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Do you have an older IBM ThinkPad laptop that came without internal wireless card and wireless antennas but has a slot for the wireless card on the bottom? Now you can upgrade your laptop by installing internal wireless card and antennas yourself using these instructions. UPDATE: the link has been removed because it’s dead. For the laptop disassembly you can use instructions in the service manual. You’ll find the link at the end of this post.
In this project we added an internal wireless adapter to a Thinkpad a31. This is possible since it shares the chassis of the Thinkpad A31p which included internal wireless and bluetooth, at the time, cost about $1000 more.
This guide was made for an IBM ThinkPad A31 laptop but should work for some other ThinkPads too.
First of all make sure your laptop has a slot for the wireless card, otherwise installing antennas is absolutely pointless. Usually you can access this slot from the bottom of the laptop. The wireless card slot looks similar to a memory slot.
this projects uses one:
- Dell Truemobile miniPCI 1400
- IBM replacement a31 antenna system
Installing internal wireless card into a ThinkPad laptop will require the following steps:
1. Removing and taking apart the laptop display panel.
2. Routing wireless antenna cables inside the display panel.
3. Removing the laptop top cover.
4. Routing antenna cables under the top cover.
5. Installing wireless card and connecting antennas.
Although this may appear to be a guide, this project takes the life of your laptop into your own hands. You basically take the laptop into about 50 pieces, some of which are only held together by plastic snaps. you are responsible for your actions.
You can find step-by-step laptop disassembly instruction in the IBM hardware maintenance manuals.
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March 6th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
[...] If your IBM ThinkPad laptop came without wireless antenna cables and you would like to install it, continue reading here: Adding internal wireless card to an IBM ThinkPad laptop. [...]
March 12th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I added an internal one and the antenna was already connected so it was really easy, only problem is when I rebooted it it said 1802:Unauthorized network card is plugged in – power off and remove the miniPCI network card, How can I authorize it? My laptop is a Thinkpad T40 one
March 12th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Nacho de la Vega,
Does your new wireless card have FRU number number on it? FRU is a part number used by IBM. Maybe the card you are using is not compatible with your laptop motherboard/chipset. Make sure you are using the correct card.
I think you can find FRU number for the wireless card in the hardware service and maintenance guide.
August 10th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Apparently, although IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad models comply with the mini-PCI card standards (which means that any mini-PCI wireless card should work) by including an exclusive list of “approved” IBM wireless cards in their BIOS, IBM has deliberately restricted non-IBM wireless cards from being recognized by the Thinkpad BIOS system even though any wireless card that meets the mini-PCI card standard should work. I believe this is a violation of U.S. antitrust laws and also a violation of the mini-PCI standard
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/ibm.html
April 28th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Hi,
Can anyone please tell me the compatible wireless card for Thinkpad T40 2373-MA9 ???
I guess there are a lotta compatibility issues with wireless cards in Thinkpads….a card works for one model n doesn;t for the other !!
I dnt wanna waste money taking a risk….
Expecting a kind reply…
Thnks !!
May 19th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
If you get the unauthorised message, try this article as a fix …
http://www.wifi-forum.com/wf/showthread.php?t=60620
December 29th, 2009 at 12:46 am
What instructions? The links to the instructions are dead,. so I got nothing from this information.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Jim W,
Thanks for letting me know. The link is dead and has been removed.
You’ll find laptop disassembly instructions at the end of this post. You can use them.