"The
Green Light Comes on But Nothing Else Happens"
(aka: The classic brick PSP, when it can be fixed
and when it can't)
A Mom called our company a few months
ago. Her son’s PSP had a problem that confused
her. The unit was fully charged, the power switch
still spring loaded and functioning properly, but
when the green light came on … nothing else
happened. She didn't understand how this could have
happened. Her son was careful with his game. She
assured us he always kept it in the case and wore
the wrist strap while playing. But still as careful
as he’d been … the unit appeared to be
dead except for the green light. This is an all
too familiar conversation for us here at FixMyPlaystation.com.
Following a series of questions
for her and her son, we discovered the root of the
problem. When prompted to upgrade the PSP by a particular
game he was playing, he started the procedure …
but the battery was low and the unit shut down before
the upgrade completed. Any interruption in an download
or upgrade once begun, whether by accident or loss
of power or changing your mind will "brick"
the PSP.
Thankfully for most 1001 and 2001
models, this is an issue we can repair at FixMyPlaystation.com.
While we can't guarantee, our positive result percentage
has been very high.
Unfortunately not all "bricks"
are created equal or have this positive result.
A 3001 PSP for instance that displays this problem
is unable to be repaired. Also a unit that has the
same symptoms, but came as a result of a drop, knock
or fall is more than likely not repairable. If you
are not sure if your PSP became "bricked"
due to a fall or a software issue, there is one
test that may clear it up. Pop it in the freezer
for 2 minutes (no longer) and then try to turn it
on. If the unit comes on then most likely the motherboard
is cracked and this unit is not repairable.
There is one other possibility for
a unit that displays these symptoms. Sometimes a
unit will randomly "brick" on its own
during normal play. While not usual, we have been
able to repair units who's software somehow became
unstable when there hadn’t been an upgrade
or download. For these we have had great success
using the same repair procedure as the traditional
"bricked" units.
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