X301 Half Mini PCI-e & Mini PCI-e slots?

[u751920]

Hi All,
Does anybody know if the Half Mini PCI-e slot that would house the "Intel Turbo Memory or Wireless USB" is wired to the PCI-e bus? as well I should add to the USB bus. Or alternately has anybody tried to use a 6300 card in the Half Mini PCI-e slot? - I appreciate that would require a Modified BIOS.
I want to use the spare slot in my laptop for extra memory and have seen a Samsung Mini PCI-e 128GB SSD, this would however mean that I would need to replace my current 5300 WLAN card as the SSD would require the the full length Mini PCI-e slot.
Cheers

[u751920]

As an update:
I have now modified my BIOS so it can accept non-whitelist hardware!!!
Currently installed a Micro SD Half Mini PCI-e card reader.
Now would like to install:
1. 6300 WLAN Card
2. Samsung 128GB Mini PCI-e SSD
3. GOBI 2000
4. Eventually a 256GB SSD as the primary drive.

So has anybody installed the Half Mini PCI-e 6300 wireless card in the Half Mini PCI-e slot?
Thanks

[vinuneuro]

Chipsets older than Sandy Bridge don't support mSATA ssd's. I'd think the half wlan card should work fine in that slot.

[u751920]

Chipsets older than Sandy Bridge don't support mSATA ssd's. I'd think the half wlan card should work fine in that slot.

I've heard that too. I've also heard that the samsung ssd has the sata controller built in thus it should work as it does not need to utilise the "sata lane". Any personal experience of this would be appreciated.

[The Solutor]

Hi All,
Or alternately has anybody tried to use a 6300 card in the Half Mini PCI-e slot? - I appreciate that would require a Modified BIOS.

Wifi cards are working on turbomemory slot on my X200s (using a bios with whitelist removed and a taped pin), you will loose the wifi led unless you reroute the needed lane.

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2. Samsung 128GB Mini PCI-e SSD

I'm not sure about the SSD you are talking, but the so called mini pcie SSDs (supertalent, runcore) aren't really true mini PCI express devices, they are just mSata disks with a couple of scrambled pins, built before the mSata standard was finalized.

Btw I tested a true mini pci express sata controller and it didn't work too (nothing happened on the wlan and turbomemory slots while I got an error about the lost PCIe link (i'm not sure if because some missing lanes or because something else on the BIOS).

So I'm afraid you have very little hopes on your bright idea, which is basically the same I had, if I understand correctly.

[u751920]

Wifi cards are working on turbomemory slot on my X200s (using a bios with whitelist removed and a taped pin), you will loose the wifi led unless you reroute the needed lane.

Which modified BIOS did you use? - there was no modified BIOS for the X200s
Did you use a Lenovo wifi card?

Btw I tested a true mini pci express sata controller and it didn't work too (nothing happened on the wlan and turbomemory slots while I got an error about the lost PCIe link (i'm not sure if because some missing lanes or because something else on the BIOS).

From my research I don't think any of these cards are express cards. If the card you used did not have a built in sata controller I would expect the message you got. Ones with the built in sata controller will not hit the high data transfer speeds but should still work.

[The Solutor]

Which modified BIOS did you use? - there was no modified BIOS for the X200s

X200s use the same bios as X200, and there are a lot of them with the whitelist removed, not sure if they are still available after the megaupload tragedy.

No I used an atheros card, because it is one of the few cards that can be used in access point mode both in windows and linux.

From my research I don't think any of these cards are express cards.

Isn't what I wrote ? Both the (so called ) mini pci express disks and mSata disks, are just sata disks in a different form factor.

Btw a sata controller card has a sata controller on board, by definition, and still doesn't work.

[u751920]

I was led to believe that the BIOS's were different, but as the card is non-Lenovo I asume that is why you need the tape and the light does not work.

