PSP Not Holding A Charge And Resetting When Shut Off

[Roxie / Eight !]

Last year my uncle in Europe gave me his old PSP, the battery was bloated and it didn't power on or charge at all. I took it home and bought a replacement battery in hopes it would end there. After replacing the battery I plugged it in and it powered on showing me a time and date selection, I thought that was strange but entered the time and date, and also changed the wallpaper/theme while I was at it. It seemed like it was not used at all, but there was save data on it. When I unplugged it, it shut off right after.

I looked into the situation a while ago but don't remember what I exactly looked up and what the issue was, some kind of internal clock if I'm not misremembering?

It's just been sitting on my shelf for a while now since I haven't had the resources to repair it yet. 

[Melooon]

PSPs don't have an internal clock battery (as far as I know from mine), so when the battery goes dead the clock resets, and you have to do setup again when it turns back on, that's totally normal ^^ Also PSPs don't tend to stay in standby for more than a few days, after that their battery drains, and again you have to redo the clock when it starts up.

Save games on the other hand are stored on their memory card and are not effected by the battery at all.

So all of that sounds normal - the battery not charging is the bigger question, does the orange charge light turn on? If you leave it charging for a few hours does it hold a charge? It could just be a faulty battery, most replacement batteries are not that high quality  (Also you are charging it with the correct port right? (the yellow one) PSPs cant charge via their USB port, that's for data only)

[Roxie / Eight !]

@Melooon sorry for the late response

Okay good to know, thank you! I'll have to look back into what I heard about that "clock"

The orange light does turn on, flashes for a bit then turns off and I am charging it through the right port. I don't have the original charger but I have one with the same voltages that fits in the port.

[Roxie / Eight !]

Update: I found the battery info in the settings the charge level, hours left, and battery status is all blank. It only mentions how the source is external. And the "clock" I was misremembering may have been the CMOS battery instead.

[Melooon]

I looked this up out of curiosity and apparently it does have some sort of clock battery (I guess mine never worked very well ) - https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/382224/PSP+working+with+power+supply+but+functioning+batteries+not+detected (everyone in that thread is raving about a weird fix someone did by swapping in and out the battery, Id love to know if it works!)

It does sound like it could be a job for a repair shop   Though first I'd check the contacts on the battery, and also see if the old battery does the same thing - if ur lucky it could just be a faulty battery rather than a faulty PSP

[chxshire22]

Hi

I have repaired and modded many PSPs. 5 or more maybe.

It's the super capacitor (looks like CMOS). Typically I disconnect the super capacitor as old ones can cause power issues.It's troublesome to replace (requires soldering), but you can buy it. Really not worth the trouble. Search aliexpress for it.


I recommend keeping it as is. If your super capacitor is dead and not disconnected though, then in the future when you try to power it on the LED on the PSP will light up and then it'll just shut off. That's when you have to dismantle the console and disconnect the super capacitor.

[Roxie / Eight !]

Thank you both for the info!

@Melooon Thank you for the ifixit link, I sadly can't check the old battery since it was completely bloated and didn't work when I found it (and is defiantly in some dump in Greece now). I'll try looking into repair shops or save it for when my own tech repair skills get better. Could get to doing other mods when I'm at it.

@chxshire22 I will note all this down for if I get the chance to do it!