Upgrading networking card

[schlk21]

Currently my T61 has an Intel 3945ABG. I went ahead and bought a 4965AGN and installed it. I cannot boot because it is "unauthorized"

Did I get the wrong card? Can I make this work?

[gan Guru]

There is a whitelist in BIOS and if the adapter is not listed you get this error. I'm not sure exactly what is checked to see if the WLAN adapter is authorized or not, but a 4965AGN from Lenovo and a third party vendor have some kind of ID that is different that will make the one from Lenovo work and the other not on a Thinkpad.

I would recommend that you buy a new wlan adapter from Lenovo instead of a third party vendor. Then you won't have this problem. I'm not sure if the 4965AGN is available anymore since it's pretty old, but i'm sure some of the newer Intel WLAN adapters will work fine with the T61 if bought from Lenovo. You could check to make sure it's supported on the T61 before you buy it from Lenovo if you decide to do so. You can find more info about this issue if you google for terms like "thinkpad, 1802, unauthorized, bios, whitelist",

I have seen some hacks to get around this problem, but i wouldn't recommend to do that since it will break your computer if you do it wrong. That could be a lot more expensive than buying the WLAN adapter from Lenovo.

-gan

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

T61 can support both of these wireless cards that you mentioned. The 4965AGN that you got, must be from a non-Lenovo compatible machine. The only way to overcome this is a bios hack. You can have a look at the www.thinkwiki.org about the instruction. 

The Intel 5100 and 5300 wireless card doesn't work on the T61. 

[schlk21]

Yea, not gonna get into the BIOS

I can't find the 4965AGN on Lenovo's site, now what?

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-70504

[schlk21]

What is the link for?

[schlk21]

Oh, I didn't need the driver, just yet. I can't find the card to buy on the website

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

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schlk21 wrote:

Oh, I didn't need the driver, just yet. I can't find the card to buy on the website

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Oh i see you want the wireless card.

Try marketplace on forum.thinkpads.com or ebay, if all else fails try IBM parts. 

[schlk21]

OK, so I returned the card and bought one for a ThinkPad. Computer boots up fine, everything seems good.

Except I'm having some issues, when I am saturating my connection, the card goes offline for a few seconds. I loose internet, sometimes I have to restart the wifi in order to get it back.

I have the latest drivers, did I get ripped?

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

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schlk21 wrote:

OK, so I returned the card and bought one for a ThinkPad. Computer boots up fine, everything seems good.

Except I'm having some issues, when I am saturating my connection, the card goes offline for a few seconds. I loose internet, sometimes I have to restart the wifi in order to get it back.

I have the latest drivers, did I get ripped?

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This could either be a software problem or a hardware problem with the card, but unless you have another replacement card to test it out, it would be quite difficult to determine which is which.