XBMC4Xbox

I've been wanting to do a RAM upgrade for sometime now.
There's a few things to take in consideration when upgrading...

BIOS:
In my opinion it would be best to TSOP flash the console as
the original BIOS will be useless once upgraded. Personally,
I don't only need a BIOS that can support RAM upgrade but,
also 2Tb HD upgrades so that really narrows things down to
either the X2 5035 or iND 5003 BIOS's. (correct me if I'm wrong)

Note that the X2 can only be TSOP flashed to xbox versions
1.0 & 1.1 due to the BIOS size where the iND BIOS can be
flashed to all versions 1.0 through to 1.5...

RAM CHIPS:
There 3 different versions of the Samsung RAM chips;
Xbox Versions 1.0 - 1.1 = K4D263238M-QC50
Xbox Versions 1.2 - 1.3 = K4D263238D-QC50
Xbox Versions 1.4 - 1.5 = K4D263238F-QC50

Theres a tutorial on YouTube, where the guy recommends on matching them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xMn2JFd5GU
When trying to order different chips my supplier insisted there the same.
Does anyone know if it's necessary to get matching RAM chips?

SOLDERING:
On many of the tutorials I've seen they are all using a soldering iron.
I find this method very tedious, so I've been looking for alternative methods.
This video tutorial on "Surface Mount Soldering" seems to be the way to go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z0IiuQ35HU

On this tutorial the guy gets a stencil laser cut and uses it to apply some
solder paste, after placing the chip in place he uses a hot air rework station
to apply heat to the solder paste and it melts everything into place...

XBOX GAMES:
From memory for the RAM to work with your xbox games the default.xbe
would need to be patched with "delimiter" app?

Re:soldering

I used an ordinary heat gun, and a protective layer of aluminum foil pressed onto the board, with a rectangle cut-out for the modules. A copper cable sleeve to hold them firmly to their pads. And some paste flux. I don't know if they use lead-free solder or not, but based on my tests with a donor 1.3 board, a heat gun running fully at 1,000F (537C) and held at a height of 2 inches (5 cm) melts the solder in about four seconds. The whole process was fast and easy.

foxinabox wrote:I used an ordinary heat gun, and a protective layer of aluminum foil pressed onto the board, with a rectangle cut-out for the modules. A copper cable sleeve to hold them firmly to their pads. And some paste flux. I don't know if they use lead-free solder or not, but based on my tests with a donor 1.3 board, a heat gun running fully at 1,000F (537C) and held at a height of 2 inches (5 cm) melts the solder in about four seconds. The whole process was fast and easy.

Thanks for the confirmation, I like your alloy foil idea...
I had a heat gun but my last house mate decided he liked it more.
Since I've been considering getting a rework station I might get a 2in1
Come Monday I'm gonna see if I can get a couple stencils laser cut.

a 50w halogen 12v house downlight will work alternative to a heat gun it also does not blow the little resistors off the board if the air flow is too high.

get your self a thermocouple to attach to your multi meter to see the temp and to ensure it is with in safe limits. also try on something scrap first with what ever home setup you try.

solder paste and hot air a stencil is the way to go for sure it makes the job so much easier the drowning method with a stick iron works also but requires more skill.

but the biggest thing I can say is take your time don't be in a rush and check there is no bridges between adjoining pins as some shorts will kill the xbox motherboard !!!!

a mod chip with xblast os on it will make it easy to check the xbox after as you can test which chip is faulty of miss soldered.

you can get a stencil off the shelf for most packages no need to make one.

I have never actually used solder really as the chip has enough residual solder on it after removal to solder it to a new board if you use plenty of flux to wet the pins and landings.

Hi - Does anyone still do the 128mb ram upgrade - Although I am not bad at soldering - this is just beyond my skillset

mabby wrote:Hi - Does anyone still do the 128mb ram upgrade - Although I am not bad at soldering - this is just beyond my skillset

N64 Freak does memory and CPU upgrades.

I know it's an old post but you can mix all types of RAM as long as they're all Samsung. I have a box currently with both m and d series in it and it runs fine.

Its been on my to do list for a while and i have 2 sets of spare ram ready to go, might just have to make time and do it. The hot air method seems ideal since i have a rework station already.