PSP 1000 Teardown

ID: 1234

Description: After a solid four year run, this old PSP has...

Steps:

  1. This is the easy part, place the PSP upside down, on its top side.
  2. There's only one screw to take out here. Since I'm no genius when it comes to screw sizes, I'll let you pick the right one from your set of twenty.
  3. Remove the battery cover.
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  4. Start by removing the three screws highlighted by the red circles.
  5. Take care when removing the forth screw, as it's slightly tighter than the rest. This screw is highlighted in blue.
  6. This is the point of no return, if you choose go on, you're voiding your warranty. So, carefully peel back the warning sticker all the way off.
  7. You'll find two small screws concealed below the label, remove those screws.
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  8. You can now start to carefully pry the top cover from the unit, using the spudger. Start from right to left, leveraging slowly.
  9. Contrary to what this picture might suggest, this PSP hasn't contracted chickenpox. Each red circle indicates a screw that you need to remove.
  10. Carefully unclip the connector circled in red.
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  11. Open the UMD slot. With the screen facing towards you, unclip the locks at the bottom right outer-side of the hinge, and the bottom left, inner-side of the hinge. Remove this component.
  12. Remove the four newly revealed screws, in any order. If you're afraid of commitment, you might like to assign each screw a number between 1-4, and decide using a random number generator. Remove this component.
  13. Place the PSP face up, with the joystick side on the right. There are two lock clips located on the right side of the LCD, unhinge these. Remove this component.
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  14. Now don't get all gung-ho, be careful when detaching the LCD, as it's attached with two connectors. You can unlock these connectors by pulling back the brown latches VERY carefully.
  15. Same deal again, go crazy with remove the screws highlighted in red... Crazy in a calm and collected way. Remove this component.
  16. Disconnect these two cables.
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  17. Remove the screw labelled in red (to the top right of the device, the other is incorrectly labeled in the image). These are holding down the main circuit board.
  18. Almost there, if you've come this far, I commend you on your effort! Again, carefully pry open the cable lock and remove the WiFi component.
  19. Remove the circuit board, this might be the most important step. Sit back and gaze at the chips for at least 5-8 minutes. NOTE: You can come back to this step at any point.
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  20. You can now remove the WiFi board and chip, along with the metal plate.
  21. The chip Sony used in the original PSP could pick up wireless G bands, which made it a nippy handheld network device for its time.
  22. At the time, £280 worth of circuitry, wires, metal and plastic. Beautiful sight.
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  23. You're all done, this step is just to bring the steps in this teardown to an even number :)
  24. Mmm... circuits. SIDE NOTE: I'm not certain, but I think that the chips circled in red control the DRM for the device ;)
  25. P.s. Apologies for the relatively low-res images, but it's the best my camera could muster.
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  26. By request, I've also included the component overview as its own step in the process.
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