Upgrade Your PSP From OE firmware to 3.52 M33

After Dark_Alex retired from the PSP homebrew scene, many people thought it was the end of the custom firmwares released by him. But it was not so, a few days later a Russian hacker team called M33 debuted their own custom firmware, which has now superseded Dark _Alex’s OE firmwares as number one. They work very hard on this firmware, and they make no profit from it. So I highly suggest that you visit their page, and make a donation so the M33 team can continue hacking the PSP.

It took me some time to figure out how to install this update on my PSP, because of a small misunderstanding. When you download the Update #4 (M33-4) file from any of the PSP sites, it is not the installer. This file will only patch an existing M33 3.52 firmware PSP with the new version. To save people a lot of work, I decided to write this tutorial which includes all the necessary files in one location. But first we need to make sure that your PSP satisfies the basic requirements.

1. Make sure you are running the one of the custom 3.x0 OE firmwares (or an older M33 firmware). If you are running the official Sony firmware, check out this forum thread on PSP Firmware Downgrading.
2. Make sure you battery is at least 75% full. The simplest way to make sure is leaving your PSP charger plugged in during the upgrade.
3. You also need a Sony Duo Memory stick with at least 128 MB of free space.

First download the Zip Archive containing all the necessary programs for the upgrade. The archive avaliable on this website includes the M33 Creator, 1.50 and 3.52 official firmwares, and the M33 Update #4 patch. They are all necessary for a successful upgrade. You can download it from one of the following website:
http://karkri6.freehostia.com/download/3.52%20M33-4.zip
Mirror: http://files-upload.com/files/461107/3.52 M33-4.zip

Extract all the files onto your PSP in the PSP/GAME150 folder. It has to be the GAME150 folder, otherwise the upgrade file will not start. Next disconnect the PSP from the computer, and look into your application tab in the XMB menu. The application you want to launch is the “M33 Creator”. Let it run for a few minutes, and in the end you should see a message telling you that the upgrader was created successfully. If you only see a black screen for a long time, don’t do anything. This is perfectly OK, because the M33 Creator is doing it’s work in the background.

The next step is to run the actual upgrader. Look into the applications menu again, and you should see another application called the “M33 Upgrade 3.52″. After you have run it, you will be shown a disclaimer and asked to press the X key to confirm. Then after a few minutes (you might just see a black screen again) the upgrade will be completed, and you will have to press the X key again to shutdown your PSP.

Now you have the 3.52 firmware, but you still have to apply the M33-4 patch. This patch will fix any bugs since the original release, and it will introduce a few more features. The procedure to apply this patch is quite simple; just navigate into the applications menu and run the app called M33Update #4. In a few seconds a message will tell you that your PSP has been patched successfully, and pressing X will turn off the PSP. Finally you have upgraded your PSP to the latest and greatest custom firmware.

Make sure to check back often for updates on M33 firmwares, and all-in-one packages! And if you come across any problems with this tutorial, I suggest you visit the urPSP forums and post your query there.