So far no one has been able to tell us in what way a Lenovo-blessed version of an Intel WiFi card is different from a non-Lenovo-blessed version of that same WiFi card. The cards are the same - except for the special Lenovo FRU ID embedded in that card. The combination is the same - an FCC-approved WiFi card used with an FCC-approved antenna in an FCC-approved pairing.
If the matter were an FCC certification issue, then surely the particular card should be whitelisted and not just some Lenovo blessed subset?
Oh and, since I live in Canada, the FCC certification issue doesn't apply to me, nor does it apply to EU customers and all the others around the world who do no live in the U.S.
And how can FCC, or any regulatory certification issue, explain the whitelisting of hard disk drives that is reported for some Thinkpads at Problem with non-ThinkPad hard disks and elsewhere?
The practice of whitelisting certain products would be at least a little more palatable if we were told about it and if pricing weren't, at least in some cases, exhorbitant. Yet there is no reference to the practice in any specification list that I have seen. There is no reference to a whitelist in my Thinkpad's Hardware Maintenance Manual. And $140 for a Lenovo-blessed Intel 6205 that otherwise sells for under $50, sometimes well under $50, is exhorbitant.
I only found out about the practice because having,
- ordered the wrong WiFi card because of incomplete descriptions in the on-line configurator,
- been unable to change my order, even the next day,
- bought a more appropriate retail Intel WiFi card, one that had been offered by the on-line configurator, (for about $30, not $140, from a reputable dealer)
- installed it (after taking off the keyboard and the palm rest),
- received the 1802 error,
- unistalled it,
- re-installed the original WiFi card,
- checked on-line to see why I was getting theis error message,
only then did I find out about the whitelists. And I have to hope the seller will provide a refund.
Is it any wonder that we are frustrated and angry with Lenovo over such a practice?