Brewology

I am a total Noob when it comes to psp brew, and I have been reading a lot of forums, faqs, and tutorials about this for a couple weeks and I think I'm finally ready to do it, but due to it's relative complicated and risky nature, I have some things I just want to be absolutely sure of before doing it. I just need you experts to really spell it out for me.
First of all the most important thing I want to fully understand is the risk, I've come across the term "bricking" a lot and there are a few things i need to know about it:

1. What are the chances of "bricking" my PSP if I follow one of these tutorials and install this software?
1.b) What causes "bricking" and is there anything in specific I should avoid doing that would increase the risk?
1.c) What exactly IS "Bricking"? Does it make your PSP totally useless? and...
1.d) Is there a way to fix it? I havn't seen one yet but I've heard mention of tutorials to "un-brick" or restore your PSP
1.d-2) if so can someone show me a link of a tutorial for this? (I'd like to read it before-hand just to be sure)

The second thing I want to know about, is this custom firmware that you need to run homebrew on your psp. Many different sites talk about different things like apps, loaders and etc but this site seems to be by far the most informative and it talks a lot about the custom firmware. The main thing I want to do is play ROMs on my PSP which has software ver. 3.10. So my questions about this are...

2. Can someone tell me a little more about custom firmware and what exactly it does?
2.b) I have ver.3.10, do I need to downgrade to 1.5 FIRST? and THEN the custom?
2.b-2) Can you link me to the best tutorial for making my 3.10 into a custom PSP capable of playing ROMs?
2.c) Do you recommend these "EZ Installers" I've run across? Do they work? are they really easy?
2.d) What do I have to do after updating my software to be able to play ROMs or ISOs on my PSP?
2.e) Will I still be able to play store-bought UMD games after upgrading my PSP?
2.e-2) Is there anything else I won't be able to do after upgrading? (i.e. watch movies, browse web, etc.)
2.f) Do I need an unpatched copy of GTA:LCS? Some tutorials say I do, others don't mention it at all.

The last thing I was wondering about is these other programs out there. Like I said earlier this site is by far the best and has the most information out of any other I've come across, but a lot of other sites talk about these loader programs, like Fastloader and others. I was just wondering...

3. What exactly do these "loader" apps do? (Like Fastloader and others)
3.b) Do I use these WITH the custom firmware or IN STEAD OF? If I use them instead of then....
3.c) Are they worthwhile in any way? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
3.d) Are there any that you would reccomend over others?

Well I guess that about sums up the majority of my questions. Most of these I have a somewhat answer to but I want to be really really really sure before I do anything to my best friend, my precious PSP. I know how annoying it can be to answer a bunch of noob questions over and over, but I really appreciate your patience and help on this stuff, and I just hope one day I can help someone else the way you guys helped me. I hope some other reluctant newbies get something out of this post as well. Thanks so much I appreciate any help, if you can answer even one of these questions or hopefully all of them.

Wow long message anyway i will try to answer as much as i can.

1. What are the chances of "bricking" my PSP if I follow one of these tutorials and install this software?
its a very slight chance your psp will brick, it might or might not... just make sure you do everything the tutorials tell you to do.


1.b) What causes "bricking" and is there anything in specific I should avoid doing that would increase the risk?
not to sure but its a risky job to do.. nothing realy to avoid just do the right things


1.c) What exactly IS "Bricking"? Does it make your PSP totally useless?
hmm.. if your psp decides to brick then you might get annoyed or pissed off at it but im sure it can be fixed..


1.d) Is there a way to fix it? I havn't seen one yet but I've heard mention of tutorials to "un-brick" or restore your PSP
if your psp does brick you can go to a "mod shop" and get a modchip put in and that will make it work fine.


1.d-2) if so can someone show me a link of a tutorial for this? (I'd like to read it before-hand just to be sure)
depends on what kind of version you have which is Version 3.10 so umm im pretty sure you can find a tutorial somewhere in the forum or if someone else can give a link to one. i THINK you can downgrade to 1.50 then upgrade to 3.03 oe-c and that will let you play those emulators and roms

im sorry i cant realy answer any of those other questions for you im quite new myself... also with the emulators you will need certain ones and for the roms you can use the rom from like the ones you would use for PC.

i thinks thats about it i can answer sorry.

1. What are the chances of "bricking" my PSP if I follow one of these tutorials and install this software? 1/1000 if you do it right.
1.b) What causes "bricking" and is there anything in specific I should avoid doing that would increase the risk? Trying to downgrade with an uncharged PSP. And not reading perfectly.
1.c) What exactly IS "Bricking"? Does it make your PSP totally useless? Useless and...
1.d) Is there a way to fix it? I havn't seen one yet but I've heard mention of tutorials to "un-brick" or restore your PSP
Yes there actually is a way to fix it. but i doubt you will hav to cause you wont brick your psp if u folo directions.
1.d-2) if so can someone show me a link of a tutorial for this? (I'd like to read it before-hand just to be sure) I would but u cant downgrade with your psp version

The second thing I want to know about, is this custom firmware that you need to run homebrew on your psp. Many different sites talk about different things like apps, loaders and etc but this site seems to be by far the most informative and it talks a lot about the custom firmware. The main thing I want to do is play ROMs on my PSP which has software ver. 3.10. So my questions about this are...

2. Can someone tell me a little more about custom firmware and what exactly it does? It allows you to pretty much play psx games and gba games without a disk.
2.b) I have ver.3.10, do I need to downgrade to 1.5 FIRST? and THEN the custom? You cant downgrade with a 3.10 sorry
2.b-2) Can you link me to the best tutorial for making my 3.10 into a custom PSP capable of playing ROMs? no
2.c) Do you recommend these "EZ Installers" I've run across? Do they work? are they really easy? They are easy and they some work
2.d) What do I have to do after updating my software to be able to play ROMs or ISOs on my PSP? put games in ur game folder
2.e) Will I still be able to play store-bought UMD games after upgrading my PSP? YES
2.e-2) Is there anything else I won't be able to do after upgrading? (i.e. watch movies, browse web, etc.) shouldnt be
2.f) Do I need an unpatched copy of GTA:LCS? Some tutorials say I do, others don't mention it at all. Actually they say you need GTA LCS to downgrade 2.80 but i downgraded my version 2.80 woithout it...

The last thing I was wondering about is these other programs out there. Like I said earlier this site is by far the best and has the most information out of any other I've come across, but a lot of other sites talk about these loader programs, like Fastloader and others. I was just wondering...

Cant help you with 3

wow i didnt even read this topic waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy tooooooooooo looooooooong.....................

answered via PM

-DarkPacMan77-

Thanks guys, that really helped. I guess I'll just sit tight and wait for the 3.10 downgrader then hope it comes out soon, does anyone have any idea on how far along it is?