Hello! Is it possible to replace and upgrade your phone's RAM and solder aftermarket RAM in it?
Thanks!
ps. Sorry for bad English
I do not think you can, these phones aren't really made for upgrades.
I have heard mention of this before ... but the compact design of the phone and the ability to find (upgraded) ram that would work with the chipset (soldered or otherwise) seems nearly impossible to find to me.
However, if someone was successful in this I would certainly be interested in hearing how.
I think it is too hard or You cant ('x ' )
Seeing as how the RAM modules built into the phone mother board are BGAs (ball grid arrays) it is nearly impossible to replace them without highly specialized equiptment like a FineTech BGA rework machine and the proper heat profiles for the given parts. That said you are more than welcome to try some methods that are not proven but seem very funny to me. I believe there is a youtube video of a man desoldering a BGA using an oven.
Needless to say of you dont like the amount of RAM your device has you may just have to wait until you can get another device.
In especial cases you can UNLOCK the RAM, but it didn't happen as a lot of devs tried and a really small quantity(of devs not phones) reached this point and the only phone that I know is unlockable is the ZTE Blade.
As an embedded system with some [normally] tightly controlled schematics and firmware, this would be unlikely for you to acomplish, since you're asking the question to begin with.
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hyztname said:
In especial cases you can UNLOCK the RAM, but it didn't happen as a lot of devs tried and a really small quantity(of devs not phones) reached this point and the only phone that I know is unlockable is the ZTE Blade.
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Not at all related to this, blade had 512mb of RAM in it, but it wasn't accessible- solved by a kernel change
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all smartphone devices have x amount of ram. say if you have 1gb ram in your phone you might only be able to use 868mb of it . it is becous your phone uses 128 mb for your gpu. it is plausible to make some of your gpu ram available as regular ram and that is done with an kernel mod. for my phone(lg optimus) 2x it is called a ram hack. it always comes with some faults depending on how much you take from the gpu. i have a 32mb shared ram hack so i cant reboot just have to turn the phone on and off
hey all
I guess it would be possible, however it might not so easy, I upgraded the ram of a wrt router some time ago: http://neophob.com/2006/01/wrt54g-ram-upgrade/
There's no chance of upgrading a mobile phone RAM .
I think the same,no way to upgrade ram on mobile phone
This is possible, but as others have said the complexity and difficulty to desolder a BGA ram chip and then put a new one on perfectly without messing anything up is incredibly high. And in addition, you have to find a ram chip that is compatible with your device (pin count and configuration, physical size, voltage, timings) and of a higher density, another difficult feat. So while it is technically possible, the practical answer is no it is not possible for anyone to do in the real world.
Hmm dont think you can.
EniGmA1987 said:
This is possible, but as others have said the complexity and difficulty to desolder a BGA ram chip and then put a new one on perfectly without messing anything up is incredibly high. And in addition, you have to find a ram chip that is compatible with your device (pin count and configuration, physical size, voltage, timings) and of a higher density, another difficult feat. So while it is technically possible, the practical answer is no it is not possible for anyone to do in the real world.
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ive seen it done, it can be done. its just really hard and nerve racking
Man bga chips are pain in a$$, unless u have sophisticated workstation.
A single short circuit/ loose contact can blow up ur entire CPU/motherboard.
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Hate to say it but no, in many of the SoC (System on a Chip) devices, the RAM is a soldered component of the main board. They are using RAM Modules rather then SODIMM Chips. It would be nice though
Parts
Anyone have any ideas of where you could even start to look for ram that would work? I have a HTC Evo 4G. I wonder if its possible to find parts from a HTC Evo 3D and modify.
seems so
just from the CoE course, revers engng and tweaking hardware is a good start
it's possible, but if you think you'll save money that way, you're wrong.
lol
Related
do you know how windows vista can use external memory and make it into additional RAM? well can the G1 be programed to take memory from the SD-Card and turn it into more RAM?? I know that it might not work but its worth a check!
IF your not sure about it check this it will explain ((http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6039379.html))
I believe you're thinking of Swap - check out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=531988
Also don't forget using your SD card as swap partition will thrash it and could shorten the life of your SD card due to alot of writes.
If you really want to do this look for a program called 'swapper'.
oh ok thanks for the heads up !
johnnie93 said:
do you know how windows vista can use external memory and make it into additional RAM? well can the G1 be programed to take memory from the SD-Card and turn it into more RAM?? I know that it might not work but its worth a check!
IF your not sure about it check this it will explain ((http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6039379.html))
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This is pretty much the function the swap file provides. There is a differentiation on a desktop because on a desktop files are stored on a hdd, whereas a portable device usually uses flash as its storage and swap.
And just to clarify, Vista readyboost is completely different to RAM or swap partitions.
