PS3 Error 8001003A and 8001002B “fix”

I was messing around with my Playstation 3. I replaced the harddrive with a bigger one and wanted to install a custom firmware.

What a headache! All the errors… And no one knows what to do. Nothing is working.
Errors like 8001003A and 8001002B among others…

I don’t think you can call this for a “fix” since it’s a bit messy but try it out. It worked for me after many tries.

PS3 error codes and headaches.

But I did manage to figure some things out. First of all, the USB port on the PS3 sucks!
That was the main problem.

You should not have more things than your USB stick in the USB ports.
I don’t know if it’s the lack of power to the USB ports or some compatibility issue.

Also, use the RIGHT USB port.

As you probably have read all over the net. The USB must be in FAT32 format and the partition MBR.
I don’t know if it matters but just use one partition on the USB stick.

If your PS3 cant find the USB stick, pull it out and try again. Over and over.
Sometimes it will show up for some unknown reason.
If not, try another USB stick.

Also, make sure you don’t use a extension cable to your USB stick, I did and it caused some problems.

If you managed to install a custom firmware but get errors like 8001003A or 8001002B when trying to install a pkg file then try to replace the firmware again with a “noBD” firmware and then try to install the pkg files with the package manager.