Upgrading Apple Silicon Soldered SSDs

[@SalemTechsperts]

You are quite literally The Greatest Technician That's Ever Lived. Every new video blows my mind. Keep up this awesome work.

[@pingtime]

My man is literally handing down the crown 🤣

[@jrr851]

Wait. Isn't that Rossmann? J/k. Nice to see you here.

[@EpiqueGamerBeaux]

Didn't expect ya to be here 😅

[@cgi2173]

But there weren't any pubes in that M1. 😂😂😂😂

[@tobiaspauli]

nah you will always be *The Greatest Technician That's Ever Lived* 😂

[@Justpippen1]

It's awful realizing that this is what you need to do to simply upgrade or replace a broken drive, but simultaneously, it's pretty amazing to see. Thanks.

[@Alster763]

Yeah that is a lot of work.

[@rob9949]

Probably way to risky for upgrading but if its broken its worth it I guess

[@0netom]

well, that's how modern electronics are made. not super different from how it was done in the 80s 90s, just things got a looooot smaller, so u need a strong magnifier and steadier hands.

[@DarthVader1977]

@@rob9949 too*

[@1fareast14]

wait till apple starts pairing these, shutting down even a labor-intensive upgrade

[@artisan002]

I love how many times you've said, "All we need to do..." There is no way I would ever consider any of these steps as an "all you need to do" event. LOL!

[@Twikkilol]

Apple: We want to be more sustainable as a company Also Apple: Lets make machines with 128gb of disk.

[@cartorius]

lets sell laptops that have parts that fail and can't be replaced soldered to the board to sell more products more often!

[@CertufiedTeacher]

Estimated Trade In Value: Worthless “We’ll recycle it for you to help the environment, just give it to us for free and buy yourself a $3,000 new Mac”

[@DarthVader1977]

"128gb of disk"? Who talks like this?

[@DarthVader1977]

@@cartorius It CAN be replaced, did you watch the video?

[@cartorius]

@@DarthVader1977 yeah dude that’s a wild amount of fucking around.. use to be a simple upgrade.. that’s not meant to be done. And with M.2 there’s no excuse for it.

[@mrtoastyman07]

As someone who has dabbled in far less sophisticated soldering adventures - this was a complete and utter slap in the face, you made that look so trivial and easy that I want to throw out all my soldering gear and take up gardening. Breathtaking from start to finish - a true master displaying his craft. For most people removing bga chips is already risky and error prone, you just did it x4 and x2 of those times were just to show us that it wasn't going to work! plus 40 tiny SMD components?? Black. Effin. Magic.

[@willm5032]

It is criminal that you have to do this to upgrade/repair storage on M series macs, but I love that you're showing how to do it! Your Catalina patcher kept 2 of my old macs going for ungodly amounts of time too hahah

[@sssloe]

I absolutely loathe resistor work on machines with not populated pads. Hats off to a pretty neat resistor work! Looking forward to 315 upgrades!

[@NovaPolitte]

I love the mad scientist energy of nonchalantly using a Frankenstein G4 iMac/M1 Mac Mini because it's the closest Mac at hand.

[@johnmartin1024]

Dear Collin, You have just made my day, my week, and my year. It IS UNDERSTANDABLE, I get why people say "it is soldered in - impossible to upgrade the storage" on this machine. And talking to myself, I go "well, exactly, how do they do it at the manufacturing plant where these computers are made?". Thank you so much. Challenging . . . yes, Difficult . . . yes. But possible? Definitely. You have definitely shown that, with the right tools, skills, schematics, etc., that even the latest, most modern computers . . . can move beyond 128GB. Lovely, lovely, video. Thank you so much. John M. 😄👍

[@micleh]

Great work! If only Apple or their authorized resellers were that adept. My local authorized reseller wasn't even able to diagnose why my MacBook Air didn't turn on and just claimed it was a water damage.

[@mevideym]

Authorized repair shops are not allowed to do this kind of work because it's hurting Apple's business model

[@00bikeboy]

I can't believe I watched this whole video, but for some reason I couldn't stop.

