Interchangeability of MPI350 wireless cards: Dell vs. IBM

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uberT · #1 Post by **uberT** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:52 pm

I am having all sorts of odd issues with my wireless connection on my T30. Kyocera and others have made a few good suggestions on troubleshooting. Saga here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 926#227926

I've got someone offering me an MPI350 card from a DELL. It appears physically identical to the MPI 350 PCI card used in my T30 . I am wondering how much trouble I will have getting it to work (firmware, etc??) on my T30? Should I throw $25 at it?

Thanks for any guidance.

Musti · #2 Post by **Musti** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:27 pm

That's a CISCO Aironet card...for what it's worth, my mini-PCI card is also Dell, made by Intel. It's an Intel 2915abg, but has a Dell sticker as well. It was a plug-and-play operation in T23.

Don't quote me, but I highly suspect vendors lock mini-PCI cards to their hardware only.

danage · #3 Post by **danage** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:29 am

you have a good chance it will run natively on your t30, meaning it's in the bios whitelist and won't even cause the 1802 error. if not, you can always use the CMOS hack. do a forum search.

BUT isn't this a 802.11b card with 11mbps only?

uberT · #4 Post by **uberT** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:00 am

OK, that would be fantastic if it was P n P.

I am trying to replace my T30's fried card with a like card. The seller says his is coming out of a Dell machine. That was the reason for my original question. I know the cards overall configuration is identical, I was concerned whether it would be a simple swap or possibly turn into the next computer-based nightmare.

There are quite a few of these Cicso MPI 350 cards on eBay. Being somewhat skeptical, I assumed that some would work and some would not function with the IBM.

Thanks.

danage · #5 Post by **danage** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:31 am

any card is plug and play, all your need is the correct drivers. please note though, that judging by experience, it is unlikely your old card is fried. more likely are software problems. what exactly are the problems with your old card?

uberT · #6 Post by **uberT** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:45 am

danage wrote:what exactly are the problems with your old card?

Thanks for the reply. Here's a thread covering the issues with my wireless connectivity problems:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=34494

danage · #7 Post by **danage** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:39 pm

i'm still suspecting software. to rule out driver problems you could try booting the ubuntu live cd and see if that works. you have to know your network's name and password though, they don't have as nice a client manager as windows does (yet).
www.ubuntu.com

uberT · #8 Post by **uberT** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:48 pm

Card touched down today. So far, no good. I am getting the 1802 error and the machine doesn't boot.

Can someone point me to the Reader's Digest version of the 1802 hack? I do not have a floppy drive. I am quite certain I can create bootable CDs with Nero.

Thanks.

danage · #9 Post by **danage** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:54 pm

use the linux no-1802 boot cd:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... et_devices
shutdown right after it says 1802 error removed, do not apply the 01c9 fix.

uberT · #10 Post by **uberT** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:00 pm

Thanks, danage. Should it ever be necessary, is this hack reversible?

I'll work on it this evening.

uber.

Beech200 · #11 Post by **Beech200** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:22 pm

Strange Uber

Like I mentioned in other post the Airnet 350 card I bought off fleabay was out of Dell as well.

No rhyme or reason for the 1802 error.

I know my daughter had to use the linix fix on her R40 though.

uberT · #12 Post by **uberT** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:13 pm

this doesn't seem to be working. I get the patch applied without any issues. I then install the replacement card and go back to re-boot from the CD a 2nd time. I select the AIRONET card from the list, it fails at that point and the replacement card isn't recogized.

danage · #13 Post by **danage** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:34 am

uberT wrote:I select the AIRONET card from the list, it fails at that point and the replacement card isn't recogized.

it is not supposed to work. the 01c9 fix only applies to atheros cards, as is stated in the thinkwiki. hopefully, this did not damage the card. if the 1802 removal was successful you don't need the live cd anymore and your card is ready to be installed in windows.

uberT · #14 Post by **uberT** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:28 am

Danage, thanks. I believe you're correct, I do have wireless activity this AM. I can see all the networks in my neighborhood I should be able to see.

I cannot connect to my network. I think it's got something to do with the driver. The system has installed a newer driver and I cannot get my system to roll back to the earlier driver I had been using with the previous card. Software Installer keeps telling me to remove the current driver and to re-boot. At re-boot, it installs the newer driver again.

Current driver: v. 3.10.7.0
Desired driver: v.3.8.26

danage · #15 Post by **danage** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:54 am

uberT wrote:The system has installed a newer driver and I cannot get my system to roll back to the earlier driver I had been using with the previous card.

you are not supposed to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_driver different card, different driver.

uberT wrote:Software Installer keeps telling me to remove the current driver and to re-boot. At re-boot, it installs the newer driver again.

an excellent piece of software, since it tells you the exactly right thing. if you can see the networks, you did everything right. all you need is proper configuration.

and yes, the 1802 is easily revertible.

uberT · #16 Post by **uberT** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:49 am

danage wrote: different card, different driver.

OK, got it.

I am now connected and typing this via the new card. I've had to turn all security on the router OFF to get connected. Will have to go back and work on this later in the day...

Thanks, danage.

uber

uberT · #17 Post by **uberT** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:56 pm

I guess the new card has a different MAC address. I have MAC filtering setup up on my router and that was preventing me from accessing the network. All seems OK once that was corrected.

Thanks to everyone for helping!

#18 Post by **Kyocera** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 2:09 pm

uber, so you got it going with the new(er) card?

uberT · #19 Post by **uberT** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:52 am

Yes, the T30 has been returned to its full glory and the integrated wireless is working like a champ with the OE DELL wireless card.

Interchangeability of MPI350 wireless cards: Dell vs. IBM

Interchangeability of MPI350 wireless cards: Dell vs. IBM

Re: Interchangeability of MPI350 wireless cards: Dell vs. I

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