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Apple Silicon Soldered SSD Upgrade Thread

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
donners said:
Has anyone been able to upgrade a 256gb M4 MacBook Air NAND yet? Unable to find out which chips I need to get
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I've done multiple m3 airs and had no issues using the K5A8 for the 2TB upgrade. However I keep running into issues with the m4 air's.

I suspected its an issue I was causing but kept having the same after 2 attempts. very frustrating working on this particular machine!

I'd used the SDSFGKLKH Nand but would suggest trying to use the K6B2 instead as they have a smaller footprint on the board and the air uses 01005 sized components around then Nand instead of 0201's. unfortunately the price isn't great at the moment on those (on Ali express)
 
Bassy_92 said:
I've done multiple m3 airs and had no issues using the K5A8 for the 2TB upgrade. However I keep running into issues with the m4 air's.

I suspected its an issue I was causing but kept having the same after 2 attempts. very frustrating working on this particular machine!

I'd used the SDSFGKLKH Nand but would suggest trying to use the K6B2 instead as they have a smaller footprint on the board and the air uses 01005 sized components around then Nand instead of 0201's. unfortunately the price isn't great at the moment on those (on Ali express)
Click to expand...
m4 air requires K8A5 nand chip for the 2TB Config
 
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Rickyandika said:
m4 air requires K8A5 nand chip for the 2TB Config
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well this is a pleasant surprise, I had no idea that is what I should have been using all along! I shall give that another try as I have some K5A8 chips on hand! thanks for the info.
 
ahhh I was thinking that was tooo simple and easy. I assumed there was a typo and it was supposed to be K5A8.

but now its back to the drawing board to source some of these chips.... open to recommendations


thanks of the additional clarifying response pal!

Sauve Mon Mac said:
Beware, it is K8A5 not K5A8…
K6b2 / SDSF / K5A8 are not working with M4 MBA - from my experience
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What’s the latest information on the MBA M4 Air 2TB? Is it K6B2, K8A5, or SDSF? I’m seeing a lot of conflicting reports.
 
“Logically” speaking no. Its just that apple in their infinite wisdom just decide to change the nand model number compatibility on the air m4 hence you cannot use it.
 

not sure how this plays into the current m4 air Nand requirements conversation... but the person in this video is clearly not using the K8A5 as this looks like the larger 315 Nand and obv the K8A5 is the smaller size.

why is this particular machine such a headache!?!?!?
 
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waterchill said:
looks like SDSFG nands
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its possible however I've had no joy using SDSFG hands with MBA m4, so I still would not take that video as certain evidence (never know what happens between cut scenes), just know this machine isn't as straight forward as the others.
 
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Do we have any information on the NANDs for the M4 Pro SoC?
I have mine in a 14” MBP configured as 1TB and the NANDs read as HN3T1DT4CAX381.

I assume the HN just stands for Hynix. I’ve seen 3T3B and 3T2D on AliExpress. Just not 3T1D which I assume to be 256 GB given I have four of them. I think.
 
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JackHinkle said:
Do we have any information on the NANDs for the M4 Pro SoC?
I have mine in a 14” MBP configured as 1TB and the NANDs read as HN3T1DT4CAX381.

I assume the HN just stands for Hynix. I’ve seen 3T3B and 3T2D on AliExpress. Just not 3T1D which I assume to be 256 GB given I have four of them. I think.
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HN3T3DTGCAX I have confirmed work for a 4TB config on an M4 Pro MacBook Pro.
 
What is the general risk when doing this? Frying a new or old NAND chip I can take, but risking the entire logic board, that’s another story. Thanks
 
DrWojtek said:
What is the general risk when doing this? Frying a new or old NAND chip I can take, but risking the entire logic board, that’s another story. Thanks
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You need to practice removing underfilled chips and cleaning underfill on a junk board first, as the board is the most prone to damage by far. You rip pads or even damage solder mask badly enough, the board is trashed and can no longer be used. Also if you accidentally knock off components, that can also lead to an unusable board if you knock off enough to where it’s not obvious which are which, and/or if schematics are not available for the board you are working on.
 
dosdude1 said:
You need to practice removing underfilled chips and cleaning underfill on a junk board first, as the board is the most prone to damage by far. You rip pads or even damage solder mask badly enough, the board is trashed and can no longer be used. Also if you accidentally knock off components, that can also lead to an unusable board if you knock off enough to where it’s not obvious which are which, and/or if schematics are not available for the board you are working on.
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Thanks!
 
