ThinkPad SL510 wifi upgrades -any experience?

I inherited a ThinkPad SL510 (yes, I know, perhaps, not a ThinkPad per se) from a bunch of recycled Lenovo gear we got from a client at work. It's in pretty good shape, and as I got it for free, I can't complain. I'm typing on it right now, and it's not bad at all.

I'm thinking of upgrading the SO from her T61; I can put more RAM in this, and do a few extra things with it (it has a webcam, the T61 does not, possibly useful in her environment). My only one sticking point is the wireless.

The system came with the Centrino 1000-N wireless, which I'm not wild about. The alternative card was the Intel 5100, an average card (IMO) as well. I don't mind purchasing a Lenovo-specific card, but I'd really like to know if anyone has managed to get an Intel 6205 or 6230 to work in this system before I order one. I've already had the unit open and found it only has two antennas, so I can't take full advantage of a 5300 (and I'm not sure Lenovo-branded 5300 cards came in half-mini cards either).

Does anyone have any experience with this one?

 

I had tried it on my SL410 and it wont work due to a whitelisted BIOS. The only way around it is to find a BIOS hack for it.

 

Yeah opting for modified BIOS is your best bet as it can save a lot of hassle, you might want to have a browse at the MyDigitalLife forums for BIOS Mods of this system though of course there will be an element of risk. I'm pretty sure the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 card should work as I have it running fine in my 5 year old T61 (with modified BIOS) so I don't see why it shouldn't in a slightly newer SL510.

 

I figured, but I thought I'd check around.

With that in mind, does anyone have any experience with the performance difference between the Intel 1000-N and the Intel 5100? Based on what I can find, I doubt it's much. I can get a 5100 card for probably $15-20, but don't want to bother if the differences are minimal.

 

From experience my father's Dell Vostro 3750 came with the Intel 1000 card and it always seem to drop out for no reason. I wish I know why but I still can't figure it out, I checked and played around the Driver Properties and IP Configs but still no luck. The only way to zap it back to life is to disable/enable the adapter which gets rather tedious. What's worse is that the notebook is in the same room as the router so it's definitely not the range! I had plan to ditch this card soon for something else!

Before I upgraded my T61 with the 6205 card I did have a Wi-Fi Link 5100 card and it's ok, though it did seem to struggle providing upstream with my music at times but it was a lot more reliable than the Intel 1000 card! Though to be honest I probably would look at the 6200/6300 cards as they should be relatively affordable at this stage like this one if you gone with the mod route.

 

Hearst, I did find a whitelisted BIOS, and have ordered a 6205. I'm not super-concerned about the risk; I flashed the modded BIOS to her T61 to get better SATA speeds back when I put an SSD in it.

Doing a bunch of other fun stuff to this one too by the time I'm done. Selling the T61 should cover the extras I'm putting in the SL510; I'm adding internal Bluetooth (she uses it for a whiteboard setup, and it's cheap to do), and a P8700 CPU, since they're relatively inexpensive too (it's currently a T6570). I'll swap over the SSD in her T61 to this system, and I already had spare DDR3 lying around.

 

I see, well I guess i'm not the only one who finds it rather satisfying prolonging a machines lifespan! Here's hoping things go well for you and the SL510!

 

I enjoy the laptop hobby; have for a long time. My mother's laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1520 (last of the parallel-to-the-Vostro line) that needed some TLC when I got it; it ended up getting an internal webcam, 3x3 wifi, processor, and a few other fiddly bits (like hinges and such) that have kept it going and will serve her for some time.

The T61 has served my wife well (and myself for a time before that) through its upgrades too, but when a halfway-decent-but-few-years-old design falls into my hands, I can't help but just want to give it a new lease on life. Pretty much everything I could do with the T61 has been done, so this looks like the chance to move her one step up the chain.