FreeDVDBoot for PS2 Fat: 300xx, 390xx, and Why 500xx Does Not Work
Fat owners must check first and burn second. Half of all Fat failures are people burning the wrong file — or a file that never existed for their machine.
Short answer: A PS2 Fat works with FreeDVDBoot only on DVD Player 2.10 (named models only), 2.12, or 3.04. SCPH-300xx and some SCPH-390xx units fall in that range. SCPH-500xx units run DVD Player 3.00 or 3.02 and cannot use any prebuilt FreeDVDBoot ISO — if you own a 500xx, do not burn these files hoping for a different result.
Check before you download
Boot with no disc, press Triangle, and read the DVD Player line (see how to check). Then match it below. The model sticker alone is not enough: the same SCPH family can carry different DVD Player versions, and 390xx results vary unit by unit.
300xx
DVD Player versions in this family include 2.10 variants. The README names three working examples for 2.10: SCPH-30001 R, SCPH-30000, and SCPH-30004 R, each with a specific ROMGEN code. If your 2.10 unit is not one of those, it is unconfirmed — try it, but do not treat success as guaranteed, and record your exact model and ROMGEN if you report a result.
390xx
Marked Partial in the PS2 Dev Wiki compatibility list. Some 390xx units work on 2.12; others report disc read errors or a black screen, and SCPH-39004 is explicitly listed in the README as not working for 2.10 (todo). If your 390xx fails, the most likely explanations in order are: wrong version, worn laser, or a bad burn — work through black screen and red screen before concluding the model is unsupported.
500xx: not supported, and here is why
SCPH-500xx is the v9/v10 Fat. Its DVD Player is 3.00 (v9) or 3.02 (v10). Neither version has a prebuilt FreeDVDBoot payload in CTurt’s repository, and the supported list stops at 2.10, 2.12, and 3.04. A site that lists 500xx as “selective” or “supported” for FreeDVDBoot is wrong, and this site previously made that mistake on its homepage — it has been corrected. Your options are a different entry point (Fortuna covers a wide Fat range; see the comparison), a newer exploit such as YADE for 3.00E (see the YADE note), or a modchip — each with its own trade-offs, covered in FreeDVDBoot vs modchip.
Fat files at a glance
- 2.10 and 2.12 share ONE file: Some 2.10 models and all 2.12.iso, 7,344,128 bytes, MD5 e47c861f376df877ce02cbe0c10b97b9.
- 3.04 file: 1,370,112 bytes, MD5 503415ee98580dd1d18f9d7031af5abd. Region M tested in emulator; other regions except J are a README guess.
- Language must be English. Burn DVD-R, lowest speed, finalise.
Next steps
Verified against: CTurt FreeDVDBoot README (Phat consoles section) and PS2 Dev Wiki FreeDVDBoot Compatibility List, checked 2026-10-24; SCPH-500xx DVD Player 3.00/3.02 per PS2 model documentation.