YOU CAN’T upgrade SOLDERED-ON laptop RAM? believe once again

upgrading the memory in a computer is normally a simple situation of swapping out a few DIMMs or SODIMMs, with the most complex task being to determine the right type of memory from the lots of available. however often a laptop maker can be especially annoying, as well as restrict upgradability by soldering the RAM chips directly to the board. upgrading memory must then be impossible, however this reckons without the skills of [Greg Davill], who worked with the process on his Dell XPS13.

The review is a interesting primer on exactly how DRAM identification works, which for removable DIMMs is handled by an onboard FLASH chip consisting of the details of the chips on board. A soldered-on laptop has none of these, so instead it employs a series of resistors whose combination tells the BIOS what memory to expect. Some research study exposed their configuration, at which point the right chips were sourced. surprisingly it’s not as simple as one may expect to get little quantities of some RAM chips, however he was ultimately able to discover some by means of AliExpress. An aside is exactly how he inspected the chips he got for fakes, including the beneficial idea of hiring a dentist to take an x-ray.

The final step is the non-trivial task of reballing as well as reworking the new BGAs onto the board, before testing the laptop as well as discovering the process to be a success. We’ll leave you with his final words though: “But next time I believe I’ll just get the 16GB variant upfront.“.

We’ve seen rather a great deal of [Greg]’s work right here at Hackaday, one of his a lot of recent was this incredible LED D20.