@tristen8878 Firstly, great find!!! Second, please don't disappear!
As others have noted, yes we have seen a VERY few number of SONY refurbished consoles in the wild with 40nm RSX chips. They have special firmware that enables the RSX and there are a few hardware changes to the motherboard itself (just a couple of small resistors under the RSX that are slightly moved. However, we haven't been able to get very clear pictures from the original owners of the console to confirm these are the only changes.) So we desperately need some good pictures of the bottom side of your board!!! Could you please take a bunch of pics and upload to the forum? You should be able to just drop them into to reply box to attach them.
Without the special firmware, you can't just swap for a 65nm or 40nm RSX. However, there is a mod chip that claims to allow it, but we are investigating that at the moment. If there is a mod chip like the one we've been testing out in the
Frankenstein PHAT PS3: CECHA with 40nm RSX thread, then it'll be on the bottom side of the board. So pretty pretty please, can we trouble you for some photos of the backside of the board?
If it's a mod chip, then we are looking for something like this:
If it's a SONY refurbished unit then we're looking for in focus hi-resolution photos of the entire motherboard, so we can confirm the hardware changes. Also, we need the firmware dump.
@M4j0r knows how to dump the firmware and what else we might need to hopefully replicate the mod.
@tristen8878 The end goal is to make every BC model as reliable as a slim model. SONY isn't talking, so we have to reverse engineer it. You are holding the key! Sorry, but the weight of history rests on your shoulders. You have been drafted into the service of retro preservation. Don't let us down, son...lol!