Modifying your T61p for WWAN

I am about to make what seemed to be a small mod in a t61p. It looks like all there is to it is installing a card. Few things could be further from the truth.

Four FRUs are involved including the installation of the WWAN antenna. Yes you have to remove the palm rests and the keyboard but that's minor. You also have to install the antenna.

It's not obvious how to do it. Have you noticed there are two black squares and three circular ones on the lcd ? They are tape covering screws. You are supplied with replcements because you have to destroy them to remove the screws. I also have to replace the clear plate with a new one. A clear plate kit consists of dozen different clear plates covering all the various options.

I am just starting and will write about this as I go.

Much of the information is in the hardware manual.

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/42x3546_01.pdf

But at times it feels like watching a silent movie.

 

Good luck with the surgery, doc

I'm pretty handy, but I don't think I would have attempted this one.

 

It's scary... and part of my training is that I have a phd in physiological psych. I am a doc and I have done rat brain surgery. But it was never this scary.

I've removed the screw covers and the screw on the LCD after removing the power cord and battery. I'm now figuring out how to remove the rear cover. If you have time, you could read the pdf along with me?

 

OK, so the rear cover is off and now I'm trying to make sense of the old antenna system in terms of the new one.

 

My system currently has a/b/g/n and a bluetooth UWB.

There is a major sub assembly on the side that is to be replaced. But it already has antennas on it that the new assembly does not replace.

But I have been supplied with several other antennas in the new kit and there isn't any real documentation on this. There may be. I need to look in another place. It really is difficult to distinguish what which subsystem the new antennae are for. The mod will require re-arranging the whole system.

My poor t61p is beginning to look like the adds. UGH.

 

OK, I have to abort this for the day as I have made sense of the antennas ay least physically. They are shifted around and you can't use any of the old ones because of the cable lengths change. It looks like I need to order another UWB antenna. Right now I have three antennas and three wires.

I have UWB and WLAN. But the WLAN system should have three wires. All I have is a total of three wires. Where is the fourth? All the antennas themselves look identical. There isn't anyway to distinguish between them eletrically.

I may not have to abort. I use UWB but I don't have to have it if that's the only thing missing. I still need to understand the current antenna systems better. I'm very sure I have an abgn card but that leaves the currently working uwb system, unexplained assuming my abgn system has three cables because there are only three cables in toto right now.

In the middle of all of this. I am going to have to open up the bottom and examine the WLAN card.

 

OK, it all makes sense. I was thinking bluetooth and UWB are the same. They aren't. I don't have UWB but I do have blue tooth. Bluetooth apparently does not have an antenna. It's its own little card. Since I don't have a UWB I don't need a UWB antenna and I have everything I need to proceed.

Pheeew. Routing these antenna cables is going to be a mess.

 

More figuring out. The cable colors are not preserved. The old scheme was

Black white and grey. The new antenna system in a different place is Black white and blue. Once you've figured out old the of this, it's pretty easy to say, "Oh I understand."

 

The top large antenna assembly, formerly one antenna now has two. The cables are held in place with industrial grade mylar tape. The FRU has supplied some but it appears there is the expectation is that some of the tape be reused. I have. The cables are carefully taped into their channels.

The next part is the part I dread. How am I to ever get these cables through the hinge? It's an extraordinarily well designed system. It will reveal itself.

 

Yep, bluetooth is just a daughtercard. UWB is a module and an antenna assembly. I do hardware, but nowadays I am more of a software guy... built my share of workstations and servers, but you're now well beyond what I've ever done to a laptop. Fortunately, the service manuals are excellent, but the number of small screws and such are a bit intimidating. The guy on LenovoBlogs talks about taping screws to a post it and identifying where they came from -- a good idea. Sounds like you are on the final stretches of getting this all done.

 

Actually I have the wires routed and the WLAN card has the new antenna system to it.

But there is one part of the installation that is an absolute mystery. The WWAN card came with a set of electrostatic shields and they are tin. They are very shaped and detailed the thing is I can't seem to find a with tabs etc. I know this sounds simple but it's really not. I cannot figure out how these ectrostatic shields fit on this card and I am not aware of any documentation on it.

