PLEASE DELETE THIS POST!

[skitty4gzus]

Hi, any help here would be great. First of all, I did a few searches and have yet to find out any real concrete answers to some of my questions.

1)The usb ports are not 2.0 like someone stated in another topic, is there anyway to upgrade to 2.0?
2)Im pretty sure i read there is no way to upgrade the video card at all? It wont run Splinter Cell- Chaos Theory. I have the radeon 7500 card on this.
3)Is there an upgrade screen to mine? You can barely make out whats on screen in normal daylight or a well lit room. Im not really sure what screen is in this now? This is a T30, sn 2366**U.
4)It says on the Ibm support site that this is "wireless upgradeable," what does this entail? I want built in wireless, but I dont know what it's going to take to get it there. Do you regular pcmcia wireless cards fit in the side slots? Those slots look thinner than what you can buy in the store? I dont know very much about laptops at all let alone this T30.
5)What is the thinkpad button for, what does it do? I have seen a few topics about it but no real answers as to what it actually does in windows and in boot up?
6)It has the 4.4 battery in it now, but it doesnt hold a charge for very long so is there an upgrade for this battery or is a new identical replacement the best way to go?

Any help would be much appreciated. Like I said I did a few searches already and didnt turn up really solid answers. Also, are there any other upgrades that I should know about? I want to be able to play some games on this but if I cant upgrade the video card than Im not going to put too much money in this and save up for a newer one or a T40 or T60 or something that will run graphic intensive games. Thank you for your time and help. God Bless You.

[dsigma6]

1) i dont know if you can change the actual USB ports, but you can add a pcmcia 2.0 adapter/hub, or with a pc card to pcmcia adapter depending on what your model has.

2) can't speak for your computer, but i know my R40 video card is built into the motherboard and cant be changed.

3) i imagine theres an svga screen...or sxga i forget! i dont deal with screens much.

4) wireless upgradeable means there is a slot built into the machine for a mini pci card, and it has antennas already installed running up through the sides of the lcd. on the r40, there is a small plate underneath that you simply open up, pop the card in, just like RAM goes in, attach the two cables to the card, and voila...well not quite voila, unless its a card that is supported by IBM (there is a hack called no1802 that allows any card to be used, search for it if you cant find a compatible card.) here is a link to the one i bought http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 9724067517

5) if you press the thinkpad button at the startup screen, it will put you into diagnostic/recovery. you can change boot order, things like that, plus check how the computer is working, and more importantly, allow you to do a factory restore directly off of your HD. it comes with a partition for this, so it will be there unless the HD was wiped clean. if you press it while the computer is in windows, at least on my r40, it opens up Access IBM.

6) check ebay or the marketplace on here for batteries. ive used aftermarket batteries as well as original ibms, and have had success with the aftermarket. i assume most people would recommend using the IBM batteries.

there are plenty of posts on each of the topics above, but i didnt just want to send you searching again..

-dan

[skitty4gzus]

Well Im not sure what all things run on USB 2.0, but my wireless usb adapter from my desktop pc needs 2.0 so I couldnt use that to run the wireless on my laptop last night. So im looking for an IBM mini pci card and it is pretty much plug and play? Or find another brand and download that hack? Is that self explanatory or is there a set of instructions on how to make that work?

[JHEM]

1)The usb ports are not 2.0 like someone stated in another topic, is there anyway to upgrade to 2.0?

Not without using a PC card solution in one of your PCMCIA slots. Combination USB2.0/Firewire PC cards are widely available on eBay starting around $10.

2)Im pretty sure i read there is no way to upgrade the video card at all? It wont run Splinter Cell- Chaos Theory. I have the radeon 7500 card on this.

Correct, the GPU is soldered to the motherboard and is not readily upgradeable.

3)Is there an upgrade screen to mine? You can barely make out whats on screen in normal daylight or a well lit room. Im not really sure what screen is in this now? This is a T30, sn 2366**U.

That's not your serial number that's your model number, please give us all of it so we can decipher which exact model T30 you have, although it sounds like you have an XGA display.

4)It says on the Ibm support site that this is "wireless upgradeable," what does this entail? I want built in wireless, but I dont know what it's going to take to get it there. Do you regular pcmcia wireless cards fit in the side slots? Those slots look thinner than what you can buy in the store? I dont know very much about laptops at all let alone this T30.

"Wireless upgradeable" means that the unit shipped from the factory with the WiFi antennae already installed and all that is needed to have built-in WiFi is to install a mini-PCI WiFi card. Watch the movie! I realize this is for the T2X series machines, but the T30 is very similar.

5)What is the thinkpad button for, what does it do? I have seen a few topics about it but no real answers as to what it actually does in windows and in boot up?

Start here.

6)It has the 4.4 battery in it now, but it doesnt hold a charge for very long so is there an upgrade for this battery or is a new identical replacement the best way to go?

New battery is best, although the T30 was never known as a long life machine when on battery.

Regards,

James

[dsigma6]

search the forum for wifi problem, no1802, no_1802...something like that. try searching to include all terms if the default search doesnt return anything relative.

there are a few models that dont require any modification, i know that brentpresley has sold some recently in the marketplace. you could check there just to see if he listed what kind they were as a reference. the hack was incredibly annoying in my case since i didnt have a floppy and im no good with DOS. i had some extra help, but without that i would have thrown my laptop down the stairs without thinking twice.