I have a question to the community: I tried to upgrade A2442 from 512GB to 2TB (4xKICM229). Nands from China, I bought several sets, all of them pre-programmed with landing place designation (0,1,2,3), only one (that one) without designation. The chinese guy meant for this set it is no matter which nand at what place (nands are blank). And of course the recovery failed. I tried many times, every time the same behaviuor (recovery starts, the display turns on with an apple without a progress bar, turns off and then the macbook begins pulsing the 20V... so recovery failed. After more then 10 attempts I decided to put the original nands - the same behaviour. Another 2TB nand set - same behaviour.

I am pretty sure I worked good (I already made 50+ such upgrades, nothing here visually damaged)... so is it possible that during the failed recovery the SoC Rom got corrupted? @dosdude1 or someone else - did anyone have such a case? Does anybody have the SoC Rom dump in the factory original state (not the dump from another A2442, that does not work)?
 
todordm said:
I have a question to the community: I tried to upgrade A2442 from 512GB to 2TB (4xKICM229). Nands from China, I bought several sets, all of them pre-programmed with landing place designation (0,1,2,3), only one (that one) without designation. The chinese guy meant for this set it is no matter which nand at what place (nands are blank). And of course the recovery failed. I tried many times, every time the same behaviuor (recovery starts, the display turns on with an apple without a progress bar, turns off and then the macbook begins pulsing the 20V... so recovery failed. After more then 10 attempts I decided to put the original nands - the same behaviour. Another 2TB nand set - same behaviour.

I am pretty sure I worked good (I already made 50+ such upgrades, nothing here visually damaged)... so is it possible that during the failed recovery the SoC Rom got corrupted? @dosdude1 or someone else - did anyone have such a case? Does anybody have the SoC Rom dump in the factory original state (not the dump from another A2442, that does not work)?
Click to expand...
SoC ROM will not be an issue; it can be completely blank and still work fine. It is only used to store NVRAM and LLB, which is all written during the restore process. There is likely an issue with one of the nearby small components causing the problem. Check log output in ~/Library/Logs/Mac Updater Logs, be sure to restore using Finder in Sonoma or later, and not Apple Configurator.
 
dosdude1 said:
SoC ROM will not be an issue; it can be completely blank and still work fine. It is only used to store NVRAM and LLB, which is all written during the restore process. There is likely an issue with one of the nearby small components causing the problem. Check log output in ~/Library/Logs/Mac Updater Logs, be sure to restore using Finder in Sonoma or later, and not Apple Configurator.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the quick reply, I will buy a fresh nand set and after the vacation I'll inspect once more the board and install the nands... right now I don't have blank nands or such with a good firmware...
 
Hi. Owning Macs for 17 years i had a fling in the last couple years with a Thinkpad x13 (with Ryzen and Linux), but now want to rejoin the cult again :D
I am looking into buying a Macbook Air 15" M4 (loving an M3 i 'borrowed' aka set up for someone the last days). I was following dosdude1s upgrade videos in the last years and now want to buy the 512GB 256GB model and upgrade it to 2TB.
From what i read here i definitly need a pair of K8A5s.
Now - as far i understand - there are specific models which are sold with not all NANDs 'sockets' populated on the board, and thus other passive components missing.
I want to avoid being confronted with soldering more than just the NANDs, so are there any M4 Mac Airs (or Mac Pros [which have more than 2 'sockets' anyway]) to avoid?
 
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dr_gonzo said:
Hi. Owning Macs for 17 years i had a fling in the last couple years with a Thinkpad x13 (with Ryzen and Linux), but now want to rejoin the cult again :D
I am looking into buying a Macbook Air 15" M4 (loving an M3 i 'borrowed' aka set up for someone the last days). I was following dosdude1s upgrade videos in the last years and now want to buy the 512GB 256GB model and upgrade it to 2TB.
From what i read here i definitly need a pair of K8A5s.
Now - as far i understand - there are specific models which are sold with not all NANDs 'sockets' populated on the board, and thus other passive components missing.
I want to avoid being confronted with soldering more than just the NANDs, so are there any M4 Mac Airs (or Mac Pros [which have more than 2 'sockets' anyway]) to avoid?
Click to expand...
M4 Air will only have 2 NANDs, and both will be populated in any config, so you do not need to worry about adding extra components there. M2 systems are the only ones that have more NANDs than usual omitted (one NAND on 256GB normal M2 configs, and two NANDs on M2 Pro/Max/Ultra 512GB configs).
 
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