[@keithposter5543]

Exactly the same here 😆

[@bepriceless]

Same. In the beginning, I thought maybe I'd learn something.

[@rokr0001]

The skill you possess to make this happen is incredible. The fact that this level of skill is necessary to replace the single component most likely to fail should, I think, be criminal globally.

[@carolinadreamer6689]

Hands down the most interesting and detailed SMD video on Apple products. There are 2 areas where you got extremely lucky with this project. First, the single Nand board came with all internal traces and Via's intact to power and operate both installed chips. Second, Bios on the board was not locked down to prevent hardware "upgrades" even in this extreme use case. Kudos to you and your craftsmanship

[@lucasn0tch]

You really are more innovative than Apple claims to be. Much respect to you.

[@ToTheGAMES]

Didn't know apple claimed dosdude1 was innovative at all! TIL /s

[@benNdaKen]

what exactly does ur comment mean? apple created the boards and layouts etc. how is he more innovative than apple by just populating them to install the 2nd nand???

[@s8wc3]

@@benNdaKen He just is that much of a gigachad

[@Koushi82]

​@@benNdaKen because he out maneuvered apple beta simp move

[@InfoDav]

I wanted to give this a try for a while now, and I decided to try it today. Everything went very smooth, and it worked out of the gate. Thank you for the guide. I feel slightly less a beginner in microsoldering now :)

[@sasuke65743]

I'd like to learn to solder as well but i have no idea how much it will cost me between toold and where and what should i get to exercise on

[@bigtitmaster]

@@sasuke65743tools would be a couple hundred but for exercise you can get locked iPhone motherboards which are so cheap they’re sold by the 10

[@harkanwarboparai3877]

gotta applaud the effort it took to make this video, from not only showing the entire soldering process to desoldering the chips and programming them, must have taken a lot of time and hard work. You're amazing at what you do

[@sigcrazy7]

Here I am dreading a recap of my SE/30, and you are doing this level of work. You are a god among mere mortals.

[@eph_kni]

absolutely unreal --- you've inspired me to go deeper as a technician. thank you for sharing all of this in such a clear manner. it's hugely appreciated

[@fisshuman]

I don't know why but everytime I hear "Alright" or "As you can see here" give me so much vibe. Really satisfying.

[@mschwage]

This was epic. The best of KZbin. What a wonder. I could only imagine this sort of resource back in the 70s when I got started in electronics.

[@sambramann]

it's nice to see Apple going in the direction it's going with regard to making their products highly serviceable by the average consumer!

[@mackit]

Lol!

[@bigbubba0439]

Hey dosdude! I can confirm that the 128 gig configuration of the M1 Air is real, as my school gives them to the students (I'm typing this comment on it now). I can also confirm that 128 gigs of storage (115 usable, not including preboot, vm, macos, "system data", and school bloatware) is way worse than it even sounds. Ever since my first year of owning this computer, I have been CONSTANTLY running out of storage. It really has infuriated me to no end, especially with MacOS' beyond terrible storage management. It has been a massive headache, and the worst part is that the school made this decision, despite my parents completely paying for the computer (and they would be more than willing to pay a bit more for me to have gotten an actually usable storage configuration, but because they're soldered, there's nothing we can do). Thanks for sticking it to Apple one soldered SSD at a time! Edit: I also forgot to mention that using BlackMagic Disk Speed Test, the speed of the SSD is halved, so it has only about 1500 megabyte per second for read and write, instead of the normal M1 3000

[@dosdude1]

Well, if it's paid for and not the school's property any longer, you can upgrade it. May be worth it. Paying someone like me to do the 2TB upgrade costs less than buying the 1TB config straight from Apple when ordering the machine new.

[@robbyhoff8850]

@@dosdude1 have you done upgrades on Mac Studio? Currently running a late 2013 iMac, but know it's only a matter of time before it'll need replacement, and most likely will upgrade to a base M2 Max. Just hate to spend the ridiculous money on upgrading from the base 512 MB to 1TB.

