Re: Anyone tried this?
March 11th, 2018, 9:02
In the devices I have worked with, the choice of the flash chip would be probably based on availability and price. Have even see some where the chip was bigger then the firmware, possibly they got them at a discount and just used them.
I have done that also, used a bigger chip ( but from the same manufacturer ) in place of a smaller one ( I needed it NOW and could not find the same part ) .
Also, have replaced brands ( Winbond/CFEon/Spansion ) depending on what I have at had and what I could scrounge from old boards. Same size, pinout and voltage, they mostly work , but even in one device that is very forgiving in flash types, I have encountered one or two chips that wouldn´t work , even if the programmer tested them ok.
In other devices, I have seen when different chips wouldn´t work. The OpenWRT forums have some discussions about this, where one needs to add the necessary configuration/descriptions to the bootloader/firmware and recompile it to work with different or larger chips.
einstein9, I believe it is due to laziness of programmers not wanting to create a flexible, well written bootloader, or even to a situation where the person that wrote the original thing is not available, and new programmers just change some definitions for the part that will be used and pray it works. Kind of like people just want to get the job done, not interested in doing a well done job. But maybe the small space available in the flash of hds influences somehow, or even the time they have to change and test modifications is too short.
Eithe way, as people said, as long as the flash chip is similar ( size, block size, voltage, pinout, and they have a feature for boot block that can be on top or on the bottom, had some problems with parallel flash chips once ) they COULD work. The rest depends on the software identifiying the chips and working with them or not.
I have done that also, used a bigger chip ( but from the same manufacturer ) in place of a smaller one ( I needed it NOW and could not find the same part ) .
Also, have replaced brands ( Winbond/CFEon/Spansion ) depending on what I have at had and what I could scrounge from old boards. Same size, pinout and voltage, they mostly work , but even in one device that is very forgiving in flash types, I have encountered one or two chips that wouldn´t work , even if the programmer tested them ok.
In other devices, I have seen when different chips wouldn´t work. The OpenWRT forums have some discussions about this, where one needs to add the necessary configuration/descriptions to the bootloader/firmware and recompile it to work with different or larger chips.
einstein9, I believe it is due to laziness of programmers not wanting to create a flexible, well written bootloader, or even to a situation where the person that wrote the original thing is not available, and new programmers just change some definitions for the part that will be used and pray it works. Kind of like people just want to get the job done, not interested in doing a well done job. But maybe the small space available in the flash of hds influences somehow, or even the time they have to change and test modifications is too short.
Eithe way, as people said, as long as the flash chip is similar ( size, block size, voltage, pinout, and they have a feature for boot block that can be on top or on the bottom, had some problems with parallel flash chips once ) they COULD work. The rest depends on the software identifiying the chips and working with them or not.
Re: Anyone tried this?
March 11th, 2018, 11:47
@ rogfanther
I think that this subject will remain some how unclear (for some users)
But you will know WHY Am doing this when you write ROM via either 3k or Programmer and your drive stays BSY (not spinning)
I think there was a Bug (fixed now) in 3k before (seagate to be more specific) when they supported 1.8v (if my mem. is still good) (to fzabkar)
so many things involved, but soon or later will be discovered.
I think that this subject will remain some how unclear (for some users)
But you will know WHY Am doing this when you write ROM via either 3k or Programmer and your drive stays BSY (not spinning)
I think there was a Bug (fixed now) in 3k before (seagate to be more specific) when they supported 1.8v (if my mem. is still good) (to fzabkar)
so many things involved, but soon or later will be discovered.
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