proprietary hardware

[boshi]

I just ordered a z60m, after hearing people rave about it, its excellent support for linux, it's excellent warranty service, and its excellent build quality. I jumped on it as soon as I had heard all these, without realizing that I hadn't heard anything about excellent compatibility.

I recently heard that the mini-PCI slot it checked by the BIOS to see if the card installed has Lenovo's blessing, as if Lenovo were some sort of purifying force in the universe trying to ward off all evil spirits taking form of mini-PCI cards which may somehow lure us into corruption while posing as a decent wireless card.

I am now worried that other devices will also require some sort pagan ritual sacrifice of BIOS bits over a hot floppy disk in order for me to use them. I am no stranger to flashing BIOS, I've even modified quite a few ATi radeon BIOS files to change vendor ID bits and memory timings, however I am interested in what I'm going to be up against.

What other removable devices on the thinkpad are going to need Lenovo's blessing, or are in a proprietary formfactor. Not knowing about this restriction, I foolishly ordered a 512MB stick of PC2-4200 and a dual layer Lite-On dvd-rw drive. I know that ram is ram, and that ATAPI devices are all equivalent, but both the RAM and the burner contain vendor ID bits, which may have not been inspected by Lenovo/IBM's team of Rabbi's to pass for Kosher. I'm also curious about their name "ultrabay", is this describing a proprietary formfactor, or simply a standard notebook ATAPI device bay?

[GomJabbar]

There has never been a report of RAM being proprietary with IBM (at least in recent memory). ThinkPad users have been using RAM from different venders without a problem.

ATAPI devices may all be electrically equivalent, but the do come in different physical sizes. There are slim versions and normal-sized versions. You need to verify the height of the drive and drive bay. AFAIK, there are no BIOS restrictions. I am not sure if they are making SATA optical drives yet, but that could be another consideration.

[LtTPfan]

I recently heard that the mini-PCI slot it checked by the BIOS to see if the card installed has Lenovo's blessing, as if Lenovo were some sort of purifying force in the universe trying to ward off all evil spirits taking form of mini-PCI cards which may somehow lure us into corruption while posing as a decent wireless card.

This is due to a certification requirement placed on ALL PC manufacturers by the FCC to insure non-interferance with other certified devices, it's not Lenovo's way to enhance revenue (or any other conspiracy theories I've read). Check out the discussion forums and mailing lists of other PC manufacturers who offer models with MPCI wifi and you will find the same complaints and theories. Like IBM/Lenovo's dreaded 1802 noncomaptible error code, one other manufacturers code is 104.

Feel fortunate that there is sufficient user support for IBM/Lenovo products that there is an easy fix for this already (at least for most models). We now only have to keep our eyes peeled for the blue helmeted jack-booted thugs carrying MP5s while repelling from black helicopters trying to confiscate our bootlegged PCs. What was that sound I just heard? Oh, I forgot, the black choppers are silent, whew!