[@lopesmorrenofim]

@@dosdude1 what is the price range on an upgrade like this? just for curiosity sake

[@vueport99]

@@lopesmorrenofim yes! how much would it cost to bump it up to 1TB?

[@rostyc]

@@robbyhoff8850 Mac Studio SSD isn't soldered

[@motheroats]

I love this kind of rebellious content. Like no Apple, you don’t rule the world 💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻

[@mrgrumpy888]

How I miss my original unibody Macbook Pro... Not only it was ridiculous easy to open up and upgrade/replace ram and storage but you could even get rid of the optical drive and put another storage drive in its place. How did we go from that to this mess?

[@HNedel]

Apparently that’s „progress“ and being „bold“ 🙄

[@flashbak01]

Tim Cook

[@pankoza2]

and it wasn't a glorified mobile phone/Raspberry Pi 🤣😂😅😆

[@cheesymogul]

Yes, even a fool like myself has done a memory and SDD update on my 2012 Macbook Pro in 10 minutes max. This machines were close to the absolute King of Mac upgradability the Mac Pro 5,1

[@Roger__Wilco]

I'm watching this on my desktop PC, I think it's secretly judging and laughing at the video in the background lol

[@jaym5938]

Shows Apple's contempt for education. Thanks for being an amazing innovator - one that is actually beneficial to all of us.

[@Premier1sky]

15:15 i don't understand why you not using low melt solder??? 21:50 why you're not using hot twizer to remove and solder the small component???

[@iiidiy]

Really great breakdown of the process! Glad there are people brave enough to do this. I watched iBoffRCC's video about replacing NAND chips on all the M1 variations (Max, Pro, plain) and it seems like a huge mess. I'm so disappointed in the state of modern Apple hardware upgradability... but love the end-results and software. Anyways, please keep pushing the limits & sharing the knowledge! Hopefully I can afford to hire you for this when my machine is out of warranty :)

[@tony359]

What you do on these videos is simply mind-blowing!

[@0netom]

in Hungary we call this kind of work cricket castration :)

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

Hope to see this done on M2 Pro/M2 Max in the near future

[@dosdude1]

I still need to experiment with those, of course I'll make another video when I do.

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

@@dosdude1Awesome!

[@dePonce]

this is by far the best video explanation of this complex process i’ve seen in two years of watching similar videos … the tech gods have smiled on you … if i had a need for an upgrade, i would not hesitate to send it to you for some of that tech voodoo you do so well … just take my money already …🤯

[@danwaterloo3549]

Totally awesome! Not sure how you learned all of this… you are very talented

[@midphase]

I've been waiting for this since the Luke Miani video were you guys upgraded the Mac Mini.....thank you!!!!!

[@JeremyGreysmark]

What an interesting video! I think in the future I might actually attempt this on a broken board to practice! Thanks for sharing!

[@christopherleubner6633]

Been fixing stuff for decades and this looks very challenging. Looks like they REALLY wanted to force buying a new machine😳 Well done ❤

[@IIdankII]

Love to see youre still around and showing off your experiments! Huge fan as always.

[@MaxOakland]

This is amazing. I never thought I’d see the day when it was possible

[@lucidinterval008]

This is awesome! Guy has serious soldering skills!

[@JorgeFixorDestroy]

This is the first video I’ve seen about you and your work, but I have to say its so awesome, very thanks I learned a lot

[@TealTechie]

Always very interesting videos with amazing skills. Thanks!

[@D.u.d.e.r]

This is seriously amazing👍Your persistence is exemplary and int the u r rewarded with making it work, awesome! This is another reason why soldered and non modular systems r pain in the ass for users and have huge impact on the environment through e-waste. Soldered on package RAM like with all Mx processors makes sense, however u could argue there could be a special upgrade high performance slot as well (not inefficient SODIMM). However when it comes to the SSD storage it's inexcusable that M.2 upgrade slot isn't available besides soldered NAND modules. Especially when speeds of their soldered SSD is sometimes even lower than the current gen M.2 PCIE speed. Even consoles which r used for one thing only like PS and partially Xbox as well have modular and upgradeable storage. Apple should finally stand behind their claim of making their Mac machines green and environmentally sustainable by making them first and foremost as much as MODULAR as possible!

