[ltp] r40 without built-in wireless

[Austin Murphy]

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004, Norbert Wojtowicz wrote:
> >Mark:
> > I'm having good results with using the madwifi drivers in my R40 with
> > built-in wireless and the IBM tri-mode mini-PCI card. The driver's
> > stillbeta, but is actively developed.
>
> Did the card come preinstalled? From what I've heard it's sort of a
> pain to install a mini pci in the thinkpads. Since I haven't owned one,
> I don't know from personal experience. Also does it void your warranty?
> Anyone had experience with this?

IBM sells the tri-mode mini-pci card as an option.  It's about $100 or so.
I've purchased and installed them for my T40 and other T40's I support.
You have to remove the keyboard and the palmrest (at least on the T40) to
get to the mini-pci slot.  It is a matter of about 10 little screws.

Check the R40/e hardware maintenance manual to be sure:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-45899

> Except for that, I'm still looking for differences between pcmcia and
> built-in. And yes, I guess minipci has the advantage at durability.

Besides durability, you get to use the 2 built-in antennas instead of
just 1.  Presumably the "diversity" antenna system has an advantage.

The other advantage is that lots of other IBM'ers will also be buying the
same IBM branded atheros tri-mode mini-pci adapter and lots of other
people will buy the same chip in other packages, so you will probably
have good support in the long run.

If I understand correctly, the new wifi chips now have a pci interface
standard and they use a pcmcia bridge when packaged in a pcmcia card.

Austin