Reviving a T22 - hard drive and Wi-Fi?

[judgecorp]

I've got a T22 that's in good order except the 20G hard drive just died.

I'd like to have a go at replacing it, but am not sure what sort of drive to get. If I buy an "IDE laptop drive" from an online store is that likely to work? Will this old machine handle drives with today's capacities, orf 120G or 160G, say?

Also, my T22 doesn't have built in Wi-Fi - I wonder how easy it would be to add a PCI card, while I'm tinkering - and if so how much it's likely to cost, and how do I know I've got one that will work the laptop?

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

The T22 should be able to accept any 2.5", 9.5mm high, parallel ATA (IDE) notebook hard drive. Storage capacity limits may occur due to the operating system you are using. Worst case, you may have to upgrade the BIOS if there was a change made to support "larger" drives, but I don't think that would be necessary in this case.

Adding internal WiFi is possible but it does take some work AND you will lose some capabilities. There is probably already a MiniPCI modem/ethernet combo card in your system. It may be possible to replace that card with one from a T23, which is a modem/wireless combo card. I have not attempted that swap before and don't know if anybody else has tried it. Since most wireless cards you can get online are non-combo cards (wireless only), then you can get built-in wireless but will lose both modem and ethernet connections. Of course you can always use PCMCIA adapters to re-gain either/both of those features. As far as costs are concerned, you are probably looking at $15-$30 USD. Since the T22 did not come with factory wireless, the BIOS should not have any "whitelist" of approved cards. That would mean that you could plug in most any kind of MiniPCI WiFi card. Popular ones around here include Atheros, Broadcom, Intel.

That covers the installation of the card; you then have to worry about the antenna(s). Since the T22 case is metal, you need to install an antenna in an area which will not be blocked by the metal. For the T2x systems, one spot is at the end of the battery bay, up next to the palmrest. Another spot is next to the opening of the PCMCIA slots. You may also have problems installing the antennas because you will need to get the wires from the "back" side of the motherboard (where the PCMCIA slot is) to the "top" side. On a T23 motherboard, there is already a hole drilled to provide for this. I don't know if there's a similar hole in a T22 motherboard.

The factory installation of wireless which started in the T23 is in the lid next to the "upper" corners. Since the lid is also metal, there were two plastic windows which were added. The antennas sit behind those spots.

Here's what I documented when trying to add internal wireless to a T23:

http://www.rkawakami.net/ibm_t2x/t23_wireless/

Generally, you can apply this to what you would need to do in a T22. You can also use the search feature of this site to find more information about these upgrades.

[judgecorp]

the hard drive advice is great.

I'll think about the Wi-Fi advice.

I always thought T22s didn't come with Wi-Fi, but I saw one on sale at eBay apparently with Wi-Fi. It also had Ethrenet, so either someone did a clever upgrade or they got the model number wrong in the ad

Thanks again

Peter

[rkawakami]

Or they are trying to "pump up" the listing and are simply talking about including a PCMCIA wireless card and calling it "WiFi". It IS, but you do have to be careful when looking at eBay listings. It is not clear at times if the seller has a T23 with built-in wireless (some came from the factory that way) or one that has a PCMCIA card. That's why I always ask for the TYPE number if I can't see the wireless antenna windows on the lid.

Certainly some sellers HAVE performed an internal wireless upgrade on systems which never were offered that way from IBM. That T22 could have been one, but they are fairly rare.

[ajkula66]

Some T22s have had integrated wireless, and usually coupled with a 1.0 processor instead of more common 0.9Ghz.

As Ray have pointed out, these are extremely rare-I have yet to see one with my own eyes. But they do exist.

[rkawakami]

George,

What I was referring to in my last post is that some people made have made their own upgrades to a T22 to have built-in wireless; going through the trouble of swapping lids with a T23 to have the plastic windows in the lid or running their own antenna leads inside the system. I don't believe that IBM ever offered a T22 from the factory with the integrated wireless option. If they were in fact sold that way, I have never seen one or heard/read any information to confirm this.

[ajkula66]

Ray,

They do exist. But, as I've stated, are extremely rare.