[Mac mini Late 2014] Ram upgrade

[gilles_polysoft]

Hello,

to my knowledge there is unfortunately no schematic available anywhere for the Mac mini Late 2014 (Macmini7,1).

This is sad because no schematics means it is difficult to repair and even upgrade the ram on those models.
And those models are cheap, consume very low power and are very reliable.

I had a few of them available at my office, in either 4GB, 8GB and 16 GB configurations, and I wanted to upgrade at least the 4GB ones to 16GB ram.

so I decided to take note of the different configurations of the resistors on the motherboard, which change between the different RAM configurations.

This let me change the RAM and upgrade it. The ram is LPDDR3 in BGA 178, the exact same RAM as in the MacBook Pro and Air so it is easy to buy some new in Chinese market places or even to get some from dead logic board.

Here are the resistor configuration I noted. Green rectangle means 10k resistor present, red rectangle means 10k resistor missing.

The location of the resistors configuration is on the upper side of the logic board, at the opposite of the CPU.




1 - resistors configuration for mac Mini 2014 with 4GB SK Hynix Ram


2 - resistors configuration for mac Mini 2014 with 8GB Elpida Ram


3 - resistors configuration for mac Mini 2014 with 8GB SK Hynix Ram


4 - resistors configuration for mac Mini 2014 with 16GB Elipida Ram






If anyone can help me complete this thread with others RAM capacity / manufacturer configurations, it would be very nice.



Nevertheless, I was able to change and upgrade 2x Mac mini 2014 1.4Ghz 4GB to 16GB ram, this is not as fast as an M1 mac but this is nice

 

[dosdude1]

Awesome analysis, this will be very helpful for performing RAM upgrades on these. I was considering changing the SPD data in the SPI-ROM to accomplish the same thing, but setting the strap resistors as Apple intended, of course, is the best way to do it.

A side note: The manufacturer info (Elpida, Hynix, etc.) strap setting doesn't really matter; all that serves to do is change what is shown for manufacturer and part number in the Memory section of System Profiler. Since you were able to find a correct 16GB strap config, you can just use that for any 16GB upgrade, regardless of what manufacturer chips you install.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Awesome analysis, this will be very helpful for performing RAM upgrades on these. I was considering changing the SPD data in the SPI-ROM to accomplish the same thing, but setting the strap resistors as Apple intended, of course, is the best way to do it.

A side note: The manufacturer info (Elpida, Hynix, etc.) strap setting doesn't really matter; all that serves to do is change what is shown for manufacturer and part number in the Memory section of System Profiler. Since you were able to find a correct 16GB strap config, you can just use that for any 16GB upgrade, regardless of what manufacturer chips you install.

Thanks a lot ?

Yes I didn't know that, but tried and in my case the 16GB strap for Elpida RAM worked well with SK Hynix RAM.
thanks again ☺️

 

[moyanagy]

Sorry if I don't understand here what has been done.

Have you unsoldered the original 4GB RAM and then soldered in new 16GB RAM in its place? I didn't think this was possible. Do you have a guide for this?

Also, do you have a link for this RAM you used?

 

[dosdude1]

Sorry if I don't understand here what has been done.

Have you unsoldered the original 4GB RAM and then soldered in new 16GB RAM in its place? I didn't think this was possible. Do you have a guide for this?

Also, do you have a link for this RAM you used?

Yes, that’s exactly what he did. I’ve done the same on a MacBook Air recently, which I made a video about here:

 

[Kaida]

i saw that many sellers in China has already done it and advertise on upgrading to 16gb, but they did not say much about the different resistor etc.

Neither links are mine or affilated:

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淘宝网(Taobao.com)作为专业的购物网站拥有全球时尚前沿的消费者购物集市,100%认证网上商城及超值二手商品区，同时购物安全，产品丰富，应有尽有,任你选购,让你尽享网上在线购物乐趣！

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[mborado]

32GB (4x Samsung K4E8E304EE-EGCE 8 Gb)

 

[Jwkitler]

Hello, do you have resistors configuration for mac Mini 2014 with 16GB SK Hynix Ram?

Thank you very much!
Because i don't have the 820-5509-A board view file

100k and 10k resistor , is it same?

Do you know where are R2284 R2282 R2280 and R2291?



Thank

 

[dosdude1]

Hello, do you have resistors configuration for mac Mini 2014 with 16GB SK Hynix Ram?

Thank you very much!
Because i don't have the 820-5509-A board view file

100k and 10k resistor , is it same?

Do you know where are R2284 R2282 R2280 and R2291?



Thank

Just use the 16GB Elpida configuration, it literally does not matter what manufacturer data is used (it does nothing but set the part number in the memory section of System Profiler).

