X61s CONFIRMED has 2nd mini-pcie slot on non WWAN/TM model!

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poky · #1 Post by **poky** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:53 am

I just opened up the new X61s received from this morning.
I've been heard someone on here has confirmed before stated that there's no 2nd mini-pci e slot on the non WWAN/turbo memory model.
But when I opened up mine, I saw the 2nd mini-pci e slot was there!
(Which means you can install a Turbo Memory/2nd wireless card or Wireless USB card later by yourself)

BTW, my X61s has only 512mb of ram.

I just tried installed a Thinkpad a/b/g/n card on the 2nd slot
AND IT WORKS!!
When boots into Vista, it recognizes it and install driver for it!

Will take some picture later on if request.
Also, my X61s is a non-N model(with only Thinkpad a/b/g card)
I saw there's a 3rd antenna there ready for upgrade to wireless-N card.

Cheers!

bowkatz · #2 Post by **bowkatz** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:24 pm

Yeah thats great, but how about the X61t? I ordered it about two days ago and it has this intel

chipset for a to n(draft) in it. So this is maybe a problem with Linux since i think that there are

no drivers for that card (for Linux). So I think that I'm also going to put a other wifi card in my

X61t(when it arrives).

Antioch · #3 Post by **Antioch** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:48 pm

Poky, I think you were just lucky. But I hope that I get lucky as well! They may have run out of mainboards that were missing the PCIe slot so they just used what boards they had on hand. Would you mind posting a more complete listing of your specs? Also, why did you order only the A/B/G card with the X61s? Did you have an n-card laying around to test with? If you were planning on upgrading by hand to n (because it was cheaper or whatever) it still makes no sense because you would have no assurance that the 3rd antenna would be installed if you ordered the a/b/g card.

Anyways, thanks.

bowkatz, there is a linux driver for the intel draft-n card. It's still under development, but it works: http://intellinuxwireless.org/

poky · #4 Post by **poky** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:07 pm

To Antioch:
Here's my spec.

SYS.7668CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM
7668CTO CTO THINKPAD X61S-1YD
42V8012 SBB MS WIN VISTA HOME BASIC
42X0367 SBB MSWINVISHOMB32 US ENGLISH
42X0100 SBB 12.1"ULTRALIGHT L7500_1.6G
41W2057 VBB 512MB PC2-5300 667MHZ1DIMM
42X0133 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH
42X0753 SBB TRACKPOINT
42V9130 SBB 80GB HDD,5400RPM ATA 2.5"
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
41W1685 SBB 11ABGWIFI WL LAN USEULAANZ
41W1829 SBB 4CELL LI-ION BATTERY 2.6AH
41W1787 SBB CPK NORTH AMERICA
27R1769 SBB PSTN CABLE
42X0202 SBB LANG.PACK_US ENGLISH
41W1910 SBB PACKAGING
42V8299 SBB 512MBPC2-5300 DDR2 667MHZ
42X1466 SBB CLEAR PLATE X61,WLAN BT
42V9665 SBB FCC, LABEL
42X0412 SBB GEO LBL US,WLAN BT
41W1982 SBB LOGO PLATE
42X0401 SBB MT 7668 SYSTEM LABEL
42X0948 SBB MECH MISC PARTS
42V7973 SBB MS LABEL (VISTA BASIC)
42T7135 SBB INTEL LABEL CORE-2
42X1461 SBB WLAN,MISC PARTS
39T6439 SBB BLUETOOTH W/ANTENNA

As you can see I picked everything as lowest(price wise) as possible, because I already have 3 batteries(from my X60s), 3gb ram, Thinkpad a/b/g/n wireless card and 7k200 ready for it.

I was assuming that on Lenovo's website "UltraConnect II antenna" means included the 3rd antenna, didn't really think too much about it.

