Raspberry Pi Foundation limited the ability to upgrade the RAM

Company Raspberry Pi has released an update to the EEPROM firmware for the single-board computer Raspberry Pi 5, which blocks the ability to manually increase the amount of RAM. Now the system forcibly checks the installed chips for compliance with the factory configuration.

When trying to start the device with a non-standard amount of RAM, the firmware outputs Error Code 9. Previously, enthusiasts could manually re-solder memory chips to more capacious modules, but the new hardware integrity check makes such modifications inoperable at the software level.

The EEPROM update introduces a rigid binding of the memory identifier to a specific board revision. This eliminates the possibility of software bypassing limitations without modifying the firmware itself, as confirmed by discussions on Hacker News. Users note that any attempts to install third-party memory modules now lead to the inability to load the operating system.

This change is aimed at standardizing the hardware and preventing compatibility issues that arise when using non-certified components. For device owners, this means the end of the era of "garage" upgrades, which previously allowed increasing the RAM beyond the factory limits of 4 GB or 8 GB.