Flash memory is limited to a certain number of writes, it is a very large number so in normal use you will probably never hit it. Reading however will not affect the lifetime of your flash memory.
Hard drives do not have any such limits.
Readyboost uses an SD/USB memory card/stick as a cache to quickly load frequently used files, this is because it's generally faster to read from flash memory than from the hard disk. Readyboost DOES NOT write very often, this is why it is suitable for use with flash memory.
Swap/Paging/Virtual memory is completely different, it is an area on a disk, a file on windows or a seperate partition on linux, where the operating system can dump some of the data that is in RAM if it runs out of space. If you have low RAM or are using high memory applications this will do alot of reading AND writing, therefore will reduce the lifetime of your flash memory. This is why swap partitions are normally on hard disks.
Hope this helps explain it!
robblue2x said:
Hard drives do not have any such limits.
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Sure they do. Just considerably longer. Also, hard disks, for quite a long time now, have been capable of dynamically remapping around worn out sections and come with a decent chunk of unused space that is used for remapping. Hard disks also suffer from gradual demagnetization -- over time, the differing magnetic fields on the platter will interact with each other, causing data loss. You can generally expect a finite life time of any hard disk before large sections of the platter become unusable. I have noticed this particularly to be the case with winvista, which by default likes to catalog and recatalog your disk (they say for fast searching), but the end result is writing and rewriting of the same small portion of the disk, which causes it to wear out VERY quickly, though leaving the balance of the disk perfectly functional.
there might be a way to physically remove (with a soldering iron) the 192MB ram chip, and solder on a 288MB ram chip like those on the newer HTC phones.
I really want more RAM, but I also want a keyboard. and with Android, you can't have both right now
That would be an impressive waste of time and energy but kudos if you could manage that. Best bet would be to buy the Hero when it comes out and get a bluetooth keyboard.
SyXbiT said:
there might be a way to physically remove (with a soldering iron) the 192MB ram chip, and solder on a 288MB ram chip like those on the newer HTC phones.
I really want more RAM, but I also want a keyboard. and with Android, you can't have both right now
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R3nrut said:
That would be an impressive waste of time and energy but kudos if you could manage that. Best bet would be to buy the Hero when it comes out and get a bluetooth keyboard.
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Does hero even work on tmob 3g in the US? Looks like its geared for at&t.
I'd say replace the memory chip if you can and report back!
I would definitely try it (I'm an Electrical Engineer, and solder at work all the time)
But i'd rather buy a 288MB chip from somewhere, rather than rip it from a different device.
I don't wanna throw away money.
if someone knows a supplier for those chips let me know and I'll try it and post screenshots
The last 2 smartphones I have owned there has been a discussion on upgrading the memory with huge threads and a few people trying. The end result has always been it is by far cheaper to get a new phone in another year which will have a faster processor, more memory, more storage etc...
Sure it can be done but with how fast technology changes it probably isn't worth it.
So is HTC HERO worth buying for more RAM and speed??
Only if the HTC Magic also is, because they're exactly the same except for the shape of the plastic.
I wouldn't give up the keyboard.
lbcoder said:
Only if the HTC Magic also is, because they're exactly the same except for the shape of the plastic.
I wouldn't give up the keyboard.
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the htc magic isn't exactly the same. Some htc magic models (like google ion and tmobile mytouch) only have 192megs of RAM.
My understanding is that apps are limitted to 16mb of ram anyway. The real problem is the data rate of the ram. Some have hinted that a class 6 sd card is just as fast at read/write as the phone's ram. So more ram in theory won't really help if it's still limmited by read/write rate speed. More internal memory would be nice but again won't make the phone any faster, just help with our 'out of room for apps issue'.
Perhaps on the hero motherboard buss speeds themselves are faster but I doubt there's much we could to speed up the dream :/ someone please correct me if I'm wrong tho..
You are probably confusing internal FLASH with RAM. A class 6 uSD card is NOWHERE NEAR the speed of the ram. The RAM is orders of magnitude faster.
sonikamd said:
My understanding is that apps are limitted to 16mb of ram anyway. The real problem is the data rate of the ram. Some have hinted that a class 6 sd card is just as fast at read/write as the phone's ram. So more ram in theory won't really help if it's still limmited by read/write rate speed. More internal memory would be nice but again won't make the phone any faster, just help with our 'out of room for apps issue'.
Perhaps on the hero motherboard buss speeds themselves are faster but I doubt there's much we could to speed up the dream :/ someone please correct me if I'm wrong tho..
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Reminds me of the days when people soldered on extra RAM on the XBOX1 to increase performance when using XBOX Media Center!
I thought there was a technical manual out for the G1 somewhere that listed parts... Not just the service manual which showed you how to open the device for repair. Could be worth running a decent google search for the motherboard and parts and then find a supplier for the RAM if you're game in trying to solder more on.
