Anger Wrote:could the rom chips lose the programmed data and revert to the defaults when the battery is dead? it sounds like the only plausible cause.

Could a PSP that was factory flashed with 1.00 and then flashed with 3.90 revert to 1.00 after not using it for a year?

There is no 'default', the chip stores and holds the data it's told too. I have a service mod battery with a dead cell even that works. All I have to do is insert it then use my A/C adapter, and I have service mod.