Using the WWAN-Port of the 2710p as a mPCI-E slot

Hi,

I'm currently experimenting with upgrading possibilities for my aging 2710p.
At the moment, I'm testing whether I could include a Broadcom Crystal HD board.
This board is a hardware decoder board for Flash videos and several (H264, DivX, ...) codecs - it is supposed to support 1080p and does excfeptionally well, IF tests can be trusted.
That big IF is the problem.
I bought the decoder board (BCM70015) and installed it in the left mPCI-E slot (normally used for the WWAN-card) in my 2710p.
However, Windows didn't realize there was any new hardware and the Broadcom driver setup fails with a similar message (no supported hardware)...

Is there any way to force the installation?
Or do I need to do some Voodoo to activate the WWAN-port? (actually, I guess that I'm lucky if Voodoo is sufficient)

And yes, I have a modded no-whitelist BIOS - so the device should not be blocked because of the whitelists...

Thank you very much in advance for any help

Best regards,
FrozenLord

 

The WWAN port uses usb pins, so no chance that your pci-e based Broadcomm card card work in it. Your wifi slot however does use pci-e pins so consider putting your Broadcom card in there AND applying anti-whitelisting steps as performed in http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...sb3-mini-pcie-card-hp-8710-a.html#post7243607 to get the port to recognise a non-wifi card.

The 2710P's Expresscard slot too has pci-e pins but would require some sort of adapter to get the mPCIe-format of the Broadcom card working in it.

 

OK...
Does the Intel Wireless card need the mPCI-E connector?
Or would it work in the WWAN port?

I.e. could I boot with the WLAN card in the WLan slot, save the PCI-dump to activate the port, switch the WLan card to the WWan slot and install the Broadcom card in the WLan slot?
I'd rather not block my Expresscard-slot because I use it in conjunction with a Creative X-Fi.

Thanks for the anti-whitelisting link - that's what I meant by Voodoo
But I didn't guess that it might be possible this way.
So thank you for your help

 

Wifi needs pci-e pins, as does your Broadcom card. Neither will work in the usb-based WWAN slot. You have 1 mPCie slot to accomodate them, so which one will it be? Could get a USB wifi device if want to use the decoder. Though saying that, a 2710P with dual-channel RAM and it's X3100 should be fine for watching HD videos. Can install the dual-IDA bios in my sig to help it along.

 

It is almost able to play HD content.
720p is ok in some formats, but 1080p is impossible.
Additionally, Flash videos are struggling most times even at 480p.
And I just discovered that I'm already using the BIOS you provided - and yes, I'm already using the dual-IDA-mode via Throttlestop...

Just by chance: do you know of any WLan card that would work in the USB-based port?
Edit: or do you know of any Expresscard-to-mPCIe adapter that's internal (has no external component)?
I could just hotswap the adapter and the X-Fi, I guess...

 

Some options to consider to get HD playable on your 2710P:

1. pinmod the system to be able overclock it further: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-business-class-notebooks/461931-2710p-thread-3.html#post6627877. Will improve playback performance. You'd also pioneer the mod for others to replicate. A U7600 CPU can be overclocked to at least 1.5Ghz (166Mhz BSEL). Can see how performance improves with an overclock here, noting your dual-channel X3100 would already be faster than these results.

Then, if want to use the Broadcom decoder in the wifi slot, some options to get external wifi working below. I'd go the first option:

1. Amazon.com: 1000mW 1W 802.11g/n High Gain USB Wireless G / N Long-Rang WiFi Network Adapter - Dongle With Original Alfa 5dBi and 9dBi Rubber Antenna *Strongest on the Market*: Electronics

2. mPCIe-to-expresscard wifi adapter: MR11 (mPCIe passive adapter ver1.0)

 

I'm still thinking about doing the overclocking mod (but only to enable software overclocking). However I'm currently not willing to take the risk as long as there are other alternatives that might work for what I'd like to do as well...

The external WLan card is to huge for what I'd like to take with me.
I'd prefer an internal solution

The same goes for the MR11 - it has got a large external component which is a deal-breaker for me.

