does the SCPH-990x PS1 exists ?

Sorry for letting everyone hanging for awhile. It's the holiday season and things are packed both at work and home.

The good news is, I was able to use the PSX ROMID program that CoolerKing suggested to check the BIOS. The bad news (well, for people who expecting something new) is the BIOS has been dumped.

Here is the match I found that corresponds to the CRC32 :
"name "ps-41a"
description "SCPH-7001/SCPH-7501/SCPH-7503/SCPH-9001/SCPH-9003 (Version 4.1 12/16/97 A)"
rom ( name ps-41a.bin size 524288 crc 502224b6 md5 1e68c231d0896b7eadcad1d7d8e76129 sha1 14df4f6c1e367ce097c11deae21566b4fe5647a9 )"

Here is the screenshot

 

PM has been sent out to people who addressed interested in knowing the result. Thanks

 

Thanks for checking!

I'll update it to include your model

 

Thanks for the info.
By the looks of everything seems like a rebrand of the 7003 (text on buttons, BIOS, Parallel I/O).

 

Could it be that these unit just have a modchip, in the end?

 

I think so. I have seen many odd systems in my years working at the studio. This system is an example.

 

Could you try something else? Boot up that ROMID program again and record the results of test commands
19 01 22
19 01 23
19 01 24
19 01 25

The last three will probably be the same.

If they are CXD1817Q then the board is a PU-20
If they are CXD2940Q then the board is a PU-22

 

Will do soon. I will post the result here and PM you when i have it.

 

There is another test command to do that returns a string like "for U/C" for an American retail system. I think it might be 19 01 20, but it is hard for me to look up the string using my iPad on this site. That would an inserting result.

Also, what does it show for command 1A, the SCEx string, with various types of disks? Legit same region, legit different region, Yaroze boot disk if you have one, non-PS1 disk or copy.

Thank you for getting my attention to this thread with a PM, tichua. =^_^=

 

Tichua,can you get around opening it so we can see what motherboard it has?It would be weird (and probably funny) to find a SCPH-7003(PU-20)motherboard that would say PU-24 instead of PU-20.Could be a PU-22 motherboard too.I think the 750x and 900x PS1s are the same,except the 750x has a little larger board and a parallel port while the 900x is the same as 750x but with a smaller board and no parallel port.

 

That's 19 01 22, which was already on my list of things to try.

It might be worth trying the commands to directly dump the ID string from the mechacon RAM, too - these return one character of the ID string each:

19 03 60 D0 01
19 03 60 D1 01
19 03 60 D2 01
19 03 60 D3 01

 

Results are in:

19 01 22


19 01 23 (24 and 25 have the same result)


19 01 20


19 03 60 D0 01


19 03 60 D1 01


19 03 60 D2 01


19 03 60 D3 01


Some people request additional pics of the console so here they are. Sorry for the noises.

 

Hmm....a parallel port.
Tichua,your SCPH-9903 PS1 must have been made on 750x hardware though,and that's because of the vent grills being like on a 750x/900x,and the parallel port there.Now,it's the motherboard revision that we don't know,but if Sony didn't relabel the motherboard,it must be a PU-22.

 

Based on the ROMID report. it's a PU-22 board

 

Then,it's based on 750x.As for loading CD-Rs,Sony must have built it the same way as the Debugging Stations,as you said it has a "Property of Sony Computer Entertainment",so the possibility of a modchip inside is null.

 

SCE does have modded systems in house sometimes. Is there a way to test if there is modchip inside without opening the console ?

 

Dino Crisis,Psychic Detective or Resident Evil 3 can be used to test if you have a chip.I suggest you try each region of those 3 games.Why?
Here's a list:
PAL RE3:Copy protected as I heard,gives the same stop screen as Dino Crisis
NTSC RE3:Not copy protected,can be played normally
PAL,NTSC-U,NTSC-J Dino Crisis:gives the same warning screen (the one with a red circle)because it was copy protected in every region,if you don't have a chip then it loads further and plays normally
NTSC-U Psychic Detective:gives a guru meditation style warning screen readingEAD END ALERT: U R N0T 3L!T3 3NUF 2 P13RAT D!Z CD PSYCHIC BURN OUT: FEEDDEAD C0EDBABE.(no joke,do a Google search if you don't believe me)
I don't know about NTSC-J and PAL copies of Psychic Detective.

 

All the results are exactly consistent with a SCPH-7501 with a modchip in it.

The fact that the CD chipset identifies as a CXD2940Q means that it has to be either a PU-22 (SCPH-750x) or PU-23 (SCPH-900x), except that it can't be a PU-23 because it has an expansion port.

The CD controller territory comes up as "FOR U/C" - which makes it a SCPH-7501. The SCPH-7500 and SCPH-7503 identify as "FOR JAPAN" and the SCPH-7502 identifies as "FOR EUROPE" - non retail systems (debug, yaroze) normally identify as "FOR US/AEP" (some of the really old blue ones don't respond to this command at all). The other hint that this machine hasn't got a debug mechacon is that they don't even bother checking the territory info - even if you put an original disc in one the 19 03 60 <D0,D1,D2,D3> 01 commands will all return 0x20.

The other thing is that looking at the photo of the console it has a PSU with a polarized line socket - and only US machines had those - Japanese, European and Asian units all had unpolarized "figure 8" sockets.

 

Pal games haven't modchip detection, but libcrypt ...

 

Dino Crisis uses libcrypt,which is exactly the copy protection.RE3:Nemesis also uses this on italian PAL copies,but I think it extends to PAL-E tone game that I didn't mention was Spyro 3,which is the best method used to test if your PS1 has a chip.