I appologise if my knowledge is lacking in this respect. I thought that mSata disks were more than just sata disks in a different form. The original disks you are referring to - supertalent, runcore - I was led to believe were designed specifically for the burgeoning netbook market and were designed to fit mini-pcie slots but those slots included a link to the on board sata or pata controller. Thus they could not work in normal pcie slots.

The point of the samsung drive is it uses it's own on board sata controller so should in theory use any standard mini-pcie slot. "... by supplying a SATA II controller + FLASH + CACHE in a single, standard mini-PCIe form factor with the same size as the current WiFi adapters for laptops." (http://www.siliconmadness.com/2009/06/s ... e-ssd.html).

This is a link to the card I'm looking at but I want the 128gb http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-mini-p ... e-2347726/. As you can see they say it should work in any mini-pcie

As I use a WWAN card I need to know if this card might work in in the mini pcie slot?

I'm not sure what a sata controller card is?

[The Solutor]

I was led to believe that the BIOS's were different, but as the card is non-Lenovo I asume that is why you need the tape and the light does not work.

You need the modded bios to get a non lenovo card working.

You need the taped pin to make *any* wlan card working in the slot meant for turbomemory.

In my case I needed both (non lenovo card AND "wrong" slot.

I was led to believe were designed specifically for the burgeoning netbook market and were designed to fit mini-pcie slots but those slots included a link to the on board sata or pata controller.

They are just sata (or pata) disks, they use the empty (unassigned) pins on the PCI slot to route the data signal, exactly the same happen on mSata disks, the empty pins are just used in a different order (and obviously with different signals if you look at the pata flavour)

The point of the samsung drive is it uses it's own on board sata controller so should in theory use any standard mini-pcie slot. "... by supplying a SATA II controller + FLASH + CACHE in a single, standard mini-PCIe form factor with the same size as the current WiFi adapters for laptops." (http://www.siliconmadness.com/2009/06/s ... e-ssd.html).

Look at the news date, its 3 years old, if it was true they were already on the market. They aren't.

As I use a WWAN card I need to know if this card might work in in the mini pcie slot?

I'm not sure what a sata controller card is?

http://it.startech.com/Schede-adattator ... PEXSATA22I

A SATA controller card is just something with the PCI slot on one side and two SATA port on the other and a PCI to SATA bridge chip in the middle (it's your hypothetical samsung disk w/o any disk on board, just the controller part)

If it worked was a just matter of solder some pins on a mSata or mini PCIE disks to connect them too the controller board.
In short was a way to get what you want (and what I wanted too), unfortunately was a good idea, but the real world test told differently.

[u751920]

Well you have convinced me. I have inserted this in the half mini-pcie slot - http://www.hwtools.net/cardreader/MR15.html . I will just get 2 x 64gb micro sd cards and be done with it. It's a shame intel have not made a turbo type memory greater than 4gb.

Cheers

[erik]

It's a shame intel have not made a turbo type memory greater than 4gb.

the advent of SSDs rendered turbo memory absolutely pointless, thus the technology became extinct.

for what you'll spend on two 64GB microSD cards, you'd be better served by getting a larger, faster SSD.   even class 10 cards will be painfully slow compared to a low-end SSD.

[u751920]

Although clearly it seems that a mini pcie msata ssd will not work has anybody seen this?

http://www.thejoojooforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=776

That is a mini pcie ssd modded to work as an msata mini pcie ssd. Surely you can do the same in reverse?

The micro sd cards are indeed expensive.

[The Solutor]

Although clearly it seems that a mini pcie msata ssd will not work has anybody seen this?

Yes this is exactly what I told earlier, they are the same disk with some scrambled pins.

Simply the mSata specs weren't finalized when the (misleading called) mini PCI express disks were launched.

So, modding an msata disk to minipci (and viceversa) is always possible, at least in theory.

BTW the soldering skill and the physical layout of the pcb can render the mod practically impossible (because a not accessible electrical lane, or lack of space to jumper it)