X201 Win8 - Wireless WAN cards?

[bastian]

Hi all,

I recently bought a ThinkPad X201 (Windows 8 ) laptop, which had the antenna and SIM slot for mobile broadband already built-in. But when the laptop was purchased by its original owner, they didn't opt for the mobile broadband option, so there was no WWAN card built in to my X201.

I bought an Ericsson F3507g WWAN card, from here:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181099045147
and installed it last night.

Today I realised that there is no driver available for Windows 8 for this WWAN card.

There are a few suggestions on various websites that suggest how to fix it, and I have tried all of the ones I found with no success. I have tried installing the Windows XP / Vista drivers, as well as the Windows 7 drivers.
From here: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS014016
and another Lenovo link that I now cannot find.

I have tried other workarounds suggested on the interet, such as downloading the Windows 7 drivers and running it compatibility mode, along with some arguments in command prompt, but these did not work either.

Windows Device Manager doesn't seem to know that the WWAN card exists. I would've expected an "unknown device" in device manager, or a pop up upon booting up, but I see nothing.

I have a few questions:
A) are there any methods that people have used with this WWAN card on Windows 8 that have resulted in a working mobile broadband connection?
B) is the Ericsson F5521gw a better bet for use with Windows 8 on this laptop? My father has that card in his X220 tablet running Windows 8, and it is working, but he said it installed on its own, without any work needed by him.
C) what WWAN cards (PCI Express mini card) are available that have official drivers for Windows 8 (the current release, not RC or Beta)? I am happy to buy another WWAN card if it is known to work with this laptop and Windows 8.

I am about to test it in Ubuntu 13.04, and will test it with Windows 7 tomorrow (on the same laptop - I'll do a hard drive swap).

There is a chance that this particular WWAN card is faulty, which my testing in Ubuntu and Windows 7 will confirm or prove wrong. If that is the case, I will buy another card from your suggestions here.

Help would be much appreciated with this.

Many thanks.

[bill bolton]

There is a chance that this particular WWAN card is faulty

If Device Manager isn't seeing it all, that seems to be strong possibility.

Once you have the hardware recognised, for Win 8, try loading one of the later Ericsson WWAN drivers (F5521 etc).

Cheers,

Bill B.

[EOMtp]

B) is the Ericsson F5521gw a better bet for use with Windows 8 on this laptop?.

Regardless of the operating system's support for the card, an X201 will require a modified BIOS before it accepts the F5521gw card.