No, actually.

It is MUCH easier and safer to just piggy-back on top of the existing chips, for the first (added) layer. Beyond that, it's probably easier to remove all and solder directly to the pads. But not safer. It is always safest to leave the existing working factory chips in place. No doubts.

Cheers

Ah, ok, I stand corrected !

Ok guys I expect you to have the 512MB hack worked out by this weekend so I can get someone to do mine..

Does anyone one which pins are likely to be the cause of this error
0110 testing ic 1 (0-15mb, low word)
0101 memory error at c0000000 (00000000!=0000257f)

I've just installed the first additional 16mb but can't see anything wrong with the soldering

Thanks
R.

At a guess, I would say that it would be a bad RAS pin on one of the banks. That is just a guess, though.

I am just wondering if there is any easier way of dealing with the RAS pins for other installation.

You are correct in recognising that the RAS pins are the problem. RAS pin management is the key to this - getting the other 49 pins soldered is relatively easy.

Part of the problem is that all the other pins need to be aligned for good contact so you cannot straighten the pins individually - they have to be done together.

Having had to desolder one of the stacks gave me an insight that I think will be useful - it isn't difficult to desolder a pin because of the relatively limited contact area. I am considering next time building up the stack _including_ the RAS pin, metering all the pins to eliminate as many bridges or open connections as possible and only then to heat the RAS pins and bend them out. ie, keep the RAS pins safely tucked away for as long as possible.

This wouldn't help if you had bridge/open near to the RAS pin taht you didn't discover until a boot test as you'd still have to retouch that pin, but I think it is a workable proposition.

Only a suggestion since I'm not trying to upgrade my player.

I'm wondering if some aluminum foil would be useful here. Stick the stack together with a bit of double side. Then take two strips of foil and slip them between colums of pins, fold back and around. Admittedly this may be easier said than done. The alum, if it will stay in place, should keep the solder from bridging. Hummm, some more two side tape, not near the pins, could help. Maybe all that is needed is a piece of foil with a slit in it. Tuck the slit down around the column of pins...

I hope some of this helps.

The practical limit appears to be 48MB, but it may be possible to install 16MB chips in place of the current 8MB chips, which would give a practical limit of 96MB.

Well, assuming that don't want or need to remove the original chips then that would really give us a practical limit of 32+32+16 = 80 MB.

More to the point, 16MB chips would be a far nicer way to get to 48MB. I'd much rather do that than stack 3 up, but Micron never made a 16MB chip in that configuration (EDO/FPM, 50 pin TSOP), but instead went to SDRAM, 54 pin TSOP II. Does anyone know if any manufacturer did make a compatible 64MB chip?

I am considering next time building up the stack _including_ the RAS pin, metering all the pins to eliminate as many bridges or open connections as possible and only then to heat the RAS pins and bend them out

And my strategy is the near-exact opposite Bend and solder the recalcitrant RAS pins as soon as possible in the process, so that not much work need be undone should they snap off!

Cheers!

It is MUCH easier and safer to just piggy-back on top of the existing chips, for the first (added) layer.

If you have a good heat gun/pencil, it would have been much easier (at least for me) to reflow 16MB chips instead of piggybacking 8MB chips. The parts should come off easily, and since the pads are so big, it wouldn't be hard to add solder for reflowing.

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

anyone got any clues on where the problem is with :-

Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read ffffefff

got
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000008: wrote aaaaaaaa, read aaaaa2aa

now. getting somewhere

Pin 46 open. Stack nearest StrongArm.

Ok, pin 44 now, also open.

thanks for the quick response. After a few more attempts my mate got it right. Did get a complete ram failure at boot up initially. However, now both machines are 32mb

Am i the first person to get 64mb working?

And some pics

Forgot to say a big thank you to PGrzelak and MLord, who have made this all possible.
Thanks guys.

Now i just need to get the car sorted out so i can do the install :-)
Russell

no pics... too big? (200000 max)

Attachments no worky. Probably too big, limit is 200k IIRC.

whoops your right the limits 200k and these files are around 600k. I might put them up on a web page tommorrow if i can be bothered!

I think Paul is going to put a contract out on you (or your player)

If you want to claim that six-pack...

I would like to see some pictures. Did you modify the drive tray mounting at all? What techniques did you use? (Especially, how did you avoid losing RAS pins?)

Pics can be found at www.whitedwaft.co.uk
The sites not pretty but it works, someday i'll do a proper one!

With regards to the Beer, I think it would be way to expensive to send it over hear. ( and i have my own brewery :-)) so have a drink for me!

Russell

Ras pins were easy, i soldered a thin wire on from underneath then superglued it to the bottom of the chip and brought it out the end.

The Ras wires are held in place by daps of superglue onto the pcb

I havn't modified the drive tray. i can push it down to touch the chips, but it's never going to move that far on it's own, If it dows i will probably be killed by the impact that caused it!!!

That is madness. How long did it take to solder.

the first pair of chips took about 8 hrs all in but I had lots of errors.
the last 2 sets (32mb) took 4 hrs in total, i had no errors at all with the step from 32 to 48, but the final jump had a few missed joints.

Now if the very nice empeg people would release some software that would use the extra ram, i could start listening to my FLAC collection.

Russell

i soldered a thin wire on from underneath then superglued it to the bottom of the chip and brought it out the end.

I contemplated that but decided that there possibly wasn't enough pin spare to deal with the standoff created by the thickness of the wire (even 30ga). Obviously I was wrong.

Did that create any hassle?