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You'd also have to rewrite drivers and firmware to recognize the change.  Also, the GPU might not be able to work with the larger capacity.

I know what you mean, that option was only on the 1.5Ghz models. Could have been for a reason. Not sure since i've never really looked into it much. Maybe Apple used a different board for that model .

spaz2 wrote:

Hmmm... if the GPU is the same, and the boards are the same... you could splice the extra RAM on and maybe get away with it MAYBE... I mean wouldn't it be cool if Apple simply left two chips off of the 64MB model and the board actually has solder points on it (I recall an old PCI vid card with thruboard holes in it for RAM... they sold two models... one with 8MBs of VRAM and the other with just 4... and the old ATiRage128 actually had wholes for the diip header that the OEM cards had for the MPEGdecoder card in the B&W...).   Gotrta look at the two machines side by side I suppose... I still use a Wallstreet though.

Funny you should mention it.

That's exactly what Apple did with the 2400c/3400c PowerBooks, which share the same logic boards. They left two empty SIMM pads on the 2400c's board. The solder is there and all, just not the two extra 512kb VRAM SIMMs.

A friend and I have collaborated to fill 'em, and, once I get all my 2400c bits n' pieces here in CA ( and I finally get around to resurrecting the thing ), I'll probably post a topic about it.

Alien wrote:

ironhawk wrote:

That's exactly what Apple did with the 2400c/3400c PowerBooks, which share the same logic boards. They left two empty SIMM pads on the 2400c's board. The solder is there and all, just not the two extra 512kb VRAM SIMMs.

Chips, not SIMM's. Anyway, that is a likely scenario, that there are actually empty solder pads that can take the extra VRAM chips. Then all it boils down to is finding the right parts and then soldering them in place.

BTW, I doubt the 2400 and the 3400 PowerBooks had the same logic board. Most likely, they share the same logic board architecture, but the physical boards themselves are most definitely different.

,xtG
.tsooJ

Chips. Oops. Same for the comment about the logic board.
I stated that all wrong. Same architecture, as the 2400 was based on the 3400.
A few differences I can think of would be the use of a daughtercard, as well as surface-mount fuses in place to protect individual components throughout the machine ( and burn out quite often ), in addition to the aforementioned VRAM and resistor configuration which limits the 2400c to 16-bit colour, which can also be modified, in order to enable 24-bit ( millions of ) colour, which I'll likely do on the same day as the VRAM modification.

But, yeah, I know there are empty pads, with solder in place, because I have three logic boards, as well as the chips to attach to the pads.
First, I need to find a working machine to swap out parts and find which of the three work, which don't, and why.

Last edited by ironhawk (2005-01-27 2:43 pm)

I bet adding another 64mb RAM wouldn't be difficult at all, especially if they  used the same board and left the pads open on the 64mb version.  Just requires a little soldering skill and access to the memory chips (bet you could buy them on the net somewhere, find them based on the marking on existing chips).  Biggest problem is that this will certainly void you warrenty...

Ha_hA_HA! wrote:

I bet adding another 64mb RAM wouldn't be difficult at all, especially if they  used the same board and left the pads open on the 64mb version.  Just requires a little soldering skill and access to the memory chips (bet you could buy them on the net somewhere, find them based on the marking on existing chips).  Biggest problem is that this will certainly void you warrenty...

It will be hellishy difficult if they used the same VRAM chips as the ones in the Mac mini. Those are BGA parts.

,xtG
.tsooJ