The reason I didn't order Intel 4965AGN with my X61s is because I have a plan on install a Thinkpad a/b/g/n wireless card myself after I receive it, and they didn't offer a/b/g/n option on non-WWAN x61s model, therefore I chose the cheapest one which is Thinkpad a/b/g for it.
I just upgrade the memory, and guess what?
I saw a sim slot soldered, I'm highly doubt they have installed a WWAN motherboard for me by whatever reason was

Wangta · #5 Post by **Wangta** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:25 pm

Can you post some pics? My X61s arrives soon and i want to check if I got the same setup. Our computers are very similar, so I'm hoping thats the case!

Thanks!

Jackboot · #6 Post by **Jackboot** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:30 pm

Very weird! My X61s does not have the connector for the 2nd PCIe card. I posted pictures which the mods removed for some reason.

spune · #7 Post by **spune** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:19 pm

Jackboot wrote:Very weird! My X61s does not have the connector for the 2nd PCIe card. I posted pictures which the mods removed for some reason.

Did you post the pics on NBR?

#8 Post by **tomh009** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:25 pm

Jackboot wrote:Very weird! My X61s does not have the connector for the 2nd PCIe card. I posted pictures which the mods removed for some reason.

if you post pics, make sure the thread title has a "PIC" warning, and the pics are not larger than about 50 KB (you can link to larger ones).

Jackboot · #9 Post by **Jackboot** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:32 pm

spune wrote:
Jackboot wrote:Very weird! My X61s does not have the connector for the 2nd PCIe card. I posted pictures which the mods removed for some reason.
Did you post the pics on NBR?

Yes I posted pictures here...just thumbnails with links to larger pictures and the thumbnails were <10KB...

jamess · #10 Post by **jamess** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:34 pm

Is there a lot of work to be done if one wants to take a look inside if there is a 2nd PCI slot available? Or is it basically just a few screws?

Jackboot · #11 Post by **Jackboot** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:40 pm

jamess wrote:Is there a lot of work to be done if one wants to take a look inside if there is a 2nd PCI slot available? Or is it basically just a few screws?

Lenovo makes it easy...watch the movies here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-64835

#12 Post by **tomh009** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:19 pm

Jackboot wrote:Yes I posted pictures here...just thumbnails with links to larger pictures and the thumbnails were <10KB...

Even with thumbnails, make sure to use PIC. Some mods may let that go, others will go by the book amd require PIC even with thumbnails only.

Antioch · #13 Post by **Antioch** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:57 pm

poky wrote:I just upgrade the memory, and guess what?
I saw a sim slot soldered, I'm highly doubt they have installed a WWAN motherboard for me by whatever reason was

I'm a little bit confused as to what you mean since you talked about two different things in one sentence.

Do you mean that one of the RAM SODIMM slots was soldered in? Meaning you can't remove the 512 Mb stick your machine came with?!

This is shocking news to me as I thought you could remove both RAM slots...

Please clarify.

poky · #14 Post by **poky** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:16 pm

Antioch wrote:
poky wrote:I just upgrade the memory, and guess what?
I saw a sim slot soldered, I'm highly doubt they have installed a WWAN motherboard for me by whatever reason was
I'm a little bit confused as to what you mean since you talked about two different things in one sentence.

Do you mean that one of the RAM SODIMM slots was soldered in? Meaning you can't remove the 512 Mb stick your machine came with?!

This is shocking news to me as I thought you could remove both RAM slots...

Please clarify.

Sorry for the confusion, guess I was too excited when I received my long wait X61s.
The rams are removable, what I was trying to say was there's a sim card slot on my machine(I assume it's for the WWAN model)

Antioch · #15 Post by **Antioch** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:57 pm

Mind taking a picture? I never knew anything about having sim cards for WWAN.

poky · #16 Post by **poky** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:20 pm

Antioch wrote:Mind taking a picture? I never knew anything about having sim cards for WWAN.

Sure! Here you have it!

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1213/921 ... 8bc8_o.jpg

here's the picture for the 2nd empty slot and the 3rd antenna(white)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1345/922 ... f8f0_o.jpg

Jackboot · #17 Post by **Jackboot** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:23 am

WTF?! I had no idea the motherboard actually had a SIM card on it for WWAN!