[@mikecrane2782]

Great to watch, your skillset & knowledge levels are massive bud. There's no way I or most normal folks could do this, kudos again, absolutely awesome.

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

That's a great achievement. Lacking your skills, I opted for a different solution to my upgrading needs. (I got a Framework.)

[@josephfarrugia2350]

I love that concept of a Framework laptop: the antithesis of a modern MBP! What config did you get, and how is it running?

[@jamesross3939]

Wow!! Simply amazing. No magnification ... got to have perfect eyesight!

[@themegaroadproject3014]

You are a mad scientist in the best way. Watching your videos inspire me to do more

[@themegaroadproject3014]

Is it possible for you to upgrade a macbook pro m3 max 48 gig memory?

[@evanmair]

Just wanted to share that I sent my Macbook Air M1 to DosDude's team and they performed the upgrade to 2TB in no-time and it is amazing. Saved $500 from the Apple cost for that model.

[@xo_you_know9983]

How much did the upgrade cost?

[@evanmair]

$200 + cost of the NANDs ($100)

[@xo_you_know9983]

@@evanmair thanks for replying 🙏🏼

[@pixelsandprayer]

@@evanmair well worth it, good to know!

[@josemedeiros007]

Excellent video and tutorial Collin, I am amazed as to your knowledge and skill!

[@dplj4428]

Saw your mac mini m1 upgrade to 2 TByte with Luke M. This laptop is a whole other beast with need to add so many other components on the flipside. 7:26

[@Bl0ckHe1d]

Great evidence of Apples planned obsolescence… An amazing video, thanks for sharing although not sure I’d ever do something like this as I do have have the patience for soldering. Also noted the irony where a Windows software is required to update the NAND!

[@gametime2473]

Wow, didn't know you had a youtube channel. You are a legend! Thanks for all the MacOS patches!

[@Vili69420]

Hey, dosdude1 , I wonder if its possible to upgrade the RAM of those devices as well? Or its going to be really tricky since the ram is already on an interposer.

[@matthewcarlson5885]

Howdy, the ram is integrated on the SOC using a system in package technique. So not on die but pretty close. I haven’t seen someone swap the SOC yet but I think it’s possible.

[@Vili69420]

@@matthewcarlson5885 bro i said the same thing in my comment that its on an interposer next to the soc

[@JRis44]

Wow if i ever need to work on an apple laptop ill make sure to come to this channel. Ill have to order myself an underfill removal tool to add to the bag also. great video man.

[@unitedastronomer]

i hate u sm ur voice is so soothing that i literally cant stop binge watching your videos 😭

[@RyanRRodriguez]

I wonder what happens on a icloud locked device if the chips are swapped. Would it still be locked?

[@pnketia]

Wow! Much respect to you for this upgrade! This is next level stuff!

[@evheniydan]

Wow. I’m not a technician but casually interested in this kind of stuff and it amazes me how easy and effortlessly you’ve done this! True master. P.S. Why the hell the process of upgrading your storage in 2024 should be so complicated… But that’s another question to Apple.

[@lifeisgreat4270]

$$$$ profit , greed

[@Indrid__Cold]

The same reason you won't find a micro SD card slot on any iPad. Ever.

[@BobSandifer_Mastering]

I was literally getting ready to move back to a PC for my business when I found your channel. Thank God for people like you. 🔥🤙 Apple has turned into an a-hole when it comes to this crap.

[@gabemgoodman]

Thanks for your hard work and sharing with us all!

[@fritsonpetitfrere9038]

Thanks for sharing. Your content is amazing. We need more content like this on KZbin.