 

[tomast]

Hi guys,
I am trying to upgrade my mac mini 2014 from 4GB to 16GB but I cannot find chip numbers. Can you please post here the numbers of 16GB compatible chips?
Thanks

 

[dosdude1]

Hi guys,
I am trying to upgrade my mac mini 2014 from 4GB to 16GB but I cannot find chip numbers. Can you please post here the numbers of 16GB compatible chips?
Thanks

I use Elpida EDFB232A1MA-GD-F chips for these machines. They are readily available from various sellers on AliExpress.

 

[Rickyandika]

Yes, that’s exactly what he did. I’ve done the same on a MacBook Air recently, which I made a video about here:

Hi, to my understanding based on your video i could just buy some DDR3L 8GB Sticks(the right ram quantity), remove it and solder it to my Mac Mini but how do i know if the RAM uses BGA 178. Or does all DDR3L uses BGA 178?

Also do you know which mac uses BGA 178? I have 2015 MBP and wondering if i could upgrade it as well

 

[EugW]

32GB (4x Samsung K4E8E304EE-EGCE 8 Gb)

View attachment 1979468

32 GB RAM works in the 2014 Mac mini? I would be interesting to do that just for kicks, since 32 GB was never offered as an option.

i saw that many sellers in China has already done it and advertise on upgrading to 16gb, but they did not say much about the different resistor etc.

Neither links are mine or affilated:

淘宝网 - 淘！我喜欢

淘宝网(Taobao.com)作为专业的购物网站拥有全球时尚前沿的消费者购物集市,100%认证网上商城及超值二手商品区，同时购物安全，产品丰富，应有尽有,任你选购,让你尽享网上在线购物乐趣！

item.taobao.com

淘宝网 - 淘！我喜欢

淘宝网(Taobao.com)作为专业的购物网站拥有全球时尚前沿的消费者购物集市,100%认证网上商城及超值二手商品区，同时购物安全，产品丰富，应有尽有,任你选购,让你尽享网上在线购物乐趣！

item.taobao.com

I'm curious. How much were they charging for the service?

 

[Madsandmatter]

Does anyone here provide this service for someone that’s not capable of doing it?

 

[EugW]

Does anyone here provide this service for someone that’s not capable of doing it?

Yes... if you live in China or something.

 

[dosdude1]

Does anyone here provide this service for someone that’s not capable of doing it?

I do, and have done quite a few machines for people at this point (including MacBook Airs and others). Just send me a PM.

 

[Madsandmatter]

Thanks for the quick reply! I’ll message you

 

[AlexRasberry]

Straps

 

[gatchirow]

I do, and have done quite a few machines for people at this point (including MacBook Airs and others). Just send me a PM.

Are you still doing this?? If so, please PM me because I cannot seem to find that option anywhere.

 

[jbgfx]

I do, and have done quite a few machines for people at this point (including MacBook Airs and others). Just send me a PM.

Do you still provides this service? Can you PM me if you do?

 

[overshoot]

Thanks guys for sharing that info

 

[George Dawes]

I’m using one , the Fusion Drive makes a racket even when it’s put to sleep !

 

[overshoot]

Hi guys,
I've tried the upgrade with a 8GB RAM kit from a 2014 MacBook Air, Hynix.
I've set the resistors config according to the pictures above and I am getting the Mac to beep 3 times.
My chips are the H9CCNNNBLTML.
I've tried to look them up in the list that Alex shared but these are not listed.
Is it possible that those chips would not be supported on the MacMini knowing they worked on a MacBook Air A1466 2014?
Also from Alex's list, an 8GB Hynix config can have 2 different resistors setup. So I am wondering if there could be a bunch of different combinations for the same vendor/RAMsize...

EDIT: Strangely enough, the first boot, it chimed and worked however I only got 4GB of RAM as the previous config with the 2 banks populated...

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[dosdude1]

Hi guys,
I've tried the upgrade with a 8GB RAM kit from a 2014 MacBook Air, Hynix.
I've set the resistors config according to the pictures above and I am getting the Mac to beep 3 times.
My chips are the H9CCNNNBLTML.
I've tried to look them up in the list that Alex shared but these are not listed.
Is it possible that those chips would not be supported on the MacMini knowing they worked on a MacBook Air A1466 2014?
Also from Alex's list, an 8GB Hynix config can have 2 different resistors setup. So I am wondering if there could be a bunch of different combinations for the same vendor/RAMsize...

EDIT: Strangely enough, the first boot, it chimed and worked however I only got 4GB of RAM as the previous config with the 2 banks populated...

Any help would be appreciated.

Probably just bad solder joint on one of the chips, or one of the chips is bad. Also, just set the memory config to any 8GB one; the manufacturer info does not matter or make any difference (other than what is printed in System Profiler).

 

[overshoot]

Probably just bad solder joint on one of the chips, or one of the chips is bad. Also, just set the memory config to any 8GB one; the manufacturer info does not matter or make any difference (other than what is printed in System Profiler).

Thanks for answering. Well I've redid all the work, re-balled all the RAM chips, re-set the resistor jumpers and it still beeps 3 times.
Can I take RAM chips from 2015/2017 MacBook Air models?