Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I've had the MC8775 card installed in the T60p for a while now and it shows up on device manager as:

sierra wireless aircard hsdpa modem which I believe is the card, but I haven't taped PIN 20 (do I still need to?)

More importantly - what sim card would you recommend?

When I go into a phone shop asking if they have any sim cards for laptops, they then try to sell me a USB dongle, in which I apologise and explain to them that I have a sim card slot on my laptop, at which point their faces turn blank and further discussion is suddenly terminated with them unable to help me (most staff are surprised that there are laptops that have such a feature).
Or maybe I'm just asking them the question in the wrong way?

Thanks

If you can see in device manager, under Ports (COM & LPT): Sierra Wireless Application Interface & Sierra Wireless Diagnostics Interface COM port(s) allocations then you should be good-to-go. If not then try taping over Pin20.

With regards to 3G (UK) Sim cards, I have received generally good service (south of the UK) with 3UK Pay-As-You-Go sim cards pre-credited with data allowance picked from from ebay: Search for "3 mobile broadband sim"

Peak2Peak wrote:If you can see in device manager, under Ports (COM & LPT): Sierra Wireless Application Interface & Sierra Wireless Diagnostics Interface COM port(s) allocations then you should be good-to-go. If not then try taping over Pin20.

With regards to 3G (UK) Sim cards, I have received generally good service (south of the UK) with 3UK Pay-As-You-Go sim cards pre-credited with data allowance picked from from ebay: Search for "3 mobile broadband sim"

Thank you.

I can see 3 Sierra Wireless Application Interface (COM4, COM5, COM6) and 1 Sierra Wireless Diagnostics Interface (COM7) on the device manager Ports (COM & LPT). Is this okay, or am I still missing something and need to apply the pin taping?

I will have a look for the 3UK Pay-As-You-Go sim cards.

Cheers!

Worzyl wrote:I can see 3 Sierra Wireless Application Interface (COM4, COM5, COM6) and 1 Sierra Wireless Diagnostics Interface (COM7) on the device manager Ports (COM & LPT). Is this okay, or am I still missing something and need to apply the pin taping?

In theory you should be good to go with regards to the OS & utility application software seeing the MC8775. Can you see the WWAN LED lit (located to the left of the Number-Lock LED) - If your T60 was not originally fitted with a WWAN card, then the WWAN LED will be blanked out on the LED Clear plate - although sometimes there may be just a very small pin-hole where you might just be able to see it by looking via various angles. If you do manage to see it then the card is more than likely functioning.

I have tested a Lenovo branded MC8775 in two T60p's (BIOS modified): one is model type 2008-CTO which did not need Pin20 to be taped and the other is 2007-8DJ which needed Pin20 to be taped! - With HP & Generic branded MC8775's both machines needed Pin20 to be taped to prevent the BIOS disable signal getting to the card.