Thanks to the flexibility of Android as well, I'm pretty sure it would be able to read and make use of the extra RAM too.
blackeyedbrian said:
Does hero even work on tmob 3g in the US? Looks like its geared for at&t.
I'd say replace the memory chip if you can and report back!
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Last I heard it was going to Sprint instead possibly. I really hope it doesn't!
NeoBlade said:
Reminds me of the days when people soldered on extra RAM on the XBOX1 to increase performance when using XBOX Media Center!
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...this is exactly what I thought...
With the recent rumors of the g1 not supporting donut due to its lack of memory... this mod is number 1 on my list... I plan to do this soon... any one else?
I know that this is not android development, but it is hardware development, so mods please move if I am not in the right fourm.
I have a friend who works on computers and tablets for a living, so he has not trouble taking tablet apart. He has come across a broken tablet, can't even tell the model anymore that has two 1gb modules of ram in it. These modules are made by the same manufacture as the ones in the tf700, and are the same speed, voltage, and timings. Would it be possible to replace the two 512mb modules that came in our tf700s with these 1gb modules?
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It can work if u are lucky. If not you have to change kernel code to adept ddr timing parameters and initialization of the ddr memory
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Memory upgrades.
Aside from the software side of a memory upgrade, you need to know if the devices are pin-compatible with each other.
Vcc, Vdd, Gnd, data, clocks and so on.
Just dropping parts onto a board will not be acceptable, they must be compatible with that device, and the components they are replacing.
Can the support logic work with the increased memory in a manner that will not slow it down, or strangle the overall speed of the memory signal/data paths.
Does the main CPU have the ability to pipeline the increase? What is the cache size it needs to work with?
You could 'piggyback' old RAM chips easily, but in today's world, that is no longer an option.
If the device is cheap enough,you may have more than a clog in the pipes by adding larger amounts of memory, you may already be at that device's limits for handling the memory it already has.
If all things being equal (Occam's razor), then you may get away with removing the old RAM and soldering the larger capacity chips in their place.
I hope you have a proper rework station for pick and place components that probably utilize a ball grid design, you will need to accurately place those devices, or the device will fail. Solder shorts will ruin the device, and may also destroy the support logic, drawing excessive current with heat failures.
I don't mean to take over the LP's thread in any way, but I have been wondering something similar. I only have a poor 512mb in my a13 All winner Zeepad 7.0, and trust me it is noticeable. How would I be able to know if it would run okay based upon the information you just gave? Would that be trial and error? I don't want to waste the money on new ram sticks and then find out that, even after changing the kernel code, my tablet will not like them.
Hi!
Having dug my old Google Nexus 7 2012 out of storage and found it both working and happy in terms of battery lifetime I let my mind wander towards fixing what I consider the main flaw with the device: Its 1 GB of system RAM.
Now, I have my fair share of microsoldering and idle work in BGA soldering and the like but my software hardware is far more lacking. I already know that the Nexus I have holds 4 x Hynix 2Gb HTC2G83CFR DDR3L RAM and the datasheets for it these are fortunately available, I also know that the Tegra T30L chipset supports up to 2GB of RAM. The closest I've been able to scrape together sofar are Hynix 4Gb H5TC4G43MFR but these use 78ball FBGA and 96ball FBGA, but atleast I'm on the right track in finding older chips...
This is where I run into the software knowledge lack; Simply finding fitting chips to replace the old ones and successfully soldering those on will not neccesarily just work out of the box? Depending on the kernel it might detect and make use of the new chips but it might also not.
Am I right in assuming that there will be a need for software side hacking to accomodate the upgrade?
On a sidenote I also found Daniel Sauvageau's musings on doing the exact same thing back in 2016 but there are no follow-ups to it. He does raise a concerning potential roadblock in his article on the matter:
"Find out, preferably in a non-destructive way, whether A15 is actually routed from the SoC to the DRAM BGAs. Without A15, I would need DDR3L DRAM that has 2KB pages instead of the typical 1KB ones found in all eight-bit-wide chips I have looked at. If neither are possible, then this idea is as good as dead"
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Any thoughts, ideas or inputs are welcome!
(Yes, I am aware that this is neither particularly economical nor for the faint of heart lacking a decent way to reball BGA)
My K1 has upgraded to 7.0. it became slow when i use it. I rooted and optimzed it but it can olny get a lttle better.
I want to know if an android device can expand RAM by changing the RAM chip? And if it can perform much better?
its very difficult and not very cost-effective to hire skilled engineer to replace it . just buy a new tablet
Guan Yu said:
its very difficult and not very cost-effective to hire skilled engineer to replace it . just buy a new tablet
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so can u tell me will its RAM expand if i change the RAM chip withe higher one?
i saw the RAM of xiaomi tablet2 can be expanded with doing that. so can its CPU.
grayfox23 said:
so can u tell me will its RAM expand if i change the RAM chip withe higher one?
i saw the RAM of xiaomi tablet2 can be expanded with doing that. so can its CPU.
