Wireless Mini PCI card

T4x series specific matters only
Post Reply
Message
Author
TonyH
Posts: 37
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 8:05 pm
Location: Calgary, Alberta

Wireless Mini PCI card

#1 Post by TonyH » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:30 pm

Hi,
Need some recommendations/suggestions. My T40 came without internal wireless card. When peeked inside there is black/white wire already
present(antenna wires?). Now which card should I install for trouble free
WiFi. Must I stick with IBM provided one or will generic card do?
TIA,
Tony

AIX
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 502
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:10 am
Location: Bucharest, Romania, EU

#2 Post by AIX » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:58 am

A generic card will not work, you must stick with an IBM one.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Intel_PRO ... CI_Adapter
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... twork_card

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=21144


From Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad T40/p, T41/p, T42/p :
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-46464

"In case of the antenna jacks have the tabs, plug the gray antenna cable with the tab marked MAIN into jack M, and the black antenna cable with the tab AUX into jack A. In case of the antenna jacks do not have the tabs, plug the grey cable to jack M, and the black cable to jack A"

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=20685
T430 · i7-3632QM · 12GB RAM · 512GB SSD · HD+ · NVIDIA NVS 5400M · H5321gw
T420s · i5-2520M · 12GB RAM · 480GB SSD · HD+ · HD3000 · F5521gw
T60 · T2500 · 3GB RAM · 128GB SSD · 14.1 SXGA+ · 128MB ATI X1400
Past: T400, T41, T22, 600X, 390X

umern
Freshman Member
Posts: 116
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:40 am
Location: East London, UK

#3 Post by umern » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:19 am

A generic card will not work, you must stick with an IBM one.
Sorry to disagree but that is not my experience at all.

I installed the latest BIOS update for my T40 and have been using a Gigabyte 108Mbps GN WIAG02 for the past month or so.

Yes, before I updated the BIOS I got the error on bootup but once the BIOS was updated the Gigabyte card works fine and it only cost me £16+VAT from www.scan.co.uk

AIX
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 502
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:10 am
Location: Bucharest, Romania, EU

#4 Post by AIX » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:37 am

That's really interesting! It's the first confirmation I have found until now. Can someone else confirm if it works in the case of T41 with the latest BIOS update? I have a generic Intel 2100 card here and I'm not afraid to use it! :)
T430 · i7-3632QM · 12GB RAM · 512GB SSD · HD+ · NVIDIA NVS 5400M · H5321gw
T420s · i5-2520M · 12GB RAM · 480GB SSD · HD+ · HD3000 · F5521gw
T60 · T2500 · 3GB RAM · 128GB SSD · 14.1 SXGA+ · 128MB ATI X1400
Past: T400, T41, T22, 600X, 390X

umern
Freshman Member
Posts: 116
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:40 am
Location: East London, UK

#5 Post by umern » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:54 am

Before upgrading the BIOS I even tried the no1802.com tool but it never produced any output and made no difference - still got the error - but once I upgraded the BIOS the Gigabyte worked fine.

I really needed to get the Gigabyte working becuase my Wifi Router is only truly stable when running at full 108Mbps ONLY mode and I could not find an IBM atheros based 108Mbps card.

unicorn
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:31 am

#6 Post by unicorn » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:00 am

umern wrote:Before upgrading the BIOS I even tried the no1802.com tool but it never produced any output and made no difference - still got the error - but once I upgraded the BIOS the Gigabyte worked fine.

I really needed to get the Gigabyte working becuase my Wifi Router is only truly stable when running at full 108Mbps ONLY mode and I could not find an IBM atheros based 108Mbps card.
My bios is issued at 13/10/2005, didn´t accept Intel 802.11 bg. Cause it isn´t in the whitelist.
Should I use the no-1802 first or update bios first? Did u have a special version for your bios? Please give me the instruction.
P M 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 30GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, DVD-CDRW, Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), Cisco 802.11b Wireless(MPCI), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, 6c battery, WinXP Pro

umern
Freshman Member
Posts: 116
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:40 am
Location: East London, UK

#7 Post by umern » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:17 am

I ran the no1802.com from a boot CD but it did not appear to do anything because there was not output from the app and when I tried the card immediately afterwards it was still giving me the error.

So, I removed the card again and ran the 2005/10/25 BIOS update. Stuck the card back in again and no more error and I have been using the Gigabyte card fine.

Unless, all I can think is perhaps the Gigabyte card does something dodgy with its hardware id or something to make the IBM think that it is in the approved list - but then I dont understand why it was rejected before (unless the BIOS upgrade increased the list of approved cards).

Someone on Ebay is selling Philips 108Mbps atheros based cards and guaranteeing compatibility with IBM T40,T41,T42 etc (latest BIOS required) so I am not alone in getting this to work:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-802-11a-b-g-W ... dZViewItem

Just in case it helps, I had the bog standard Intel 802.11b card inside when I first got the T40.

unicorn
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:31 am

Thanks

#8 Post by unicorn » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:47 am

Thanks for your reply, I will try
P M 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 30GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, DVD-CDRW, Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), Cisco 802.11b Wireless(MPCI), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, 6c battery, WinXP Pro

unicorn
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:31 am

Thanks everybody

#9 Post by unicorn » Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:43 pm

Every troubles in my laptop is OK now. Thanks again
P M 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 30GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, DVD-CDRW, Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), Cisco 802.11b Wireless(MPCI), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, 6c battery, WinXP Pro

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad T4x Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests