Willing to Try Upgrade


Gorillazero

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2003
Messages
129
My friend (who installs mod chips etc.) says he's willing to do this to his own Gp32, but asks me to ask u guys, about EVERYTHING he needs.

Is this right...

1) Ram
2) 3 wires
3) Tools (the ones explained in the guild)
4) solder
5) Bios "but what ones", do i just make a text file with the information described in the Cobble Guild?

That about right?

- Matt (I'm a little confused)
 
What's this "guild" that you're talking about? :D

I'm torn between wanting to be helpful, and not wanting people to do the mod when they aren't totally confident about it. So I'll just say once again, this is totally your responsibility, don't blame me if your GP32 gets killed!

Your list of tools is good, but I'd really recommend getting some silicone compound (RTV or something similar). Here's the order to do things

1) Get the 32MB RAM chip, gently bend up pins 20 and 21 so they won't contact the PCB when the chip is soldered in.
2) Flash your bios as described below:

To flash the bios, go to Dark Fader's site and get fw.fxe.zip (scroll down the page to the firmware section). From the cobbleware site, download the modified bios (fw32.zip). Unzip both files, place fw.fxe in the GPMM/ folder on your GP32, and place fw.bin in the / folder. Then run fw.fxe using free launcher or whatever. There are on-screen instructions to follow.

3) Take your GP32 apart
4) Remove the old chip
5) Solder the new chip in - make sure pins 20 and 21 aren't touching the PCB
6) Solder the wires as shown on cobbleware.com
7) Put blobs of silicone at the ends of the wires
8) Put your GP32 back together again
9) Cross your fingers and turn your GP32 on!

If you're still not exactly sure about it, please ask again and I'll see if I can make it clearer.
 
Which way does the Ram Chip go in???? :blink: thats what I want to know now...

And is ANY PC133 128MB SDRam with '4' 32MB Chips on good enough to take 1 chip from and use??
 
steve-o. what is this razor blade method of soldering u where talking about. will it make replacing the ram chip easier?
 
Come on now Steve-O, if you don't know how IC pin numbering works then you shouldn't be attempting the mod. How are you going to identify pin 191 on the CPU?!

The new chip should, of course, go in the same way as the old one.

If you're not sure whether a RAM chip is right for the job, post its details here and we'll look into it. Your local computer shop shouldn't mind you borrowing a DIMM module for a moment to write the details down.
 
Come on now Steve-O, if you don't know how IC pin numbering works then you shouldn't be attempting the mod. How are you going to identify pin 191 on the CPU?!
I Use the Close up Diagrams / Pics of the Mod Chip installation instructions to identify them...

I got a "A" In Systems and Control (Electronics) :D
 
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steve-o. what is this razor blade method of soldering u where talking about. will it make replacing the ram chip easier?
Get a Razor Blade and put it inbetween the pin / leg of the Chip you are soldering so you Do Not contaminate the other pin with solder and make a Solder Bridge. Use Blu tac to hold the Blade inplace :D if u need more detailed description ask :D

Diagram -

! = Pin / Leg
| = Razor blade

!|!


Anyone got a good Idea on how to remove solder bridges? I bridged 2 legs on the DVD Chip on a PS2 and cant get rid of the bridge. It looks like its gone but its still their somewhere :D
 
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