Is hardware software locked?

[cipher28]

I been curious if it is or not or depends on the company. I think I worded it right. Here is some examples,
Taking a internal memory chip & soldering it in(same exact pinout & size, just more memory). Would it work?
Taking a 2gb ram chip & soldering it in(again same exact pinout & size, just more memory).
I have worked on game consoles & computers, learned how to solder pretty good. Most common thing I did was swapping out the dvd/blu ray drive's firmware chip into a new daughter board.

I'm wondering if I did the above(ram/internal memory upgrade), if it would work. I'm wondering if companies lock the hardware to where even if the chips are physically the same(just more mem), their software blocks them from the motherboard being able to read them even if its the same model smartphone they came off of. I may try to edit this to explain better later, but I believe some of you may know what i'm getting at.

 

[Rukbat]

I been curious if it is or not or depends on the company. I think I worded it right. Here is some examples,
Taking a internal memory chip & soldering it in(same exact pinout & size, just more memory). Would it work?

Probably not. If the software is addressing 32GB it has enough address lines (in hardware) for 32GB. It's not going to address more than that, and if it did, since the high-order bit of the memory chip isn't connected to the CPU (there was no reason for that pin to be connected with the chip with nothing connected to that pin - assuming that a 32GB and 64GB chip exist with the same pinouts except for that one difference), addressing 32GB + 1 is addressing 1. So you'd still get 32GB used and 32GB that were never used.

Taking a 2gb ram chip & soldering it in(again same exact pinout & size, just more memory).

Same problem. The address lines for the additional memory aren't there. (Which is why a 32 bit CPU can only address 4GB - to address more you need at least 33 bits.)

I'm wondering if companies lock the hardware to where even if the chips are physically the same(just more mem), their software blocks them from the motherboard being able to read them even if its the same model smartphone they came off of.

It's more like putting 20 gallons of gas into a 10 gallon tank. Nothing is blocked. (If you're talking about a phone that comes in various storage sizes, it might be possible that a chip with more storage exists [remember, these are SoC - System on Chip - systems, so you replace the whole thing in one chip] and the motherboard is the same for all variations - or it may not be. It depends on the individual phone.)