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i dont know cuz its also depend on software compability , but who know ? you can try it
Guan Yu said:
i dont know cuz its also depend on software compability , but who know ? you can try it
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1st,thank you for replying me. i did a lot of things befroe i buy it, because it is a second hand.and it former owner told me it was upgraded to 7.0 and became slow maybe because it 2GB RAM. so i was thinking if its RAM can be expanded by doing so.
Likely not, you will need a compatible ram chip. Even if the larger chip is compatible, the board or kernel may limit it to just 2gb. 32bit devices cannot use more than 4gb anyways. The best you can do is to just increase the swap.
grayfox23 said:
1st,thank you for replying me. i did a lot of things befroe i buy it, because it is a second hand.and it former owner told me it was upgraded to 7.0 and became slow maybe because it 2GB RAM. so i was thinking if its RAM can be expanded by doing so.
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I have been having the same thoughts as you. On this device, the ram is actually not built in the soc as most smartphones and tablets, its it separate from it on 4x512mb chips.
I got the tablet recently and the first thing that came across my mind was changing the thermal paste, the factory one is really garbage so I cleaned and replaced it with arctic mx2, under the heatsink of the soc and the ram there is some sort of a graphite thermal pad, which is not very efficient, I replaced it with thermal paste as well. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, so idk what are the ram chips exactly, devcheck reports that the device has lpddr3 1066mhz ram but I'm not sure if that is trustworthy.
IMO upgrading the ram to at least 3gb is very possible, now the question is what kind of ram chips we need and where should we look for them.
Tegra K1 is practically the fastest 32-bit soc in existence, so more ram would definitely help it out a lot. I mentioned it in another post but on the latest firmware the ram usage is abnormally high on this device, sitting at about 1gb at idle(no gapps, LOS) while it should be closer to 500mb.
Good evening.
Was looking at my Shield Pro 2019 sitting on the shelf, and an idea popped into my head; would it be possible to upgrade RAM and eMMC chips? I have no particular reason for this, besides pure curiosity.
I've got access to professional solder equipment, including rework stations capable of desoldering BGAs, xray equipment to inspect said BGAs and about 20 years of experience with soldering and reworking complex circuitry.
If I'm not mistaken, RAM chips are either Micron, Samsung or SK Hynix and the eMMC chip would also likely be supplied by either Micron or SanDisk.
So, disregarding the physical job desoldering/resoldering chips, are there any software issues that must be taken into account?
The eMMC would of course need to be flashed and repartitioned if upgraded to a larger size, but would the RAM chips require any software modifications after swapping them out or would the system simply accept a larger RAM size out of the box?
I've Googled a bit, but couldn't find any concrete information on what changes would be required on the SW/FW side of this.
Best regards, Tim
Unfortunately, this looks like one of those things where ripping it apart and doing the do would be the way to go. Maybe the least "invasive" thing to do would be a RAM upgrade, provided compatible chips of higher capacity are available. Theoretically you wouldn't need to touch anything on the OS side for a bump in RAM capacity. I think the Tegra X1 supports a maximum of 4GB of RAM and the X1+ supports 8GB - allegedly. I suppose the memory controller is built into the SoC itself so there's no tampering with that.
I don't know anyone crazy enough to do that for me... nor am I really willing to apply my very amateur BGA soldering skills on a device like this one.
xxhyp0crisyxx said:
Good evening.
Was looking at my Shield Pro 2019 sitting on the shelf, and an idea popped into my head; would it be possible to upgrade RAM and eMMC chips? I have no particular reason for this, besides pure curiosity.
I've got access to professional solder equipment, including rework stations capable of desoldering BGAs, xray equipment to inspect said BGAs and about 20 years of experience with soldering and reworking complex circuitry.
If I'm not mistaken, RAM chips are either Micron, Samsung or SK Hynix and the eMMC chip would also likely be supplied by either Micron or SanDisk.
So, disregarding the physical job desoldering/resoldering chips, are there any software issues that must be taken into account?
The eMMC would of course need to be flashed and repartitioned if upgraded to a larger size, but would the RAM chips require any software modifications after swapping them out or would the system simply accept a larger RAM size out of the box?
I've Googled a bit, but couldn't find any concrete information on what changes would be required on the SW/FW side of this.
Best regards, Tim
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Both was already done on Nintendo switch (also tegra X1/X1+)
Emmc is the easy part, ram is possible but you need to know which ram are supported.
Check l4s discord maybe there are some people who can help.
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