Thinkpads Forum

Couldn't find much info about this on the forums, which is weird as it seems every possible modification has been done to the 600x.

What I'm wondering is the possibility of putting in a RJ45 (ethernet socket) into the 600x. There seems to be areas on the side of the base that it could be done - like this clever mod for wireless:

http://www.rkawakami.net/ibm_600x/mini_pci_wireless/

I've done some research and there seems to be some Mini Pci ethernet cards which I'm thinking I could put in the mini pci slot. Then do some modification to the base - maybe even take out the current RJ-11 (?) modem socket and replace it with an RJ-45 socket. My plan gets blurry though in terms of wiring the socket up to the mini pci.

Is this just impossible or is it an actual possibility? If its impossible I guess this is still a fairly worthy post so people know not to waste time/money plannning/dreaming about doing it!

Mannersxxx wrote:Couldn't find much info about this on the forums, which is weird as it seems every possible modification has been done to the 600x.

I believe that this has come up before. I remember mentioning something about ripping out the RJ-11 jack and putting an RJ-45 in it's place (as you have also stated).

Mannersxxx wrote:... like this clever mod for wireless:

http://www.rkawakami.net/ibm_600x/mini_pci_wireless/

Thank you .

Mannersxxx wrote:Is this just impossible or is it an actual possibility?

While I believe it's not impossible, I think it's highly likely that there are too many obstacles to overcome to be worth the effort. One major concern is getting an RJ-45 jack firmly mounted into the existing modem jack opening. Wiring the jack back to the Mini-PCI area shouldn't be too much of a problem but then you have to figure out the pinout of the ethernet card. For my wireless solution you referenced, whenever I need to use a wired connection, out comes the PCMCIA ethernet card .

I would look into ripping out the RJ 11 jack as stated above. I don't know if anyone has tried this at all, although I'm sure a lot of people wish they had an ethernet jack built in. If you're gonna try it, please post what you try (with pictures if possible)!

Yeah I think I would remove the RJ11 port if I were to do it - however there would still be some modification required because I think thats linked directly to the system board.

Also from what research I have done I don't think its as simple as whacking in a ethernet mini pci card into the mini pci slot and then running some wires to the rj45 slot. From what I can see most ethernet mini pci cards work on the basis that the port is already built into the machine and hooked into the system board somewhere.

I imagine there is an obscure card out there that does this (I've seen on these forums that Bill, the moderator, has used a PCMIA ethernet card that had wires running from it that were designed to go to a RJ45 port) however even if I found it put it in the mini pci slot ran some wires from that to my modified RJ45 port the likelihood of the BIOS recognising it and the drivers running it would be a huge headache and barely worth it.

I currently use a fairly obscure PCMIA ethernet card which pops in and sits flush to my 600x - if I need to use a ethernet connection it has a detachable dongle that I plug in which has the RJ45 socket at the end. Works well and fairly easy but I need to open up my slots! Trying to run a Margi DVD card, wireless card, firewire adapter, extra usbs..............

Thinking the wireless mod is a good idea and will free up a slot, I think the Margi card doesn't actually do much - thats another slot, then I'm thinking.....would it possible to install another usb slot or two hahahaha