A31P bluetooth and wirless upgrade problems.

[ElbertR]

Have been trying to add bluetooth to my A31P. It already has two daughter cards installed (modem & ethernet) and I had already added a Intel 2200BG mini-pci card.

For the bluetooth upgrade I installed the antenna (original part for this computer) and replaced the clearplate underneath the screen. Turns out the inverter already has the led and switch for bluetooth.

So now I have a small button on next to the battery indicator that when pressed brings up a message 'integrated bluetooth communications card not installed', which is true. So far so good.

Next I replaced the modem card with a new BMDC200 bluetooth modem daughter card (91P7315). After that, bluetooth drivers installed without problems when the button was pressed and bluetooth seems to work fine, but I run into these problems:
* Sound no longer works (only system beep, lost the sound drivers in device manager) no sound hardware is dectected.
* Modem doesn't work, system doesn't find a modem.

There must be a conflict between the modem on the BMDC200 and the sound drivers/hardware.

Another seperate upgrade issue I came across was when I replaced the Intel 2200BG mini pci wireless card with a Atheros A/B/G card. On boot the computer gives the warning: 'too many ethernet controllers installed'. Both network adapters still seem to work.

So now I went back the to intel 2200bg card and old modem daughter card.

Anybody have any suggestions on resolving these issues?

Personally I think the BMDC200 is not compatible with my A31P (NET bios version) and the BIOS needs to updated to accept the Atheros card without a warning (my BIOS and Imbedded controller are the latest version).

[wireless4laptop]

Frist, Atheros 802.11a/b/g can 100% display a 091? (I forget the code) on T23, A31. The unique solution is to put off the WLAN CDC card or press ESC to jump.

You can choose a Intel 2915 or Broadcom 4309(for over 2.0G, need to jump 1802 error) 802.11a/b/g card.

As for the issues of BMDC200, I am finding the answer for you.

[ElbertR]

Frist, Atheros 802.11a/b/g can 100% display a 091? (I forget the code) on T23, A31. The unique solution is to put off the WLAN CDC card or press ESC to jump.

You can choose a Intel 2915 or Broadcom 4309(for over 2.0G, need to jump 1802 error) 802.11a/b/g card.

As for the issues of BMDC200, I am finding the answer for you.

Thanks, for now I will use the 2200BG, if I have problems with it when on the road I might temporarily swap it for the Atheros card.

The error code was 4 digits long 03XX, not sure about the last 2 digits. Don't know what you mean by 091.

My goal is to have bluetooth, modem, ethernet and wireless A/B/G all working.

Do you think the BMDC-3 (IV - 39T0026) will work?

[wireless4laptop]

BMDC3 only works on T43, X32, X41/Tablet, R52, (Z60 should be added). BMDC200 and BMDC200B are the best chooses now.

[a31pguy]

BMDC3 only works on T43, X32, X41/Tablet, R52, (Z60 should be added). BMDC200 and BMDC200B are the best chooses now.

That hasn't been my experience - I have one in mine. Got it off Ebay to see if it would work. Works ok. But not substantially different from the original - except for the modem. I downloaded the IBM bluetooth driver from the T4* series and used the microsoft enumerator. But I did have some initial problems getting the modem to work. The bluetooth card uses an AC'97 codec for both the modem and the sound system. Really just a very fancy soundcard acting like a modem. I had to modify the INF and setup files to get it to work. I don't believe it was hardware related - it's driver related. It works with the microsoft bluetooth drivers - all of the IBM drivers gave me license issues - however I think there are several workarounds on this too but I cannot vouch for. Check the web- there are a couple of pages on work arounds for the license file and detecting the bluetooth hardware in the INF files.

I have tested both of the IBM ABG cards (I and II) now and both come up with the error "too many ethernet controllers". To get it to work correctly - uninstall IBM access connections - reboot - delete the card driver - reboot - reinstall access connections - reboot. But this will not fix the BIOS "warning" however, the card will work.

The intel 2915 card works too without the error. Neither the 2200 BG nor the 2915 have XP drivers that support promiscuous mode.

There is a possible workaround - but it would ivolved modifying the bios to accept the Mini-PCI device id.

[ElbertR]

Bluetooth was working. Just no sound and no modem.

Do you remember what was causing the confilt between the modem and the sound hardware? What changes did you make to the INF file and the setup files?

What is 'promiscuous mode' for the wireless card?

[a31pguy]

it's been about a month since i've done it - i'll have to go back in a look. The sound worked off the bat. The modem took more work. It detected and installed fine - but would not communicate with the driver. I believe it was the address of the hardware that had to be set manually in the driver setup files. The driver just uses the connector on the bluetooth as a usb device. It needs to know where that device is located.

the promiscuous mode allows the wireless card driver to be used with network diagnostic tools like ethereal. For most people this isn't an issue, but for network and security people - it's needed for sniffing traffic off the wire.

[ElbertR]

it's been about a month since i've done it - i'll have to go back in a look. The sound worked off the bat. The modem took more work. It detected and installed fine - but would not communicate with the driver. I believe it was the address of the hardware that had to be set manually in the driver setup files. The driver just uses the connector on the bluetooth as a usb device. It needs to know where that device is located.

I installed a Bluetooth Modem daughter card IV and this is the result: Bluetooth works, sound works, modem is detected & installed (no conflicts reports) but does not work.

When you try to 'query' the modem it says the com port (com3) is already in use.

Do you remember what you changed in the driver setup files?

Also when I press the bluetooth on/off button I still get the message 'bluetooth card not installed' but the button still works.

Thanks.

[a31pguy]

Do you remember what you changed in the driver setup files?

Hey ElbertR - seems like us consultants always end up working Xmas. I'm on a high stress project right now. As soon as I get a break I'll delve into again and post some settings for you. Can afford to have the workhorse down for too long at the moment.

[ElbertR]

Thanks A31PGuy, please check it out when you get a change. I would love to find out how to get it all working. Have not been able to figure it out myself.

This is an upgrade I am sure many other A31 users are interested in.

Happy holidays.

[zone]

This is an upgrade I am sure many other A31 users are interested in.

Happy holidays.

Indeed yes, Im lurking on this thread too.

I purchased BMDC 200 with antenna, got already BT clearplate for A31p so Im waiting as well.

ElbertR, how did you manage to install NEC 65xx burner, mean did you use original IBM faceplate, if so does it fits or some *surgery* is needed.

best

z


_______
A31p 2.5 GHz P4 M, 1GB, 60GB, Atheros Super G WiFi,

[ElbertR]

Indeed yes, Im lurking on this thread too.

I purchased BMDC 200 with antenna, got already BT clearplate for A31p so Im waiting as well.

ElbertR, how did you manage to install NEC 65xx burner, mean did you use original IBM faceplate, if so does it fits or some *surgery* is needed.

The BMDC200 did not work for me. No modem and no sound. With a BMDC IV I have sound, just no modem and according to A31PGUY there is a way to make the modem work too.

For the NEC burner you can remove the ultrabay bezel from the current drive and use a dremer rotary tool (or just a knife) to make a cut in the drives front bezel (bottom right) to make it fit.

I simply bought a cheap ultrabay cd-rom drive on ebay and used the bezel from that drive for the NEC. Since the button and led on the CD-Rom front bezel lined up with the one on the NEC I even magaged to attach that one to the NEC (needed some minor cutting and glueing).

The Newegg website has a good deal on Nec 6650 drives. Ebay also has 6500 drives with the bezel already installed.