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WWAN Card compatibility

X230-X280, X390 Series
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pataslocas2001
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:26 pm
Location: Granada, Spain

WWAN Card compatibility

#1 Post by pataslocas2001 » Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:13 am

Hi guys!. I was search a wwan card for mi X230Tablet and i found a gobi 4k for only 17€. But is a HP FRU...
Is compatible?
https://www.ebay.es/itm/f-HP-E362-4G-lt ... SwB-1YsOAj

TY for your time

AndyMH
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed May 30, 2018 12:32 pm
Location: Warminster, UK

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#2 Post by AndyMH » Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:54 am

I don't know, just fitted this in my T430:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182786504633

Did find that it was short - so could not screw it in, but the cover keeps it in place. What OS are you using, I'm linux mint and it sort of 'worked out of the box'. Been talking to someone else on the mint forum trying to get another wwan card working, having all sorts of trouble. His is QMI protocol, the ericson is MBIM which gave no problems.
T430 i7-3632QM Mint 19.0 Cinnamon, T430 Mint 19.0 Cinnamon, T420 Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, T410 dual boot win7/mint 17.3, T60 Mint 19 Mate

w0qj
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Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#3 Post by w0qj » Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:18 am

Don't know much about X230 Tablet, but make sure that your X230 Tablet LCD already include the WWAN antenna built-in.
Otherwise you may end up with a WWAN card installed but no antenna!
pataslocas2001 wrote:
Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:13 am
Hi guys!. I was search a wwan card for mi X230Tablet and i found a gobi 4k for only 17€. But is a HP FRU...
Is compatible?
https://www.ebay.es/itm/f-HP-E362-4G-lt ... SwB-1YsOAj

TY for your time
Daily Driver: (X1E3) X1 Extreme 3rd Gen | mobile broadband (WWAN)
Current Thinkpads: X1E3 | X1E1 | X1C10 | X1C9 | X1C4 | X1C3 | X230
Retired Thinkpads: X250 | T410 | T42 | 560 (circa 1996)

pataslocas2001
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:26 pm
Location: Granada, Spain

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#4 Post by pataslocas2001 » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:20 am

AndyMH wrote:
Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:54 am
I don't know, just fitted this in my T430:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182786504633

Did find that it was short - so could not screw it in, but the cover keeps it in place. What OS are you using, I'm linux mint and it sort of 'worked out of the box'. Been talking to someone else on the mint forum trying to get another wwan card working, having all sorts of trouble. His is QMI protocol, the ericson is MBIM which gave no problems.
I use Windows 10 Pro
http://i68.tinypic.com/2ex31ug.png

Admin warning:
picture WAY too big, tags removed. Please read the Forum Rules, especially Section 5: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14339

pataslocas2001
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:26 pm
Location: Granada, Spain

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#5 Post by pataslocas2001 » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:21 am

w0qj wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:18 am
Don't know much about X230 Tablet, but make sure that your X230 Tablet LCD already include the WWAN antenna built-in.
Otherwise you may end up with a WWAN card installed but no antenna!
pataslocas2001 wrote:
Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:13 am
Hi guys!. I was search a wwan card for mi X230Tablet and i found a gobi 4k for only 17€. But is a HP FRU...
Is compatible?
https://www.ebay.es/itm/f-HP-E362-4G-lt ... SwB-1YsOAj

TY for your time
I´m sure that my laptop already include the two wwan antena

wojtekS
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 5:41 am
Location: Siemianowice Śląskie, Poland

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#6 Post by wojtekS » Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:28 am

WWAN antennas are present in every X230 / X230t (at least I never seen one without them).

This one will work - has the metal extender to fit the mounting screws:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Used-Ericsso ... .l4275.c10

Ericsson is a 3G modem not 4G anyway.

