(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); A friend of mine stopped by today and he let me know he is moving to Ti-land he wants to bring a PS3 to play Us games that he backs up. I know 4.11, from what I looked up on the forums, is not flash-able but with an E3 Nor flasher it is, I'm not paying 80$ to flash his system..... I wanted to know what the absolute lowest firmware is to flash, 3.55 I think, and what do most playstations ship with firmware wise (Walmart, gamestop (Aka eb games)). Would he be better off buying a ps3 on ebay with 3.55? It doesn't need online since he is into FPS or RPGS, I forgot which. He doesn't need to be online so that makes it easier.

the Firmware needs to be 3.55 or lower when u get it. If u try to downgrade when it wasn't ps3 is bricked. im not to sure what FW gamestop and other retail seller have, but i got mine about 6 months ago and it was on 3.50

I have 2 ps3's. One is always on OFW 4.11 or whatever, and, the other I bought the e3 flasher for. I have upgraded that one to 4.11 and downgraded it to 3.55 about 20 times. It takes about 45 minutes from start to end when you get the hang of it.

You have to be on 3.55 or lower to run any backups of your games Period.

I would have to assume if you went to an electronics store to buy a new ps3, I'm willing to wager it would be on an 3.56 or newer. Your best bet is ebay, craigslist or some other auction site where you can find out quickly what version it's on.

Really, as long as the slim ps3 you get at one point or another had 3.55 on it, it can be downgraded. Newer model ps3's have newer features in it that prevent it from being downgraded at all.

Good luck.