Raspberry Pi locks boards to factory RAM capacities in firmware — engineer tells DIY modders 'don't waste your time' trying repairs or upgrades, company cites shady reseller scams
SBC supremo blames firms buying cheaper Pis then swapping RAM with ICs ‘of dubious origin’ for this change.
Raspberry Pi users are effectively being blocked from swapping the RAM chips on their SBCs for repairs or upgrades. In a reply on the firm’s forums, Raspberry Pi Engineer & Forum Moderator PhilE told users that the company has been “locking devices to their original RAM size” for some time. This decision was made for the sake of device reliability, says the rep. However, the move seems to go against the grain for a company so involved in the maker, DIY, and tinkerer side of computing.
PhilE explains the problem that faced Raspberry Pi and some users, airing the company’s side of the argument. “If labor is cheap enough then there may be a minor financial gain in buying a part with say a 2GB part, swapping it for an 8GB part of dubious origin, and reselling it as an 8GB device,” says the forum mod. “However, this brings an element of risk to the user - the board hasn't been tested by us - and is a potential support burden for us, with customers complaining of unreliable devices. We therefore remove the commercial incentive by locking devices to their original RAM size.”
In addition, the Pi’s firmware currently “program in some other device attributes, meaning that switching parts of the same size may not work,” says PhilE. This isn’t great for genuine users who might want to tinker with or upgrade the RAM chips or have to replace an IC for repair. The forum mod underlines the effective block by telling would-be RAM MacGyvers to “don't waste your time trying - it won't work.”
Some readers might feel sympathetic towards Raspberry Pi’s RAM tinkering blockade, given PhilE’s reasoned explanation. One surprising aspect of the decision, though, is that the firmware locks of RAM IC swaps began to roll out in updates from late 2024 onwards. So, this change was made well before the crazy RAM chip pricing upswing precipitated by the AI data center boom. Also, it means that if you want to sidestep this RAM tinkering block, you would need to grab and flash a pretty old firmware to your Pi model (if available).
Naturally, the Pi community isn’t celebrating this RAM upgrade/repair block. Some high-profile Pi advocates like Jeff Geerling suggest that implementing a ‘warranty bit’ (similar to older models), or a one-time firmware flag to void support for modified boards, would have been a more agreeable path for Raspberry Pi to take. Here’s a lookup table that you can use to check your Pi’s factory RAM configuration.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
-
Benjamin Edelman It would be great if this otherwise open source device didn't have a closed-source proprietary firmware bootloader. It's entirely likely that the Pi's processor has an undocumented hypervisor and backdoor. I don't definitively know this to be the case, that does seem to be the direction the entire chip industry is moving towards.Reply -
Arkitekt78 Well now... doesnt THIS just defeat the entire purpose of the pi. If someone wants to buy a pi from a shady reseller, that's their risk and their consequences if its been modified. Locking it is just pouring more bad onto the bad.Reply -
wartickler It's the same argument that AT&T makes regarding modifying your Android phone you bought from them. They claim they would get too many support requests for bricked phones. I get it. It makes sense. Except for the fact that the other companies seem to handle it just fine.Reply
Even after paying it off they don't let you at the bootloader. It's why I will never, ever sign up with AT&T. At this rate, I'm calling it: Raspberry Pi seems to be going the way of the dodo. Gross, gross, gross. -
lugw Raspberry Pi team feels like a YouTuber that got rich. I can’t even relate to them now with how expensive Pi’s are these days… and here you are… doing things to make them more expensive. I remember when you could get a fun tinkerer device for $35. Sure may not be possible today but we’re basically at a 7x increase in price.Reply
We’re a tinkerer community. I think we can decide if we want to take a risk on a shady reseller. I think we should be able to decide for ourselves if we want to learn how to solder ram and put our own in.
This just seems like an attempt by their team to make more money. Greed masqueraded as caring about quality. -
Benjamin Edelman Reply
I'm not following the logic on this. No one upgrades RAM in Android phones. If you purchased a phone from AT&T, then you didn't purchase it from a third party vendor. You could easily break your phone on your own and still open a ticket. AT&T, like all the major cellular carriers, is lying to you.wartickler said:It's the same argument that AT&T makes regarding modifying your Android phone you bought from them. They claim they would get too many support requests for bricked phones. I get it. It makes sense. Except for the fact that the other companies seem to handle it just fine.