[skitty4gzus]

I have been talking with brentpresley on that and some memory. He only has some B cards and i want a G card. I have no intentions on doing the hack either. As you are another person who has told me how much not fun it is. Thanks for the help.

[dsigma6]

dont forget to ask him to send me the advertising fee

[skitty4gzus]

I still really need some more information on which mini pci card is the best fit for my T30? Is the atheros card the only one that will plug and play? And if so which model of card is the one i need? Ive tried searching for this information, but it seems like im either illiterate with the search engine or Im not finding anything. Also, I really need a cd/rw drive. Which ultrabay drive fits the t30 and is it interchangeable with other models of Ibm's? You guys are helping so much, but I just keep coming up with more things I need help with. With the specs I gave you about this comp do you think 400 dollars was a good deal or not? I thought it was at first, but now im thinking it was not that hot of a deal. No burner drive, no wireless card, no usb 2.0, kind of poor screen resolution. Which model should i have been looking for to get the these things? I know these are alot of questions and Im sure most of them probably wont get answered but any help would be awesome. Thanks again and God Bless You!!!!

[tfflivemb2]

The deal was good. I paid $330 for a T30 last year, only because I was the first one to get to it. Similar specs except that it had a CD-RW. When I was checking prices, they were around $450-550.

The drive is an UltraBay 2000 drive, and they are interchangable between the T2x, A2x, R3x and R40....maybe more.

I am not too sure about the wireless cards. I bought one that said that it would work, but I still had to do the no_1802 hack.

[dsigma6]

the t30 uses either ultrabay plus or ultrabay 2000. each drive i have bought has been a 2000.

if you didnt already look at it, try ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitu ... awbook.pdf

i was originally looking at a t20-22 to replace my 600e, and someone recommended the r40. it was affordable, and has built in wireless, dvd/cdrw and usb 2.0. it doesnt have a super resolution screen or anything, but im an average user and dont need anything above 1024x768. especially since my old screen was 13 inches, and now its 14 so im happy.

with the wireless card issue, youre probably going to just have to suck it up and do the hack. if you have a floppy it will be easy enough. here is a card you could use for example- Ebay item#9736051468.

[skitty4gzus]

yea thanks for the link. Somebody said that the atheros card was the one i should get, but i dont know which one to get.

[dsigma6]

i found something that said it was compatable with my r40, so i went with it and took a chance. it happened to work fine with the hack. if you buy it and it doesnt work, you can easily just sell it on ebay or here.

in reply to your other request (battery), i buy from ebay sellers protechwarehouse and Laptoptek. i dont know what theyre listing now, but i have had good experiences with both.

[skitty4gzus]

thats true and apparently there are some pretty detailed instructions somewhere on how to do the hack?

[tfflivemb2]

Yep, right here.

[BruisedQuasar]

my wireless usb adapter from my desktop pc needs 2.0 so I couldnt use that to run the wireless on my laptop last night.

1st, Are you certain that your Wireless adaptor only runs on USB2?
Its possible but I have not run into that one. Nearly all USB devices are backward compatible with USB 1.0 and few notebook PCs even those made and sold now come with USB 2.0 The reason people buy PC Card USB 2 adaptors is for the increased speed, and they are so inexpensive (whether two port or four) & they put USB ports in a better location (the side, rather than the back).

My USB wifi adaptors are USB 2 & all of them work in USB 1 with no problem. Having a USB 2 only wifi adaptor to me is like having a A/C powered only mobile PC.

Did you install the wireless software that came with your wifi adaptor? Without doing so, your adaptor will do nothing on your notebook PC.

Your use of adaptor language reminds me of Netgear marketing ploys. Do you have a Netgear USB wifi card? Actually, they are not adaptors. There is a micro wifi chipset and radio inside your USB "adaptor".

--Bruised

[skitty4gzus]

no its a belkin and yes i installed the software from the website. It will not work without usb 2.0, and the only reason i tried that is because i have that on my desktop pc for a signal and if it worked on the laptop than that will get me wireless till i can get a hold of a mini pci card. Thanks for the help though.

[rfcroc]

Internal wireless is the way to go.

I bought an atheros based Mini-PCI wireless card from Lenovo for $15 shipped. Search the Lenovo site for 40Y6691 .

I got the NO-1802 and NO-01C9 errors, and got my hands on the "Linux live CD to remove the 1802 and 01C9 POST errors" danage posted in the utility section of the forum (see here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=20365 )

It was really easy to run, I just rebooted with the cd in the drive and followed the directions. Yes there's a risk when altering any bios, but i got over my fears and it worked like a charm.

As far as battery life goes, i bought a couple ultrabay batteries off ebay, and i get 5 hrs of life with both ultrabay and main batteries installed.

[skitty4gzus]

there is no part number on lenovo website for that, and the mini pci cards they have are nowhere near $15. Thanks for the help though.

[Bgradid]

I want to delete this post, but dont think i can

Why? it's useful to the next person that needs the same information and uses the search function.

[tfflivemb2]

I agree, this thread could be helpful to someone else.

We generally don't delete threads, unless they were bogus threads in the first place....this one has a lot of useful information.