Jackboot · #18 Post by **Jackboot** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 4:12 am

tomh009 wrote:
Jackboot wrote:Yes I posted pictures here...just thumbnails with links to larger pictures and the thumbnails were <10KB...
Even with thumbnails, make sure to use PIC. Some mods may let that go, others will go by the book amd require PIC even with thumbnails only.

Sorry this is OT - but wouldn't it be a better policy for the mods to add "PIC" to the title rather than deleting the pics? I'm guessing I'm not the first poster to make the mistake of not including "PIC" in the thread title, but I think this is because virtually no bulletin boards have that policy nowadays...in fact the "PIC" rule is pretty archaic now IMHO...

#19 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:07 am

Again, some mods will add PIC to the thread title, or turn the images into links. Others may simply delete the images. I agree that the last of the three is a considerably harsher approach.

As to changing the rules ... I suggest that you take that to the forum suggestions area, but it gets hashed over pretty regularly.

#20 Post by **JaneL** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:36 am

Jackboot wrote:Sorry this is OT - but wouldn't it be a better policy for the mods to add "PIC" to the title rather than deleting the pics? I'm guessing I'm not the first poster to make the mistake of not including "PIC" in the thread title,

I used to do that, but no one ever seemed to read and learn to follow the Rules of the Road that way. A broken link or a removed image gets more attention.

but I think this is because virtually no bulletin boards have that policy nowadays...in fact the "PIC" rule is pretty archaic now IMHO...

Yes, and they're a mess to try to read, too.

gowei · #21 Post by **gowei** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:21 am

Jackboot wrote:WTF?! I had no idea the motherboard actually had a SIM card on it for WWAN!

It interested me either, and I checked my X61s. There is place on board side by RAM’s for reader, bat there is no SIM reader at all ;(.

You can see it on picture I took:

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/1205 ... dersw2.jpg

EOMtp · #22 Post by **EOMtp** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:30 pm

gowei wrote: ... X61s. There is place on board side by RAM’s for reader, but there is no SIM reader at all

There are variations of these motherboards as follows:
1) no second mini-PCIe, no SIM, no 2nd fan connector
2) second mini-PCIe with SIM but no connector for 2nd fan
3) second mini-PCIe with SIM plus connector for 2nd fan.

Since machines with embedded WWAN cards now should have the 2nd fan under the palm rest, the second variant above seems odd!

#23 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:38 pm

... unless only the EV-DO cards run hot, and the HSDPA cards (which use the SIM) run cooler?

patch · #24 Post by **patch** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:10 am

EOMtp wrote:
gowei wrote: ... X61s. There is place on board side by RAM’s for reader, but there is no SIM reader at all
There are variations of these motherboards as follows:
1) no second mini-PCIe, no SIM, no 2nd fan connector
2) second mini-PCIe with SIM but no connector for 2nd fan
3) second mini-PCIe with SIM plus connector for 2nd fan.

Since machines with embedded WWAN cards now should have the 2nd fan under the palm rest, the second variant above seems odd!

Can the SIM card do anything on non WWAN model x61s's? I ask this because my new x61s also has the sim card, (which seems to imply a empty mini-PCIe, option 2). But would the extra slot be the only "free" benefit?

Antioch · #25 Post by **Antioch** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:26 am

I'm not sure, but with the right software you may be able to read and write to the inserted SIM card. Though there probably isn't much benefit in this. As fas as I know they are all rather small in capacity.

Maybe it would be useful if you're interested in hacking your sim card (if you have a GSM phone that is).

zverg · #26 Post by **zverg** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 2:05 pm

I was under the assumption that the pins from the SIM card were just wired directly to the 2nd expresscard slot (maybe SIM is a part of the pinout in the expresscard standard? dunno).

On my D620 (I'm not a heathen, it's my work laptop) the sim card slot is right under the battery for easy access... or maybe they did it to make it harder to just swap HSDPA cards between multiple laptops? I wouldn't be surprised, with the way phone companies want to really tie your phone to the account (instead of the SIM).. why not do the same with laptops?

X61s CONFIRMED has 2nd mini-pcie slot on non WWAN/TM model!

X61s CONFIRMED has 2nd mini-pcie slot on non WWAN/TM model!

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