Thinkpads Forum

I've been playing with Thinkpads for 10 years. They're wonderful, well designed, machines. I'm completely familiar with the 1802 error when you try to put a different net card into your Thinkpad. HOWEVER, it's never before been a big deal... you just run a CD to fix it. But now you have to tape over a lead on your net card and the WiFi LED still won't work? LOL Wow! There's got to be an better way.

I just upgraded my router to 802.11AC. Does Lenovo sell AC net cards for their legacy machines (like R400, W500 and X200)? If so, I'd gladly pay Lenovo the extra money just to avoid taping over leads on my net card.

Smokestoomuch wrote:I've been playing with Thinkpads for 10 years. They're wonderful, well designed, machines. I'm completely familiar with the 1802 error when you try to put a different net card into your Thinkpad. HOWEVER, it's never before been a big deal... you just run a CD to fix it. But now you have to tape over a lead on your net card and the WiFi LED still won't work? LOL Wow! There's got to be an better way.

I just upgraded my router to 802.11AC. Does Lenovo sell AC net cards for their legacy machines (like R400, W500 and X200)? If so, I'd gladly pay Lenovo the extra money just to avoid taping over leads on my net card.

I found a BIOS with a whitelist removal for the T500 so I installed that. I'm running an Intel 7260AC right now and I didn't have to tape over any pins.

Really? Do tell! Share the link, brother.

I just put an Intel 7260HMW with BT ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product ) in a T601 FrankenPad with Middleton BIOS.
Installed the Intel driver, no taping required, Fn/F5 works, as well as the wifi-LED.

Thank you. Where can I find the Middleton download fix?

Smokestoomuch wrote:Thank you. Where can I find the Middleton download fix?

Please tell us the model of your machine ... e.g. R400, W500 and X200. (or you may wish to search appropriate forum for BIOS upgrades, yourself)

Right now, I'm trying to install an AC card in a W500.

I'm usually quite proficient at finding stuff I need but, in this case, I'm lost. I've searched extensively everywhere and I've found ZERO. I found one site in German that was close but it didn't list any of the machines i need fixed.

Smokestoomuch wrote:Thank you. Where can I find the Middleton download fix?

There is no such thing. Middleton is/was a guy who made some modifications to the BIOS of a number older Thinkpads, just none of the ones you are interested in. For better or for worse, he seems to be a bit idolized in this community. Luckily, he is only one of many people with the knowledge to do so. There are even some tutorials and a forum dedicated to it if you want to do it yourself.

For my T500, which I believe shares the BIOS of the W500, I downloaded the modded BIOS from this link: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread- ... al-request

For others, just run a search for the model number of your Thinkpad and "whitelist removal." If nothing shows up, you can request help at that forum or in other computer forums where there might be people that can help you out.

Middleton is not necessarily idolized, but definitely very often mentioned.
He just happened to have made the best BIOS-versions ever for the still very popular T61/R61/X61 machines.