[HowTo] Upgrading RAM to 128 MB (WL-500gP, WL-500W and WL-700gE)

[Gabs86]

hello, i have make the 128mb upgrade one month ago, and today my router dies when i plug my hard drive to the router . I try to load the oleg firmware again, now it´s bricked. I try to do pin-9 trick, but it doesn´t work.

What can i do?

Thanks and sorry for my bad english.

[dronchik14]

Guys,

Please don't try 64Mx8 - it doesn't work!

I thought that BCM5354 could support , also I checked A11 - connected, but no chance...

Looking for the known supported chip.

[Robek]

Hi All,
I'm new on your forum. I got many help from your forums but now I have a problem that I can not solve.
I bought a Ram modul with K4H511638B-TCCC chips.
This chip similar to TCB3 but 400MHz and the CAS is 3 not 2,5.
I changed the two ram chip in my WL500Gp V1 router. Ramtest shows no error. It semms to be OK.
But after I upgraded the router of my friend the memtest always shows error.

Here is the log:

Current limits:
RLIMIT_RSS 0x7fffffff
RLIMIT_VMEM 0x7fffffff
Raising limits...
Allocated 67108864 bytes...trying mlock...success. Starting tests...

Testing 67108864 bytes at 0x10006000 (0 bytes lost to page alignment).

Run 1:
Test 1: Stuck Address: Setting...Passed.
Test 2: Random value: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 3: XOR comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 4: SUB comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 5: MUL comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 6: DIV comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 7: OR comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 8: AND comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 9: Sequential Increment: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 10: Solid Bits: Setting...Passed.
Test 11: Block Sequential: Setting...Passed.
Test 12: Checkerboard: Setting...Passed.
Test 13: Bit Spread: Setting...Passed.
Test 14: Bit Flip: Setting...
FAILURE: 0x00100000 != 0x00000000 at offset 0x00002f6e.
Skipping to next test...
Test 15: Walking Ones: Setting...Passed.
Test 16: Walking Zeroes: Setting...Passed.
Run 1 completed in 2867 seconds (1 tests showed errors).
munlock'ed memory.
1 runs completed. 1 errors detected. Total runtime: 2867 seconds.

I try capacitor form 3pF to 7pF but always stops at this address.
If I enable only 64MB with sdram_init=0x0013 the ramtest not shows error.
It means the U3 chip OK. I replaced the U4 with an another chip but the symtom is the same.

Could you help me?
Thank you!

Sorry for my poor English.

[Robek]

Hi all,
I think the firmware was old to handle correct the 128MB.
Updated then it works find.

If somebody use this chip use sdram_config=0062 because it has CL=3.

Rgds,

[tmsulica]

Hy guys , if somebody know where to fin this memory modules in Romania , can you help me ?


thanks

[rumenchooo]

Thank you guys.
I`m proud owner of WL500W with 128 MB.
Everything works like a charm.

Wish you luck

Regards
Rumen

[tmsulica]

Hello and well done, i think you will give me the courage to do it also, maybe you can post some pictures to see your mood ? To brag , and btw, are you from Romania ? If you are, can you tell me where do you found the chips , and btw they are not in the list of oleg's but you took a chance ? and 2nd , you have 33 ohm resistor on the original board ? It should be be empty pads ....


Once agains bravo!

[mielu80]

@tmsulica
Thank you and yes,I am from RO/Bucharest.
I can't take good quality pictures,only got my mobile phone with camera,but it's like it was before,with the original chips .The So-Dimm module,got it from an old laptop.
The chips are in a list,a list posted by another user,"Inertial" on post #36 and tested by user "mitek",post #21.As you can see I didn't pushed my luck,just read the whole topic.
About the resistor R43,yes there were empty pads,no resistor soldered,but on post #1 Mr. Oleg said R43 22 Ohms and that is the value of the resistor that I soldered in,but I was saying about the other resistors,soldered by factory,like R41,R45,etc...,they all are 33 Ohms.
Good luck with your mod.

[mielu80]

After running memtest all looks good,no errors.
Changed the resistor too,to 33 ohms one. (only for my consciousness
)
By the way,tmsulica...
If you don't have memory chips,I have two of them left.

[pmrb]

Hello,
I've successfully upgraded the ram of my WL-500G Premium to 128Mb by following Oleg's instructions. The very last operations were:

nvram set sdram_init=0x0011
nvram set sdram_config=0x0062
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot

Then I've run "memtester 64M" for about 3 loops. There was no problem. In the end, I stopped memtester with ctrl-c and powered off the device.

About 1 or 2 hours later, I came back and powered on the device, but the power led never turned on:

• no more power led
• no network (no ping response on 192.168.1.1)
• no recovery (restore button on power up)
• no messages on UART_TX0 and UART_TX1

What could have happened, and how could I repair the device?
My OS: OpenWRT 10.03

TIA for any help!
Peter

[expert_vision]

I'm not an expert, but I think is because of the RAM .. if there is no RAM, there is no CPU, and if is no CPU there is nothing .. no response. When I first upgraded my RAM, router didn't start .. all LEDs went on. Then I reheated all connections and it worked.

Your problem might be a cold solder joint too .. recheck connections (even though it worked first time you tried .. a little shake and a bad joint won't work). Though, I'm not sure what does it mean the fact that your power LED doesn't turn on. Maybe you got in a nasty coincidence and your AC-DC adapter went faulty .. also check the 5V power input port under load.

edit: ) .. I just noticed that the thread was started almost 3 weeks ago. Hope is not to late ...

[pmrb]

Hello,

It was a silly bug in openwrt-backfire. See also
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=32282 and
http://www.mail-archive.com/openwrt-.../msg05660.html

Pin9-trick solved the problem.

Cheers, Peter

[mielu80]

Hello.
I have a little problem with my router after memory up-grade to 128MB.
After each reboot or power off of the router my total available memory is only 64MB.
Each time I have to enter the commands

nvram set sdram_init=0x0011
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot

to actvate the whole 128MB.
Everyoane else having this issue ?
If this is normal,could a script be made to execute those commands on each start-up ?

Thank you.

[tmsulica]

hy , i think you have to use flashfs command to do it permanently,
try

flashfs save && flashfs commit && flashfs enable && reboot

instead of commit

but , yes you can make a script too to start automatically. i think

[junix]

Hi,

I like to upgrade to 128Mb, too. I have Samsung RAMS K4H511638B-TCB3 from an kingston memory module here.

I have some question regarting the procedure.

I like to have very less excessive (above specs) heat applied to the components around the RAM-ICs. From my experience on Amiga fixing. A good idea was to prehead the PCB to 50 to 60 °C in an oven and the desolder quickly with a heatgun. Resoldering is also done with a preheated PCB.
So I want to remove U3 and U4 in only one run if possible.

So the question (particular for debugging is in case somthing goes wrong - TSOP are many PINs ;) ):
Will the router boot if U3 is already replaced and U4 is already desoldered if the following commands were issued before:

nvram set sdram_init=0x000b
nvram set sdram_config=0x0032
nvram commit
halt

This would turn U4 chip off and prevent my firmware from auto enabling it. The router would be halted too, so you could safely remove power from it.