[preciousmetal]

Does anyone know if you can purchase RAM for the Playbook and upgrade to a larger amount? When the BB10 leak eventually surfaces for the Playbook I want to have the RAM to power it.

[Asmooh]

If you are good in building from scratch, it might be possible.

But the pb cpu is also to slow

Better build z10 hardware in your pb and connect the screen cables to internal cables of your z10 main board.



28/M/SWEDEN -> 2ABA2B4C (NO PEOPLE FROM AFRICA OR ASIA)

[ChrisMay]

Does anyone know if you can purchase RAM for the Playbook and upgrade to a larger amount? When the BB10 leak eventually surfaces for the Playbook I want to have the RAM to power it.

I'm not an electronics engineer, but I think this has come up before. I don't think there is really any practical way of adding memory to the playbook, unless you have specialist equipment to solder the memory chip onto the PB motherboard. I believe they are surface mounted, so it would be extremly difficult (though I guess, not totally impossible) to do by hand. However, even if you managed to successfully add the memory, I'm not sure if the Playbook hardware/firmware would recognise the extra memory... (over to any experts reading this!!)

[theomnificent1]

the amount of time and money it would take to install, program, and debug would probably outweigh the benefits of taking on such a task. unless of course you build a complete rough prototype and hand it over to bbry with a business plan. then they might take it on if your build is cost effective enough #wishfulthinking.

[Highcroft]

Does anyone know if you can purchase RAM for the Playbook and upgrade to a larger amount? When the BB10 leak eventually surfaces for the Playbook I want to have the RAM to power it.

It would be pretty much impossible. The Playbook (as well as pretty much every other mobile device) uses a system on a chip. The CPU, GPU, RAM, and many other components are combined into essentially one chip. If you wanted to add more RAM, you would have to replace the entire SoC.

[preciousmetal]

I like to tinker with electronics. Maybe I can find a SoC that has the same die/interface at the TI OMAP4430 processor. I might be able to find a broken tablet or phone online and salvage a SoC from it and transfer it into the PlayBook. The 1 GB of RAM is Elpida B8064B2PB-8D-F 1GB DRAM and it has the 240ABB chipset. I will scour the web for something compatible.

[joshua_sx1]

Try to contact MacGyver...

Posted via Z10

[castoridae]

Just out of interest, how much RAM does an iPad have by comparison?

[SEAWARRIOR]

Just out of interest, how much RAM does an iPad have by comparison?

512MB i think...

[quackquack147]

I like to tinker with electronics. Maybe I can find a SoC that has the same die/interface at the TI OMAP4430 processor. I might be able to find a broken tablet or phone online and salvage a SoC from it and transfer it into the PlayBook. The 1 GB of RAM is Elpida B8064B2PB-8D-F 1GB DRAM and it has the 240ABB chipset. I will scour the web for something compatible.

its not a joke and not a rookie cell phone repair job. you need to first cover the whole board with aluminium and cut out the cpu square, on top of the cpu seats the ram. then heat it to 350 degrees. 360 is ideal. and slowly heat with the heat gun for like 15-20 mins in circular motion. till the solder balls softens and the sockets gets loose. then use a sucker tube and place it on top of the cpu and pull it while you blow hot air. and then use a solder wick to clean the cpu pads. and roll it gently on top of the square board without sockets. it will suck the left over solder.
then you need to re-heat the cpu, because the ram is seating on top of the cpu. so you need to heat it very carefully this time at 375 degrees and then the ram layer will start to wobble on top of the cpu layer. use the same sucker to suck off the ram from the cpu. be very careful. one mistake and the cpu is into more than 1 piece (simply broken).
then use the same wick and clean off the excess solder on top of the cpu package.
omap4430 is a POP (package on package). so you need to be very very careful.
now you need to read the datasheet of compatible ram and check if the banks and channels are identical. if the banks and channels are not identical then it wont boot. then reball the cpu and place it on top of the playbook board and then heat with a heat gun @ 270-280 degrees. and then cool it off gently use thermocouple if you are not sure of the temperature the board is receiving. then place the new RAM with same banks and channels on top of the reballed and bga-ed cpu and again heat till 270 degrees.
and now the final process. try to boot off the device. if it boots then the work was a sure shot success. else repeat till you achieve success.
most complicated process is reballing the cpu. you need either special machines or else ultra extreme patience to reball the cpu for a bga rework. else its an irreversible brick.
good luck with the ram upgrade. ;-)
hope this helps!
thanks!
-paul

[xsacha]

Upgrading RAM is useless. The playbook already has plenty of RAM considering it doesn't run any phone-related apps or services.

Even Dev Alpha's with 1GB of RAM are running OS10.2.

What you'll need is a CPU supporting NEON properly.

