Thinkpads Forum

I've seen some nice T61's offered to me that have the Intel 4965AGN card, but it's stated in the specs that the "N" is disabled. How is it disabled, and can it be re-enabled or is it a permanent cripple? I've searched all over and can find nothing on this so I'm putting it out to all of you. If I can enable the N by just adding an antenna or with a firmware patch then I might just pick me up one of those I've been offered and play around with it for a while to see if I like it. Y'all know I love to play, and maybe in a month or so one of you will pick up a good deal from me after my play time is over!

Thanks in advance.

- Yak

It is feasible with a firmware upgrade.
Apple has done it before with their wireless card on the Macbooks. You can search for $5 wireless N Apple.

But I doubt Lenovo would be so stupid as to charge for the update...

jjesusfreak01 wrote:But I doubt Lenovo would be so stupid as to charge for the update...

They already do, as the cost to upgrade from "N disabled" to "N" is something like $40 on CTO.

Hmm, Apple's have Intel AND Atheros cards?

corsac wrote:

jjesusfreak01 wrote:But I doubt Lenovo would be so stupid as to charge for the update...

They already do, as the cost to upgrade from "N disabled" to "N" is something like $40 on CTO.

so in essence...my 7662-CTO has "N" enabled?

I'm glad I found this thread, I was about to buy a gigabit/N router, haha

Yeah, why would you pay an extra $40 for 4965 ABG > 4965 ABGN

The card itself costs ~$35

Iceman404 wrote:

corsac wrote: They already do, as the cost to upgrade from "N disabled" to "N" is something like $40 on CTO.

so in essence...my 7662-CTO has "N" enabled?

I'm glad I found this thread, I was about to buy a gigabit/N router, haha

I don't know, but I don't think so. I think it may need to be enabled with a firmware update, but if it's like this, my guess is that this firmware update won't be made available by Lenovo (or maybe a non free update).

go figure. thanks corsac!

The N-disabled cards can never be "enabled".

Thank Intel for that. Lenovo has nothing to do with it. Other vendors also duplicated the Intel boiler plate marketing on the new wireless cards and since changed the lingo due to this confusion.

There will not be a firmware upgrade for N-disabled cards - Not on Lenovo, nor Dell, Hp, etc.

I'm already seeing some models on the website with this verbage removed.

I don't quite understand the point of having a 4965 with "N" functionality disabled. Why not just use a 3945 in that case, then? Does the 4965 model have other advantages to it that the 3945 doesn't besides draft-802.11n support? Also, has anyone seen one of these "n"-less 4965 cards? Do they have three antenna ports on them still? Or are they physically different?

As far as the comments about firmware upgrades and Apple and such, remember that Apple is sending out firmware updates for Atheros-based cards used in their computers. I don't think there is any Apple product yet that uses Intel wireless chipsets. The firmware upgrade for Apple will not enable these cards for 11n.

-- Nathan

jcvjcvjcvjcv wrote:Yeah, why would you pay an extra $40 for 4965 ABG > 4965 ABGN

The card itself costs ~$35

i'm guessing the N antenna has something to do with this. the N antenna for my z61m itself (not including the labor to install it) costs $55.

Does ThinkPad T61 that comes with Intel wireless 4965 with "11n disabled", have third antenna installed? or only comes with two antennas?

Tholek wrote:Hmm, Apple's have Intel AND Atheros cards?

No, Apple only uses Atheros.

ysq74 wrote:Does ThinkPad T61 that comes with Intel wireless 4965 with "11n disabled", have third antenna installed? or only comes with two antennas?

my T61p CTO has the third antenna pre-installed even though i ordered it with an atheros a/b/g card.   the socket end of the wire is tucked underneath the wifi card inside an adhesive plastic case.

Wait a minute. I was just sticking a WWAN 3G card in yesterday, also having found the third "spare" antenna hookup.

Since WWAN and WLAN cards share the same uFL antenna plug, can anyone shed light on:
[a] if the third grey antennal lead is there for 802.11n, WWAN, or can accomodate either? Having not known 802.11n cards sport a third antenna lead, I just assumed the third is there for WWAN and plugged my WWAN card into it....
if there is an actual antenna on its other end?

Check these out...

ThinkPad® T61 and R61 (14.1-inch widescreen)Hardware Maintenance Manual

I switched to a T61 - Lenovo Blogs