Early 2014 Macbook Air 13" soldered RAM Upgrade - which RAM to buy?

[far781]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my Early 2014 Macbook Air 13" from 4GB to 16GB of RAM. I know the memory on the board is soldered LPDDR3 with 178 BGA ball package and there are 4 RAM chips which I will need to replace with ones that have 4GB each. I have prior experience with BGA stuff and I did an upgrade on a 2011 Macbook Air 11" in the past.

I saw a video by Hrutkay Mods where dosdude1 did an upgrade on this exact model. As far as I'm aware any LPDDR3 module with the correct package that can run at 1600MHz will do, but I want to confirm this before purchasing some chips from Aliexpress. I found a good offer for 4GB Samsung chips (K4EBE304ED-EGCG).

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005424306837.html

Will these work with my Macbook?

Thanks!

 

[dosdude1]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my Early 2014 Macbook Air 13" from 4GB to 16GB of RAM. I know the memory on the board is soldered LPDDR3 with 178 BGA ball package and there are 4 RAM chips which I will need to replace with ones that have 4GB each. I have prior experience with BGA stuff and I did an upgrade on a 2011 Macbook Air 11" in the past.

I saw a video by Hrutkay Mods where dosdude1 did an upgrade on this exact model. As far as I'm aware any LPDDR3 module with the correct package that can run at 1600MHz will do, but I want to confirm this before purchasing some chips from Aliexpress. I found a good offer for 4GB Samsung chips (K4EBE304ED-EGCG).

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005424306837.html

Will these work with my Macbook?

Thanks!

Yep, those will work just fine. They're 2133 MHz rated, but will only run at 1600 MHz in that model MacBook. Be aware SPD data will have to be modified in SPI ROM for this to work.

 

[far781]

Yep, those will work just fine. They're 2133 MHz rated, but will only run at 1600 MHz in that model MacBook. Be aware SPD data will have to be modified in SPI ROM for this to work.

Thank you. Can I use the same SPD data as on the video for those RAM chips? I found the same SPD data in Early 2015 Macbook Air 13" SPI ROM dump.

 

[dosdude1]

Thank you. Can I use the same SPD data as on the video for those RAM chips? I found the same SPD data in Early 2015 Macbook Air 13" SPI ROM dump.

Yeah, use 16GB Hynix SPD data from 2015 MBA, that's what I do.

 

[far781]

Yeah, use 16GB Hynix SPD data from 2015 MBA, that's what I do.

I ended up buying 4x H9CCNNNCLTMLAR-NTD chips. They arrived today, but I will be performing the upgrade later in the coming month.

I'm also planning to upgrade the OS from Sierra to the latest one supported on this machine. Should I do it before the upgrade? I was wondering if maybe an OS update will flash the SPI ROM with new firmware and I will have to modify it again.

 

[dosdude1]

I ended up buying 4x H9CCNNNCLTMLAR-NTD chips. They arrived today, but I will be performing the upgrade later in the coming month.

I'm also planning to upgrade the OS from Sierra to the latest one supported on this machine. Should I do it before the upgrade? I was wondering if maybe an OS update will flash the SPI ROM with new firmware and I will have to modify it again.

It indeed will flash the SPI-ROM again, so definitely want to update as much as you can before doing the upgrade. It's probably worth using OpenCore to boot from then on, as that will prevent any future firmware updates. If an update is applied, you can, of course, go back and re-apply the SPD data modifications.

 

[far781]

It indeed will flash the SPI-ROM again, so definitely want to update as much as you can before doing the upgrade. It's probably worth using OpenCore to boot from then on, as that will prevent any future firmware updates. If an update is applied, you can, of course, go back and re-apply the SPD data modifications.

Other than OpenCore is there a way to block firmware upgrades on a hardware level?

I found a circuit titled "PCH ME Disable Strap" in a schematic for my Macbook and it's supposed to disable ME when there's a need for re-flashing of SPI ROM. Would altering this circuit to keep it from disabling ME block any future firmware upgrades too?

 

[StoneJack]

Easier to sell the notebook and buy newer model

 

[dosdude1]

Other than OpenCore is there a way to block firmware upgrades on a hardware level?

I found a circuit titled "PCH ME Disable Strap" in a schematic for my Macbook and it's supposed to disable ME when there's a need for re-flashing of SPI ROM. Would altering this circuit to keep it from disabling ME block any future firmware upgrades too?

ME has nothing to do with it, so it wouldn’t make a difference. In fact, disabling ME will cause acceleration on integrated Intel Graphics to stop working entirely under Mac OS. The only possible thing you could do is tie the WP pin of the SPI-ROM low at all times, but doing so would cause NVRAM to stop being able to write changes, and could cause other issues.