 

could the shields be for the antenna?

 

no they come close to fitting the card. I did look at the documentation and it does not show the shields.

 

I have the whole system back together and it went back together well and it boots and runs.

Believe it or not.... I can't get the clear plate off...... I hear you do it with a razor blade which I dont have. I've tried a swiss knife and a pair of tweezers and neither seem to work.

 

I have replaced the the clear plate. It looks great.

I have lost one screw. I am ashamed.

 

Do you have any pictures of the install? Did you get the Cingular or Verizon WWAN?

 

No... I don't have any pictures, I'm sorry.

I got versizon and i am finding there is not way to activate on the net. My T61p didn't come with the software which is exprected.

 

you can call (877)299-4710 did you download vz access manager?

 

you know... I did download the driver and activation is available in the software ...but I'll have to activate on Monday during normal business hours.

 

Renee, first of all thank you for posting this thread I'm recieving a T61p to replace my five year old A31p tomorrow. I didn't order the WWAN option because I use Sprint/Nextel for Cell and Modile Broadband and this wasn't an option. I thought--as you did--that the simple installation of a MC5725, a transfer service from a PC Card and I'd have internal WWAN. I used your thread to order all the required FRU service parts and downloaded the HMM.

Questions:
1) Did you successfully transfer service to your internal card?
2) Has it been reliable (I see posts in other sites of the internal mods failing over time--the service connection mode, not the hardware).
3) What service are you using, I thought I saw Verizon mentioned.
4) Do you know of anyone using Sprint (MC5725) who has succeeded in this endeavour?

 

could have done tethered service using an existing cell phone without all the muss and fuss. Is there a reason you chose not to go this route?

 

aiiee, I'm tied to Nextel cell phone use within General Motors plants for Push-to-Talk service that's compatible with everyone I work with...

 

Well, so far my Lenovo T61p experience has been mixed, mostly good to excellent.

I've been using an IBM Thinkpad A31p for 5 years. After it's 3 year warranty expired--which I only used once in the 3rd year for a failed video chipset on the motherboard--I have done my own maintenance. I've upgraded the HDD numerous times (currently have two 160GB HDDs), I've replaced the LCD once (for backlight failure over time) and the keyboard once (for simple wear and tear).

Now I'm moving into a new T61p T9500 2.6GHz, 4GB Ram, 200GB 7200 HDD, WLAN, WUSB, Bluetooth, etc. -- all the options. I like to move infrequently and move across the top-of-the-line.

Ordered on February 23, 35% off with the current sale and an eCoupon, excellent deal. This took almost a grand off the price I was going to pay, perfect timing. Ordered with secondary HDD adapter, Parallel & Serial Port adapter, Advanced Mini-Dock, etc.

Delivered on March 10, FAST! Everything is delivered almost 3 weeks ahead of the date quoted, March 27.

Immediately after set-up I discover the WUXGA LCD was bleeding backlight badly across the bottom of the screen. After reading other threads here I called for Service--I ordered 3 year On-Site--and they scheduled an appointment with me for today when I would be home.

Service Tech showed up on-time with an LG LCD in hand. He replaced it in under an hour and its basically perfect, on par with my old 15" FlexView. See attached pictures of original and replacement screen. The 1st is my old A31p for reference, the 2nd is the T61p as delivered, and the 3rd is the T61p after the LCD was replaced.

The original was an LG, same as the replacement, the Tech stated that the original was clearly damaged during installation or shipping. I highly recommend the on-site service agreement, it's cheap for what you get!

I was hoping to have the Tech install my new WWAN antenna but he was able to replace the LCD panel without removing the LCD back panel, so I've got to do it myself. (sigh).

 

It's midnight, I just finished the same process Renee went through, installed the WWAN Antenna and and a Sierra MC5725 Air Card.

All went well until I powered up, only to see...

" ERROR 1804: Unauthorized WAN card is plugged in - Power off and remove the WAN card."

Anyone know how to get past this?

 

Renee,

Do you or anyone else know the correct FRU for the antenna kit necessary when going from the 2-antenna ThinkPad a/b/g WiFi card to the three-antenna Intel 4965AGN? I've seen the FRU list, but it just isn't very clear even from the drawings what I need.