For a 4G solution you can search info about Sierra Wireless MC7710 (FRU 04W3821)- it should work in unmodified X230 - I have this in my X230 but I have a modded bios to avoid the whitelist check

HP branded gobi will not work on 99% because of whitelist (has HP vendor ID instead of lenovo ID).

pataslocas2001
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:26 pm
Location: Granada, Spain

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#7 Post by pataslocas2001 » Tue Jun 05, 2018 1:53 am

wojtekS wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:28 am
WWAN antennas are present in every X230 / X230t (at least I never seen one without them).

This one will work - has the metal extender to fit the mounting screws:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Used-Ericsso ... .l4275.c10

Ericsson is a 3G modem not 4G anyway.

For a 4G solution you can search info about Sierra Wireless MC7710 (FRU 04W3821)- it should work in unmodified X230 - I have this in my X230 but I have a modded bios to avoid the whitelist check

HP branded gobi will not work on 99% because of whitelist (has HP vendor ID instead of lenovo ID).
And how do I modify the bios of the notebook?

wojtekS
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Location: Siemianowice Śląskie, Poland

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#8 Post by wojtekS » Tue Jun 05, 2018 10:42 pm

In X230 case the bios chip must be read on external programmer then the image is patched by a small program then written back to the bios chip.

It is preferred to desolder the chip to perform this operation. As I do not have the necessary equipment to do this I just visited a small local laptop repair shop - they did it for me in 20 minutes.

I have the patch program if needed.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#9 Post by RealBlackStuff » Wed Jun 06, 2018 6:21 am

Is that a program to remove the wifi-whitelist on any X230?
If so, I'm most interested, as I have the hardware for it.

wojtekS
Posts: 38
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Location: Siemianowice Śląskie, Poland

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#10 Post by wojtekS » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:26 am

Here you are: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1q1Vzw ... q7elLVqQ8T

I have included a small description.

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Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#11 Post by RealBlackStuff » Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:40 am

Got it, thanks.
WOW, if that works? I'd be over the moon! :mrgreen:

Reading through it, I have a few questions.
X230/X230T has 2 BIOS chips in tandem, one 8MB (bottom) and one 4MB (top) chip, as shown on this picture:
http://i62.tinypic.com/1qjszm.jpg
AFAIK it's only the top (4MB) chip that needs to be unsoldered/read/flashed/resoldered.
Does that apply to this mod as well?

Enclosed in the .zip is an image for the battery-check-bypass, is that automatically included in this flash?
(I have already done that battery EC-mod).

The flash also "Cuts the LVDS line", further on it says: "it is only for FHD/WQHD mod to disable the old screen".
My X230 already has nitrocaster's FHD-mod and is working fine.
Should I leave that noLVDS hashed, or "un-hash" it?

Final question:
My X230 has BIOS 2.70, the last 'normal' BIOS before they started with all that Meltdown/Spectre stuff.
Is that OK for this flash?

wojtekS
Posts: 38
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Location: Siemianowice Śląskie, Poland

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#12 Post by wojtekS » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:44 pm

You only work on the upper 4MB chip: unsoldered/read/flashed/resoldered -> yes exactly like this. Just read it 3 times and check if the checksum is the same for all three files as I wrote in description.

Nothing to do with the second chip.

The battery bypass is not managed by this tool, I just put it there but finally not applied. You can delete this file.

For the LVDS I am running the chinese mod that is not taking any signal from LVDS connector. The Nitrocaster solution uses some signals from it (probably brightness control) . So in my understanding you should not apply LVDS cut part. Anyway if you have all the hardware you can try, if it does not work you can revert to the bios without LVDS modification.

Basically this is for windows machine to avoid the mess with the dummy screen that is always present in device manager and also in all places where you manage the multiple screens. So if you connect the external monitor to a modded X230 windows thinks there already 3 screens present at the moment, it just makes a mess in the screen management. If LVDS is cut you have only one screen in Windows, exactly the same way as on a desktop PC. As far as I understand this is not a problem under linux.

Yes it works with 2.70 bios, that's exactly the version I am running:

BIOS Version: G2ETB0WW (2.70 )

Grace of this patch I can use the intel AC-7260 with built in bluetooth and the sierra MC7710 4G modem.