[@SidneyCritic]

You can use free OBS to do screen/window recordings for a clearer picture - you'll need a mic or you can phone record at the same time and strip the audio off that. With GPU VRAM pads can look fine but are broken, maybe see if any pads fall off that faulty memory. Good job with the swap.

[@Ozzie4Para]

This guy has some serious skills. There's no way I could do that kind of soldering.

[@JohnSmith-qy1wm]

Amazing work. It's infuriating that this process is so complex.

[@MikeChanthara]

Reminds me of back in the days... configuring interrupts on a 28.8k modem to my PC to get stuff to not conflict and work or flipping some DIP swithches.. would've it have killed Apple to just put a NVME slot on their Mboard?

[@hbarcellos76]

Congratulations for the amazing content and god-level technical skills. Quick question: Is it possible also to upgrade the RAM?

[@StewartWhaley]

I would think no since the memory is built into the M1 processor.

[@thegeforce6625]

@@StewartWhaleyit is upgradable actually, it’s on the same physical package as the Mx SOC

[@StewartWhaley]

@@thegeforce6625 But they are upgrading the SSD. The "ram" is part of the Mx processor so wouldn't you/they have to upgrade/purchase an upgraded Mx processor [which Apple is not going to sell you]?

[@AK2I47]

I thought Rewa was only on the next level but this guy is leveled up

[@thor_]

Just the classic imac itself warrants a thumbs up!

[@dandan1364]

I love the detail and deep dive. Couldn’t follow why you can’t do this for the M1 Pro max or m2 pro or max.

[@dosdude1]

You can, but it is more involved, as those models have up to 8 NANDs installed instead of only two. Will be covered in another video.

[@margingalaxy9826]

You are a new generation hero 🦸🏼‍♂️ dude ❤️

[@Vandervak]

That was amazing dude, absolutely out of this world. Thanks for this video!

[@firesnake6311]

Awesome, it would be interesting to see upgrading m series Ram

[@enriqueentiquez3202]

Felicitaciones por el video y el trabajo que hiciste. Un saludo desde Perú

[@walkinnottalkin]

how much do you charge for this upgrade?

[@thegeforce6625]

He said in another comment that he charges around $200-300

[@songsan807]

The first macbook I got was the 2008 Aluminum. It is beautiful outside and when you open the inside. To add more more ram just open the bottom which don't even need screws and put more memory in. I upgrade the 120GB hard drive first to a 250 GB then a year later to a 1TB but just open the bottom and put the rails on the new drive and screw one screw back in. After watching this video, I don't really want to upgrade an M series macbook this way just for more memory or disk space. Crazy.

[@Mikomanus]

oh those 0201 are a nightmare for me. Great job as always

[@izzzzzz6]

Great research and the right tools to get the job done! Patience and persistence!

[@DJRatAttack]

This may not be possible but it's a thought that I just had would it be possible to make a separate breakout NAND board where you can put more than one NAND on it to increase the storage double if not triple the amount

[@dosdude1]

No, as each NAND has its own PCIe lane used to connect it to the SOC. These are not like normal NANDs where you have CE lines and can put a number of them on the same bus.

[@DJRatAttack]

@dosdude1 makes sense. Thank you for the input it was worth the ask, though

[@chrisdunderdale]

I’d love to see a repair on the 2013 Mac Pro D300-700 graphics boards. Also, as always, incredible work.

[@Cevheroglu]

Another great video. Appreciate the attention to detail. Well, I will probably never be going to perform such upgrade, but I enjoyed watching it nonetheless.

[@wandamcgann7728]

dosdude1 your amazing!! love your videos

[@tk2x]

After watching half of this, I would happily pay you whatever your rate is to do this work for me :)

[@maxmouse3]

Absolutely amazing. Too bad it's so much work to do it but it's great to see you doing it and showing it do the world!

[@jedics1]

I really love my M1Air so to know that Apple soldered ssd's that have a finite life to a machine that could easily have a decade life span otherwise angers me. The obvious question is how many people are there in the world who would be able to do this at a price that remotely makes sense and are in Australia :) Thanks for the video, I hope this becomes an option for millions of macbooks in the future.

