Top Reasons for a Slow PSP

Last week a friend of mine went to Singapore and then brought home a PSP for her kids. It was working great. All her games loaded properly. The sound was great. The controls were awesome. It was also fast. 

However, after a week or so of playing it started to really slow down. It wasn’t just slow. It was really, really slow. The main menu of her PSP was so slow that the screen was sometimes flickering. It would take you about 5 minutes or longer before you can even go to the menu where you can choose and play a game.  

If you even got to choose a game, loading time is impossible to bear. If for some reason you were able to wait (I tried sleeping), the gameplay was in slow motion. 

Image Credit: Baby Turtle 023 by cygnus921

She brought it to a shop she knows and then it turns out that when she bought the PSP, it was already the cracked PSP and the configuration was all wrong. More so, what added to the situation is that her memory was full. Her memory stick had about 2 MB of free space.

 

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE:


1. Set “UMD Mode” to M33 driver NO UMD

The PSP firmware version was 3.71 M33 but is also tested with higher versions like 3.8 M33. These firmware versions should have the UMD mode to M33 NO UMD.

 

To set the following you need to go to the Configuration Page. To go there you need to:

i.                    Turn off your PSP

ii.                  Press and hold the R button. While doing that, slide and hold the power button up. This would turn on your PSP. You should hold until the black screen appears saying “M33 Recovery Menu Configuration”

iii.                If the PSP just turns on to the normal menu, just repeat the two steps above.

 

 2. Set “Use VshMenu” to Disabled.

 It is also in the configuration page. Use the steps above and you should be able to find it.

Now after these two steps, if you continue no further, your PS would run faster – but only for the menu screen. The menu would be fast and really responsive. However, try playing a game. You would notice that loading is still slow and the gameplay is still played in slow motion.

 

Still Slow..

Image Credit: Speedy by me’nthedogs

 

3. Set the CPU speed to Default.

Now this is really important. The CPU may not really be used when playing music or in the menu screen but its very important when you play games.

There are two settings you need to adjust. Speed in XMB and Speed in UMD/ISO. For us normal users we just need to set these two to “Default”.

After this, your PSP should be running ok. However, I recommend that you do another step which would also help the performance of your PSP.

 

4. Free up memory from your Memory Stick.

You can do this using two methods. One, you could connect your PSP to your PC using a USB cable. Two, you could remove your memory stick and use a card reader. I prefer the second method but you may use any of the two.


Method Two: Remove your memory stick and use a card reader.

Image Credit: New Memory card slot by Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

 

Freeing up memory is easy, if you know what files to remove. As my friend is not really using her PSP for music and videos, majority of her files are game files. What she does is that she just puts games that she really plays. I recommend doing the same for your PSP.

Game files are located at the folder named “ISO”. The game files have a .CSO file name extension. You don’t need to delete them. Just transfer them to your hard disk. That way, when you want to play them again, you just have to transfer them back to your memory stick.

But if you have music and video files that take up much space, I recommend that you look into those first. Normally you would like to have at least 500MB of free disk space. You’d need the space for your game saves.


My friends have done the steps above with ease and have solved their slow PSP problems. Most of them, if not all, had to do all four mentioned above. The first three usually solves the problem.

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  1. JM of Philippines says:
    January 9, 2010 at 12:34 am

    Dude! Thank You sooo much! i had been dealing with my slow psp for few months now. im glad you gave this hints and tips. thanks a lot dude..

    Reply
  2. JM of Philippines says:
    January 9, 2010 at 12:38 am

    Dude! Thank You sooo much! i had been dealing with my slow psp for few months now. im glad you gave this hints and tips. thanks a lot dude.. and for the site.. im sorry, i dont have a card. Im a guy that doesnt have much, if only i have, then i would realy donate something. all i can give is my gratitude, thank you.

    Reply
  3. Sanjeev Mystic says:
    January 12, 2010 at 11:43 pm

    Hey this was really really useful thanks for the tip..my kid is thrilled after 10 days..

    Reply
  4. naxxer says:
    January 13, 2010 at 10:48 pm

    bro!! thanks for the help! you helped alot of people because of this!! god bless you bro!