Are you sure that the WWAN port in the 2710p has only got USB-wiring?
I guess I had the Sierra MC8775 plugged in before (I currently don't have it with me)...
Some notebooks seem to have a fully wired WWan-slot (which makes me hopeful that the 2710p might have one as well...).

 

Can confirm it for yourself. pg 26 of the 2710P schematic shows the WWAN slot's pci-e pin 23,25,31,33 are not connected but the USB pin 36 and 38 are. The wifi slot on the other has pci-e pins connected but not USB pins. This explains the exact behaviour that you have been seeing.

Yes, Dell's WWAN slots tend to also have pci-e pins connected so can host either a WWAN or wifi card. They are usually not whitelisted. Much better than HP.

Doing the PLL TME-unlock mod + software overclocking would be the simplest and cheapest way to get your HD videos running, while leaving your wifi card in the wifi slot.

The other least intrusive way of doing it would be getting the mPCIe-to-expresscard adapter ( MR11-EC2C-module) and putting your Broadcom card in it then plug that into the expresscard slot when you need it.

 

This was exactly what I meant - thanks for killing my hope.
These schematics seem to be the most powerful tool we have for the 2710p

Do you happen to have a picture showing the location of the R279 resistor?
I haven't found it on the pictures provided yet and would like to know about the whereabouts before dismantling my PC

Would it be possible (i.e. would you guess it could be achieved) to get a mini PCIe card that offers a USB-interface like this one:
mini pci to usb Angebote - attraktive Preise für Artikel bei eBay.de
and solder a USB WLan card to the ports?

Thank you very much for your help

 

I don't have a 2710P so cannot point you to where the R279 resistor is physically located. Saying that, my 2510P did have pretty good labelling on the systemboard so I could ID various resistors on there.

Yes, it might be possible to mount a USB wifi internally by tapping the docking connector AND/or WWAN USB pins. Consider that a USB webcam was mounted internally on a 2510P here using this idea.

 

After looking around the Internet a bit more, I found a mPCIe card that works
Therefore: no fiddling needed, to get a USB device connected to the connector.

The card I found is a Delock WLAN card, the SKU is 95801.
It uses the "Ralink RT2571W" and provides 802.11b/g connectivity - so no 802.11n but that's fine with me as long as it's internal.
I've already got mine and it works flawlessly in the WWAN port of my 2710p with a modded BIOS (the whitelist-check has been disabled).
The card cost me roughly 18 Euros

A link to the device:
DeLOCK > Products > Industry Modules > 95801 Delock industry WLAN Mini PCI Express 54Mbps

Please note that the specification lists "• Mini PCI Express (USB2.0 )".
(I wasn't sure whether it's a fault or not - and called their support... I strongly advise against it, because he didn't even know about the USB2.0 interface provided by the mPCIe slot and told me that the specification is obviously wrong.)
The card works in the WWAN port and was detected upon booting the PC.
Drivers have been installed automatically (I don't know whether my PC fetched those from Windows Update or had them flying around because of the standard installation).
So far I haven't been able to really play around with it - because I can't disconnect my default WLAN card (one screw has got a damaged head - I have to wait for the weekend to "fix" this problem).

Best regards,
FrozenLord

 

A nice solution. Found a US-source for a card based on the same chipset:

US$15 Q802XKG 802.11 b/g Wireless Lan PCI-E

Or in the UK, the exact same card rebadged under the Advent brand:

US$14 Advent 29TW3WL0010

 

Thank you for providing the DIYViDock tutorial
I successfully installed the Broadcom decoder card in the WLAN port - and it's working just fine (after applying the anti-whitelisting functions of DIYViDock).
The WLAN card (in the WWAN port) is also functioning as expected.
So if anyone is looking for such a WLAN-card, I can recommend it!

