internal antenna on a31p

[scotto]

Hi,

I have an IBM a31p notebook, model 2653-H4U. This originally came without wireless capability but I would like to add it. My question is, is the mini PCI combo card, 26P8472:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-39574

all I need to do that i.e. is the rest of the notebook compatible, with the internal antenna, etc. already installed? Also, would the 12P3637 card work just as well?

Thanks,

Scott

[G-Man]

The wireless antenna should be already installed in your TP, but to make sure, follow the steps of this movie, and look for the aux, and main wires in your TP. The 12P3637 High rate wireless/modem Mini PCI combo card will work just fine. It's just an older version of the revised 26P8472 with not much differences.

Hardware Maintenance Manual can also help you locating the wires, and installing the Mini PCI card.

Regards,
G-Man

[Zeitgeist]

If the antenna is not installed in the display cover you could do it yourself. Just follow erik's excellent instructions.

The required mini pci card you get at ebay for 35 ESD.

[scotto]

Thanks. You all are very helpful. I tried to search for erik's antenna installation instructions but couldn't find them. Could you point me to the right spot?

Scott

[Zeitgeist]

Did you check the access panel if you have the antenna cable?

Here is erik´s instruction for the T23 model which should be similar for the A31P model:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... b76467c673

See also G-man´s link for the hardware maintenance manual.

I just checked your model number

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... Entry.y=13

on the second page IBM offers WLAN firmware update for your model???!

[friedrich-eugen]

No Zeitgeist,

locking at the details of specs You will see there is no such wireless-card installed factory-wise.

But the antenna should be installed and indeed easily detectable, if scotto
uses the maintenance manual.

Sincerely Friedrich-Eugen

[ramcelroy]

What are the differences between the IBM High Rate Wireless MiniPCI Combo card models 26P8472 vs 12P3637?

[ramcelroy]

Can the 802.11b antenna be upgraded to the 802.11a/b/g? If so, can the high-rate wireless miniPCI combo be upgraded to support the antenna?

[scotto]

I finally got around to adding wireless to my originally wireless a31p. I figured I'd summarize:

1.) The mini-PCI combo card part #12P3637 worked fine. I bought it from Ebay for about $14+ship, plugged it in, installed the drivers from IBM, and it worked right away in Windows XP.

2.) Internal Antenna: It turned out that my machine did not have the internal antenna installed afterall. Without it, I had a range of about 3 feet. So, I bought the antenna (#27L0684) for $25+ship from here:

http://store.yahoo.com/indexcomputeronline/27l0684.html

and installed it with inspiration from here:

http://www.jordanautomations.com/tpa31- ... grade.html

and the IBM manual (see keyboard, keyboard bezel, lcd sections):
http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... MIGR-39796

3.) Linux. Net folklore had it that the orinoco_pci driver would work but it never worked for me. Instead, I installed the hostap driver. For Fedora Core 2, the relevant rpm's were:

kernel-module-hostap
hostap-driver
hostap-utils

although I 'm not sure if the last module is required. Anyway, everything is now working great.

Thanks for all the help!

Scott