This post may be a bit late but I know a lot of you PSP owners out there are looking for installation guide for the 3.71 M33. For a bit of information, 3.71 M33 was created by Dark Alex. In other words, M33 is Dark Alex. Now on to the instructional guide!

Requirements

• You must have 3.52 M33-4 installed on your PSP. If you don’t have one yet, lucky for you I wrote a guide on installing 3.52 M33-4 too.
• A Slim (PSP2000) or Fat PSP (The older version) with 78% or more battery.
• PSP AC adaptor
• A USB Cable
• A Computer
• Ability to understand and follow instructions
• If you have the fat PSP, configure GAME folder to run on 3.52. How? Shutdown your PSP. Then power on your PSP while holding down your R button. This will take you to the recovery menu. Go to Configuration > Game folder homebrew and check if 3.52 is enabled. Press X or circle if not. Exit the recovery menu.

That’s it. if you have all these then you are ready to go!

Now here are the 4 very easy steps:

1. Download the 3.71 M33 installer pack I’ve made just for you. Unzip the file to anywhere on your computer.
2. Connect your PSP to your computer via USB and copy the UPDATE folder to ms0:/PSP/GAME
3. Go to your XMB menu and run the M33 update program. The screen will go black and this is normal. Follow the instructions. Be sure you have your PSP plugged-in to the AC adaptor. Screen will change to the Sony Update screen. Accept and update.
4. This last instruction is VERY important. After the update is finished, the updater will ask you to reboot by pressing X or O. Do so, press X or O and the PSP will restart. Have fun on your new upgraded PSP!

After successfully upgrading your PSP to 3.71 M33, you can install the 3.71 M33-2 update by following the guide I made here. Special credits go to Dark Alex. You can send him donations on his website via PayPal.

UPDATE: I wrote a guide on how to add the 1.50 Kernel Add-on for 3.71 M33. Please check it out if you need it.

As I promised Fat Of The Land and a lot more other people around the net, I’ll be writing a guide on the installation of 3.52 M33-4 custom firmware for the PSP. If you’re wondering what in the world 3.52 M33-4 is, it’s a custom firmware built by russian hackers that enables you to play homebrew and also enjoy the features of the official 3.52 sony firmware.

Before we begin with the process, here are a few simple things to do first.

Check your existing PSP Firmware.

On your XMB (Cross Media Bar), go to Settings > System Settings > System Information. Press circle or x (it depends on what PSP version you have) to view your existing firmware. If you have a 1.5 or any custom OE/SE firmware, you are in luck. You can proceed to the next step, otherwise, you must downgrade your PSP first. I suggest you use Pandora’s battery for the downgrade.

Obtain a USB Cable

If you don’t know what a USB cable is, I assure you won’t be successful with the installation. A USB cable is a connectivity tool between your PC/Mac and PSP.

Download the 3.52 M33-4 Installer Package

I packed all the files into a RAR file so you won’t have any trouble locating the files around the net. After downloading the file, unpack it using WinRAR. I’ve separated each step into separate folders so everything will be organized.

Download the 3.52 M33-4 installer pack.

Check Your Battery

I suggest you must have more than 75% battery to avoid bricking. And also plugin the adaptor.

If you have correctly followed the few simple steps above, then we are ready to go on to the installation process.

Warning: I have succesedfully installed 3.52 M33 on 3 PSPs already but there is a slight chance of bricking your PSP, only if you won’t follow the instructions step by step. Don’t worry if you brick your PSP, you can always use Pandora’s battery.

