T61p Installing Intel 6235 with bluetooth 4.0 working, + lower temps

I wanted a bluetooth 4.0 and wifi card and basically the only option is the 6235. If you google 6235 bluetooth it seems a host of people are having problems. Here is how I got mine to work.

First you need middleton's bios. The 6235 in the wlan slot worked great, the wifi was really good, low latency 300mbps constant. But the bluetooth did not work. After much troubleshooting I realized it required a mini pci with wlan and usb. That only leaves us with option the wwan slot. I have a sierra card in there but I don't use it, I just tether to my phone. Took out the wwan card, attached my mini pci e card to the full mini pci adapter.

Now you need to tape pin 20 otherwise the system won't recognize the card properly. Someone was nice enough to take a pic so all the credit goes to them.



Now your pc can see it. I tried every combo of antenna possible but the reception in the wwan slot is slightly worse. I just ended up using the red for the main and blue for aux. For me I just downloaded the intel bluetooth drivers and the 6235 drivers. Had no DPC latency issues with the card in the wlan slot, the bluetooth radio however causes the DPC to jump when it's searching or connecting.

I also saw a few degrees drop in the system temp using the intel vs my atheros.



While you've got it open might as well clean out the dust and reapply some thermal paste to the cpu, gpu, chipset. I also tried 6200 card in the wlan slot and the 6235 in the wwan slot with the wifi on the 6235 disabled. My DPC latency was much better.

 

Amazing work! Any issues pop up since your post? I might give this a try on my T61.

 

no it works perfectly so far. Bluetooth works great and I can use my bt headset for conference calls or late night music. Though I do think I get slightly better wifi with 6235 in the wifi slot. But I'm still connected at 270 or 300mbps (300 is the max on my router). Overall one of the better $25 upgrades I've made.

 

A few questions. So you'd say it's a minimal difference? Because I was considering the possibility of having both the cards installed and just adding extra antennas. Is it even worth it? Seems like I might just add potential interference problems.

 

with the 6235 in the wlan slot I got a solid 300mpbs with my netgear 3500l with dd-wrt (router is only 12 feet from my laptop). In the wwan slot I have a good 300mbps but sometimes it drops to 270 (usually 300). The bluetooth icon on the task tray can turn on/off the bluetooth. With the bluetooth off, my connection I get 300 or 270mbps. When the bluetooth is connecting it drops to 54mpbs, once it's connect I'm at 108 to 144mbps . So if I'm listening to music late at night my connection is cut in half. I don't think this is a t61 problem as other users with both bluetooth/wifi enabled have speed reduction since both are on the 2.4ghz spectrum. If you have a 5ghz router it probably will work better.

Once I get a 450mb 5ghz router I'm thinking of trying the 6300 mini pcie 3 antenna in the wlan slot and the 6235 for my 4.0 bluetooth (with the 6235 wifi turned off). I believe this will work without problems but I currently have 3 3500l ddwrt routers bridged together around the house so upgrading all 3 isn't really cost effective now. FYI you need to switch the advanced settings on the 6235 from 20hz to 40hz to get 300mbps speed and I like switching roaming aggressiveness to lowest (1) so my connection doesn't hunt around too much.