[@intensegamer7559]

This tutorial is very helpful - also for average customers in terms of clarifying the fact that they are way better off paying Apple handsomely for SSD upgrades instead of trying this.

[@amalgeorge6877]

I'm out here wondering if the same is possible for smartphones? The markup for storage on those are crazy as well

[@FSK1138]

is there a way to add a connector for a standard m.2 ssd ? that would be a great upgrade 😉

[@ms1-Alex]

It would be amazing

[@nofi4]

yeah that was not sooo heavy, i've done that procedure on a bus ride on a buggy road with just my hands and the power of the sun. It did the job. Amazing.

[@Tigerex966]

Is there a kit i can buy to do this.

[@norules7142]

Can i boot into using only the logic board and external display . No battery, keyboard , touchpad, display . Only with the logic board and external display will it turn on ?

[@alexeinars]

Is it possible to perform a similar upgrade but for the memory chips?

[@dosdude1]

Yes, but unfortunately I can't find the necessary chips for sale anywhere.

[@BloodyHeartRo]

@dosdude1 very good tutorial. where did you found to download schematics? Where can I buy nands and programmer?

[@ryanreedgibson]

Please tell me this laptop manufacture date is 2000. Many of the lowest end cell phones come with a minimum 128Gb. I would hate to see the rest of the specs.

[@manickbarry]

20:08 you should print out a photo of that section and then lay out the components on the photo

[@inwerp]

one small correction, only first channel needs a blank chip since sysconfig is only stored on one nand.

[@flashbak01]

I'm so tempted to jump ship with how Apple is locking down their hardware. It's crazy that they solder in the Nands and memory. Can you say, built in obsolescence! Thanks for doing this someone hopefully will start a business with reasonable prices to do this! All these ARM system SSD 's will go belly up at some point making all these machines door stops!

[@LaNoturna1115]

Hackintosh

[@commentarysheep]

@@LaNoturna1115How can you even do that? Those Windows on ARM laptops are a rare sight to behold.

[@flashbak01]

@@LaNoturna1115: You can be sure Apple will definitely make building a Hackintosh way more difficult in the future even to the point where it won't be possible.

[@RyCorp77]

Not only soldered but glued down too! Its one thing to do some BGA rework, but BGA desoldering with the underfill makes it way more risky. I'd love to hear an engineers real reasoning behind it, because to me it just seems like an extra f-u to being able to fix these boards. I'm sure its for "durability" but is a BGA chip really going to rip off in a drop? Maybe if you launch it out of a trebuchet into a concrete wall.

[@flashbak01]

@@RyCorp77: It's just another FU from Apple to the right to repair movement!

[@NakamuraSatou]

I'm planning to do this upgrade myself. Does anyone know if the orientation of the NAND matter? Like can i rotate it 180 degrees?

[@cirozorro]

KICM223 is spendy, $40-60 and don't appear to be great sources for it, only seeing aliexpress. Repopulating the required IC components for the second NAND seems like the worst part of this. Thanks for sharing this possibility so thoroughly!

[@dosdude1]

There is an AliExpress listing that has brand new/blank ones for sale, which is where I get them. Around $100 for 2 of them, to upgrade one system to 2TB. Luckily most machines will have both NANDs already installed, so you likely won't need to bother re-installing those extra passive components.

[@markh.956]

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this detailed explanation of this process.

[@stanomx]

Writing zeros on a whole drive would be because of random data on that flash which slows down writing. It is just how SSD TRIM work. On windows you can manually do that in defrag.

[@possamei]

Correct me if i'm wrong. If those NANDs were blank, a reprogramming step wouldn't be necessary and you could just jump straight to DFU mode. Correct?

[@dosdude1]

That is correct.

[@eric_adams01]

If you have an activation lock apple device would replacing the SSD get around that?

[@Tom-ts5qd]

Can you also just switch the NAND from one slot to a NAND with higher capacity instead of adding a second NAND, so that one wouldn't have to bother with the capacitors of the second slot?