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A Tale of 4 Ram Chips. 128mb - Ape Vs Tech.


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Friday night i got home excited to try a ram upgrade

have a perfect V1.1 in a crystal case, what could be better

soft modded, unlocked the TSOP, flashed x25035 using hexen, swapped in a big sata drive/80wire ide/ installed XBMC as dash, smooth sailing...

So i had purchased a set of chips from utsource about 4 weeks ago and when they got here i only had 3 chips... checked my invoice and realized i had ordered and paid for 3 chips... bummer

So in haste i ordered 5 more from an ebay seller in the states... i had ordered  K4D623238F-QC50

Got all 5

I installed 4 of them after the TSOP (in the same night) not realizing this is a 512K chip and the XBOX needs the 1M

all the way up to the 4th i was getting orange and red flashing.... good sign, diligent with continuity tester

on the 4th it was clear something was wrong... i went to bed frustrated with a few unknowns.

 

Got back at it and installed the 3 utsource chips in place of the 512's, when i had all 3 in with 4 still being installed i realized at flashing orange and red the eject button would boot the X2 bios??? what sorcery is this.

The ram wasnt being recognized but it prompted me to consider XBLAST (which i was vaguely aware of)  seeing as i had access to HDD/FTP from dash
https://bitbucket.org/psyko_chewbacca/lpcmod_os/downloads/

Found the xbe version, booted from XBMC and actually had a success on 1/4.. now im feeling ok.

Re-flow the other 3 (XBLAST has a diagram entailing which chip is which so you can refrence their test screen)
 

now i've got 3/4 testing positive. very excitedly I open up another xbox i use and harvest a chip (hell i can replace it another time!!!!)

Well, the removal goes spotty at best and by the time ive lined up the pins and got the soldering done one of the corner pins breaks off while im trying to make a small adjustment.... angry i take it off the board.... lift a pad.... now you've ruined a wonderful console, and have 3 chips to remove and not enough supplies to outfit anything with an upgrade. remove yourself from the situation, breathe deep and take a nap.

luck is funny.

http://pdf.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheet/SamsungElectronic/mXxqxqv.pdf

After examining the pinout of the chip i realized the center pins of the right and left side are named N.C..... what could that be? is it possible thats pin for the pad that lifted??
Ii find another datasheet that explains the definition of N.C as "reserved for future revisions" otherwise: This pin doesnt get used right now... WHAT!!?!?!?!

 

Sure enough the lifted pad is N.C on the pinout diagram

Just yonder a warm optimism drags me back into the basement.

 

Now focused, rested, and caffeinated i go to work at harvesting another IC from the 1.4. a fantastic removal, straight pins and all.

Get the chip down with no hiccups and wearily stare at that grey pin on a brown backdrop (lifted pad)

all back together XBLAST reports 4 success'

victory is sweet

XBMC sees it, Virtual Cop 3 boots....

YES!!!

 

Despite so many stupid mistakes it worked!
But its not all roses i wasted 30 bucks on 5 ic's i will never use and also the fact my 1.4 is now in limbo.

so i can either replace the 2 and call it a day..... or...... order 6 and spend another 12 hours hunched over a 17 year old game console..... i think i'll take the latter.

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  • 4 weeks later...
21 minutes ago, Alpha Mendes said:

Ótimo trabalho amigo B|

thank you alpha mendes,

now that i've re-installed ram on the board i robbed the chips from i've found this procedure alot more straight forward.

with; new chips, lots of flux, some desoldering braid, a copy of xblast, and a couple hour i could likely have one complete. barring any surprises of course. and they are bound to happen.
 

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  • 2 months later...
4 hours ago, big F said:

I have some chips waiting for me to get round to it at some point.

its a great feeling to get it working.

 

the experience is marginally better. but its still alot of fun.
i need to find more time to catalogue exactly everything the 128 can do that the 64 cannot.

 

id also like to do this with the 1.4ghz upgrade soon as well.
the information on that upgrade doesnt seem to be at all public and i dont have the level of commitment to get there on my own.

 

if reality wasnt real id already have a 1.4ghz console here, but reality is real and 400 dollars around my house does not get spent on an xbox with 2 miniature versions of me present. I earn a living that a college dropout should be damn thankful to be earning...... a long way of saying its not in the budget for the next little while. so i am praying to the xbox gods that the talent that produces these stays available and interested. N64 Freak, i see you.

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