3.52 M33-4 Installation Procedures

1. If you have are running on an OE or SE custom firmware, SKIP this step and proceed to STEP 2. Connect your PSP to your computer. Open the STEP 1 folder and copy kxploitpatcher and kxploitpatcher% folders to ms0:/PSP/GAME/. Disconnect your PSP from your computer and then on the XMB go to GAME > Memory Stick > KXploit Permanent Patcher. Run it. Once done, delete the kxploitpatcher and kxploitpatcher% folder from your ms0:/PSP/GAME/ folder. Proceed to next step.
2. Connect your PSP to your computer. Open STEP 2 folder then copy the M33CREATOR folder to your “ms0:/PSP/GAME” (for 1.50 Firmwares) or “ms0:/PSP/GAME150″ (for SE/OE Firmwares). Disconnect your PSP from your computer then on the XMB menu go to GAMES > Memory Stick and execute 3.52 M33 CREATOR. For noobs, the screen will normally go black so don’t panic. Once the process is finished it will automatically go back to the XMB.On your XMB, go again to GAMES > Memory Stick on your PSP, and execute 3.52 M33UPDATE. You’ll have to press X at your own risk to agree to the installation. Don’t you turn off your PSP until the process is complete or you’ll end up bricking it. When finished, you’ll have to press X again and reboot your PSP manually. Reboot by turning of your PSP and then turning it on again.You’ll then have a 3.52 M33 PSP. You can now delete the M33CREATOR folder form your “ms0:/PSP/GAME” folder on your PSP.
3. Open STEP 3 folder and then copy M33Update4 folder to mso:/PSP/GAME150. On your XMB menu go to GAMES > Memory Stick then execute the update. After the update you will be back on the XMB and you now have 3.52 M33-4 PSP. Delete the M33Update4 folder from mso:/PSP/GAME150. From the STEP 3 folder, copy the seplugins folder to the root of your memory stick.
4. Turn off your PSP then turn it on again while pressing the R button. This will take you to the recovery menu. Go to Plugins and enable popsloader by pressing x. After enabling it, go to back and then exit.
5. Enjoy your PSP 3.52 M33-4!

You have PSP 3.52 M33-4, now what? Get those cool homebrew apps! You can either stick with this firmware for some time or upgrade it to 3.71 M33. I had mine installed with 3.71 M33 already and I say it’s really cool. There are new features like changing themes from XMB and a new kind of Video search.

Special credits go to Dark_Alex (he is the M33 team) M33 team, the Russian Hackers who created this neat piece of software. Please do check out his website for the latest updates.

UPDATE: After installing this firmware, you’ll probably be wanting to install 3.71 M33. So here’s the 4 Easy steps on installing 3.71 M33 on your PSP.

Today has been a very productive day. I’ve finished developing a WordPress theme for a client in one sitting. Just now, the client has sent some positive remarks about it. Usually it takes me days to develop a Wordpress theme.

So how did I do it? It’s all about the working environment.

I used to work on my room. And in my room there are a lot of distractions. Things like my phone, my PSP, and my cozy bed. Before today, I used to sit down on my bed with my laptop and start doing my projects. Every once in a while I lie down and make it as an excuse for thinking. Who am I kidding? Only myself. And when I lie down on bed my eyes close and voila! I’m snoring. Although I can’t hear me snore but I know I do because my wife says so. My room is a total mess and very disorganized. You could see lots of wires tangled on the floor and lots of empty bottles of water. I know I should clean it up but when? I don’t think I have time. One of these days I will.

So I woke up this morning and brought my laptop with me in the living room. I left my phone and PSP on my room to free me from distractions. I sat down on the floor, placed the laptop on the table and I was very comfortable. I never turned on the TV and I was listening to music with iTunes. And there it was! I was able to concentrate on doing my projects and the comfort of the environment really helped. Working on a clean and spacious room does really help in improving your work. Good ventilation and lighting will make it better too. From now on, I know what I’ll do if I want to be more productive the easy way.

One month has passed and still I haven’t posted anything new here. Thanks to the dynamic plugins that’s keepin my site dynamic everyday. Like the recent comments, the Last.FM and the del.icio.us plugins, these are the ones that makes sure that my sites being updated whenever a Googlebot crawls my site.

I’m supposed  to be releasing the Coolmo this month but I guess you guys have to wait again. Sorry for that. I’ve been very busy with a lot of projects - freelance, work and personal. And also I’m spending time with my baby. Managing time is really hard for me nowadays. I don’t even play a lot of games on PSP anymore. The last game I played was Brave Story. Brave Story is an RPG. RPG stands for Role Playing Game for the sake of the newbies out there. What you have to do is travel into the land of Vision to rescue your beloved leading lady. I’m still on the beginning part of the game. It’s a turn-based RPG and I really think the graphics are good, well at least for a PSP. The fights are repetitive but that’s what RPG is all about - leveling up and fighting the same monsters all over again. But then again this is just my opinion so don’t take my word for it. Tokobot is also on my list of “to-beat” games. I’m already in the middle of the game the last time I played it. Tokobot is one cool game, in my own opinion at least. So again, don’t take my word for it. I guess you have to play the game and see for yourself.

On the other hand, this theme will experience evolution in the next few days and then when I’m good with it, I’m gonna release it to the public. One of the things to do on my list are of making the sidebar widget ready so anyone can customize it. I’ll also try that on the header but I sure wish it will be easy. I’m no programmer but I sure know the Wordpress codex. Time to get the thinking cap on and stop slacking around.