Upgrading the Raspberry Pi 4 to 16GB of RAM

Here is a link to PCBWay where you can order high-quality PCBs for cheap:

In this video, I attempt the 16GB RAM upgrade on the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Here is the link to my Patreon if you want to support what I am doing:

Here is a link to the Jeff Geerling channel:

Below are the chip codes and links for each one where they can be purchased.

These are the tools I am using:
Microscope - Amscope SM-4NTP with x0.5 Barlow lens

SM05 - 0.5x Barlow lens:

Soldering station - JCID AIXUN T3B with T210 Handle:

Hot air station - ATTEN ST-862D:

Tweezers:

Rosin atomizer:

Board holder - T26:

Different stencils I use:

[MadEDoctor]

Final update: After a long time of talking with different engineers and trying different stuff, we came to the conclusion that it's a hardware limitation on the CPU side (the way it accesses the memory) and there is nothing that can be done about it.

[JeffGeerling]

Fingers crossed you can get this thing working! My guess is the firmware needs modification, and for that, you might have to try getting some involvement from the Pi engineers... we'll see!

[chrislambe]

I hope Jeff Geerling can help you get the 16GB working with RaspiOS. The rpi foundation might help you too. Vielen Dank an den Held aus Deutschland. Thanks for making this follow up video.

[joshcliffejones]

Awesome work! Really interesting to see the process and hopefully you get it fully working :)

[bluestayslit]

Exactly what I’ve always wanted to see! Props my dude!

[GreenStarbird]

Incredible that someone is even attempting this!

[dakata]

Българския акцент мога да го познам на всякъде! Браво началник!

[wulfboy_]

If I recall, someone did a RAM upgrade on the RPi 400. A few jumpers and resistors on the board were moved around.

[kaptainkaos]

OMG, I feel old. I remember my Commodore 64 memory acting up. It acted up after it had been on for a while so I isolated the bad chip by using canned Freon turned upside down to freeze the chip. Yep I soldered in a new 64kb chip to get my machine running again. I also built my first computer from a kit, a Z80, that I had to do the soldering to complete the kit. My grandkids look at me like I’m the craziest granny ever when they see me working in a DOS window or being a geek in our garage workshop.

[tubegor]

Raspberry PI 4 - 8GB has additional voltage regulator, the question is, is it also able to supply 16GB chip?🤔
By the way, the chip exchange was carried out professionally and cleanly - respect!

[wskinnyodden]

Best of luck getting the RAM fully working on the Pi! I am inclined to believe you will need a corrected hardware map or similar to prevent having any of the RAM addresses used or reserved for hardware instead of system RAM.

[met]

Interesting watch, always like to see upgrades like this. I was curious why blur the numbers on the chip?

[martindejong]

How do you know that the PI4 SoC even supports 16GB ram chips? I think I heard it supports a max of 8GB, but that is just my idea about this.

[OnnieKoski]

this is awesome. I hope you get this figured out. id love to see this done in a way the rest of us mere mortals can attempt

[bingusbongus]

absolutely increadable skill and confidence on display, i would be so nervous and even when calm my hands are much more shaky

[ETORERIGO]

if the soc can turn on, then the ram works, the memory maps probably need to be changed and fiddled around with

[nandospm]

Why the the chip numbers are censored?

[xenoxaos]

Did you check to see if there's any additional logging in the serial port? Kernel panic? It's possible that the graphics memory is allocated in a place where the software is not expecting it to be and may need to carve out a section with cmdline options.

[denisglaz]

Good job, comrade! The party is happy with you.

[dr_jaymz]

Maybe it doesnt have the address line required for 16Gb. It seems to boot but my guess is it fails when attempting to clear beyond 8G. Probably why risc os works as it only addresses 4G?