PlayStation model SCPH-7000W (midnight blue)

Yes, the mobo it's the same for all regions (some marks are written different), the only change between the models are the cd controller firmware.
The strange things it's that a ps with scph 7000 code have a jap bios and not an usa bios (if they have a us bios on the case there's written scph-7001W)...
My dubt is maybe a case of a jap ps with a usa mobo...
This model has nothing special with mobo, the only particularity it's the case colour (wonderfull IMHO). It's a common scph mobo with a special case. That's all!

P.S.: A yaroze board it's similar a scph 1000, if i remember correctly, and without modify the support of the mobo in the case, don't fit in a scph 700X case


fixed.My mistcake sorry myria

 

Correct. There are two ROMs in a PlayStation: the BIOS and the CD controller firmware. The copy protection and region lockout are controlled by the CD controller firmware, not the BIOS. In fact, a Debugging Station has a byte-for-byte identical BIOS ROM compared to the equivalent retail model - something I confirmed with my own DTL-H1101. The Yaroze firmware is also exactly equivalent to a retail model. (I suspect that the Japanese Yaroze, DTL-H3000, has the American BIOS as well, but have no way to check).

Although I can't confirm due to the possibly corrupted BIOS ROM, my SCPH-7000W very likely has the exact same BIOS as the American retail model SCPH-7001. That in itself is odd for a Japanese-labeled system, but appears to be true. However, the CD controller *doesn't* have the same firmware as the SCPH-7001, because it can run imports like a Yaroze. So I think that it's an SCPH-700x board with the SCPH-7001 (American) BIOS but the Yaroze CD controller firmware.

 

This is weird - this ROM version has never been seen before. Not often does a previously-undumped PS1 ROM surface =)

SCPH-7000 = System ROM Version 4.0 08/18/97 J
SCPH-7001 = System ROM Version 4.1 12/16/97 A
SCPH-7000W = System ROM Version 4.1 11/14/97 A

It's also different in more places than just the version number, but not many. The vast majority is the same. The CRC32 of my full dump matches the on-screen CRC32 displayed by "PSX ROMid", so I assume that it's valid.

 

Wow, that's really something. Congrats on finding a machine with the previously undumped BIOS.

 

My midnight blue's CD controller responds to command 0x19 subcommand 0x20 with the string "for U/C", the same string as an American retail PS1. I was expecting some other string, due to it clearly not being an ordinary retail PS1 CD controller. As an example, the American revision B debugging station I have, DTL-H1101, responds with "for US/AEP", whatever AEP stands for.

I very much doubt that it is the case, but it might be worth eliminating the possibility that this strange BiOS does something to unlock region-free mode on the CD controller.