Hey guys, currently come across two Sony PlayStation 3 Prototypes. I cannot find any sort of information on google or on this forum. Are these models rare? Thanks in advance
The models are scarce on information due to us never actually managing to get our hands on one. The knowledge of the models existing has been around for a bit, but they have never actually shown up. Here's what I want you to do for documentation reasons -Turn them on and see if you can see what version of firmware they are running -See if you can find any special settings that normally do not show up on any other models (TOOL, TEST, etc) -DO NOT OPEN THEM (yet) -DO NOT UPDATE THEM AND DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO SO I want to direct this to some specific people to ensure if these sell they go into correct hands. (Also I don't like that you just stopped replying to the PMs but I can forgive it. Did you find any Vita hardware?)
Okay the CBEH-B1004-A Firmware is Version 3.55 CBEH-1004-G Firmware is Version 4.25 Both 55GB Storage space shown, don't really want to open them up. Also cannot seem to find any hidden settings. Thanks
Thanks for the info. Hopefully someone with more knowledge on the subject shows up. Theres a couple that know a bit more. Good. Keeps value.
These look like your average retail prototypes, sent to FCC and the such, I don't think the hardware will be much different (if any) from regular retail hardware, if you are lucky those will be debug units, they are most likely retail ones. With luck they might be QA flagged (you may try this on 3.56 or below with the QA combo) It's rare on a certain regard compared to actual retails or your plain old debug units, but not as rare as debug prototypes. Most likely the only difference compared to their retail counterparts is the label.
Yes i think you are right about them being retail prototypes, however would they be classed pre-production retail units?
It's basically impossible to say - the basic issue is that you can't import anything that's subject to FCC type 15 approval unless it's been approved unless you mark it as being a prototype for test and evaluation purposes - so in the US a product that's marked as being a "Prototype" could be anything up to and including a full final retail spec unit that was imported before the FCC certification process was finished. For example, I had some "Prototype" DS3 controllers - but they were absolutely identical to the Japanese retail units except for the label.
Having one on 3.55 makes modding a lot easier as thats the firmware that can be exploited. So thats a very nice system to have in this regard.
I second this. I bought a slim model on 3.55 firmware, installed cfw, and put a 1tb drive in it. Now I can play whatever PS3 game I want.
Well, I would certainly hang on it it - at the very least, you have a launch spec PS3 with exploitable firmware that hasn't YLODed. Although, speaking honestly, I would try and avoid using it unless you have to - those first generation units are quite prone to failure if you consistently use them for heavy-duty gaming. One other thing that's probably of less interest to you because you don't plan to take it apart is that the SCEI part numbers on the boards have a fixed format - they are a 9 digit number arranged as x-yyy-yyy-zz - if x is 0, then it's an engineering or trail run board - if it's 1, then it's a mass production version. For example, my "prototype" DS3s had boards with a 1- number, indicating they were regular production hardware.
