Reviving My PSP
I got my PSP when I was 10. My parents bought it with a UMD of NFS ProStreet - no memory stick duo (sad).
It's piano black. Always has been. Always will be. I don't intend to modify it.
So I'd play for a while, make some progress across 3 maps, switch it off, and come back the next day to find everything back to zero. The cache would wipe itself clean every single time. Three maps. Reset. Sometimes 4 maps. Reset.
Infuriating. Still loved every minute of it, somehow. Never got to the end of the career races, will do now.
Eating Dust
Fast forward to about half a decade ago - I was cleaning out the drawer it lived in. Found it again, dusted it off, picked it up. Turned it over.
The battery had swollen to a shape that raised some questions.
I threw out the live grenade (the right way), put the PSP back in the drawer, and never got around to replacing the battery. It just sat there eating dust again.
The Resurrection
A week ago, I was cleaning the same drawer. Found it again. Dusted it off again. This time, something clicked - I can actually fix this now. So I did.
What I bought
| Part | Source |
|---|---|
| TCOS 1800 mAh battery | Amazon |
| TCOS microSD card converter | Amazon |
| 32GB HP microSD card | Amazon |
| 3D printed extended battery cover (×2) | robu.in |
The battery was listed as compatible with the PSP 3000. I pulled the trigger without reading further. It arrived, I slid it in, and the back cover didn't close.
Turns out "compatible" and "fits the stock cover" are two very different things. Nobody told me.
The Battery Cover Problem
Immediately started searching. The covers exist - they go by a bunch of names: enhanced battery cover, FAT battery cover, extended battery cover, and so on. None of them are reasonably priced to purchase in India. Importing was the only option, and that path gets expensive fast.
The specific search that eventually got me somewhere: PSP 3000 extended battery cover. I was deep into Google Images when I spotted one that looked different - a 3D printed back panel, made specifically for fat batteries, confirmed to work with the PSP 3000.
Followed the link to Printables.com. Found the STL sitting there for free. Checked the makes section - real prints, real PSPs, actually worked. Went with it.
The 3D Print
Ordered two panels through Robu.in - ₹197 total (~$2.2 USD), shipping included. A single panel came in under ₹80 (less than a dollar), which is too small an order to place. Two also made sense because small, thin parts like these sometimes fail in the print - better to have a spare.
Settings and material choice I went with:
| Attribute | Selection |
|---|---|
| Material | PETG |
| Print quality | 0.1 mm High Quality |
| Infill | 50% |
This arrived in 3–4 days.
The Software Side
I didn't just leave it aside. The PSP was right there, battery exposed, back open. So I held the battery firmly in place and played NFS ProStreet for a while with being able to save my progress.
The firmware side kept me busy for a couple hours too. The PSP was on 6.35 - ancient. Updated to 6.61, the last official Sony firmware. From there, flashed ARK (A Resurrection Kit) - a custom firmware that runs on top of 6.61 and actually unlocks the device: homebrew, ISO loading, plugins. The whole thing was buttery smooth. No walls. Just followed this guide start to finish. My main goal was to be able to run the ISO files for games.
On the gaming side: you've got to have a bit of romance with CDs over a private network, virtually. Sony pulled the plug on the PSP store years ago, so that's just how it goes now. UMDs are still an option, but they've been marked up significantly. This route is more practical for now.
First thing I copied over was Tetris - 170 mbs and 12-seconds of transfer, just to test that everything worked. It did.
About The 3D Prints
One panel arrived with a broken latching foot. Had anticipated this. Used the other one - almost fit perfectly. Zoomed in on the latching foot, found a bit of nozzle gunk-funk stuck in the joint, cleared it out.
THEN IT WAS PERFECT.
For the Indian market, this is genuinely a godsend. There is no other reasonable path to getting an extended back cover.
Where It Stands
Everything runs beautifully.
The 1800 mAh battery gets me close to 7 hours of playtime. The stock 1200 mAh used to tap out around 3. That alone makes this whole fiasco worth it.
It goes with me whenever I'm heading out and expecting a wait - a queue, a commute, dead time between things. Just pick and go.
It's almost 15 years old now. Still the same device. Still piano black.
Love every bit of it.