IBM Thinkpad - Replacing Intel Centrino wireless mini pci with something else?

[Tennoh]

Hello. I just recently received my new IBM Thinkpad T41 1.6 P-M and would already like something better than Intel's 802.11b wireless. Instead of getting a Cardbus 802.11g card, I was thinking about replacing the built-in standard Intel mini-pci. Has anyone done this with another mini-pci card other than IBM branded ones? If so, which mini-pci did you use and where'd you get it? Thx.

 

[RichieZ]

i don't hink its possible, because in the bios or something to do w/ the TPCA chip they have a "white list" of allowed minPci cards. When i upgraded to IBM's a/b/g minipci card it wouldn't even work until i upgraded to the newest bios.

 

[dannybek]

You can only use the IBM ones, there is no possibility to use others. For the brave you can put your computer on standby and remove the mini-pci card and put in the non IBM card. But you will have to do that everytime you boot up.

 

[arsbanned]

That sounds convenient....

 

[Tennoh]

So even if I received a Thinkpad that's not TCPA enabled, I still won't be able to use other mini-pci cards other than IBM? I'm curious because I want to get an Atheros based SuperG card over IBM's minipci card which I think is Broadcom based.

 

[Yomicron]

The cards are blocked at the BIOS level, IBM claims this is for FCC compliance.

I've got the miniPCI 802.11a/b/g card in my T40. The card uses an Atehros chipset, but I'm not sure if it's the SuperG one.


EDIT: It looks like all the Atheros a/b/g chipsets are Super A/G