The PSP always was and still is one of the easiest handhelds to make mods too. Typical modifications range from changing the design of the PSP, to replacing the battery with something more substantial. With many years behind its back and a continued fanbase, the list of modifications you can do goes on and on.

Unfortunately the ease of modifying this system is not shared with the GO. The GO follows the newer trend of being an absolute nightmare to change anything, even the battery.

We will be honouring the wonderful guides already created for this console, so if you have found, or written a guide yourself and want to share it please let us know and we will feature it here.

PSP 100X

Change case/shell/housing

By now most PSPs on the budget scale of eBay range from surface scratches to minor wear and tear (which basically means the dog gnawed on it, and then chucked it into a blender). However, it is entirely possible to replace the shell with basic tools and little expertise. All you need is the box-standard set of screwdrivers, a spludger (or a disused credit card), patience, and an hour of your time. I do however recommend a magnetic screwdriver to reach the screws deep in the back of the housing. It makes the job of getting the screws out a little easier on the patience side.

No elements of the PSP housing has been fused to the board, and any attachments are normally using better practices (e.g. the UMD tray isn’t glued on but rather has a spring latched on to a notch in the drive casing). Basically, this means that you won’t hit a scenario where you need advanced tools to achieve this simple job. You do need to keep track of screws however, as they do have the tendency to Houdini their way out of your workroom.

And why go for the original design it came with? Sony does not just produce empty housings expecting people to repair their devices themselves. Unless you buy a faulty but pristine condition PSP to replace the housing with, you will be going with a third party producer, which is not normally as bad as it sounds. So my point is why go for the design it came with when there are thousands of other designs? Jealous of the white PSP when you bought the black one? Well time to swap! Even better, why not go transparent?

Screen

Screen replacements of anything is enough to get you screaming and smashing up the local area. Believe it or not though, replacing the screen on this little delight is super easy! And since the screen is small and not powerful in any sense, you can get replacement screens from about $£10/15. There is unfortunately no market for improved screens, and connections have changed between the various models, so stick to the screen for your particular model.

Battery

As we have covered already, batteries for the PSP in this era are either reduced capacity, dying or dead. Instead of swapping batteries every 10 minutes, with some electrical prowess you can replace the PSP battery with a brand new form altogether. To do this, you will need an official PSP battery (doesn’t matter how well it holds charge), and some rolled up sleeves as you will have to get out the pliers for this one.

It is nothing short of a miracle that the battery in the PSP is 3000mAh with such a small form factor, so it’s widely believed that the packaging simply lied about the storage capacity, since it was highly unlikely the PSP would’ve needed such power off the shelf. So don’t get confused when you see that batteries twice the size of the original one measure at the same mAh. Different battery types and storage methods makes this a wild sector.

Now you will need to decide what route you want to take with this mod, as there are several different ones. You can either replace the small cell in the PSP battery itself for a likely reduced but stable original battery shape. If you’re willing to add external bulk you can power the PSP with three AAA batteries found by AcidMods, or go down the regular route of removing the UMD drive and using the cavity for a larger battery (brilliant guide for this). My recommendation? If you are comfortable with it and do not mind losing the UMD drive, the latter is the best possible route.