What else... you will need to disable Security Chip in the bios settings because it beeps 5 times on POST (it starts normally after) if your bios isn't verified or something fancy like that and it got annoying. It is the case of all modded bios on X230 / T430 etc. It recognises somehow that the bios has been modified.

When the patch is running you will be getting some warnings - it is normal, don't worry about this. You can test before with the sample bios images that I included - the output is the same with 2.68 and 2.70 image. Same warnings etc. Just compare the sample 2.70 output with yours.

axmaxwell
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Location: Ridgecrest, CA

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#13 Post by axmaxwell » Sat Sep 01, 2018 8:24 pm

Okay this is probably going to be a stupid question, but if I have a wwan card installed with a SIM card and a network contract, is the wwan card set up to connect to Wi-Fi or do I still need to have a wireless card for that? I ask because I am considering doing the card change but I don't want to lose my 128gb msata SSD that my operating system is on
e-Machine upgrade : mini ITX, I7-4790K, 16gb ram GTX-1050tiLP
Home Desktop: I5-2500k, R9 390X, 24gb ram, 14tb storage
X230t: I7-3520m, 16gb ram, 128gb msata ssd, 2tb hdd

dr_st
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Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#14 Post by dr_st » Sun Sep 02, 2018 7:26 am

WWAN and WLAN are separate functions. Not every WWAN card can do WLAN. There are combo cards that do both, but as most Thinkpads have BIOS whitelists, it may refuse to accept such a card.

Read more here: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X ... -p/3276959
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

w0qj
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Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#15 Post by w0qj » Sun Sep 02, 2018 9:49 am

WiFi = WLAN for all intensive purposes
www.thebestwirelessinternet.com/what-is-wifi.html

WWAN = Mobile Broadband
Basically this is just a cell phone (mobile phone) connection on your computer that does data transmission only;
therefore you must ensure that you have a WWAN antennae on your machine beforehand.
No WWAN antennae = no Mobile Broadband connection, even if you have the Mobile Broadband card installed!
(Hint: The WWAN antennae is usually part of the LCD module for ThinkPads when you order your machine.)
Daily Driver: (X1E3) X1 Extreme 3rd Gen | mobile broadband (WWAN)
Current Thinkpads: X1E3 | X1E1 | X1C10 | X1C9 | X1C4 | X1C3 | X230
Retired Thinkpads: X250 | T410 | T42 | 560 (circa 1996)

samveen
Posts: 47
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:28 am
Location: Gurgaon, HR, India

Re: WWAN Card compatibility

#16 Post by samveen » Thu May 16, 2019 9:09 pm

wojtekS wrote:
Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:44 pm
<snip>
Yes it works with 2.70 bios, that's exactly the version I am running:

BIOS Version: G2ETB0WW (2.70 )
I managed to get a generic MC7710 from AliExpress running under Linux, no modifications required.

After the card installation (before I closed everything up), I first booted into Linux to check that the card was visible and up, which it was (in the correct Mode "QMI" and thus with a correct USBID. Next up, I booted into windows to check, but no dice.

After closing up everything, I then started a six hour marathon to get it working correctly in linux. Google helped a lot, given my complete lack of info on WWAN setup, but what I found was that the number of pages detailing issues of getting the MC7710 working on x230 is insanely larger than any page detailing solutions to the pages. I'll be trying to add a page onto the thinkwiki about how to get it done in a slightly less insane manner. It also didn't help that I had inserted the sim in an incorrect orientation, which I discovered after finally reaching a state with every requirement installed and all issues fixed.

Findings:
- The card works on ubuntu 18.04 almost perfectly
- During the process, Keyboard and track button/pad has stopped responding in Windows (not sure if it's an issue due to the WWAN card or Win7 itself - needs more investigation), so I cannot check if it works correctly there or not. That check will happen after removing the card completely.
- Process is long, and completely lacking in documentation.

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