2.5 Gigs of RAM?

Break the vcc connections.

 

Never ever break the legs on a surface mount chip. For one, you could damage the chip. You could also lift the trace from the board. You could slip with the pliers or what ever and damage other traces/components. And lastly, if you ever want to go back or it does not work, you have to deal with all the above issues. I used to fix PCB's and let me tell you, it is not easy.

The only proper way to do it would be to desolder the chips from the motherboard. This can be done with a hot-air re-work station (not cheap) or with "tweezer" solder station. If you have never done it before, hot air can blow other components off or burn traces and the MB. Tweezers, if not used properly can also lift traces very easily.

As for "shorting the pins. There is voltage going to the chips. There is data running through legs. By shorting the legs you would solder w ire from one leg to another. I would never suggest this unless it is well documented. If you try it yourself you could drop solder on the MB or form a bridge on legs not wanted. Regardless, "shorting" could also be dangerous, as I said there is voltage going to the memory, if you short pins, where is that voltage going?

Regardless, I am still researching the removal of the on-board chips. With the equipment I have it will be a simple task for me to remove and resolder if need be. The questions I need answered are three fold. 1- Is the BIOS set to only accept 1gb per slot. If so then no sense removing them. 2- is there a controller built on the MB for the on-board chips? if there is, removing could render the MB useless and 3- can I upgrade the on-board chips to double capacity? If they are made I still wonder if there is an onboard controller. If so, it may only recognize the original size of 512 or again render the MB useless

So far I have found the the 945GME can take 4gb is the BIOS allows it. I believe someone on here has tried a 2gb stick already with no success. However, if I remove the onboard, it might work.

LOL, was that long enough for ya

As for anyone else trying this, unless you can do SMD rework, don't try it !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (if you do try it, I can fix it, for about the cost of a new netbook. So, why even try )

 

Well, the memory chips onboard are Samsung from what I see in a picture from tnkgrl. They are also BGA (Ball Grid Array) which means they cannot be removed. Well they can removed but for get putting them back on. BGA has little balls of solder under the chip. This give better conductivity then the legs on PSOP chips. So, you could remove the chips with a hot-air re-work station but again, forget about putting them back on. You can also forget about "shorting" or cutting anything. I will find a pic of BGA and post it so you can see what I mean.

As it seems, this should put the nail in the coffin with 2.5gb. I will probably buy a 2gb and a 1gb stick just to check with BIOS 3309, but I doubt it will take more then 1gb per "slot"

 

BGA


PSOP

 

Thank you garrettp for not BS-ing everyone else. I've been following this thread and I can't believe how many people are just repeating others without ever checking the facts (or the boards!). The chips are BGA (edit), so a regular soldering iron will not be able to remove the chip(s) without major risk of damage. Hot air pencil/rework station would be the way to REMOVE the chips. The traces are likely internal, so it is very dangerous to "cut the traces," and it looks like the VDD trace is unlikely found via a surface trace. I really wish I had a board file, it'd be a very simple check (2 mins).

Here is the datasheet for the ram modules for those interested, I've only taken a relatively cursory glance:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... omponent03

I think the best bet at the moment would be to remove the stock chips, and then use a 2GB module. This IS<-- physically possible with the current chipset, MSI Wind, EEE etc can use 2GB modules, the ONLY reason it should be not-possible is if the acer engineers went out of their way to limit each slot, which I would give 99% odds that they didn't.

I inspected the motherboard the last time I had my AAO open (to install touch screen), there are a pair of (i assume) differential traces running from each memory chip pair, I looked up the Atom datasheet, but didn't see the pins in question, I'm guessing it's actually the MCH that I'm looking at, but I didn't feel like disassembling my heatsink assembly. Can someone shoot me a quick picture of the naked bottom side of the board? I'd be happy to help proceed with this experiement (I'm an Electrical engineer at intel ).