 

Great work!! I just wanted to highlight that you may not even need DIY ViDock Setup 1.x to do the anti-whitelisting. The pcieport.p2 file that you have could be used to do the antiwhitelisting in Windows or could generate a new pcieport.p2 to use from within Windows. Here's how (0:1c.1 is port2):

0. Disable your pci-e port 2 using setPLL's devset

Code:

devset disable [B][COLOR="Red"]"[/COLOR][/B][hwID of port2][B][COLOR="Red"]"[/COLOR][/B]

1. Save your port with wifi card inserted. I disable the BARS to ensure no conflict when it loads. I'm assuming Win7 will then perform a reallocation of the port based on underlying device needs.

Code:

rw /command=saveport.rw

where saveport.rw contains

Code:

:: Disable I/O register
>wpcie  0 0x1c 1 0x4 0
:: Clear BARs
>wpcie32  0 0x1c 1 0x20 0
>wpcie32  0 0x1c 1 0x24 0
>wpcie32  0 0x1c 1 0x30 0
>wpcie32  0 0x1c 1 0x34 0
>wpcie32  0 0x1c 1 0x38 0
>wpcie32  0 0x1c 1 0x3C 0
:: Enable I/O command register
>wpcie  0 0x1c 1 0x4 6
:: Save 4KB pci-e port dump
>SAVE pcieport.p2 PCI 0 0x1c 1
>rwexit

2. Load port2 PCI dump using r-w everything.

Code:

rw [B][COLOR=RED]/[/COLOR][/B]command=nowhite.rw

where nowhite.rw contains

Code:

>LOAD pcieport.p2 PCI 0 [B][COLOR="Red"]0x[/COLOR][/B]1c 1
>rwexit

3. Enable pci-e port2 using devset

Code:

devset enable [B][COLOR="Red"]"[/COLOR][/B][hwID of port2][B][COLOR="Red"]"[/COLOR][/B]

4. Scan your PCI BUS to detect and use your Broadcom HD decoder

Code:

devset rescan

Only dilemma might be if you get an error 12 against the Broadcom HD decoder. In which case you may want to do a manual PCI allocation of port2's resources to accomodate it.

Anyway.. the above should be doable as a batch file so can be placed in your startup folder to automatically enable your HD decoder on startup. Same script would need to run after a resume-from-sleep/hibernate. Can easily do that by usung setPLL's automated\resume-setPLL.vbs

 

Sorry for not replying earlier.
I tried your suggestion and either I'm doing it wrong or it doesn't work.
This is what I tried:

I got the device ID from the device manager (the complete string is PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_1615&SUBSYS_161514E4&REV_00)
If I use this string and devset disable (your first command), the device is disabled and devset outputs some errors about different parts of the string (however it states that it successfully disabled one device).

Running rw from command line using the "command"-parameter doesn't do anything at all. It simply starts rw. If I open the command line in rw and load the batch file, rw closes after a few seconds. It doesn't display any notifications (device / parameters set successfully - I don't know however if it should output anything like that)...
I can not load the dump of the PCIe port created in DiyViDock manually in the PCI menu, because rw can't load binary files (it uses a binary-ish file type where the individual offsets are saved with each byte).
Just for fun, I created a dump of the PCIe port when booting with the card activated (used DiyViDock for it) and tried to insert the dump when I booted without activating the card. The values seem to go in smoothly but the card is not found (even after doing a "devset enable" on the ID mentioned above and then doing a devset rescan)...
Do you happen to have a tutorial on forcing the PC the find it (or *shudder* doing the PCI allocation manually)?

Best regards and thanks a lot for your help!

 

Corrected some details in RED in original instructions. Same details allows me to remove wifi card, boot my 2530P, sleep system. attach wfi and get then get it detected and working in Device Manager without errors. The radio however will be off *unless* I cellophane over pin20.

 

Hi there,

I tried your method and it works - for a few seconds
Windows 7 detects the card and tries to install a driver (although the card is installed correctly and doesn't try to get any new drivers when booting via DiyViDock).
After a few seconds, the system hangs occasionally - and doesn't recover after 2 or 3 short hangs.

You don't happen to have any great advices, do you ?

Thanks a lot for your help so far!

 

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