upgrading wwan on the x220

[mludwig]

Hi all,

Today I received my new x220 tablet, replacing a 3 year old R61, which died of system board failure. I am still not sure, if I made the right choice, as I had a lot of issues with the R61 Thinkpad. I had to replace the fan and the battery twice, then the ungrateful sob just died on me.

Anyway, I have been playing with the x220 and was wondering what mini pci-e wwan modules could I get. Is there a Lenovo page offering Lenovo-branded modules? Could I just go out on the web and buy one? What software is needed to make it work?

Cheers

[jyeah]

You will need a Lenovo employee to confirm with you whether or not the mini pci-e wwan port is whitlisted in the BIOS. Otherwise, if you get non-Lenovo branded modules it might not work.

I'd like to find out as well.

[dieda]

Bump: me made a mistake and ordered the X220 wihtout the WWAN card (thought the "upgradable" option meant a basic card present). So I am also curious where to find such a list and how to mantle the card once I've got it delivered. Reordering is not an option unfortunately.

[bananaman · Accepted solution]

Hi All, and welcome Dieda!

The whitelisted cards are shown in the Hardware Maintenance Manual:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-39298

Hope this helps!

[mludwig]

I ended up buying the Thinkpad Sierra Gobi 3000 module, which works, no surprise there.

However, there seems to be little help material on how SIM cards are handled, whether you need a reboot or not, if Windows 7 can be used to activate a subscription or how Access Connection can be used to do just that. Can someone explain it to me or point me to some reading materials?

[bananaman]

Hi mludwig!

How to orient the SIM card:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Correct-orientation-for-ThinkPad-X220-SIM-card...

Software to activate:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_SA/downloads/detail.page?&LegacyDocID=MIGR-68495

Hope this helps!