In following the stickied threads stated in the beginning here's the prerequisites:
What model number is your PS3?
CECH-2501A, no known date code, but minverchk states can go to 3.40 for lowest ofw, 160gb HDD
What firmware is your PS3 on?
4.81 unfortunately :(
Is it a hardware problem?
Ish, but getting that taken care of soon -crosses fingers-, explain more in what happened
Is it a software problem?....I believe so, as I said above, I'll explain what all happened
If it is a software problem, have you made sure that you have downloaded the latest version of this software?
....um...I'm confused
Are you running CFW?
I was, then...it went to crap
What CFW are you running?
started with 3.55 Kmeaw w/ multiman,then Rogero 3.55 w/ multiman, then my brother came in, updated to 4.81 ofw, and broke my motor...but I'll get to that shortly
Is your console bricked?...I don't think so, it powers up, nothing wrong with it, drives kinda jank, but fixing that soon
If so, do you know why it's bricked? see previous answer
Have you ever downgraded your console with hardware flashers? (Teensy, ProgSkeet, E3 Flasher, etc...)that's what I'm afraid I may have to do esp with an E3 flasher, but can't seem to find a good price in this day and age
Have you tried searching the forum for someone experiencing the same problem before posting?
yes, some suggestions I saw were try "Habib 4.81", since I have that OFW, but to no avail, tried "Starbucks Cobra 4.81" ( I think thats what it was) and same error message
Describe your problem:
OK, this is a doozy, I received the unit from a co-worker who was cleaning out his shed, he used it as a movie, not much in terms of gaming, but like a high-end DVD/Blu ray player. Upon receiving the unit, I checked the date/model/serial number instantly, didn't see a date code, had an overheating issue, and knew it was an older ps3 because I've tinkered with a few PS3's, PSP's, and had even the 3000 with camera (invisimals anyone?) That I had modded to take my old PSX titles (I had THPS, Tenchu Stealth Assassin's, GTA 1, London 69, 2
... And so on) and if I could have, I would've kept it. Anyway, I proceeded to dismantle to clean out the cooling duct, fan, replace the thermal paste, and inspect the MOBO for damage, there's quite a bit of rust near the connection in the rear (where the HDMI, Ethernet, power, av cable) all are located, there was a lot of dust I cleaned out too, the rusted points imo caused no shorts, nor did they get onto the main board, so thought nothing of it. Anyway, disassembled the disc drive, cleaned the laser assembly, reapplied thermal paste, and put it back together, powered up just fine, slight finagling with the HDMI port but still shows picture, and sound, here's the steps that led me here today; started with 3.40 ofw, downloaded 3.55, then 3.55 Rogero then 3.55 ferrox, installed Heavy Rain Collectors edition to the HDD, tried to do the "play any PS2 game on PS3 slim that's jailbroken" gave up after I didn't understand the full directions, then my brother comes over, sees how I gutted the drive, to I put the disc on, magnet spinner on top of disc, activate the 2 catches to start the disc spinning and laser reading, takes my Blu-ray/DVD/CD drive, comes back with new spinner that was from a Xbox softmod where the disc drive needed replacement,but everything else was good, then he deleted something of the ferrox, while in FTP to multiman, then pulls out the drive, formats to fat32, pulls what he thought was the CMOS battery, then he ripped out the old spinner head, put this pos spinner ghetto glued onto it, the laser can't read discs...period, the thing connects to my wifi, loads from my usb stick, plays music, YouTube is fine, demos from PSN run fine, just the disc drive is shot now, and I can't install any of the CFW for 4.81 because the error codes it sends back say it's missing the disc...(Gee I wonder why -_-), soon as I replace the drive unit, maybe that may fix the CFW issue but I want my 4.55 Rogero back, and everything I read said I have to get a e3 flasher to do that since I have a retail version of the system
What have you tried to do to resolve this issue yourself: going to get a new disk drive, found it matches my drive, just waiting for payday, ban my brother from ever touching this if I get it fixed, and make him pay me back for the parts, I'll post the error codes when I can, and take pictures of my ps3 to show idk what the date code is