I'd like to put in my vote of confidence that this is possible. I've been around the "netbook" scene for quite some time, I have hands on experience with the Lenovo S10 (bought for gf), MSI Wind (gf's bro has one), EEE 901 (original netbook that I had), EEE701 (still have it, but hate it), and now the AAO. I personally think that Acer could make it much easier and release a new BIOS for us, but as it stands, I believe a hardware hack is necessary that will involve cutting traces. I know that most people >90% will not have access to a hot air rework station. I'm still trying to locate one in the labs...

 

Electronics Eng. SWEET. I took some elec. classes and PLC. I am very good at trouble shooting and Extremely good at SMD work. My understanding of circuitry is above the average Joe but that is where it ends. So, no BS from me, just knowledge from what I like to learn.

I will probably take my AA1 apart tonight since I am tired of that fan whirring. I have the fan program but now my fan sounds like it is dirty and off balance. I will take 12mp pics of as much of the board as I can Probably 4 sections top and bottom. Below is a pic of what my little Canon can do I will post the links to the pics when I get them on my website.



here is one of an extremely small inductor

 

nice pics!
i hope this project will evolve to a more "average Joe" project becuase 2gb of ram is THAT " :mrgreen: " much better then 1.5gb
I dont mind some easy mod (touchscreen, upgrade ram to 1.5,...) but dont have any soldering equip. or the money to buy it "just for my aspire one" and i dont have weekends to spend on projects =[ (dam homework....)

 

Funny thing is, I have seen ppl post that the AA1's do not need more then 1gb. I don't know about you guys but I do photo editing with Coreldraw9 and autocad on my AA1, usually both running at the same time. I would love 2gb

I took tons of pics and have learned alot. The pics are large and plenty. I will host them on my website and they can be accessed in a directory probably manfunk.com/aa1 when I get around to it. I was setting up for a home show since 6am so I am pretty tired now

Will let you know when I get them up

 

Were you able to take apart the heatsink and get some pics of the bare cores? I just want to know the orientation. I found the datasheets for the MCH and the CPU, I want to check a hunch that I came up with last time I opened my AA1. I doubt it will pan out, but we'll see...

 

I am slowly uploading the pics. they are around 4-7meg each and 4000x3000. I usually setup a tripod but I was too tired last night .

they can be found at http://www.manfunk.com/pics/aa1 as the main directory. But give me some time as it take a while to upload all of them I have the pics somewhat labeled. There are a few chips that I do not know what they do so I just labeled them with their info.

You can see in the pics that the onboard ramm has control circuitry onboard as well.

 

K guys just an idea here.

There's an easier way than removing the ram chips. Each stick of ram has a controller that contains stuff like SPD timings.

So you could probably just disconnect the single controller chip to disable the onboard.


Another interesting thing though. When I use CPUZ on my AO it detects 2 slots but says one is empty. I have 1.5gb of ram in my AO so I find it odd that the onboard isnt' considered the 2nd slot. Not sure what that means (if anything) but its a tidbit of info that might shed light on whether this is possible or not.

 

I think disabling the onboard ramm is a mute point. If the second slot will take 2gb it should do so with or with out the onboard. I was hoping to replace the onboard chips with double capacity but being BGA I am not going to attempt that. I was also curious if the AA1 uses dual channel but with CPUZ it shows it does not. And CPUZ probably does not show SLOT0 since it is part of the MB and they probably do not have code for that written in the program .

Still uploading pic BTW

And with doing work on my gaming PC and check mem usage, I sure would like more in my AA1 since I use it for the same purpose.

