R40 2682-N7U Wireless Upgrade

[mbtokig]

I have a Thinkpad R40 2682-N7U and I know that it has a minipci slot for a wireless card but I was wanting to know if any minipci wireless card would work with this system or if not which kind would work. I looked at the IBM online store and it did not list anything but a PC Card Adapter for this system.

[wolfman]

I have a similiar model, 2896-72U (same motherboard as your P4-M 2.4 gigahertz) that was also wireless upgradable. The part I installed 2 years ago was a Cisco Aironet mini-pci card and it is 802.11b only (was never a problem for me). It's part number 31P8301. You can see your model "family" (2682) and mine (2896) are in the same column of the grid found here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-50822

This particular item is sold pretty frequently on eBay, however, be sure that the part number matches the one above as the more commonly found Cisco Aironet card on eBay won't work with your Thinkpad (unless I'm mistaken..).

Good luck

[LtTPfan]

Have you searched here for info on WiFi upgrades? There is plenty of info (I know because I just searched and read this stuff in the last few days before ordering a non-IBM card for an R40), including how to install supposedly non-supported cards, which requires patching the BIOS using no-1802.exe (1802 is the code received if an unrecognized card is installed).

Keep in mind that if your machine did not come equipped with WiFi you will have to install antennas as well as the card. I beleive this can be quite a chore as they are routed into the LCD.

[kyrotech]

you can always buy a cheap non-IBM pcmcia wireless b/g card

[mbtokig]

Keep in mind that if your machine did not come equipped with WiFi you will have to install antennas as well as the card. I beleive this can be quite a chore as they are routed into the LCD.

I have still not decided on what wireless card to buy, but I do know that an antenna is already built into this model because the wires for connecting them to the card are accessable under the access panel for the mpci slot.