Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
Are there any 802.11ax (preferably) or 802.11ac Wifi cards compatible with W520 that I can upgrade to?

Thanks.

After a modded BIOS viewtopic.php?p=848822#p848822
a card like this AC-7260 will work fine: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/402317297704

Thank you for the information!

Two follow-up questions:
- Is that the best/fastest 802.11ac card I get use in my W520?
&
- Is it only the form factor of the wifi card that needs to match, or does it,e.g., have it be Intel as well?

The AC-7260 RBS recommended is a great card, I'm using one right now. Check if your W520 has a WLAN card whitelist too (then you should get a modified BIOS so that it doesn't refuse to boot with that card installed).
Any Mini-PCIE card will fit, the brand doesn't matter.
Also if you decide to get the AC-7260 take into account that card had some early production batches which had some problems (you'll have to tape a pin in order to get Bluetooth working and stuff like that). So try to get a "revised", late production model of that card and it will work perfectly I think. I found this document on Intel page and it helped me to get a revised model, perhaps it can help you too:
https://qdms.intel.com/dm/i.aspx/E66C49 ... 523-00.pdf

Thank you once again guys for your help!
I just replaced the wifi card with Intel 7260, and boy what a difference!

Cheers to you!

You might be able to use something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCIE-Inte ... 2d12322478
That would require a BIOS mod and uses an m.2 card to mpcie board with adapters for the antenna connections. I'm not sure that would physically fit.

I've gotten a couple of wireless adapters from this vendor and found them reliable.

davidgurvich wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:07 pm

You might be able to use something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCIE-Inte ... 2d12322478
That would require a BIOS mod and uses an m.2 card to mpcie board with adapters for the antenna connections. I'm not sure that would physically fit.

Has anyone tried any of the various m.2 adapters in thinkpads? I've had problems with intermittent connections with the stock 6300/6200 in linux (and sort of fixed: pcie_aspm=force on the kernel command line; performance is now okay but definitely not as good as actual good wifi devices). I'm pretty sure the adapter card will fit in at least the x201 and possibly the w/t510. It won't fit in my w701 though others might have more mini-pcie slots populated on the board (mine is fairly low-end and only has a half-height slot).

W701 doesn't need an adapter, only a BIOS with wifi-whitelist removed: https://www.sendspace.com/file/gmwupd
and a drop-in PCIe AC7260 like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/143985839280

I was hoping to get 802.11ax on all the boxes I could; ac is probably good enough for the 701. Is there any documentation on how the modified BIOSes were created? I'd like to check that only the whitelist and maybe some checksums were changed from the stock bios.

Your x201 and w/t510 can all use the same AC card as the W701, but must also have their wifi-whitelist removed first.
If you want to see details, dump BIOS before and after the mod, then compare them.

I have had excellent results with a AX-200 modules (AX200D2WL) repackaged into Mini-PCI-E 1/2 height package (in T-420, T-520 and W-520s, all with Oleg-modded BIOS) and can include Intel's 5.1 Bluetooth (specify "AX200NGW"). They are recognized in Windows 10 Device Manager as "Intel WiFi6 AX-200 160 MHz"" and in a Windows 10 "clean install" will correctly download the current Intel WiFi driver. Check carefully as you order as they seem to lump several similar "re-packagings" in the same listing at different prices.

They are sold at Ali Express under the TOULINEUA brand. They seem to come and go as far as availability. I was a little skeptical at first, but after getting 5 at different times (for me and friends of mine), no problems. Be prepared to wait a month.

I did try the M.2 form factor with an adapter at first. Two problems:
1. Physically they did not fit into the allotted space, and (worse)...
2. When I did a space work-around, they were not recognized at all.

Hope this helps!

Hi all

I would like to also install an ax wifi in my w520.
How can I tell which revision the card is?
I found these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256675919382 ... R-yh1fH0ZA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267088528924 ... R-qh1fH0ZA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256719941966 ... R-qh1fH0ZA


Which one of those is the proper revision.

Also, I havent done anything to the BIOS, I assume it has whitelist. Where can I get the modified BIOS and the update procedure?

Thanks for the help.

Any other wifi card in 2024 that can work in w520 with wifi6 speed?