Upgrade my wireless card to make my thinkpad a 'Centrino'

[co1063]

I understand if I "upgrade" my internal wireless card to an Intel PRO mini-PCI card, I essentially have a Centrino machine. Is that correct?

[Tholek]

What do you have now? An Atheros card? You're really better off with that than buying into some Intel marketing idea. Atheros beats Intel in performance. If it's less than Atheros, like a Broadcom, then I recommend an upgrade. Not a downgrade to Intel, if you have an Atheros already.

[co1063]

[SHoTTa35]

when you install an IBM Intel card then yeah it will just change the logo if that'll make you feel better The BIOS will display the centrino logo. Notice i wrote "IBM Intel card" - because you can't buy any intel wifi card... only IBM Intel ones will work in the Thinkpads... if you install any other it will give you an error when you turn on the machine (error 1802) but there's a hack to remove that. Read up on what happens tho when you hack before you hack because some things don't work anymore like with an IBM card.

You don't have to do anything to make the machine "Centrino" a Pentium M processor is part of the Centrino marketing. You need 3 things for a laptop to be "Centrino". The CPU has to be a Pentium M and the chipset has to be an Intel 845 or something and then the wifi card has to be a intel wifi card. If your machine came with all that and you remove the card to replace it or just don't have any it wont display the Centrino logo anymore.

Windows doesn't care if the machine is Centrino or not, and therefore wont display a Centrino logo if it is.

[co1063]

[quote="SHoTTa35"][/quote]


Thanks shotta35, so the Centrino logo on the bios screen and the Centrino sticker on case is the only indications that you have Centrino correct?

And the only difference of a store-bought Centrino and a self-upgraded Centrino is the Centrino sticker? No other benefits of buying a pre-bought Centrino?

Thanks!

[Wiz]

Thanks shotta35, so the Centrino logo on the bios screen and the Centrino sticker on case is the only indications that you have Centrino correct?

And the only difference of a store-bought Centrino and a self-upgraded Centrino is the Centrino sticker? No other benefits of buying a pre-bought Centrino?

Yes if you buy a IBM Intel wireless adapter as explained above the only difference is the sticker. There is some requirements for the computer to be centrino compliant like wireless and CPU, but if the only part that differ on your computer (compared to the Centrino model) is the wireless adapter you should get a fully centrino PC if you buy a IBM Intel Adapter. Then you will see the Centrino logo as well.
I would strongly recommend the IBM/Atheros instead of the Intel though. I bought 2 centrino models and replaced the Intel wireless with Atheros for both of them because of wireless issues using Intel. The only benefit of using the Intel adapter should be that it use less power (in theory), but i didn't notice any difference when i switched to Atheros except that the Atheros work so much better. The Centrino consept is only a way for Intel to sell more wireless adapters. To change the wireless adapter just to see the Centrino logo for 2 seconds when you turn on your PC doesn't make much sense i think. Especially since i find the Atheros to be much better. The same goes for Atheros as well so you need the IBM/Atheros model and not just any Atheros.

[co1063]

[quote="Wiz"][/quote]

Yes I agree. Intel's product might be inferior to others, but their marketing is outstanding, which is the reason I want Centrino in the first place.

[jdhurst]

Yes I agree. Intel's product might be inferior to others, but their marketing is outstanding, which is the reason I want Centrino in the first place.

The newer Intel cards are OK, but my T41 was a Centrino, and I threw the useless Intel card into the garbage can years ago. My T41 is a Pentium-M that works. ... JDH

[Wiz]

Yes I agree. Intel's product might be inferior to others, but their marketing is outstanding, which is the reason I want Centrino in the first place.

You want a Intel adapter because you like Intel's marketing? That make even less sense then seeing the Centrino logo for 2 seconds when you turn on your computer
Anyway if you absolutely want the Intel adapter because of a logo you seldom see or Intel's marketing that is your choice and none of my business.

[unimorpheus]

Yes I agree. Intel's product might be inferior to others, but their marketing is outstanding, which is the reason I want Centrino in the first place.

There was a thread/poll on the T60 forum concerning the removal of the color bars from the ultranav. During that discussion the question of whether people would buy ThinkPads if they were not Centrasho compliant was posed. Most were convinced 'ThinkPad' buyers would not be influenced by Intel marketing. I guess they were wrong.

[co1063]

Yes I agree. Intel's product might be inferior to others, but their marketing is outstanding, which is the reason I want Centrino in the first place.

