purchasing an atheros based wireless card?

How do i go about in purchasing an atheros based wireless N card for my T61?
I have been reading the forums and I hear people are replacing their Intel cards for atheros based cards

 

I would totally recommend it. But I might recommend the cheap Lenovo card becuse it is atheros. It will have a much more sensitive front end than the intel cards do.

If you don't want to go the Lenovo route - Atheros also makes the Gigabyte mini pci-express card it's not hard to find. I have the gigabyte and I am worried about normal LED function (I haven't put it into my t61 yet). You will have normal LED function with the Cheap Lenovo card.

 

I don't think Lenovo offers a Atheros N card at this time. The Intel 4965 is AGN, the older intel and the Atheros are ABG. The cards are "locked", so the probability of getting a third party card to work in your Thinkpad is a question mark. Sounds like Renee has it working, mostly, but your mileage may vary.

 

Hmm...I know Lenovo used to offer the "Thinkpad" N version of the card about a month ago but it is not offered any more. But yeah I am still looking for a place to actually buy the card so i can install it inside my laptop. Cause I hear the atheros based card "the Thinkpad one" not the Intel one is better ??

 

The cheapest lenovo card for the t61 is by Atheros. I've forgotten what my source of information on that is.

I had a Gigabyte Atheros in my Lenovo 3000. There was no lockout at all and the sensitivity was FAR better than the 3945 and 4965 in the t61p. I have no disassembled the t61p yet because the one I received had turbo memory instead of a Sierra card and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet. The seller and I are looking into it.

 

Is there a website where I can buy the wireless card and install it myself?

 

GIGABYTE GN-WI01GT Wlan Mini Pci Express Atheros 11g!

You can email Martin Here:

[email protected] (he's in germany)
He runs his shop off of ebay.


There are a couple of concerns. I ran this card in my Lenovo 3000. There was no bios lock out. I can't guarantee that there is not a lockout in the T61 as I have not had a chance to install this in my T61p yet. IF there was a bios lock out, there is a fix for it (google no-1820) that will preserve your warranty.

When I ran this card in my 3000 it was far more sensitive than the Intel 3945.

I did lose the function of my led. I have seen drivers on the net that purport to fix that.

Good luck.

 

The thing is so buggy. Don't bother.

I took mine out and put a previous generation atheros abg.



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The card I recommended, I have used. It is not an N card at all to my knowledge. At any rate, in my experience, I wrote an entire Wireless Software package in .Net and I know that card very well. I think it's one of the very best cards on the market.

 

you can get those at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BR0EOE/ref=nosim?tag=rcs30-20&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Less than 50 bucks, not bad.



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how hard is it to replace a wireless card?

 

Really easy. 5 screws.

1 for the keyboard , 4 for the palm rest. the card is under the keyboard.

Then there's 2 screws for the card itself.


I used 1 black and one gray antenna cable... the other one i just tucked so it cant touch anything.




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^^ awesome..thanks...good to know incase n becomes the standard soon and I need to replace

 

Do you have the 3 antennas ?

 

i thought all thinkpads t61 came with the 3 antennas no matter what?

 

You know... I can't say anything unless I try but the combination of the new antennas and the N card looks as if it approaches the sensitivity of the Atheros card and the antenna on the 3000. It's not a bad combination.

A bad combination was the 3000 antenna and the 3945.

 

Has anyone tried this on the T61P with success. I just puchased and awaiting.

Now I'm seeing about Lenovo BIOS locks everywhere stating only the Lenovo card will work because of the BIOS.

 

If it's not lenovo "branded", it won't work.



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I've have tried to upgrade my wireless card on my T61p twice using both the Intel 4965AGN and the GIGABYTE GN-WI06N-RH and neither card will work, I received the 1802 error message for both.

 

Has anyone had any success with using the no-1802 fix on a T61p or similar system? It's not working for me and I really haven't heard of it would on the newer laptops.

 

I should get it this weekend, so I'll let you know. Got it from Oxfordtec and
thy state no incompatability issues/ if so 30 day refund.
( though does compatability mean it will not fit or not work/ ) hmmmm!

Supposedly, works great on other laptops with the DLINK 655.
I'll spend the day at work googleing for a Fix. I've heard of a EPROM fix but wether it's applicable to a t61p we will see.