Posted via CB10

[castoridae]

512MB i think...

Well then, WTF?? Why are people slamming the Playbook when the popular iPad (I hate it) doesn't even come close to the 1 gig RAM!?

[xsacha]

ipad 1: 256MB
ipad 2 / ipad mini: 512MB
ipad 3 and ipad 4: 1024MB

Posted via CB10

[castoridae]

ipad 1: 256MB
ipad 2 / ipad mini: 512MB
ipad 3 and ipad 4: 1024MB

Posted via CB10

-- and your point is?

[Highcroft]

-- and your point is?

That not all iPads only have 512 MB of RAM?

[jpash549]

-- and your point is?

RAM is increasing in iPads? Or maybe just supplying the answer to a previous question.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using CB Forums mobile app

[castoridae]

That not all iPads only have 512 MB of RAM?

- but do not have the BBPB 1 Gig - so again, what's your point?

[Highcroft]

- but do not have the BBPB 1 Gig - so again, what's your point?

The point is that SEAWARRIOR said that iPads have 512 of RAM, which is only partially true since the original had 256 and the the iPad 3/4 has 1 GB.

[pierre5018]

Most playbooks run on wifi. It would be great if virtual RAM could be provided by a file server on the wifi network or on an Android hotspot.

[castoridae]

The point is that SEAWARRIOR said that iPads have 512 of RAM, which is only partially true since the original had 256 and the the iPad 3/4 has 1 GB.

ok, my point was that people keep saying this tablet is better and that tablet is better than the playbook, so it just got me thinking about the beloved iPad's history, as an example, that only now after ripping fans off with several previous versions at exhorbitant prices, do they finally give their customers the 1 gig that the humble playbook had from the get go.

[Synerworks]

The effort to upgrade the memory and is not worth the reward since there is no BB10 image that would work on the Playbook. The level of precision needed to work with the SoC guarantees that it will never boot again.

[jpash549]

ok, my point was that people keep saying this tablet is better and that tablet is better than the playbook, so it just got me thinking about the beloved iPad's history, as an example, that only now after ripping fans off with several previous versions at exhorbitant prices, do they finally give their customers the 1 gig that the humble playbook had from the get go.

Apple has tight control over their whole system and designs their hardware to operate smoothly with their software. Mostly when you go from one app to another the first app is generally suspended so that it does not hog RAM. They also don't have to run an emulator to allow use of Android apps. Now you see Apple increasing the RAM and perhaps the next iteration will have 2 GB. Many people do want to know why the BB coders can't do better with the Playbook's 1 GB of RAM even with multitasking.

[ChrisMay]

its not a joke and not a rookie cell phone repair job. you need to first cover the whole board with aluminium and cut out the cpu square, on top of the cpu seats the ram. then heat it to 350 degrees. 360 is ideal. and slowly heat with the heat gun for like 15-20 mins in circular motion. till the solder balls softens and the sockets gets loose. then use a sucker tube and place it on top of the cpu and pull it while you blow hot air. and then use a solder wick to clean the cpu pads. and roll it gently on top of the square board without sockets. it will suck the left over solder.
then you need to re-heat the cpu, because the ram is seating on top of the cpu. so you need to heat it very carefully this time at 375 degrees and then the ram layer will start to wobble on top of the cpu layer. use the same sucker to suck off the ram from the cpu. be very careful. one mistake and the cpu is into more than 1 piece (simply broken).
then use the same wick and clean off the excess solder on top of the cpu package.
omap4430 is a POP (package on package). so you need to be very very careful.
now you need to read the datasheet of compatible ram and check if the banks and channels are identical. if the banks and channels are not identical then it wont boot. then reball the cpu and place it on top of the playbook board and then heat with a heat gun @ 270-280 degrees. and then cool it off gently use thermocouple if you are not sure of the temperature the board is receiving. then place the new RAM with same banks and channels on top of the reballed and bga-ed cpu and again heat till 270 degrees.
and now the final process. try to boot off the device. if it boots then the work was a sure shot success. else repeat till you achieve success.
most complicated process is reballing the cpu. you need either special machines or else ultra extreme patience to reball the cpu for a bga rework. else its an irreversible brick.
good luck with the ram upgrade. ;-)
hope this helps!
thanks!
-paul

Hmm! Pretty straight forward then. I might give it a go in my lunchbreak today, I get 30 minutes...

[SEAWARRIOR]

Well then, WTF?? Why are people slamming the Playbook when the popular iPad (I hate it) doesn't even come close to the 1 gig RAM!?

'cuz they can...

[SEAWARRIOR]

The point is that SEAWARRIOR said that iPads have 512 of RAM, which is only partially true since the original had 256 and the the iPad 3/4 has 1 GB.

i said, "i think" it has 512,,, quote me correctly...