You want a Intel adapter because you like Intel's marketing? That make even less sense then seeing the Centrino logo for 2 seconds when you turn on your computer
Anyway if you absolutely want the Intel adapter because of a logo you seldom see or Intel's marketing that is your choice and none of my business.

I want to see the logo because of Intel's powerful marketing advertising the superiority of the logo, if that makes sense. haha

[Wiz]

I want to see the logo because of Intel's powerful marketing advertising the superiority of the logo, if that makes sense. haha

Yeah that make a whole lot of sense.

[jdhurst]

This thread personifies in spades why the Computer industry is going wrong. "Cool" has taken the place of "It works". So Vista is essentially useless to the majority of business people today (read any business magazine you want), the Lenovo side of Lenovo is more interested in cool than in robust working machines (and this attitude is infecting ThinkPads), spammers and phishers understand "cool" people and rip them off at an ever growing pace.

What ever happened to common sense

I do this stuff for a living, and my clients would dump me in nanoseconds if I ever told them "cool" was more important than workability. ... JDH

[lilserenity]

FWIW, I had the 2100B 802.11b Intel Wifi card or the bog standard Centrino option in the day as it were for wireless. The thing was absolute junk, dropped connections, abysmal range. Might as well have not had wireless at all.

Until I installed Linux (Ubuntu) and oddly the card is so much more stable, good range and no dropped connections. Bizarre.

But generally if you're tempted by a 2100B card for the sake of the logo and use Windows, I would not even bother. The 2200BG card is a bit better.

[unimorpheus]

This thread personifies in spades why the Computer industry is going wrong. "Cool" has taken the place of "It works". So Vista is essentially useless to the majority of business people today (read any business magazine you want)

This is actually not new at all. If you consider the history of Unix, Digital Equipment Company and Micro$oft you can see the end result of "cool". The people who make the purchasing decisions are usually not technically savvy. DEC designed the most advanced equipment available for many years but never got the marketing thing right. Lesser products with better marketing always prevail.

[Tholek]

I think he's kidding us, folks. Has to be...

[co1063]

I think he's kidding us, folks. Has to be...

yes i am kidding. my x41 comes with centrino. i was just wondering if centrino was embedded in the processor or automatically detected when components were there.

[teetee]

I think he's kidding us, folks. Has to be...

yes i am kidding. my x41 comes with centrino. i was just wondering if centrino was embedded in the processor or automatically detected when components were there.

I would guess the "centrino detection system" is in the CMOS along with the different boot-up logos. Once it detects the machine has Intel wireless card(2100, 2200bg on T40, not 2915abg and above though), Intel chipset and pentium-m cpu during POST it will show the centrino logo.

[co1063]

yes i am kidding. my x41 comes with centrino. i was just wondering if centrino was embedded in the processor or automatically detected when components were there.

I would guess the "centrino detection system" is in the CMOS along with the different boot-up logos. Once it detects the machine has Intel wireless card(2100, 2200bg on T40, not 2915abg and above though), Intel chipset and pentium-m cpu during POST it will show the centrino logo.

thanks for the info!

[NathanA]

Once it detects the machine has Intel wireless card(2100, 2200bg on T40, not 2915abg and above though), Intel chipset and pentium-m cpu during POST it will show the centrino logo.

Are y'all sure about this? Do you think it still works the same in current Lenovo laptops?

Reason I ask is that I recently purchased a "Centrino" T60 (much to my chagrin...model was a non-CTO with exactly what I wanted except for the wireless card, which I will be replacing with an Atheros very, very soon now), but ever since day 1 with this machine, when I boot it up, I do not get a Centrino logo, just the normal Intel one.

I figured that the proper BIOS boot logo was loaded on during system assembly. You can do your own custom boot logo, so I figured that must be how the Centrino/non-Centrino thing was being done by IBM/Lenovo themselves.

-- Nathan

[ErikD]

Yes, at least for me when I did this on my T40.

Bought it used with a Cisco 802.11b card, and wanted to use g for the speed over my LAN. First I tried an Intel Centrino card, logo changed from Intel to Centrino all on its own. But I got the 1802 error message, so I went with an Atheros. Centrino logo went away and back came the normal Intel logo.

[chan_man]

Some reading material on this subject, posted today, basically, just marketing, not functional.
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/38348/ ... oEUv8E1vAI