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Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

T400/T410/T420 and T500/T510/T520 Series
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olex126
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Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#1 Post by olex126 » Wed Jun 24, 2020 2:35 pm

Hi Gang.

My T520 (4242-AB9) was one of my few Thinkpads without Bluetooth, a means of communication which I use almost everyday in some form or another.

I had an old Bluetooth 2 card from another Thinkpad at hand and installed it. It worked ....sort'a...OK, and I could connect to different Thinkpads, but not reliably to either my BBY phone nor my Yamaha P515 piano. Out it came.

My router had been changed out some time ago to a TP-Link AC 1750, and other Intel AC 7260 with BT 4.0 cards that I had used in other Thinkpads have averaged anywhere from 650-850 Mbps in speed so I was happy with that card and wanting to replace the Intel 622AN card that was in the T520. Added bonus....better/faster Bluetooth (I hoped!)

I have a Samsung EVO mSata 500 Gb card in the WWAN slot and did not want to forgo it, so into the WIFI slot the new 7260 card had to go. First install with no pin 51 taped, and the WIFI was a success, but of course, no Bluetooth.

Second install with pin 51 taped (scotch tape) was a disaster! Three tries at an install, and I ruined the tape every time when inserting the card into the slot....Sorry, no pics of THAT....too embarrassed at my ineptness/clumsiness with scotch tape :oops: :oops: :oops:

Pin 51 removal here we come!

Pics link here:

https://app.photobucket.com/u/olex126/a ... dfdc433ae3

Hit the slideshow button.

I used the smallest jewelers file I had in the set, and the flat side was the width of about three of the pins....the edge side, though, was an almost-perfect fit for grinding just one pin. It took a few minutes of careful one-way grinding to get the pin removed, but when all was said and done, it was a clean removal, with only minimal scraping of the adjacent pin.

( I first thought of digging out the Dremel.....Heh Heh Heh...I'll have this Puppy fixed in NO time!!...but.....yeah...... :BAAAD!:. One slip @ 10,000 RPM and I can only imagine how my new 7260 card would function with NO pins!).

Into the T520 and install the software ( The latest Intel AC 7260 WIFI/Bluetooth software [Ver 20.10.2 Proset Win 7 - 10 X32/X64 Versions can be downloaded here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo ... duct=75439

Success with both WIFI and Bluetooth :D . WIFI connects to the router at 750-800 Mbps, and I'm now happily BT4- connected to my Yamaha P515 Digital piano, the BBY phone and the rest of the Bluetooth-enabled Thinkpads around the house.

A few downsides of course, which I can live with...NO Bluetooth indicator on the clear-plate. The hardware On/Off Switch does NOT turn on/off the Bluetooth portion of the card (It DOES turn off the WIFI though). The 7260 card is NOT recognized with Function/F5 either. (Turn the card on/off via the Intel software (BT icon in the Taskbar.)) I have Access Connections installed (Win 7 Ultimate O/S) and that program DOES recognize the card/signal, WIFI Profile, etc.)

Hope this helps anyone who runs into problems getting this card's Bluetooth 4.0 to work in a non-Bluetooth enabled Thinkpad.

Let me know if the pics link gives any problems or if you have any questions.

Regards.

Dave
Previous & Collection Thinkpads: 701C A22m A30/A31p T23p x2 T30 T41 X31 various 750's 760's & 390's.

Test Benches: X41T, X60T & X61T's, various T42p-T43p's, x200 x201 x220T x230 T520 W530 T601F LED (X9000/8Gb/250SSD/W7 U)

DD: P50

"Life Is A Journey...Enjoy The Ride!"

Zoltan
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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#2 Post by Zoltan » Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:18 am

Would taping the 51st pin on an AC 7260 work for a T530? I saw a video with someone using black electrical tape for an X220 and it worked. I just got a T530 on eBay and looking to upgrade various things on it, after updating the drivers, BIOS, etc.

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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#3 Post by jursky » Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:46 am

Zoltan wrote:
Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:18 am
Would taping the 51st pin on an AC 7260 work for a T530? I saw a video with someone using black electrical tape for an X220 and it worked. I just got a T530 on eBay and looking to upgrade various things on it, after updating the drivers, BIOS, etc.
If you you'd be fine with modified bios then you could take a look at 1vyrain. It removes bios's "allowlist", allowing installation of any WLAN/WWAN card in your laptop. I personally done that on my X230 and can't complain, I have been using 7260 for few months now and it works just fine.
X230, X1C7 and B156HW01 V.4 (from a W530 ThinkPad) used as an external monitor using LCD controller board.