Even after paying it off they don't let you at the bootloader. It's why I will never, ever sign up with AT&T. At this rate, I'm calling it: Raspberry Pi seems to be going the way of the dodo. Gross, gross, gross. -
chaos6616 Reply
I think it's moreso that AT&T prevents you from using custom firmware on devices you buy from them/through your cell plan. Like if your device is supported by Lineage or Graphene, but you signed with AT&T, you will not be installing that ROM, lolBenjamin Edelman said:I'm not following the logic on this. No one upgrades RAM in Android phones. If you purchased a phone from AT&T, then you didn't purchase it from a third party vendor. You could easily break your phone on your own and still open a ticket. AT&T, like all the major cellular carriers, is lying to you. -
wakuwaku Reply
Didn't read the article? It was done well before RAM prices when nuts and Pi prices followed. Did they make more expensive back then when they decided to implement it? Did the prices increase significantly back then? Maybe use your eyes and your brains better before posting a reply on the internet?lugw said:Raspberry Pi team feels like a YouTuber that got rich. I can’t even relate to them now with how expensive Pi’s are these days… and here you are… doing things to make them more expensive. I remember when you could get a fun tinkerer device for $35. Sure may not be possible today but we’re basically at a 7x increase in price.
We’re a tinkerer community. I think we can decide if we want to take a risk on a shady reseller. I think we should be able to decide for ourselves if we want to learn how to solder ram and put our own in.
This just seems like an attempt by their team to make more money. Greed masqueraded as caring about quality. -
benovite I'm not a RasPi user but I can completely relate to this particular line;Reply
"buying a part with say a 2GB part, swapping it for an 8GB part of dubious origin, and reselling it as an 8GB device"
About two months ago I was looking for a cheap Android tablet to co-exist with one I already had that was in bad shape. I saw an ad on Craigslist for a brand new tablet with specs that were of course too good to be true. So for $110 I would be getting a new 10 inch Maxwest(that should have been the first red flag) tablet with 256gb internal storage and yep, 8 gigs of ram. It also came with a new pre -installed 128 gb SD card and Android 13. Or was it 14, the system info could never undoubtedly confirm ANY of this stuff. The included SD card was garbage. The 8 gigs of ram? It sure didn't feel like 8 gigs! More like...2? 4 would have been nice. Across the board this thing was a liar about its specs, what it could do and what it came with. And after 2 weeks the touchscreen started to become unresponsive. I powered my way through multiple tear downs of the tablet to make sure everything was connected, even found that stupid electonic lighter fix that didn't fix anything (imagine constantly clicking just the electronic part of a lighter all over the screen in hopes of sparking it back to life- HA!).
Anyway if you're still reading this I thank you because this has been a little helpful to me in both reconciling with recent decisions I've made and to read that the guy at Pi is basically confirming that there's a lot of superficial crappy RAM flying around with big numbers that'll ruin your stuff, because that's what he was essentially saying right? Correct me if I'm wrong. He's also like instead of giving my support people migraines and high blood pressure due to your lame DIY attempt, we've decided to lock it down.
Completely understandable in these hectic RAM deficient times when hustling for a few gigs might get you popped. -
phrizz Reply
They locked it down 2yrs ago though, according to the story. I highly doubt anyone ever opened your tablet, let alone actually go through the trouble of swapping RAM. They simply lied to you. It's a lot easier to simply SAY it has x amount of memory than to literally swap parts.benovite said:I'm not a RasPi user but I can completely relate to this particular line;
"buying a part with say a 2GB part, swapping it for an 8GB part of dubious origin, and reselling it as an 8GB device"
About two months ago I was looking for a cheap Android tablet to co-exist with one I already had that was in bad shape. I saw an ad on Craigslist for a brand new tablet with specs that were of course too good to be true. So for $110 I would be getting a new 10 inch Maxwest(that should have been the first red flag) tablet with 256gb internal storage and yep, 8 gigs of ram. It also came with a new pre -installed 128 gb SD card and Android 13. Or was it 14, the system info could never undoubtedly confirm ANY of this stuff. The included SD card was garbage. The 8 gigs of ram? It sure didn't feel like 8 gigs! More like...2? 4 would have been nice. Across the board this thing was a liar about its specs, what it could do and what it came with. And after 2 weeks the touchscreen started to become unresponsive. I powered my way through multiple tear downs of the tablet to make sure everything was connected, even found that stupid electonic lighter fix that didn't fix anything (imagine constantly clicking just the electronic part of a lighter all over the screen in hopes of sparking it back to life- HA!).
Anyway if you're still reading this I thank you because this has been a little helpful to me in both reconciling with recent decisions I've made and to read that the guy at Pi is basically confirming that there's a lot of superficial crappy RAM flying around with big numbers that'll ruin your stuff, because that's what he was essentially saying right? Correct me if I'm wrong. He's also like instead of giving my support people migraines and high blood pressure due to your lame DIY attempt, we've decided to lock it down.
Completely understandable in these hectic RAM deficient times when hustling for a few gigs might get you popped.
I do sympathize with your experience even if I don't agree with all the details. It sucks 100% of the time when you get ripped off!