128 Mb Memory Upgrade

[guylhem]

Hello

[crossposted to the C3000 forum]

Now I have a better understanding on hardware memory upgrades - good & bad news.

The bad news: the memory stick I opened was a 8 Mb TSOP40 (bad luck - it must be TSOP48 to be hardware compatible. Anyone feel likes opening his 128Mb memory stick and count memory chip pins to check if he/she's more lucky?)

The good news: with the chineese forum pics I could validate my ideas. See the following pics: the samsung chip is k9f2808u0c - google for that and you'll see the size matches the flash, and it is tsop48

http://photos6.flickr.com/7220607_3ed74e94a9_b.jpg
http://photos6.flickr.com/7220663_87696a44e5_b.jpg

Even better- noticed the empty spot below? You can solder a second tsop48 chip. However this may require additional hardware hacks + kernel changes to activate the 2nd bank.

My suggestion to anyone with good soldering skills and a C3000 : purchase a 128 Mb memory stick and (hopefully) find a 128 Mb nand chip inside. Transplant it to your Zaurus. It will be empty, so you will have to go to the diagnostic menu. Then restore a 128 Mb dump from a C1000 - voila, you know have a super 3000. The same should apply to any zaurus also using TSOP 48 chips.

The big question is - will it work (boot, etc.) ? Good question, so I investigated the boot loader from my 6000.

http://externe.net/zaurus/flash/nand/parts/6000L/boot.bin

The bad news: I may or may not do with a tc58100 - the bootloader just doesn't know it. Ie - it may work, but I don't want to take risk (my soldering skills are not that good to risk my zaurus life twice)

The good news: A Toshiba TC58DVG02AFT or a Samsung K9K1G08U0M are recognised by the bootloader (the default chip is TC58512FT or K9F1208U0M on a 6000, ie a 64 Mb/512MB chip)

For a Sl6000, this would require 1) flashing the rescue kernel with a special kernel that will know the flash is a 128 Mb 2) doing a nandbackup, exploding the nandbackup, increasing its size to 128 Mb 3) doing the above mentionned hack, only with a Toshiba TC58DVG02AFT or a Samsung K9K1G08U0M 4) restoring the hacked nandbackup 5) booting in the rescue kernel to reformat the 2nd partition and install an identical 1st kernel

See http://www.externe.net/zaurus/flash/nandmap.jpg for kernel informations.

All this sounds like a cool hack. Now someone please find me the chips (call toshiba USA - http://www.toshiba.com/taec/ I'm in France :-) I'm ready to get a Cxxxx just for the hacking purpose :-)

[adf]

will give it a shot this week.



One of my disks (the one mounteed at /home) is having fits. have to do a lot of   partimage and ddrescue stuff to get back in working order. --kinda time consuming.
did you say one of those chips was a 512MB?

at any rate a 128 (or better) 6k would be very nice.

[guylhem]

512 MB means 64 Mb - that's what's used by default on the 6000.

Tried to look for nand chips - no luck. My local shop doesn't have 128 Mb usb keys anymore. Looked for transparent memory sticks (easier than cutting it open) - Samsung 128 Mb, but with a different memory organisation :-/ Borrowed a friend USB key - Samsung 128 Mb, but with a different memory organisation :-/

No luck in finding a K9K1 so far, or a toshiba. So please keep me informed of your toshiba contact..

[adf]

have you looked at pricewatch.com?  they have links to a huge number of vendors...

[guylhem]

I tried everything. If you can find them, I'm ready to give it a try. I'll practice on a 5500.

[adf]

The downside of being in AK. other than big whover-they-are-USA (like toshiba) stuff, and ebusinesses.. there isn't much here

[BarryW]

The downside of being in AK. other than big whover-they-are-USA (like toshiba) stuff, and ebusinesses.. there isn't much here
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I never noticed you were up here too!  Or maby I did and forgot...  

[BarryW]

I tried everything. If you can find them, I'm ready to give it a try. I'll practice on a 5500.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=75983\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Are you talking anout the rectangular memory chips or the square Sharp chips??  I tried doing the memory upgrade thing on my old iPaq, didn't go so well.   My wife walked in the room and I didn't hear her.  Anyway when she said someting I jumped and ripped all the traces off the board.  

[guylhem]

Sorry for your ipaq :-(

Yes I'm talking about rectangular nand chips.  Here's a PM reply I sent about how to proceed and other possible upgrades.

IIRC, there're 4 slots for RAM with only 2 being used, and 2 for flash with only 1 being used.

Possible safe defaults is 128 Mb of RAM using the same chips and 256 Mb of flash using different chips. A maximum is 256 Mb of RAM and 128 Mb of flash. I'm much more interested in flash and  I'd rather have one upgrade working than 2 pendings, but RAM could be done too later on.

-------

The diagnostic menu is not there but on a separate chip so it should work fine. However you don't need a TH58100FT but a  Toshiba TC58DVG02AFT or a Samsung K9K1G08U0M. Other chips might work but I'm far from sure. These 2 chips are mentionned in the bootloader and diagnostic so I'm quite sure they should work well, and I'd prefer being on the safe side.

How much do a TC58DVG02AFT cost ? (could I pay you to get one for me ? I'm really interested in the upgrade too.)

Would you like to perform the upgrade yourself ? You only need good soldering abilities to remove the old chip and make the new one work.

I can guide you though the software part.

Theorically you could use 2x 128 chips at once (not sure about 1x128 1x64), but that may require additional hardware and software modifications. I'm ok on the software side, but I'm not sure for the hardware. I'll have to ask some friends.

If the chips are cheap (they should cost around $20 each) it's worth soldering 2x 128 anyway. In the worst  case, one will not work, without causing any damage. In the best case, 256 Mb of flash will work immediately. Inbetween, it will require soldering 1 single wire to activate the 2nd bank.

[gab74]

i see TH58100FT is the same of TC58DVG02A1FT... so is there a way to hack bootloader and using this chip

[guylhem]

hacking the bootloader is no easy game, especially if you don't know arm asm :-)

It may require some days of work. Trying the TH58100FT chip first and see whether nand restore works in what should be done. If it doesn't work, end of the game. If it does, I'll see the bootloader.

[technojunkie]

Just a suggestion as I was contemplating a RAM upgrade for my 5500 a year or so ago. Go to your local community college or university as many of them have SMT labs, and ppl knowledgeable enough to help you out, or even do it for you. I talked to a EE that was working on CompSci too and said he would do it for me just for the chance to play with it. Unfortunately my limited knowledge of memory chips and manufacturers prevented me from obtaining the chips I needed to perform the upgrade.

[guylhem]

If you're in the us toshiba sometimes offers samples - contact them.

[craigtyson]

Erm guys...... As an electronics engineer I have to say I wouldnt even think of this without a full micro electronics lab to hand.  Surface mount components are not only soldered they are glued to the pcb.  This means when you desolder the chip the flux and glue usualy  keeps it stuck to the board.  The danger is then that you habe to apply more heat to unstick it and this usualy results in damaging the pcb and surounding components.  I gave up on out of lab pcb repairs on PCs about 1995 for this reason as the sucess rate was getting lower and lower as the componant density increased.

[zipmaster]

any news on this it sounds exciting. the only chip suppliers, after a quick google search, i found wanted you to buy at least 200 dollars of chips.