Hi all, I ordered a replacement motherboard in China for a defective Sony SLT-A65V (CEE5). The replacement mainboard has the region code CN2 and the model is recognized as SLT-A65 without V. As far as I understand everything, the region code is stored in the EPROM and can not be modified. Does this also apply to the model code? I switched successfully the choosen region firmware but unfortunately the gps feature of the A65V is still missing despite the fact, that the hardware is available as it is a separate pcb.

I have now done the following.

1. The original update firmware from Sony I have disassembled with the fwtool and got the structure.
2. Backup.bin contains the data, within \0110_backup\SYSAVIP-DSLR. There are firmware files the model with and without gps (V) included. Therefore there are two subfolders PS_UUG (with gps) and PS_UUGN (without gps).
3. I analyzed and compared the CN2 files in both folders and figured out, that the model information is also part of the firmware file. You can also see that 320000 is directly located in front of the name of the one file and 000000 of the other which matches with the number within the name of the file. I also figured out, that specific values are enabled or disabled between those two versions. As there are two folders I assumed that during the firmware update process the camera chooses the right firmware file not only based on the region code but also on the model code or the model number.
4. So I used the CEE5 firmware file to replace the CN2 file within both folders and adjusted the checksum information.
5. I created a modified firmware with version number 9 and flashed it with the sony updater tool successfully.
6. Now I can see, that the "right" backup file with the information of CEE5 was choosen by the camera. The backup region is part of the bin file within Backup.bin despite the renaming of the file to CN2 to direct the camera to this specific firmware file.

But I'm still missing the GPS feature.

Does anyone know what to do to change a SLT-A65 to SLT-A65V with GPS support?

a) On the one hand side I can change the model information within the file by removing the V and and recalculating the checksum but I don't want to waste version numbers as I'm already at v1.09 and I don't know if this causes the issue. b) Or is there a possibility to change the model information directly within in the camera via pmca tool and the bk command? If so can someone instruct me, which address needs to be modified to change the model. c) Or is the product code the essential part for the camera to figure out that it is a V version?

I'm also able to solder smd components and I read the service level 3 documentation of the SLT-A65 but I couldn't figure out a specific EPROM to replace it with the original one from the defective mainboard. Maybe this is also an option if someone can tell me the component id.