Thinkpads Forum

Just wanted to inform you, that there's an eBay seller from Hong Kong "goezshopping" who sells brandnew Sierra MC8775 3G-MiniPCIe cards for <$40 including worldwide shipping. I have bought one of these and it arrived within 2 weeks in perfect, brandnew condition.
What the seller "hides" is, that you can update it easily to support HSDPA with 7.2 MBit/s. Details on firmware updates etc. can be found at http://3g-modem.wetpaint.com/page/Sierr ... 26+MC8775v
That's a real bargain in my eyes!

fitzcarraldo: Thank you for the information. Did the MC8775 card you received have 1 or 2 antenna connectors?

The MC8775 I received is actually the OEM-version for HP (HP Hs2300) and it only has 1 antenna connector (like the Asus OEM-version, too), but I haven't observed any difference in signal quality compared to my Huawei USB-modems, that have diversity (2 antennas). I think the bigger antenna in the laptop compensates the lack of a second antenna.

I thought that 7.2Mbps required "diversity", i.e., at least 2 antennas, and it was not possible to get there with a single antenna. I am curious if you know for a fact that the MC8775 with the newest firmware can -- and actually does -- operate as high as 7.2Mbps, or if you simply assume that it does because the firmware is supposed to support that speed.

I have successfully updated my card to 7.2 MBit/s, which reached up to 4.5 MBit/s downstream afterwards. As you can see from the chart below diversity improves throughput, but it's not obligatory:

For HSDPA with 7.2 MBit/s either QPSK- or 16-QAM-modulation is used, source: http://www.mobilehandsetdesignline.com/howto/189800068

But having used many HSPA-enabled 3G-networks across Europe, I learned that in practice you will very rarely reach data rates above 4 MBit/s, which is mainly caused by the lack of capacity of the backhaul and of the air interface.

For further discussion on 3G and the MC8775 in particular we should move to http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=61677

Hi all,

I'm new here and I'm also looking for a modified BIOS. I've pm'ed Zender 1,5 week ago but he isn't responding. If anyone could help me with a modified BIOS it would be much appreciated. My BIOS version is 2.26-1.08 (2009-05-11).

Edit:
Thanks guys, it works like a charm

Hi everyone....

Is Zender back here yet? I've been waiting for him to pm me back about a T60 mod BIOS but it's been 2 weeks...

Can someone PM me if you have a copy on hand? Much appreciated!

Me too pls I need a patched BIOS for T61.

me to..

x300, 6476CTR with the sierra mc5720

...And one more over here..
I sent Zender a PM regarding the modifed Bios for a T43 two weeks ago. Unfortunately he didn't respond until now, so if sombody could send me the modified T43 Bios I would very much appreciate.

EDIT: Thanks to all. Works absolutely fine with a T43 Mainboard and a Intel Pro/Wireless LAN 2100 Mini-PCI Card originaly from a T40. Only the Fn + F5 combination isn't working yet, but I'm confident that I will be able to fix that soon.

Best regards

Zender is back...I have been pm'ing these out as I see the requests but I did get a PM from him this morning. I have subscribed to the thread so if you post the request in the thread, I will send you the link.

It is helpful that once you install, that you report back to the thread by editing your request and saying if you were successful.


From my view, Zender can't be thanked enough. He has given us freedom to use the cards of our own choice which are always less expensive than the lenovo/ibm option and usually work better. Thanks again Zender.

Parley

Hello everyone. I'm sorry for just disappearing, everyone should have received their link by now, if they haven't already

@yak: The only thing that I think could help is somehow delaying the powerup of the card, so that it does not respond when the test takes place. The test only takes place after power up, not on subsequent restarts/sleeps (and if I remember well even hibernation didn't trigger the error - you can test by connecting the card when computer is hibernated, worked for me on WinXP).

Hello, new user here. I am trying to upgrade my trusty R32 (2658 G3G) which still works like a dream.
Does anybody has a modified BIOS to send me ? I sent a message to Zender but I dont know if he is around, so i am letting everybody know.
I just got an Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG and I would like to use it on my R32. Hopefully the modified BIOS will work.
I also downloaded a bios image from the thread found here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 02#p407228
Did anybody have any luck with this file ?

