WLAN Upgrade in a Lenovo Ideapad P400

[ratdude747]

Re: WLAN Upgrade in a Lenovo Ideapad P400

Good news: Finally hacked the BIOS, no more whitelist.

Bad news: the BT on the 7620 is toast... it was dameged during storage... my guess is the crushed RF can took out the T (or it was dead to begin with). I don't want to blow $30 on anoher card though... damn my luck. I'll work with it I guess.

[domas]

Re: WLAN Upgrade in a Lenovo Ideapad P400

laptop BT cards are that expensive? never researched that but i think i saw some on ebay for few dollars, not for 30.

I have one bt card from acer laptop, though i am not sure if it is BT2, 3 or 4. it is bcm92045nmd. I am not sure if it is used in conjunction with specific wireless card or not, but I also have a wifi card from the same laptop, it is intel 5300 533an_mmw

I don't use those anyway so they can be yours for few dollars

edit: ok i have 3 wlan cards, can't remember which one was from that computer, another two are: intel 4965agn mm2 and broadcom BCM94311MCG

both intel have 3 antenna plugs, broadcom has 2

[ratdude747]

Re: WLAN Upgrade in a Lenovo Ideapad P400

it's an intel 7620-AC. AC/N/G/B/A + Bt 4.0 all on one chip.

4965 while a nice card is a full sized 3 antenna monster (and older), no bt (back then it was common to use a separate bt module; all my Dell D series laptops are like that). 7620 is a two antenna half-size card... and IIRC intel's nicest card on the market.

[domas]

Re: WLAN Upgrade in a Lenovo Ideapad P400

so you need a two antenna half sized card /w integrated BT?

[ratdude747]

Re: WLAN Upgrade in a Lenovo Ideapad P400

so you need a two antenna half sized card /w integrated BT?

That's what it takes. And had stock, a centrino 2230 b/g/n + Bt card. I wanted Dual band, and at $30, getting the best intel card on the market AFAIK (BT and 867Mbs AC) was worth the extra cost. If it were like $60, I'd go for a lower card (as I don't have AC ATM)... but at that cheap, it was for me a no-brainer

[ratdude747]

Re: WLAN Upgrade in a Lenovo Ideapad P400

New card came, same problem.

BUT

I fixed it (turns out the crushed card is still good).

If this happens where the BT on the 7260 doesn't show at all, taping over pin 51 on the card solves the issue. Pin 51 is the farthest right pin on the RF can side of the card. IIRC it's one of 3 power supply (3.3V) pins... the old 2230 card only used 51 for power, my guess is something in the implementation on my p400 doesn't agree with that pin.