I know I'll need an Intel card specifically for Lenovo ThinkPads if I do the upgrade.

 

"ERROR 1804: Unauthorized WAN card is plugged in - Power off and remove the WAN card."

Anyone know how to get past this"

I am really sorry to tell you this, but at this time there is no known way around it. The 1804 error is a bios check and apparently you didn't buy your card from lenovo. I have not seen any bios mods for the t61. Apparently that bios people have learned from the hackers.

it will not be any consolation but I have such a card in my purse. It's just a good luck piece.

 

check out http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=55837&sid=8a04b37b4b779b6c2eba6c44a4882d60

to get around this you need a modified bios and to tape pin 20 of the mini pcie card.

 

Lonewolf you know what I would do? I'd buy all the antennas and I'll tell you why. Once you've done it, you'll never want to do it again should you expand your system. If I remember correctly, the full array costs around $35. I'd just buy the full array with the WWAN antenna. Rambler has a really good thread here on this. You may want to che ck it out although he and I both deal with WWAN.

Also I've never used a the N-Draft protocol yet. if there is a protocol you know you won't use, you might consider putting that antenna in another antenna port and then you may not need to orfer - just a thought. But if I were going to open the machine up, I'd put them all in because you will probably never want to go through that again. I could really relate to the person above who said, "it's midnight and I've just finished....."

 

Renee speaks of what she knows, look at the picture below from Friday night.

Buy all the antenna, install them all once, you don't want to do it a second time. The FRU parts are pretty reasonable priced.

I'm ordering a Lenovo (FRU) MC5725 now, anyone interested in a cheap MC5725 from a 'Tough Book'?

So, Renee did you give up on internal service or did you buy an FRU card?

 

I have a Dell

But the other poster was right. There is a BIOS mod in the URL he indicated.
They all have limitations such as switch loss or Led function. And I think this will preclude new BIOS releases until the author updates his version.

In short, it's not something I would want.

I bought an FRU because I didn't want the makeshift alterations.

 

I saw rambler go through too. Here's what the experience is. You order the antenna Kit. Not a large problem, you think.

Your system has x number of antennas in it already. You receive the FRU and especially if you are installing the WWAN you start taking your system apart. Your loved machine is naked and in a lot of pieces. The new antennas demand that you deinstall and discard several of the antennas. Although you think that you have plenty of documentation there is actually very little. You are now several hours into this. You can look at the new antennas and size them to figure out which of the antennas to replace.

"More figuring out. The cable colors are not preserved. The old scheme was Black white and grey. The new antenna system in a different place is Black white and blue. Once you've figured out old the of this, it's pretty easy to say, "Oh I understand.""

When you are finished you now have five new differently colored cables. Now you have to go through several sections of the hardware guid where there is actually very scant or incidental documentation on the cables and their colors. You spend more hours carefully inferring which cable is which only after microscopic inspection for clues in the hardware manual. After tons of deduction you think you have. Pay very special attention to the little sleeve bushing where it enters the T61p. I would even recommend that you draw it because I didn't pay ultra clear attention when I did this and I wasn't sure exactly how to route the cables through the hinge. By the time I completed the cable routing in the rollcage channel I was a lot more hours into the process. Then I had to deal with the sleeve. More hours. Finally slipping the top cover on seemed hard.

At this point the cable matching begins. There are now five cables from the new antenna assemblies. More hours. I'm not sure but the new cable colors don't exactly correspond to the documentation. After all the manual describes factory installed cables, not the new ones which are similar but confusingly different.

This is a very hard and demanding task it seems simple but it was anything but ... that. I began around 2 m and finsihed around nine, so it was about seven hours of emotionally difficult work because this isn't any laptop, it's your laptop and you have a large emotional investment in this. It's like doing surgery on a family member.

Be sure to order a screw kit. It has all the little cosmetic pieces that you almost destroy in getting to the scews behind them. You are also likely to loose screws in the process. You will end up removing the keyboard bezel. this means that have removed more than you counted on being required and you are down to the CPU heatsink.

Take a good look and hope this is the last time you see the inside of your machine.