Who's Collin and where did he say this? I did a search of this thread, and got no hits for that name.
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M1/M2/M3 Macs user memory upgrades by soldering - blocked by Apple?
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Got it. So DosDude never said RAM wasn't possible (at least not in this thread). He said it might be possible, but he needs to find some chips to determine this:
....though, granted, it's not possible in the practical (as opposed to technical) sense, until a source of such chips becomes available.
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Ok, so even if you drill out M1 from donor to preserve the ram and drill out the ram from actual M1, which is the safest way, you`ll end up stuck at boot. Those chips are not available in china, no matter where you ask. Sorry, there`s no point in attempting..
I have been paying attention to Chinese modification circles, and can confirm there hasn't been a single instance of Apple Silicon RAM swap / upgrade that has been done with proof. During the M1 days it was speculated to be possible but too many stars need to align so no results yet. Then with M2 / M3 it seems the general consensus has shifted to "not worth bothering, we gave up".
@dosdude1 Do you have a link or just key terms to look up nands for the Mac Studio? I know you mentioned you have a good supplier but I wouldn't want you to air them out. I would really love to try this out since I've already maxed out the storage on my Mac. I believe I have 500gb and it's definitely not enough. I'm blessed to have access to proper equipment at the university and would love to not only try this, but use this as a cool project to show our IEEE/Robotics club. They are starting to get into micro soldering. Any guidance or resources would be greatly appreciated.
Each nand chip in m1 macs has it's own firmware. You can't just solder any nands to a2337 board in hope it'll work. But there's a possibility to read internal firmware from "genuine" IC's and flash it to another. Thus i can upgrade from stock 256gb to 2tb. I can use only nands which are "blessed" by Apple.
So just to clarify this:
Both the Studio and MP have slotted NAND (what Apple calls "SSD Modules"). That is only officially upgradeable on the MP, and only if you buy the part from Apple:
Apple 4TB SSD Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro
The SSD kit for Mac Pro enables you to upgrade the internal SSD storage capacity of yourMac Pro. Installation required. Buy now at apple.com.
www.apple.com
Thus, IIUC, if you want to upgrade the SSD Module on the Studio, these are the only ways it could be done. Do I have this right?:
1) Find a cheap broken "for parts ony" Studio, transfer the module from that, and then run the appropriate configuration utility*.
*You said this could only be done by an Apple authorizied service center, but would this not work?:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-pro/uninstall-and-install-ssd-modules-apd587f502f6/mac
2) Find a (likely Chinese) source with access to the Apple supply chain, purchase the SSD module from them, and configure as described in #1.
3) Solder additional raw NAND onto the existing SSD module. [That's what the video showed, right?]
I posted an even newer video from the same repairer in another thread:So just to clarify this:
Both the Studio and MP have slotted NAND (what Apple calls "SSD Modules"). That is only officially upgradeable on the MP, and only if you buy the part from Apple:
Apple 4TB SSD Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro
The SSD kit for Mac Pro enables you to upgrade the internal SSD storage capacity of yourMac Pro. Installation required. Buy now at apple.com.www.apple.com
Thus, IIUC, if you want to upgrade the SSD Module on the Studio, these are the only ways it could be done. Do I have this right?:
1) Find a cheap broken "for parts ony" Studio, transfer the module from that, and then run the appropriate configuration utility*.
*You said this could only be done by an Apple authorizied service center, but would this not work?:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-pro/uninstall-and-install-ssd-modules-apd587f502f6/mac
2) Find a (likely Chinese) source with access to the Apple supply chain, purchase the SSD module from them, and configure as described in #1.
3) Solder additional raw NAND onto the existing SSD module. [That's what the video showed, right?]
Upgrading Mac Studio storage
You can use the original card and a spare one from selfrepair : remove the 8 chips and replace them with 8 new kicm223 Boom 8To after DFU :-) It will cost you around 800€ just in components !
forums.macrumors.com
Then a fellow poster replied saying you can get a 2nd card with (official) self-repair channel.
I have only heard the MCU I mentioned above but I have not used it personally. I suppose this step is only mandatory for Studio but not for the Mac Pro, or that with the Mac Pro the ability to do so is not locked only to authroized repairer.
(a lot of what I claimed may not be 100% correct as I don't personally work on this. The original intention of mentioning all these was to point out the YouTubers knew even less than I do with their videos)
Does this apply to the M3 Max as well or just the M1? Would love a guide on this.
It applies to the M3 Max as well. I have one right now I plan to make a video about upgrading pretty soon.
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to align NAND chips to their correct position? I’m attempting to upgrade MacBook Pro m4 pro, the NAND is BGA315. I’ve have good amount of experience with micro soldering etc but I’m stumped with aligning these 315 chips. Especially since there aren’t any components around the chip to help align it. I’ve tried marking/lightly scratching on the motherboard but I feel confident in the alignment still.
Any help/tips would be appreciated.
I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to align NAND chips to their correct position? I’m attempting to upgrade MacBook Pro m4 pro, the NAND is BGA315. I’ve have good amount of experience with micro soldering etc but I’m stumped with aligning these 315 chips. Especially since there aren’t any components around the chip to help align it. I’ve tried marking/lightly scratching on the motherboard but I feel confident in the alignment still.
Any help/tips would be appreciated.
Yes, but you have to place the chip "close". During manufacturing, they use a pick-and-place machine to place the chip very close to final position and the the surface tension in the solder will self-align.
For hand retrofit, I think maybe a jig might help. You make a solid block of plastic that fits over the PCB and has a corner cut out to align the RAM chip. I would 3D print the jig. But printing is not perfect, you have to clean up the printed part with a fingernail file. The idea is to simulate the accuracy of the pick and place robot.
I just align them by hand as best as I can, hope it's good enough and heat it to solder into position. I've only ever had this not work once, with it off by one row. You can easily check for shorts across nearby capacitors, and if there's a short, the NAND is probably not aligned properly.
Thank you so much, I managed to get them all aligned but now I’ve run into a new issue. I managed to get the laptop to boot into DFU once using the keyboard method and when trying to restore, I got an error 2006 on Apple Configurator. Any ideas how to proceed?
Also, I’ve attached a picture of the board of what appears to be one of the force DFU pins potentially, would be great if you could confirm/point out exact which pads to short.
I’d also like to correct myself, it’s an m4 pro MacBook Pro. Not m3, apologies for the mixup.