Thinkpads Forum

I'm looking to buy a T60 or T60p with a 15.0 4:3 ratio notebook. I have the maintenance manual and it appears the sim card holder may be fitted on every notebook whether it has a WWAN card or not. I was looking at an ebay auction that had a verizon card and I didn't bid on it because I wasn't sure if it had the sim card holder and how easy or difficult it would be to acquire on if it didn't. I basically would have swapped out the Verizon card for an AT&T Cingular HSDPA mini-pci MC8755 or higher card, but I know some computers won't have SIM card slots if they originally were fitted with a Verizon EVDO card. Do I have to buy a T60/p with an HSDPA card in order to get the SIM card holder?

demossmd wrote:I have the maintenance manual and it appears the sim card holder may be fitted on every notebook whether it has a WWAN card or not.

No, that is definitely NOT the case.

Cheers,

Bill B.

I have not seen a SIM card slot in any T60/T60p.

Brad

demossmd wrote:Do I have to buy a T60/p with an HSDPA card in order to get the SIM card holder?

You are correct that any T60/p that came with an EV-DO card can be fitted with a SIM card slot at a later time. The T60/p SIM card holder is FRU #41W1353. It is a small circuit board with a one-inch wired connector which plugs into a header that is already present on the motherboard. The maintenance manual can guide you through the installation steps.

Thank you for the information. So the 15.0" 4:3 T60/p models without the EVDO or HSDPA card likely would also need the WWAN antenna FRU 91P6989. Would that part, mini-PCI card and the sim card holder convert a non-WWAN equipped model to a WWAN functioning HSDPA laptop...or is there something else. i don't see anything else, but thought I'd check.

demossmd wrote:...or is there something else.

Yes, there is: make certain a second mini-PCIe socket is present on the motherboard.

EOMtp wrote:Yes, there is: make certain a second mini-PCIe socket is present on the motherboard.

Hmmm, I seem to think I'm going to run into bigger problems than I anticipated...

The motherboard I'll be using in the T60/p is from a T61p 8891 4:3 notebook (system board fru: 42W7650 --nvida NB8P-GL FX570) which has two mPCI sockets, however I just noticed it has a different sim card slot number FRU 42X3919.

The FRU for the WWAN antenna for the 14.1" 4:3 non-wide screen T61/p is a dual-antenna with both WLAN and WWAN in one FRU (93P4515), however I don't think this is that big of a deal. These mini-PCIe WWAN cards all have the same antenna connectors so I'd likely be able to use the T60p WWAN antenna.

Finding a T60p 15.0 with an HSDPA card seems impossible to find eventhough the maintenance manual gives a lot of model numbers with such. Hopefully, I can purchase these sim card holders and antennas...they can't be that expensive but does Lenovo sell such parts to everyday people?

If you already have Verizon WWAN, then, and only then, can you swap it out for an AT&T (or Vodafone, etc. if you are outside of the U.S.) mini-PCIe broadband wireless card, along with the necessary SIM card tray.

Do you already have a card? Make sure you get a 7.2Mbps HSPA (HSDPA and HSUPA), not the 3.6Mbps or 1.8Mbps ones floating around ebay and CL, unless you don't care about speed.

If you get a good 3G signal, you'll be blown away by the speeds. I know I was.

P.S.: Ever considered just tethering?

The T61p 14.1" 4:3 non-widescreen that I purchased doesn't have WWAN (that's the motherboard which is going into the T60/p).

1. So are you saying that if I purchase a used T60/p with Verizon then IBM will swap out to a mini-PCIe 7.2Mbps HSDPA card? For free?

2. Can I just purchase the antenna and sim card tray and HSDPA card from IBM/Lenovo?

3. If I don't buy a WWAN Verizon equipped computer or are these forbidden to purchase?

Tethering is just too much of a headache. I've never had much consistency with it. Maybe times have changed though.