 

AAO has a single channel memory controller.
The onboard ram (slot0 - detected by cpuz) are hynix chips.
(HMP164S6EFR6C or HYMP164S64CP6 or HYMP164S64CR6) 128MB per DRAM chip.
http://www.hynix.com/products/module/mo ... _NAME=DDR2 SDRAM&SUB_RAM=256MB&SUB_RAM1=512MB&SUB_RAM2=
The ddr2sodimm (slot 1 - detected by cpuz) is made by samsung.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... mly_id=112

 

the OEM memory in slot1 in my AA1 is made by Hynix . Kinda of nice to have the same memory manuf. in both slots

 

here's a pdf file explaining all of the types of ddr2 dram chips and the functions.
http://download.micron.com/pdf/technote ... TN4708.pdf

The onboard DRAM looks like 84-BGA chip (18mm*12.5mm)

on the pdf file page 13, it shows all the functions of each ball contact on the chip.

 

I love datasheets

BTW, I have added small pics of each file. So, you can open each small image to check if you really want to open the LARGE image .

 

Thanks for the pics garret, I'll crack open my AA1 next week sometime and test out my hunch.

I do think that removing or disabling the onboard RAM is necessary, others have already tried inserting 2gb modules and their computers don't work 100% with it in.

I know that the chipset can address and work fine with 2gb dimm in a single slot ala S10, EEE901, etc. Since the AAO BIOS (apparently) does not allow for automatic disabling of the onboard DIMMs, I think we have to remove the communication to the MCH or the power to the DIMMs. I posted a data sheet of the samsung chips that are on my AAO, I'm sure the pinouts are the same compared to your guys' hynix chips.

As an informal poll, would users rather cut traces on the motherboard, or do rework? Removing the chips is going to be out of reach for most users, but if we can find some "control circuitry" (which I don't expect there to be any) perhaps that is more easily reworked.

I'm hoping to find some AC Filtering caps or something similar, but my hunch requires trace cutting. (It's not a big deal, TBH)

 

For an average person, cutting a trace or two would not be the end of the world. We could take pics to be sure they are cutting the correct trace(s) and also make sure there is room for rework. Re work on cut traces is rather simple and either requires shaving off some of the formal coating to get to copper or simply running a wire from pin/pad to pin/pad.

Of course, before any attempt ppl have to know they may just make the AA1 unusable

Also, I guess I see what you are saying about 2gb. I was under the impression that each slot will only accept 1gb. But you are saying that 2gb total system may be the same thing with the onboard disabled.

With running video editing and some other apps on my main PC I was using 1.53gb of ram up out of 4gb total. I do the same work on my netbook rather then fire up my gaming rig. Someone once posted that you will never need more then 1gb on the AA1 but I am pretty sure that Windows allocates as much ramm as possible. And if there is more installed it will allocate as much of it as possible with some head room.

 

Yeah, I agree. Cutting a trace really isnt' a big deal, some people just fear the hardware mods

Yes, I firmly believe that each slot can handle (address, support) 2GB. I've heard from other discussions (when googling to see if anyone's fixed this problem yet) that only 1GB/ slot. However, owning an EEE901, working with other netbooks with virtually identical specs, I know that 2GB can be used via 1 slot. (They also have 512 onboard, and run a 2GB stick fine)

I hear you on more demanding apps, even if I'm only gaining 512mb, it'll make a difference, albeit small when photoshopping large RAW files. Firefox isn't exactly an angel on mem, either

I'll keep an eye on this thread, if we figure out something interesting, perhaps we can start a new one with our findings

 

I checked the specs for the Hynix chip.
It's 84ball BGA
the ball position are marked with white text on the motherboard as you can see from this picture:
http://www.manfunk.com/pics/aa1/oram0.jpg

Based on the micron ddr2 data sheet (84 ball BGA design)
To cut power for a specific chip, you need to cut these traces
A1 E1 J9 M9 R1 A9 E9 G1 G3 G7 G9 C1 C3 C7 C9 B2 B8 D2 D8 J2 A3 E3 J3 N1P9 J1 J7 F2 F8 E7 H2 H8
The above ball location will cut off all power trace.

Though...not all traces above needs to be cut in order to disable the DRAM. Only the first 5 ball contacts are VDD. Cutting traces for VDD might be enough to disable the chip.