Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB Ram??

I modify a Pi 5 by removing the original 4GB RAM chip and soldering in a 16GB RAM chip.
After reaching out on the Raspberry Pi Forum I got help on how to Debug my Pi 5 and was able to confirm that the 16GB ram chip was soldered in correctly. But would assume that a firmware change will be required in order to make this Pi 5 functional.

[@odifolreuys-im9dw]

The Raspberry Pi 5’s firmware probes the DDR mode registers instead. The engineer explained that the circuit, connected to one of the RP1 chips, can be read by sysfs once the Raspberry Pi is booted up. The RP1 manages various I/O functions, such as the USB bus, GPIO headers, MIPI camera, and display connectors. Upgrading the Raspberry Pi 4B to 16GB of RAM in the past worked after a fashion, but the operating system never saw the extra memory. The official Raspberry Pi wouldn’t even finish booting. The initialization screen showed the 16GB of RAM, but boot up halted after the rainbow screen. The Pi 4B booted when installing RISC OS, but the operating system only saw 4GB of RAM. In theory, we might assume a successful Raspberry Pi 5 upgrade to 16GB of RAM could be possible with firmware modifications. However, we must be satisfied with 8GB of RAM for now.

[@odifolreuys-im9dw]

So it is firmware 🧓🏻👵🏻💣☢️🦅🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

[@JeffGeerling]

Nice work getting it to that stage though-hopefully they add support at some point (and maybe an official 16GB version!).

[@handymandan4736]

Thanks Jeff! Love your work!

[@mrlithium69]

This is the kind of engineering I love to enjoy You proved a lot here, Subscribed!

[@FauxFaFox]

When I saw a video linked in an article I'd would have expected it to be more popular. I certainly wasn't disappointed though.

[@SpeccyMan]

Turn your phone camera 90 degrees. Landscape mode makes all the difference and it is the default for REAL cameras for a reason!

[@almightyproblemslayer5528]

Could be a voltage or trace length matching issue with the PCB. I am thinking they would have included upgraded ram if there wasn't a constraint. I think they wanted to stick to the specific form factor. 🤷‍♂️

[@handymandan4736]

As the current firmware can read the chip manufacturer and its size, I am hoping electrically everything should work. Looking at the data sheet it appears electrically everything would match up to the 8GB chip but the 'Die Addressing' is what is different. Page size, array prefetch, number of rows, configuration 256Mb x 8DQ x 8Banks.

[@tutacat]

Surface mount soldering is very hard by hand.....

[@aZz7eCh]

Made it 5mins in then realised brain cells were melting together.

[@James_T_Quirk]

WHY ? Orange Pi 5 + is a Octa-Core (8) Core CPU.GPU, NPU with 16GB Ram, I like my Raspberry Pi's but its only a quad core...

[@handymandan4736]

@@James_T_Quirk only discovered orange pi 5 after I bought a raspberry pi 5, I enjoy modding and tinkering.

[@ravendrow83]

Try changing the "just for show" strapping resistor to 16k ...would be worth a try

[@Mr.1.i]

Attempt to upgrade Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB of RAM results in a bricked Pi. Even though the CPU supports it, the Raspberry Pi 5 refuses to play nice with extra memory. We've seen our fair share of attempts to upgrade the memory on the Raspberry Pi single-board computer (SBC), some of which have been successful.

[@BrianDuffy-zl2ul]

Bro, im almost understanding you my friend..im a newb and love it ...thx

[@oliverer3]

Do we know that the BCM2712 SoC is actually capable of addressing 16GB of RAM? I've found while designing boards for similar SoCs that it's not too uncommon to be limited to an 8GB address space.

[@handymandan4736]

@@oliverer3 no I'm not sure just it can handle bandwidth speeds of up to 17GB/s

[@handymandan4736]

@@oliverer3 Addressing Capability: The ARMv8-A ISA confirms that the bcm2712 is capable of addressing 16GB of RAM, as it supports a 64-bit address space.. got that from the robot lol

[@oliverer3]

@@handymandan4736 I'm not certain of this but I believe that's the maximum a chip based on the armV8-a instructions set can be designed for, more specifically 16GB per core cluster not something that is guaranteed. As an example the rockchip RK3568 is based on the same architecture and can only adress up to 8GB while the highest end chip in that series the RK3588 with two CPU clusters and no stops barred can address 32GB. Again all of them sharing the same armV8-a ISA. So I could see it being misleading. The BCM2712 using cortex-a76 cores does make it more likely that it can address a larger amount of RAM though. Again do take this with a major grain of salt, I design PCBs not CPU architectures so I could be completely incorrect.

[@handymandan4736]

Yeah that depth of knowledge is beyond me and I can find a datasheet on the bcm2712, I haven't received a response from a pi engineer saying it just not possible, like with the pi 4.

[@74LS_NE555]

thanks for posting the trials and failures as well , a lot of hardware hacking results in blue smoke and failure

[@daCount0]

Sorry for your fail, but in a 35 min video, which is certainly to long you could mention this debug setup a little. After you don't show it: is it the pico debug probe?

[@tfemby]

Taking a look at 27:56 it doesn't look like the Pico debug probe because the PCB on the probe he's using is red as opposed to the regular green. What he's using doesn't seem to to have the couple of JST connectors that the pico probe has as well. My best guess would be a FT232RL USB to TTL convertor.

[@Mbro-dq2do]

Well whats your Pi idle at temp wise?? After all this?? Or whats your general operating temp?

