3 that I could if necessary flash back to old dumps and use, but if I mess up and brick it at this point, its useless.

I was going to try installing in recovery, but as this is my first downgrade, and I literally have done everything in this tut up until installing the new firmware, I was afraid of putting the system into a brick or semi brick in the process.

I guess another question I have, is can I brick it if I try to install rogero 3.55 downgrade tool in recovery mode, if I have a failed install in recovery mode?

So I was able to get the 3.55 Rogero downgrader to work through recovery mode, and was able to follow all tutorial instructions up until installing CFW. Is this done through "System Update" or through "Condor Updater?" And when doing so in the UPDATE folder on USB, must the CFW be renamed to PS3UPDAT.PUP ?

Got everything figured out. Am now running Rogero 4.55.