Had anyone tried successfully having Lenovo Intel 5300AGN in their X61 series, do you need the modified bios from Zender or just by tapping pin 20 will do the trick?

its a lil bit oot but:

Did anybody made a BIOS-MOD for the T40-T42 and R50-R51 series? Nothing on Zenders BIOS-Mod-Site

I know we can use 1802 there, but i need this hard mod, so nobody can reset and disable it again via setting up default values in BIOS.


Im really curious, since there are soo much modded bios' already, that only t40-t42 is missing.. shouldnt be that hard for the geeks to mod it?


Thanx for any help!

I'll try to make one with the next batch later this week.

Zender wrote:I'll try to make one with the next batch later this week.

Nice one, Thank You!!

Zender wrote:The only thing that I think could help is somehow delaying the powerup of the card, so that it does not respond when the test takes place. The test only takes place after power up, not on subsequent restarts/sleeps (and if I remember well even hibernation didn't trigger the error - you can test by connecting the card when computer is hibernated, worked for me on WinXP).

Seems like a good idea. This essentially means delaying the +5V line. The problem is, I don't have enough electronics knowledge to do it. The simplest circuit would probably consist mainly of a capacitor but delaying for couple of seconds could require quite a big capacitor. But I'm not sure. Do you know more about this stuff?

And thanks for the PM, I did missed your reply.

can someone foward a t60 image that zender has already modded.

I haved PM'ed him but i have no reply.

Zender

thank you very much.


i just want to add my 2 cents

I did not use the ISO to burn an image, i did it from windows without the need of a restart.

1. I used the lenovo provided 79uj30uc (utility not ISO)
2.I extracted the setup.exe with winrar by right clicking and extracting to a directory
3.replaced the FL1 and FL2 files form what is provide by lenovo with your stuff
4. open a command prompt, navigated to the directory in which i extracted and replaced the files and typed
WINUPTP.EXE -s

-s will ignore that the bios version is the same as the one being installed.

what is really neat it that i found out what WINUPTP.EXE is doing with WinPhlash.exe

winphlash /mode=2 /mb /vcpu /remote2 /cs /vbld $01A3000.FL1
winphlash /mode=2 /remote2 /cs /vbld $01A3000.FL2

you can make a bat file and completely forget about WINUPTP.EXE -s

This may be harmful of course, take the same precautions lenovo provides on there site.
but it's a nice quick hack


thanks again.

can someone suggest a wireless N card for my t60, also do the newer N cards still need the third antenna

I used the modified bios to perform a biosupdate on my T60p and that worked perfectly.
Now i can use the speed of wireless N with the intel 5100 card.

Nice work!

@ukprometheus the intel wifi 5100 uses two antenna's

I'm game...I have a new T400 that needs to run an ex-Dell Cingular mini-PCIe 3G card. (you have PM)

just in case someone has the BIOS for this before Zender gets back to me:

X300 6477CTO

that is either a 'o' or a zero on the end, i can't tell

Please stop posting BIOS requests here.

@gnychis: I have received no message from you?

Admin Edit: Message text size increased for appropriate emphasis.

As previously indicated numerous times in this long topic thread, you need to PM Zender with a BIOS request, and he will respond when he is able to!

bios is the only thing that worked for me, I tried everything else.

X60s and Sierra MC5725

no pin 20 mods, in their normal slots, with zenders bios.

Everything works, thanks Zender!

Why dont you put the bios's up on rapidshare or something, why go through the PM process 2 years after you made the bios's?

Hello guys!

Today I received the link to the bios page and already flashed my T43 (2669-44G) with it.
It worked great and now I don't have any 1802 error while booting.

My question is: Do I have to performe any pin taping?
Zenders pages states, that the bios for my T43 only skippes the error and will most likely need some tape...problem is: Which pin to tape? I know, that you are supposed to tape pin 20 on miniPCI express card, but mine is not an express card but a usual miniPCI card. Which pin to tape? or don't I have to tape any pin?
I currently can't test if wirless already works, as there is no Windows installed on the device (playing around with Mac OS X )

Thanks guys

and @Zender: Keep up the GREAT work

i have the problem 1802 whit my wifi atheros and send a pm to zender for the bios mod for my lenovo T61 i hope soon sendme a file jejeje

regards

Hi guys,

I just installed Zender's bios fix and it bypassed the infamous error just fine (Thanks Zender!) but now the Windows7 won't detect the wifi card. I'm running a T60 with an intel 5100 wifi card.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi all,

Can someone share Zender's modded BIOS for x200.

P.S. PM to Zender sent week ago