[@handymandan4736]

I'm unable to read that has I can't boot up the pi past the SDRAM check, but my other pi 5 which was a 4GB originally and demodded from the 16GB and installed a 8GB I have as a server runs around 47 to 52 at idle

[@Ada-yb1by]

Hi mate, just c that atec part 66 q&a video, any chance may I get that? Thanks in advance. 🎉

[@handymandan4736]

@@Ada-yb1by yeah I'll get back to you as soon as I can, hosting website was hacked will try get a link to you

[@kainkamote917]

Here is a sub for all that effort :)

[@tubegor]

It may be power supply, 8GB version has additional power supply, which 4 and 2GB versions do not have.

[@handymandan4736]

Possible maybe, but the pi 5 as a very powerful power management IC so I would think power isn't really the issue, plus the 8 and 16gb chips have the same power ratings

[@BrianDuffy-zl2ul]

Its like a good movie....im a 3rd in to this....hope it dont cause distruction...😅😅

[@uwuanims]

Does anyonw know if I could buy a 2gb board and solder an 8gb chip onto it?

[@handymandan4736]

@@uwuanims yes it's possible, however may not be cost effective

[@seanj1984]

1g has 1k 2g has 2k 4g has 4k 8g has 8k ...

[@playwithG91]

how much to have you build one for me so I can experiment with the bootloader?

[@handymandan4736]

@playwithG91 where are you located? Just yesterday demoded my second Pi 5 16GB to a 8GB so to have functioning Pi and not two paperweights lol

[@playwithG91]

@@handymandan4736 I'm located in Portland Oregon.

[@handymandan4736]

@@playwithG91 not sure how to DM you, but if you cover the costs for parts I'll do it for free. Or you could send me a bootloader to try tho I'm not sure how you'll get around the eprom signature check??

[@playwithG91]

@@handymandan4736 do you got Discord?

[@Mbro-dq2do]

Amazing video dude. Im sitting here with my pussy ass raspberry pi 5 and 4 and CM4 with only 8GB RAM

[@microlinux]

yeahhh, no. just get an rk3588 with 16 gigs or more

[@Hypoengg]

here i'm saving to buy just one pi 5, and this guy is breaking them like they cost nothing

[@edenassos]

Saving? You need to save for a $100? Maybe get a job.

[@Hypoengg]

@@edenassos bruh do you even know how much it costs here in India, it takes a whole month salary of average middle class guy, and I'm a student its not easy to get job as a student here, and even if i get a part time job, I will have to work for 5 months to get a raspberry pi 5

[@KlopsKopp]

Did you use some Flux?

[@handymandan4736]

Solder flux paste for the clean up, not to remove,

[@luzm7918]

good job

[@ray-charc3131]

I have a RPi 5 4Gb, i like and want to upgrade it to 8Gb... instead of selling it and buying a new piece Pi of 8Gb, of course i have none of these skill and tools in this kind of work

[@handymandan4736]

@@ray-charc3131 I find it satisfying to be able to take something and mod it make it better, but definitely would not recommend starting out on the pi 5 just start with smaller smd chips and slowly work your way up, I started with a cheap gas soldering iron and just removed the tip, it had enough hot air for small stuff but was really good practice.

[@InspirationalOctopus-pi6dk]

Flash the chip with the boot

[@InspirationalOctopus-pi6dk]

The whole memory is on the old chip so the software is on the old chip so you would have to flash the boot up on the new chip to run the firmware

[@handymandan4736]

​@@InspirationalOctopus-pi6dkit's a ram chip not a rom chip

[@InspirationalOctopus-pi6dk]

@@handymandan4736 still have to be flashed

[@InspirationalOctopus-pi6dk]

@@handymandan4736 you gotta register it some how

[@handymandan4736]

@@InspirationalOctopus-pi6dk correct I have loaded the latest bootloader firmware from raspberry Pi, stil the same result. I can just flash it, the bcm2712 boot rom checks for a firmware signature

[@Mr.1.i]

You said errm that many times that you hardly make sense

[@martinparker9044]

£10 for x1 of the bricked Pi5’s

[@handymandan4736]

@@martinparker9044 it's not bricked.. Yet.. I can reinstall the old chip and it'll work fine, waiting a little while longer in the hope that maybe a firmware update will be released that supports the higher ram, probably be released with a pi 5 B+ version...

[@martinparker9044]

@@handymandan4736 fingers crossed and I look forward to your next video.

[@cameronrich2536]

Spit it out already sheesh. Falling asleeeeeee

[@handymandan4736]

@@cameronrich2536 lol yeah wasn't the best, might need to hit skip a few times

[@Aeronkat]

What a joke people are these days! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to do a video like this? It's not just record and done. He is doing everything he can to relay this information clearly. This is important! He is explaining why this doesn't work, so that others don't make the same mistake, or so that the community can investigate further, and hopefully find a solution. If you don't want to watch and listen to a seasoned engineer talk technically about shit you don't understand? This probably isn't the kind of content you should be watching

[@SpeccyMan]

@@Aeronkat Maybe you can explain the spurious S in explaining. 😉 If you cannot spell, maybe you shouldn't be commenting! As for the video, there is a reason why professionals use a script.

[@Aeronkat]

@@SpeccyManThank you for pointing that out for me UwU I give you a one out of ten for your vigilance sir. Although, I can't help but notice you too had to edit your comment. Out of all three paragraphs I wrote, I had to edit one thing. You however, wrote three sentences. So, I'm going to have to take away a point, sadly for your inadequate position to have pointed it out in the first place. I thought the UK had developed a rather prestigious reputation for their proper English skills. 🫢 Oh well（⌒_⌒）

[@GronaldoSr]

Great effort, but terrible video

[@stephenjohnstone9940]

Ish!Ish! New sub here, keep on keeping on! Xx