Zoltan
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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#4 Post by Zoltan » Sun Aug 09, 2020 10:31 pm

I don't mind attempting to modify the BIOS, but unfortunately just recently I had updated by BIOS from A11 to A24 (which is now version 2.77), and 1vyrain says it will only work with BIOS version 2.60 or below. Even A11 was higher than 2.60 I think. I looked at the instructions to "downgrade" my BIOS to a lower version, with the required vulnerability state that would make 1vyrain work, and the BIOS downgrading process sounds really complicated. Am I missing something? I am all for it if I can get it done without too much hassle.

Zoltan
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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#5 Post by Zoltan » Sun Aug 09, 2020 10:37 pm

I especially would like the option to disable the Intel ME engine, using 1vyrain's advanced menu (as it claims). I never knew about the Intel ME engine, but glad to know about it now, and try to disable it.

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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#6 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:45 am

Run Ivyprep first, then 1vyrain.
A lot easier than working with SPI programmers.
Did it on my X230, only took a few minutes.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

Zoltan
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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#7 Post by Zoltan » Mon Aug 10, 2020 3:14 am

Thanks! I ran IVprep and then 1vyrain, and everything seems to be OK. I'll get the Intel AC 7260 wi-fi/bluetooth in the mail in a week, and then I can test it out. I already disabled the Intel ME after rebooting. Great forum! Thanks again.

atagunov
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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#8 Post by atagunov » Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:08 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:45 am
Run Ivyprep first, then 1vyrain.
Hi, so 1vyrain allows "any" WiFi card to be used on X230(t), right?
You no longer need to tape that pin?
Indicators work?
Hardware switch works?

My main concern then is about power consumption under Linux. Could somebody confirm how well/badly it works?
I expect the stock BIOS provides some ACPI or such "tables" for stock WiFi cards which allows Linux to power them off when not needed?
Or am I barking the wrong tree and my battery life will be the same under Linux between Thinkpad-branded version of Intel 6205+stock BIOS and some more advanced WiFi card?
X220, 2 *T520

Zoltan
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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#9 Post by Zoltan » Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:02 am

OK, so I got the Intel AC 7260 in the mail and installed it. The Wi-fi works, shows up in the device manager, but Bluetooth does not show up. When I did the 1vyrain process, it gave me a warning that 4 out of 5 areas were not writeable, and I thought I read some instructions that said everything needed to be writeable for the mod to work. Also, before I ran IVYprep, my BIOS was 2.77 and after I ran IVYprep it still shows as 2.77. Are any of these issues that would keep the new Bluetooth device from being recognized? Am I off on this? Is there any other reason why the Bluetooth part of AC 7260 would not show up? I did a Windows troubleshoot for bluetooth, and it said I do not have a bluetooth device (even though it is installed, and thw Wi-fi part of it works just fine).

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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#10 Post by Zoltan » Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:06 am

All this was after I installed the Intel drivers (in this order):
BT_21.10.1_64_Win10
WiFi_21.10.1_PROSet64_Win10

Should I try uninstalling BT_21.10.1_64_Win10 and try installing the newest version (but not made specifically for AC 7260) BT_21.110.0_64_Win10

Zoltan
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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#11 Post by Zoltan » Sat Sep 05, 2020 10:30 pm

So I went back to the 1vyrain instructions on Github - I knew I had read about the importance of getting write permissions on the SPI protected range registers (PR0-PR4), and I do remember when I ran the 1vyrain process, it gave me a warning that 4 of those were still write-protected. So I tried to go back through and follow the instructions listed on Github to take care of this, including downloading Ubuntu, trying to install CHIPSEC, etc. I have had no luck in getting that complicated process to even get started. Installing CHIPSEC is a technical deep dive, and I have not gotten this to work.

First, I tried running Ubuntu from the DVD I burned it to (I don't have any flash drives handy). That didn't work because installing the Python environment needed to install CHIPSEC requires being able to write to the Ubuntu install. I backed out of that and tried shrinking some of my 465GB hard drive into a new partition so I could install Ubuntu directly onto my computer, but still keep the Windows 10 install that has all the programs and functions loaded that I need for work. The disk manager only allowed a 3GB shrinkage, saying that I had files spanning the other areas. This tiny partition size won't work because Ubuntu says it needs at least 25GB of space to operate well.

I don't want to quit trying to get 1vyrain to work, but I'm wondering if I wouldn't be less hassle to just put that piece of tape on the AC 7260 and be done with 1vyrain. If anyone has some tips for how I could accomplish the preparation steps for 1vyrain to work, I would appreciate it.

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Re: Intel AC 7260 w/Pin 51 Removed on My T520 (Pics Link)

#12 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:14 am

Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

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