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can we use 1x KICM229 (1tb) to upgrade a 128gb model of macbook air m1 A2337?
It has only 1 nand slot populated.
 
@Sauve Mon Mac thank you I found a supplier yesterday wo sells them for 150 euro shipping to Germany.
By the way you said you can Blank them with P15, but dosdude said once you write into them in dfu, they will not be usable anymore on other devices. that means you can not take an original 1tb nand from one laptop and format it and upgrade another laptop with that nand.
Some you can actually blank now with P15; they have somehow managed to get dumps of "blank" firmware from some NANDs (not all though). So for the ones where blank dumps are available to flash, you can make them blank again.
 
@prageethk what was wrong with it at the first place? what did you do wrong?

As @Sauve Mon Mac suggested, I triple checked for any components fallen off by comparing to another dead board. I had RP001, a tiny resistor probably 0201 that was responsible for NAND0_CLK24M_01, which sounds pretty important, knocked off the board. I finally managed to get it soldered with no microscope. Then I blanked the NAND chips using the P15 programmer using the iphone13 menu. Soldered it in, viola - this time all succeeded.
 

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For anyone interested, to virginize KICM229 NAND chips, attached is the correct file that can be used with JCID P13/P15 programmers.

I grabbed it from the firmware folder in JCIDRepair. Confirmed it working by directly flashing it using the Macbook Pro menu.
 

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Hi, I am looking for a supplier to supply two 1tb nands for my M2 Macbook Air 15 inch (16gb) to bring my storage to 2TB. I stumbled across this forum and was just curious whether anyone was able to find a good supplier for nands¿
 
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Aliexpress is your best bet. You can even find brand-new NAND chips from there. I have bought both used and brand-new.
For example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100....order_list.order_list_main.69.2eef18027YRF2L
Thank you, but also one more question, does anyone by any chance have a board schematic of MacBook Air 15 inch M2, 2023 by any chance¿ Also, does the NANDs only let you upgrade it to the highest storage configuration that Apple had sold, like would it be theoretically not possible to install 4TB in Macbook Air¿
 
How to check if nand is applied and aligned correctly using a multimeter?
I mean checking if there isn't any short, or any kind of test which helps.
What components I should test?
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what was the price difference between new and used?
I can see examples where brand new KICM223 goes for ~242 AUD and used go for ~117 AUD. So you're paying over double for brand new compared to used.

Thank you, but also one more question, does anyone by any chance have a board schematic of MacBook Air 15 inch M2, 2023 by any chance¿ Also, does the NANDs only let you upgrade it to the highest storage configuration that Apple had sold, like would it be theoretically not possible to install 4TB in Macbook Air¿
Yeah, I think it is not possible to go beyond what Apple originally supported.
 
How to check if nand is applied and aligned correctly using a multimeter?
I mean checking if there isn't any short, or any kind of test which helps.
What components I should test?
View attachment 2593858

At least on A2442 and A2486 boards (which I'm familiar with), there are three power rails that goes into NAND. 2V5, 1V2 and 0V9. When the board is free from all NAND, the resistance and diode mode voltage is higher. After each NAND install, the resistance and voltage comes down specially on 1V2 and 0V9 rails - but never short circuit. After each install, measure and confirm. None of the caps should be showing as shorted.
 
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First of all, I am very grateful @dosdude1 for your videos and all the information you have shared 🙏 !

I have a 2021 MacBook Pro A2442 1TB that I would like to do a 2TB swap.
According to the table, I see that I need to buy 4x KICM229, and I was planning on buying from this AliExpress dealer that @prageethk suggested. Is this correct?

This is my first time attempting such a procedure, so I bought a Mac Mini logic board to practice on.
I set my hot air station to 380°C and successfully ripped almost all pads off while removing the first NAND, so I cranked up the temp to 480°C and was able to remove the second NAND, tearing off only two pads (it seems that my hot air station's numbers are far from its true output).
I am pretty confident that if I try a third time, even more carefully inserting the tool initially, I may be able to succeed without causing damage.

I have read in this thread that such torn-off pads can be fixed, but I have only found videos of copper wire being embedded in place of the missing pad. Is that the only way, or can anyone point me to a source of knowledge for such a fix, so I can try it as well and see if I can replicate the fix in case it is needed on my own board?

