X61T Wireless WAN

[Mikis]

Ok, I've taken the plunge.

I run an X61T, in Australia, (2 actually, one for the missus), ordered from the US for the SXGA+.
I've bought two cheap WWAN cards on ebay - a Dell 5500 (rebadged Novatel EU730 pci minicard for HSDPA 850/1900 networks, of which we have one - Telstra) and a Dell 5505 (rebadged EU740, for HSDPA 2100 networks). The second card is still somewhere in the post.

I've gotten the first, stuck it in the laptop, and .. you guessed it. The (in)famous 1804. Still... looks like the 1804 bios code QA department is not doing its job right, and .. suffice it to say it works. Nuff said, before some people with wrong ideas at IBM decide to actually do something about it.

Oh yeah, I can also confirm that no-1802.com does NOT fix this.

Vista's windows update got me a driver for the card, which responds to AT commands over a serial port.

Float (which I use to talk to my SE mobile phone) can talk to it via the emulated COM port, determine IMEI, signal strength, etc. The card is alive and kicking.

Now the (un)fun bit:

It can't see my SIM card.

I *HAVE* a slot for SIM or USIM or whatever it is called, and have populated it with a post-paid 3G on-a-data-plan optus USIM.

I do not know if I also have the accompanying internal modules
(other than the PCI express minicard). I'm really interested if anyone knows how the OS, specifically the card driver, interfaces with the SIM.
AFAIK, the PCI Express minicard standard does not have dedicated pins for wiring to an external SIM, and the PCI card talks to the SIM via the OS, not by being hardwired to it. Or does it?

Does the SIM have some kind of seperate device driver? Is there a common windows (... or linux...) API to talk to it?

My Novatel card is quad-band GSM + 850/1900 HSDPA. I've tried using an Optus SIM taken from a HUAWEI E220 modem (HSDPA2100, but failing back to GPRS should work as the Novatel is quad-band).
It doesn't.

Does anyone have any insight on this? any FRU for some little USIM-controller my machine, not being an X6*s, lacks? Any recommended dialer that will agree to work with this card? (I've tried several - The UK verizon dialer, the Optus dialer, they don't talk to this card as they don't sell it. The "Mobilink" dialer that the Novatel doco mentions is nowhere to be found.

I'll keep experimenting, but any insight, ideas, further experimentation elsewhere and general mucking-around-with-WWAN-kit would be most welcome.

Oh, and if anyone with the knowhow and kit can be bothered, a no-1804.com bios patch would be most welcome.

Cheers!

[Mikis]

Ok, I've found a friendly dialer.

The AT&T/cingular dialer is generic-kit friendly and will attempt to do its best to connect you even to non-AT&T networks. Kudos to them.
It not only talks to the WWAN card, it can tell when the SIM is in or not, and if it's in, tell you its IMSI.

The SIM appears to be non-hot-swappable - pulling it won't crash your box, but it doesn't re-recognize it if reinserted when the machine is running, though it may be just a dodgy contact thing. Reboot, and it's all fine.

So now I know the SIM subsystem is alive and well.

Signal strength, though, is horrible.

Now how do I attach an actual antenna to the other end of uFL-ended cable that went into the card, and where do I get it?

I'm tempted to stick an antenna cannibalized from some old phone in the frontmost right part of the handrest (the bit that was "pulled out" relative to the X60) - the left half is taken up by the stylus ... easy wiring, and that way I can keep it all internal...

[Mikis]

This time around, it doesn't boot at all, hanging at boot with an 1804.

Hence, the only legit option open to me is the Dell 5500/EU730 that seem to sidestep the 1804 some of the time and Telstra NextG (or pay 450$ for the Sierra Wireless card IBM ships with, which is what it costs if you buy it seperately).
That sucks as it's 3 times as expensive as the Novatel cards, and telstra is the last provider I want to go with.

I've applied a .. "workaround".. (not something I can do routinely, but for testing purposes it will do) and got the machine booted and the card installed and working.

The 740 got recognized and a driver was installed off the web both for it and for a serial port that talks to it.

ATI queries can talk to the modem, and I can get its IMEI and SIM's IMSI using both the AOL dialer and float.
However, unlike the EU730 card, I see no 3G networks around me at all. This could be due to the fact that there's no external cellular antenna (I've connected the WWAN card to the grey 3rd lead, not sure where it leads..guessing a 3rd WLAN antenna around the screen or some such), due to the fact that my card is somehow busted, a bad Vista driver, or some other factor. Either way, I see no networks.

Next, I have a HUAWEI (or whatever it's called) dongle modem with an optus wireless broadband account configured (works seamlessly). configuring the same connection to use the EU740 modem (when the USIM is inside the laptop and recoognized) fails to hook me up, but that may very well be due to the absence of any visible networks in range. I should try with some bigger antennas to eliminate causes for the problem.


Anyone got an "Authorized" spare HSDPA-2100 WWAN card for sale for cheap?

[bill bolton]

and telstra is the last provider I want to go with.

Its your call, but in terms of both performance and coverage, the Telstra Mobile Data NextG service coverage is so far ahead of the others that there's hardly any comparision possible.

I'm using a ZTE MF322 (Cardbus) in an X61 for Telstra Mobile Data (not BigPond) Next G, and it was pretty much plug and play!

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Mikis]

Hi Bill

1. Telstra offers 100 or 200MB/month for 30$. Vodaphone offers the same for 20$, and '3' offer 1GB for 30$ AND a free USB modem (if you go on a plan).

2. True, Telstra does indeed offer the by-far widest coverage grid, but I only need coverage over my suburban train route. All carriers provide it.

[bill bolton]

I'm paying $29 a month for 10 hours usage time (no data limit) on a business plan.

Like most things mobile in Oz, what you actually pay depends a lot on what plans the telecos will actually give you visibility of... there seem to be always more plans that are available but not publicised!

Anyway, it will all be different again 12 months hence, from whatever point in time you choose to pick.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Zender]

Just a little question. So you actually managed to get a "generic card" (read: non-Lenovo) working with the SIM slot attached to ThinkPad's mainboard?
(not asking about the 1804 issue, trying to solve that elsewhere)

[Switchcorp]

Zender i can answer your question too

I had an Option WWAN inside my X61T and except my problem of 1804 it was working (but some troubles when going in hibernation)