    Reply
  5. bongopsp says:
    January 21, 2010 at 11:04 pm

    thanks i managed 2 make it normal
    speed again

    Reply
  6. Darkga07 says:
    February 15, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    Tnx a lot dude that scared the shit out of me…lolXD

    Reply
  7. Bonicole says:
    February 18, 2010 at 5:00 am

    wow!! thank you, thank you!!! much appreciated!

    Reply
  8. ralcrys says:
    March 7, 2010 at 3:37 am

    thanks!!! it works

    Reply
  9. derick says:
    March 19, 2010 at 11:53 am

    your methods are realy great. i fixed my son’s psp with your instructions. slow psp no more. thaks a lot. God bless and have a great day ahead.

    Reply
  10. zOEx says:
    March 27, 2010 at 8:14 am

    dude you ROCK !!!
    it just run as well as firs day…I was really scared of broke my PSP (cause I droped it in plenty of times and I thought it would be caused by those)
    anyway thank a lot :D

    Reply
  11. Valkyrie says:
    April 12, 2010 at 10:59 am

    Man, thanks alot!!!I would have not fixed my bro’s psp without this site! mom has been bugging me to fix my bros psp cause she thought i stuffed it. tnx alot!!!

    Reply
  12. Zia says:
    April 21, 2010 at 2:20 pm

    Ty soo much. It works :D

    Reply
  13. Jais says:
    April 22, 2010 at 8:45 am

    dude, thank u so much – life saver!

    Reply
  14. mac says:
    April 29, 2010 at 7:41 am

    THX!!!

    Reply
  15. Ano ne Mous says:
    May 4, 2010 at 9:14 am

    Thanks man it is really helpful to fix my psp! :)

    Reply
  16. yepyep says:
    June 1, 2010 at 9:31 pm

    thanks! it really helped me in fixing my psp!

    Reply
  17. drahcir lee says:
    June 4, 2010 at 10:02 pm

    thank you very much! for this solutions guys! thank you very much!

    Reply
  18. Joje says:
    June 14, 2010 at 2:32 pm

    SUUUPER HELPFUL!! TNX A TON!!! xD

    Reply
  19. jay says:
    June 20, 2010 at 11:16 am

    hey man I don’t know how many times i tried it but i couldn’t get that screen to come up. is something els wrong?

    Reply
  20. Simo, Finland says:
    June 21, 2010 at 4:17 am

    thaks mate! saved my flight to Singapore (too long for kids with nothig to do ;-)

    Reply
  21. Walter Hevedeich says:
    June 26, 2010 at 9:55 pm

    Thanks dude. My wife is happy that my psp is fast again.

    Reply
  22. Rui says:
    July 17, 2010 at 2:24 am

    Amazing. Awsome. Great. Fantastic. Now in my language (portuguese): Óptimo. Resolveu o meu problema. Este template vale ouro. Parabéns.

    Reply
  23. bryan says:
    August 23, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    thanks a lot,. it works great., more power..

    Reply
  24. David1234 says:
    October 21, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    hey i did the first three steps but its all the same. i cant fix it. im using firmware 3.80 m33-5. and btw i cant change the speed in umd/iso… pls help

    Reply
  25. geian says:
    October 23, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    thank a lot dude!!!
    im really really happy right now! :D

    Reply
  26. Reuben says:
    October 30, 2010 at 11:19 pm

    thanxx alot man i had been havin the trouble for soooooooooo long

    Reply
  27. Mao says:
    November 19, 2010 at 6:05 pm

    it worked!..big help..thanks much

    Reply
  28. Alice953 says:
    November 24, 2010 at 5:33 pm

    My psp game started getting slow motion and it srsly tortured me when I jump into conclusion that it might have malfunction for no reason O_O

    I was bit sad and unhappy for days untill I decided to look up the web to see is there a way to fix this problem until I came to this web. I tried poking my PSP like you instructed and volia! It worked QAQ Thank you very much, you are a life savior!

    Reply
  29. Andi says:
    November 25, 2010 at 4:32 am

    Thanks for the post. Fixed my machine right up!
    XMB was on 20 instead of default.

