I have a PSP1001 with CFW 6.40, how can I downgrade it to CFW 5.00 M33-6 without a Pandora battery?
Yes I definitely do want to downgrade the CFW, as I have a complete backup images of my old PSP1001 with all my preferred apps and games and stuff, complete with Game Categories plugin, which apparently CFW 6.4 doesn't like.
CFW 6.4 also doesn't seem to like half my other mods either, like modding Descent 1.4 to work on anything above OFW 1.5, while I had that working on 5.00 M33-6.
I have so many custom mods on my old imaged backups it ain't funny, but how, if even possible, can I reflash the NAND and downgrade the CFW to my old backup image?
Why would you downgrade? Install 6.61 and then upgrade to ark4 or ark5!
The one I have right now is on CFW 6.4, but I don't like it, cuz apparently the firmware is write protected, and I no longer have a Pandora battery to unlock it. It doesn't support the Game Categories plugin I had, plus it can't seem to run Descent, which was compiled for firmware 1.5 but I painstakingly made it compatible not only with CFW 5.00, but also made it work with the Game Categories plugin.
I also have my own custom gameboot screen, adhoc WiFi, extra fast booting filesystem and drivers. Also, half my plugins don't seem to work on CFW 6.4.
I really hardly ever used it to play ISO/CSO games though, I mostly used it for homebrew and emulators. And my old modded CFW 5.00 M33-6? I still have a backup of the firmware image plus a backup of the contents from my memory stick meant to work along with it.
I can't stand that I don't have write access to this CFW to do all the same mods and make all my stuff work.
I'm not a cfw expert, but you could take a look at ark-4 and see it that could work for you. M-33 is ancient history.
The Pandora battery is ancient too. There are working exploits for the latest Sony Fw.
With CFW 6.4, the PSP won't even boot up with my memory stick, I have to shut it off, pull the stick out, then boot it up without the stick, then put the stick back in.
Anytime I exit an app or game, the PSP locks up and I gotta power off and reboot, as stated above.
The Game Categories plugin does not work.
Absolutely none of my homebrew meant for OFW 1.5 work at all.
None of this is acceptable, and none of this would be any issue if I went back to my version of CFW 5.00 M33-6.
I'm sorry, I have no experience with any of the problems you mention.