Here is an image of my practice board with the results I mentioned.
 

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First of all, I am very grateful @dosdude1 for your videos and all the information you have shared 🙏 !

I have a 2021 MacBook Pro A2442 1TB that I would like to do a 2TB swap.
According to the table, I see that I need to buy 4x KICM229, and I was planning on buying from this AliExpress dealer that @prageethk suggested. Is this correct?

This is my first time attempting such a procedure, so I bought a Mac Mini logic board to practice on.
I set my hot air station to 380°C and successfully ripped almost all pads off while removing the first NAND, so I cranked up the temp to 480°C and was able to remove the second NAND, tearing off only two pads (it seems that my hot air station's numbers are far from its true output).
I am pretty confident that if I try a third time, even more carefully inserting the tool initially, I may be able to succeed without causing damage.

I have read in this thread that such torn-off pads can be fixed, but I have only found videos of copper wire being embedded in place of the missing pad. Is that the only way, or can anyone point me to a source of knowledge for such a fix, so I can try it as well and see if I can replicate the fix in case it is needed on my own board?

Here is an image of my practice board with the results I mentioned.
I recommend you do more practice. First of all, watch this video where @dosdude1 works with Linus on upgrading a macbook. Listen to what dosdude1 explains on the removal - cold knife through butter feeling. Following this guidance, I only ripped off a single pad on my first board - that being an extra ground pad, I was lucky. Did 3 boards now and never ripped any pads again.

 
I recommend you do more practice. First of all, watch this video where @dosdude1 works with Linus on upgrading a macbook. Listen to what dosdude1 explains on the removal - cold knife through butter feeling. Following this guidance, I only ripped off a single pad on my first board - that being an extra ground pad, I was lucky. Did 3 boards now and never ripped any pads again.


Thanks for your response @prageethk.
I would love to practice some more, but the Mac Mini board I was able to buy only had 2 NANDs on it, so I only have my currently functional MacBook Pro left to work with.

I have carefully studied this and many other videos, and I did get the "cold knife through butter" effect soon after I attempted the second insertion.

I was thinking that, as a safety precaution, I could check out where an extra ground, or unused pad should be on the next NAND I remove and insert the tool there. So if I do damage a pad, it may be one that doesn't cause harm.
Could you share a link to where I can find such information?

I haven't ordered the new NANDs yet because I first wanted to estimate if I am capable of removing one correctly, but I feel like I can risk it after the two practice attempts and the idea of inserting the tool at a less sensitive point.
 
hi there I have another MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16". I soldered all components according to the Boardview of 820-02890.
there is also no short between the 0.9, 1.2, 2.5 and GND line. when trying to restore it via dfu mode it stops right before accessing the NAND I think. I deleted the nands via LBtool H7 with blank firmware, just to be sure, before soldering it to the mainboard. to you have any idea, where to look? attached the photos, I created the components, what I have placed where... maybe I did there a mistake or forget one component? hope someone has an idea, where my mistake happens

Before it was a 512GB Version with 2 NANDS populated

EDIT: Got figured it out, I removed all newly added components for the new 2x Nand and repopulated everything the same. haven't found, where is the bad soldering, now its working with 4x K5A5.. Still thanks a lot, without you guys I Wouldn't have thought about upgrading.... now Continuing with the next family Mac ;-)
 

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Hi all. I wanted to thank everyone here for helping me, I finally got my MacBook Pro P4 pro working and upgraded. Turns out I was using the wrong chips at some point and has also somehow had some of the other nearby components disconnect when doing the nand swap. Turns out using the correct chips and going over the components nearby with hot air fixed everything.

I have a follow up question for those who have used really tacky flux that won't clean off properly with isopropyl alcohol. I used chip quik NC191 flux, it was perfect for the job but I'm having trouble cleaning it off. It's advertised as "no clean flux" but people say that the residue can still draw moisture and short components sometimes. Does anyone know if something like this really needs to be cleaned off or not? Any recommendations?
I've tried using lots of isopropyl alcohol and brushes but no dice. Once it all dries, I can use tweezers or needle to scratch off waxy residue off the surface of the motherboard.

I ordered "flux off" by chemtronics, I'll test it out but I'd love some input in the meantime
 
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