 

[far781]

ME has nothing to do with it, so it wouldn’t make a difference. In fact, disabling ME will cause acceleration on integrated Intel Graphics to stop working entirely under Mac OS. The only possible thing you could do is tie the WP pin of the SPI-ROM low at all times, but doing so would cause NVRAM to stop being able to write changes, and could cause other issues.

I was looking at this note in the schematic. It seems like keeping ME enabled at all times would prevent a full re-flash, but there are a lot of unknowns. Maybe a firmware upgrade would still work but it would just omit the ME part and override SPD data anyway.

 

[team.a]

Thanks. I have a question. Regarding LPDDR3, is Samsung K4E6E304EE-EGCE 4GB per chip? I want to make my 2013 MBA 16GB. Thank you.

 

[OOXX44]

It indeed will flash the SPI-ROM again, so definitely want to update as much as you can before doing the upgrade. It's probably worth using OpenCore to boot from then on, as that will prevent any future firmware updates. If an update is applied, you can, of course, go back and re-apply the SPD data modifications.

Hi, I have an MacBook air 11"(MBA11A1465EMC2631(early 2014)_820-3435-B), and I used 4 x K4EBE304EB-EGCG to do the upgrade. After that I used OpenCore-patcher to install macOS Monterey and failed to recognize the 16G ram. There is still 4g. I saw the video by Hrutkay Mods where you did the soldered RAM Upgrade on early 2014 MacBook air 13". I found the SPD info from Adding SPD table for Samsung K4EBE304EB-EGCG, and I followed your steps to replace the SPD data of my BIOS dump bin file which I extracted from my MacBook air after installing macOS Monterey. In my case, it still dose not work. It can still only recognized 4G. If my SPD modification is right, is there a lock in the BIOS dump bin file that can ignore the modification? Or there is something wrong with my modification? Will you please help me to figure out what's wrong? Thank you very much.

 

[dosdude1]

Hi, I have an MacBook air 11"(MBA11A1465EMC2631(early 2014)_820-3435-B), and I used 4 x K4EBE304EB-EGCG to do the upgrade. After that I used OpenCore-patcher to install macOS Monterey and failed to recognize the 16G ram. There is still 4g. I saw the video by Hrutkay Mods where you did the soldered RAM Upgrade on early 2014 MacBook air 13". I found the SPD info from Adding SPD table for Samsung K4EBE304EB-EGCG, and I followed your steps to replace the SPD data of my BIOS dump bin file which I extracted from my MacBook air after installing macOS Monterey. In my case, it still dose not work. It can still only recognized 4G. If my SPD modification is right, is there a lock in the BIOS dump bin file that can ignore the modification? Or there is something wrong with my modification? Will you please help me to figure out what's wrong? Thank you very much.

Did you replace all instances of SPD data with the desired config? Depending on what the SPD strap config resistors are set to, it could be using any one of those SPD entries. For 16GB upgrades on 2013 and 2014 Airs, I highly recommend using this SPD data, regardless of which manufacturer chips you install.

 

[OOXX44]

Did you replace all instances of SPD data with the desired config? Depending on what the SPD strap config resistors are set to, it could be using any one of those SPD entries. For 16GB upgrades on 2013 and 2014 Airs, I highly recommend using this SPD data, regardless of which manufacturer chips you install.

Thank you so much. The EFI bios dump bin I used was from a mid 2013 MacBook air 11" with System Firmware Version of MBA61.0099.B16, which I found in the internet. I tried again as you said and it worked.

However, There is still a problem I do not understand. The EFI bios was too old, and I updated it, read from the bios chip and changed the SPD and write it back to the bios chip. Then I found the RAM was 4G, the SPD change did not work again. In this case, I have to remain the EFI bios version unchanged to use the 16g RAM. So after a clan install of macOS Monterey, I wrote the mid 2013 MacBook air 11" bios dump bin with SPD changed to the bios chip. This time it showed 16g RAM and early 2014 MacBook air 11".

I also do not know whether my own early 2014 MacBook air 11" EFI bios was modified during the last repair by others. It was the same situation as above. The bios dump read from the chip before, when changed SPD data, it did not work.

Anyway, I can use 16g RAM now, and the confusion is not a big problem. Thanks again.

 

[theflyingsquirrel]

Did you replace all instances of SPD data with the desired config? Depending on what the SPD strap config resistors are set to, it could be using any one of those SPD entries. For 16GB upgrades on 2013 and 2014 Airs, I highly recommend using this SPD data, regardless of which manufacturer chips you install.

I am planning to modify my Mid 2012 MacBook Air. How can I backup the original SPD dump before modifying? I tried to install window with bootcamp and used typhoon burner to get the hex dump, but it did not work. Is there a better way to get the original hex dump?