WORLDTECHRaspberry Pi locks boards to factory RAM capacities in firmware
Single source: this ordinary industry development was reported by Hackaday. WORLDTECH has not matched it against a second independent organisation, and it has not been officially confirmed by the organisations involved.
What happened
Raspberry Pi users are being firmware blocked from swapping the RAM chips on their SBCs for repairs or upgrades. 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.
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. So, this change was made well before the crazy RAM chip pricing upswing precipitated by the AI data center boom.
Sources & evidence
- Hackaday Reporting source
Raspberry Pi Locks Down RAM Upgrades ↗
https://hackaday.com/2026/09/22/raspberry-pi-locks-down-ram-upgrades/ - Tom's Hardware Reporting source
Raspberry Pi locks boards to factory RAM capacities in firmware ↗
https://www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-locks-boards-to-factory-ram-capacities-in-firmware-engineer-tells-diy-modders-dont-waste-your-time-trying-repairs-or-upgrades-company-cites-shady-reseller-scams