    Reply
  30. shadhir says:
    November 26, 2010 at 4:22 am

    hey thanks a very lot,it defignately works,well you can say where can i download a proper iso for metal slug xxx game

    Reply
  31. Mike says:
    December 16, 2010 at 9:38 pm

    Thanks for the advice..by the way…what is the reason why my PSP is slowing down in playing games…is the cause will be to much files on memory stick?…is that right…thanks a lot….

    Reply
  32. wissam says:
    December 17, 2010 at 6:20 pm

    hey dude my psp doesnt change the second cpu speed it remains 75

    Reply
  33. Martin Girardi says:
    December 19, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    Dude thanks so much1!!!!! I dropped my PSP one day and from then on I thought I would have to buy a new one!!! thanks so much man now it works just fine and I can download all the stuff I want on it!!! you are a genius man thanks so so so so much1!!

    Reply
  34. Kittles says:
    December 19, 2010 at 11:54 pm

    Thanks so much guys & gals!!! Took my sons psp to a “gamer doc” and they said it was “toast”. Searched online, found your website and had the psp fixed in a matter of minutes..You guys Rock!!!

    Reply
  35. steven says:
    January 19, 2011 at 9:49 am

    Lol why after u drop ur psp the setting from psp will change i dont get it but it work u save my life =p

    Reply
  36. Ahmed says:
    January 20, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    Thanks man, GOD bless you !

    Reply
  37. atul says:
    February 2, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    thanks dude this really helped. you really explained in esy manners. guys if ui are have the same probl;em then u must tryu these tips it really worked for me.

    Reply
  38. nyaaaa says:
    March 30, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    DUDE THANKS ALOT!! REALLY REALLY!! I WAS STARTING TO PANIC:( thanks thanks alot…btw do you know the reason why it automatically changes the settings?last night i was just playing normally..then after i woke up…the lag’s there…mind explaining what happened? :)

    btw thanks again :)

    Reply
  39. Mitch says:
    April 12, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    Thanks man ily ily ily ily ily!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  40. braden says:
    April 14, 2011 at 3:55 am

    omg my friend just gave me his psp a couple of days ago sometimes it worked other times it was so slow it was driving me nuts then i searched the internet saying why my psp was so slow then i seen your site
    i clicked on it i did what you said to doo i cant believe it. it worked im soo happy

    Reply
  41. pspman says:
    April 17, 2011 at 9:35 pm

    OMG thank you… i installed joysens then got the slow psp. I didnt have to wait for a day because this was my 7th forum i have been too.

    Reply
  42. morgan says:
    May 13, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    thank vuey very very much i love you u fixed i mean i fixed my psp tnx i thought that i was in trouble again with my dad thank you so much .. ^_^

    Reply
  43. Kamie says:
    May 25, 2011 at 7:09 pm

    Hey men..tnkz a million..my psp is working fine now.

    Reply
  44. Ahmad says:
    May 28, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    Thanks aloooooot My nephew was suffering from several months the same problem and he is very happy now his psp is working realy fast.

    Best regards,

    Reply
  45. bassem says:
    June 13, 2011 at 11:53 pm

    thanqqqqqqqqqqqq :D

    Reply
  46. Sharath Babu says:
    June 18, 2011 at 1:09 am

    I ve no words how to thank you for this post . . . . When i got this problem, i got real pissed out that my firmware has crashed . . . . . But it was just too cool to fix it in no less that two minutes :-D . . . . . .

    Reply
  47. assasin says:
    June 18, 2011 at 11:51 am

    thnxzzz bro it wrked for me.i was really tensed.u rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  48. ehab says:
    June 25, 2011 at 4:51 am

    friend , you are a life savier .. i was thinking i sshould take the unit back to the shop …my nephew was killing me to repair it ….thanks thanks thanks

    Reply
  49. ty says:
    July 3, 2011 at 9:03 am

    thanks so much i thought cfw stuffed up

    Reply
  50. Ahmed says:
    July 5, 2011 at 2:03 am

    ITS ALIVE! ITS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!

    Cool dude! Excellent Post!

    You are the MAN!

    Reply
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