Well, I've just spent the last 6 hours upgrading my MK2a from 16MB to 32MB. This must be the least productive hardware upgrade i've ever undertaken!

Now, I've been soldering things since the age of about 10 (I am currently 28), including some rather bizare mods involving surface mount components on NetStations (don't worry, probably only means something to Hugo, and even then not much), so I wouldn't consider myself a amateaur.

All I can say is that is is way more difficult than, say, replacing the surface mounted StrongArm chip.

The things that, IMO, make this hack difficult are:

a) that the legs on the memory chip are very fragile and very small and very hard to straighten. Even then, they are only just long enough and you have to get them all at exactly the right angle, which is just shy of 90 degrees

b) you definately need a high-strength freestanding magnifying glass. My eyesight is very good yet there is no way I would have been able to complete the work without a glass (I did try, before giving in).

c) The solder prefers to bridge adjacent pins than join the two chips if there is even the tinest gap between the bottom of the pins on the top chip and the top of the pins on the bottom chip. I would very strongly recommend the use of a no-clean flux pen. Maplin (code HH62) and RS sell them.

It would certianly be useful to have all the info in one place (took me an age to find everything I needed on the bbs) - I might look to start doing just that over the weekend if I get a chance, then ask Tony to update the FAQ.

I won't be doing another one of these in a hurry, and definately won't be trying for 48MB or 64MB using this method. Howerver, no broken pins and I do get:
c1f00000: passed

Thanks to mlord, pgrzelak, Hugo, Stu and everyone else who helped to make this possible.

I'll bring a camera to the meet this weekend and try to get some photos of genixia upgrading some empegs. If I can figure out how to use my buddy's Digital Rebel....

Yeah, i have the RAM chips sitting there but i haven't had the time to dredge up all the pertinent info, so i haven't done it yet. A guide would be super appreciated.

Hiya,

So, I've started on the instruction manual for memory upgrades and have some random questions.

Can anyone point me at a datasheet for the MK1/MK2 memory chips (the ones that Hugo claims to have thousands of!). They are 1Mx16 TSOP-42.

Does anyone have a nice hi-res, in-focus image of either the chips for the MK1/MK2 or the MK2a before installation (ideally on a pale background)?

Does anyone have any installation images and boot-up logs for a MK1?

Many thanks,

I have the datasheet. If you would like, we can take pics of the memory chips and an MK2A before installation. The camera is a 12 MP S2 SLR with a dedicated macro lens. E-mail me if interested.

Stu

Well, that's really a 6mp by anyone's count other than Fuji's. Still more than good enough for a <1mp web pic.

Cheers!

Actually resolution tests put in at about 9 MPs.

Stu

How goes the manual?! =]

Hey man, no rush. I was just curious because i'm about to have a go at it... or send it to someone depending on how difficult your how-to looks! =]

Thanks again for doing it at all!

Today I decided to upgrade another of my Mk2a players to 32MB RAM by stacking a chip on top of each of the two existing chips. My eyesight is not as sharp as it once was, and my memory definitely isn't!

I put the two chips on using the ultra-fine 0.1mm tip on the soldering iron. BIG mistake. That tip is way too small to hold sufficient heat or sufficient solder. After fussing for a while trying to get the new chips to pass the memory test, I clued in and put the 1/32" tip on the iron instead, and then re-soldered all of the pins. Worked first try after that!

One useful thing I saw while fussing around during the non-functional stage, was that the Hijack memory test has had a slight bug. I got this message and the player continued without recognizing the extra RAM:

So.. it wrote ffffffff and read ffffffff.. but still failed the test? BUG! Hijack wasn't caching the readback value for use in the error message, so when printing the wrote/read message it actually read it AGAIN.. getting the correct value after first having read an incorrect value. So I've fixed that now (Hijack v525 will be out shortly), and also added the missing mb() memory barrier there too.

So.. anyone else doing a new memory upgrade would be best served to have Hijack v525 installed before doing the upgrade.

Cheers!

Thusly encouraged, and still having a few more RAM chips in the box, I decided to tackle yet another memory upgrade while the technique was fresh in mind.

For some reason, this time I had more trouble straightening the pins on one of the two chips, but managed it after 10 extra minutes of fussing. The soldering went well (using the 1/32" tip this time!), and I hooked up the RAS1 line to the SA1100 and powered it on.

Nothing. Nada. Well, okay, blue LED at rear of player was lit, but nothing at all on the serial port.

20 minutes of panic and stuff later, and I finally touched up the solder on the SA1100 pins around the recently freed RAS1 pin. Success! Must have removed too much solder when lifting that pin. 90 minutes in all this time.

Maybe I'll stop now that I'm "ahead" (whatever that means).

My preferred tip for a job like this is a knife tip:

https://www.hakko.com/english/tip_selection/type_k.html

Put lots of flux on the pins and drag solder like you're soldering a LQFP to a PCB. Just make sure you get rid of the flux when you're done.

It doesn't look like there's any non-washable parts on the motherboard so don't be afraid of giving it a good soak in alcohol.

Another user was asking me for instructions on doing the memory upgrade, and I have pointed him back to this thread here.

But for some reason, I was unable to find a link to Stu's excellent Memory Stacking guide that he had on his Eutronix site.

So.. attaching it here now.