Balagoong: PSP CFW 6.20 PRO-B6

I always wanted to upgrade my PSP's custom firmware (CFW) to a higher version but was too afraid to do it myself because of the risk of bricking the hand held device.  But then again no pain no gain right.  I started out asking some shops that offers the upgrade for a price; I just wanted to gather some information on what they use so as I can research on that.  I discovered that I can apply a 6.20 version that has a permanent patch on a psp slim so I worked with that version.  I have two slim PSPs at hand, one having a 3.x version (bleh, my old one) and another that has 5.50 prome-4 version (acquired through a straight cellphone trade).

So here's how I did my upgrade via research 

1. I downloaded the PSP Firmware 6.20 update from
http://search.4shared.com/postDownload/lYYOkaP6/PSP_Firmware_620_Update.html

2. Followed the instruction (it's in PORTUGUESE so I translated it using google translate).

Translate

Loaded the UPDATE folder at the PSP->GAME folder of the Memory Card
via the computer's explorer using the PC's USB connection
Went to the Game menu and found the update under the Memory Stick sub-menu

The background turned pinkish red while the update is installing

It got back to it's original color scheme after the update
Now the PSP has the original 6.20 firmware

3. After the 6.20 firmware update I followed the video from youtube to install the custom firmware 6.20 PRO-B6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_141800&feature=iv&src_vid=zXojSqgJNjo&v=NFjNgOmbukA

    3.1. Downloaded CFW 6.20 PRO-B6 from http://www.sendspace.com/file/q4cwrl

    3.2. Copy and Paste the "PROUPDATE" and the "620PRO_Permanent" folders to PSP->GAME

    3.3. Apply the CFW 6.20 PRO-B6 Update

Press 'X'

Press 'X'

Press 'X'

After all the updates, I got the desired CFW

    3.4. Applied the patch to permanently set the firmware in CFW, this means that when you shut down the PSP you would not need to apply the patch again and again.

Press 'X'

Press 'X'

Press 'O', it was suggested that I would not need to have a test run

4. Then I'm done, wohooooooo!

An alternate path: Roadblock!
For my black 2001 PSP, I encountered an error due to the version of the firmware installed.

A 5.50 Prometheus-4 CFW

I keep getting a "Firmware is already 9.90. There's no need to upgrade".  But I easily found a solution: http://www.tjsdaily.com/2011/04/how-to-upgradeupdateinstall-550.html

* text with yellow background were taken from the link mentioned above 
You could disable version.txt in the recovery menu of your CFW.

1) Hold SELECT, the VSH menu will appear 
2) Look for USB Device, change it from Memory Stick to Flash 0

3) Plug your PSP in your computer, open it, scour all the folders and look for a notepad file called version.txt. Find the "9.90" line inside it and change it to "5.50" then save

Changing the 9.90 to 5.50

4) Unplug your PSP, hold SELECT again then return the USB Device from Flash 0 to Memory Stick.

After the alternate steps 1 to 4 were done, I just followed the same steps of updating the CFW

  

Updated to 6.20

Applied the 6.20 PRO-B6 CFW update and the permanent patch

Now I have two newly updated PSPs.  You got to love forums and youtube for DIYs.  I saved myself the pricey labor cost and gained some insights on doing PSP upgrades, I say that's a night well spent on learning a thing or two.