Getting "unauthorised" WiFi card to work on Thinkpad R40

[German_John]

Hello everyone,

 

I have an old Thinkpad R40 (I believe 2003) from my dad, and the model has no wifi card. It does have the slot though, and I salvaged a card from another laptop. When I try booting up with it, it warns me about an "unauthorised" wifi card though. 

Is there a workaround?

I don't want to fiddle with the BIOS - don't want to brick the laptop, there's some nostalgia with it - but bricking the WiFi card wouldn't be a huge problem as otherwise I'd just throw it away. 

I'm running Lubuntu 15.04.

I pulled the card out of this laptop (only place I could find the specs) so I don't really know much more about it...

 

Can anyone help me with that? Would be really cool to have Wifi on that old machine, I might end up using it from time to time for random things

 

Cheers,

John

[AMICLG]

Most laptops have the BIOS locked to accept OEM cards only.

 

The only thing you can do is find a unlocked BIOS or buy a USB adapter.

[dappy10]

I think you need to install the driver for it

Edit: This might be it http://www.realtek.cz/realtek-download.php?realtek=RTL8139_810x&system=1

 

It's listed as 

Realtek 8139 10/100

[theanimun]

 

4 minutes ago, dappy10 said:

I think you need to install the driver for it

Edit: This might be it http://www.realtek.cz/realtek-download.php?realtek=RTL8139_810x&system=1

 

It's listed as 

Realtek 8139 10/100

The issue with this post is that the OP is running linux, and the bios is locking the slot

 

Either try to update the bios, or look thru the bios for anything that may be relevant into the wifi card

[dappy10]

Just now, theanimun said:

 

The issue with this post is that the OP is running linux, and the bios is locking the slot

 

Either try to update the bios, or look thru the bios for anything that may be relevant into the wifi card

Oops, my bad. 

[zMeul]

check this forum, maybe someone already did it: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Forum-WiFi-WWAN-Whitelist-Removal

 

 

[German_John]

16 minutes ago, theanimun said:

 

The issue with this post is that the OP is running linux, and the bios is locking the slot

 

Either try to update the bios, or look thru the bios for anything that may be relevant into the wifi card

25 minutes ago, AdamIsaacLang said:

Most laptops have the BIOS locked to accept OEM cards only.

 

The only thing you can do is find a unlocked BIOS or buy a USB adapter.

I don't think a BIOS update would work. It's set to accept only certain IDs, and why would IBM change the IDs to include some card suddenly? 

 

Is it possible to change the card's ID to the authorised one? 

 

[AMICLG]

6 minutes ago, German_John said:

I don't think a BIOS update would work. It's set to accept only certain IDs, and why would IBM change the IDs to include some card suddenly? 

 

Is it possible to change the card's ID to the authorised one? 

 

For popular laptops people hack the BIOS to allow any card to be installed, it's the only way that I'm aware of. 

[German_John]

6 minutes ago, AdamIsaacLang said:

For popular laptops people hack the BIOS to allow any card to be installed, it's the only way that I'm aware of. 

Dank that sucks. Well, either I'll have the guts to do that or I'll just buy a certified card for ten bucks.

[silentmelodies]

1 hour ago, German_John said:

Hello everyone,

 

I have an old Thinkpad R40 (I believe 2003) from my dad, and the model has no wifi card. It does have the slot though, and I salvaged a card from another laptop. When I try booting up with it, it warns me about an "unauthorised" wifi card though. 

Is there a workaround?

I don't want to fiddle with the BIOS - don't want to brick the laptop, there's some nostalgia with it - but bricking the WiFi card wouldn't be a huge problem as otherwise I'd just throw it away. 

I'm running Lubuntu 15.04.

I pulled the card out of this laptop (only place I could find the specs) so I don't really know much more about it...

 

Can anyone help me with that? Would be really cool to have Wifi on that old machine, I might end up using it from time to time for random things

 

Cheers,

John

You need Middleton's BIOS. 

Not available for R40/T40, T/R6X only. Sorry.

[German_John]

1 hour ago, silentmelodies said:

-snip-

1 hour ago, AdamIsaacLang said:

-snap-

 

I found this guid (for HP, but according to ThinkWiki it works on Thinkpads as well), which apparently might kill the card but not the laptop, so that's fine. I'll probably try that later today or tomorrow and let you know if it worked!

 

EDIT

No I won't. Don't have another device with a PCI slot (RIP 2000s) and that'd leave plugging the card into a booting/booted system. Which I'm not doing. Because I'm pretty sure that can fry the motherboard. Looks like I'll either not have Wifi or buy a compatible card for a few bucks.

[Principis]

There you go

http://command-tab.com/2006/02/26/thinkpad-1802-error-fix/

[German_John]

4 hours ago, Principis said:

There you go

http://command-tab.com/2006/02/26/thinkpad-1802-error-fix/

I'm not sure I want some program messing with the BIOS (I assume that's what it does)... 

[theanimun]

6 hours ago, German_John said:

I'm not sure I want some program messing with the BIOS (I assume that's what it does)..

Well, as long as you have the ability to update your bios, any changes can be undone by updating the bios

[Principis]

10 hours ago, German_John said:

I'm not sure I want some program messing with the BIOS (I assume that's what it does)... 

I don't think it's the BIOS but it works it's tested. (It doesn't flash a missed BIOS it just alters a small piece of code)

 

But you can always unbrick the BIOS I had to do that with my HP dv7. The only thing I had to do was prepare a USB stick plug it on and boot with some buttons pressed really easy.

[German_John]

On 3/22/2016 at 11:55 AM, Principis said:

I don't think it's the BIOS but it works it's tested. (It doesn't flash a missed BIOS it just alters a small piece of code)

 

But you can always unbrick the BIOS I had to do that with my HP dv7. The only thing I had to do was prepare a USB stick plug it on and boot with some buttons pressed really easy.

Just so you know, I tried it, worked no problem (although it didn't boot the first time, but that may have another reason) so then I got the appropriate firmware and didn't even need to seperately install drivers. So thanks, worked really well, now I have wifi on a 2003 mid-range Thinkpad. And since I also salvaged some RAM, I now have a neat little machine! 

[Principis]

10 hours ago, German_John said:

Just so you know, I tried it, worked no problem (although it didn't boot the first time, but that may have another reason) so then I got the appropriate firmware and didn't even need to seperately install drivers. So thanks, worked really well, now I have wifi on a 2003 mid-range Thinkpad. And since I also salvaged some RAM, I now have a neat little machine! 

Glad to hear that it worked!