[ltp] Re: Replacing the Ericsson 3G modem in an X301 with a Sierra Wireless LTE modem

[Bjørn Mork]

Elvair <elvair@gmail.com> writes:

> Hey man ! 
>
> Great job on replacing the card. I'm looking to do exactly that, however =
I'm
> confused with a couple of things. Do you think you could possibly help me
> out a little bit here ? 

I recommend downloading the "Thinkpad X301 Hardware Maintenance Manual"
from Lenovo. It explains a lot of details, including where to find the
different slots.

> I currently have intel wimax-wi-fi card, which I would like to keep, since
> sierra card does not have wi-fi capability. But then here is the problem,=
 I
> need to be able to plug in both card and both should be connected with
> antennas one way or the other. 

I believe that should be no problem.  There are 3 mini-PCIe sockets in
the X301:

 a) wlan (full size)
 b) wusb or Intel "Turbo Memory" (half size)
 c) wwan (full size)

Socket a) and b) are located behind the same cover as the memory slots.
Socket c) is located under the upper left part of the keyboard.  There
are 6 antennas.  In my X301, 3 of these were connected to the Intel wlan
card, 2 were connected to the Ericsson wwan card and 1 was not in use,
taped in place between the memory sockets.  But do note that the two
locations are both in the upper left part of the PC.  Any of the antenna
cables can easily be rerouted to either location by simply pulling it
through to the other side of the main board.

I assume your wimax card replaces the wlan card in my setup?  And I
assume it uses maximum 3 antennas?  If so, then you should have no
problem keeping it while adding a wwan card.

> I looked through the other thread regarding using unauthorised cards, and
> no, im not doing any modification to my BIOS, I d rather use TAPE for that
> matter,

I tried that trick, but could not make it work using the wwan
slot. Could be that it works if you exchange the wlan and wwan cards.
Didn't try that as I didn't want to mess with the wlan.

The BIOS modification works, but is of course risky.

> but I'm still confused which slots is which, so if I want to keep my
> intel wimax-wi-fi card, and have all the antennas connected correctly, wh=
ich
> slots should both cards go ? And how antennas should be connected ? I
> understand that there are more antenna contacts which is normally in use,
> from the looks it there are 6 actually (if im not wrong), which means I
> should be able to connect both cards comfortably and use both Wi-Fi and L=
TE,
> but I'm having problems finding all those antenna connectors... :/ 

I don't know where they would put the spare cables if you don't have the
wwan option, but I guess the most likely place is near the wwan socket
under the keyboard. 

> Would you be so kind as to give me some guidance ? :) would greatlly
> appreacite it, maybe even if you could make some photos and show me where
> the connectors are etc - that would help me immenselly. 

I do have a couple of really bad photos, but haven't had the time to get
them off the camera yet...  Much less put them up anywhere.  Will see if
I can fix that somehow.


BTW, totally off-topic, but I put the Ericsson F3507g card in an Acer
3810tz laptop to see if that would work, and it did without any problems
at all.  No whitelisting there.  But no extra antennas either, so I had
to install two of those making it a lot more work.  Not to mention the
gazillion screws you have to remove just to access the slot.  But one
nice surprise was that there actually was a SIM card slot behind the
battery.  It was taped over with a black tape, making in nearly
invisible.  Don't think I would have found it without looking in the
service manual to see where it should be.




Bjørn