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Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

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Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

#51

Post by ssl-3 »

utensil4778 wrote: post #6

I had to do a similar thing with my T530. I wanted to upgrade to a WiFi 6+Bluetooth card. The built in Bluetooth adapter is very old, I think v4.2. It's also a finicky module with a mezzanine connector, and it's nestled deeply into the internal magnesium frame so the range is abysmal. I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist, but I'm left with a bigger problem. The WiFi slot offers PCI, but not USB. The WWAN slot h…

Any advice on selecting a "good" AX210 card -- or perhaps avoiding a bad one? I understand that it may be a bit of a crapshoot, but I'd like to improve my odds of success if possible for my own T530.

(Alternatively, the AX200 cards from the usual sources have a lot less of a back-alley Shenzhen feeling than the AX210 cards I've looked at. Perhaps that's a safer option.)

Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

#52

Post by gsich »

numpad0 wrote: post #26
Rinzler89 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Lots of other laptops has the same whitelist annoyance Which other brands?

Like all of it. It's a feature in BIOS, and commercial BIOS is sourced from Phoenix, AMI, Insyde, etc. It's like asking which car brand use Brembo disc brakes. It's up to designers and model dependent.

That wasn't the question. I only know of Lenovo Thinkpads doing this heinous act.

They only do it there, on the cheap-ass notebooks they don't care.

Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

#53

Post by Wuzado »

utensil4778 wrote: post #43
Rinzler89 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist Still boggles my mind that people praise ThinkPads as an option for those looking for repairability and upgradability while casually talking about the built-in BIOS whitelist designed to block all that. To me that means an instant black ball. It's cool hackers are patching this out, but this anti-consumer feature should not be present in the first place in something people…

How do you feel about the Intel management engine, which is a permanent backdoor with total hardware access which is fundamentally impossible to remove? Or AMD's equivalent, or NVIDIA's proprietary driver blobs, or the closed and un-auditable firmware on every computer ever? Nobody is selling computers that are fully open. Even Framework uses a closed firmware. In our modern capitalist hellscape, you sometimes have t…

While YMMV, some smaller companies and manufacturers offer boards based on ARM or RISC-V cores. Consider checking out the MNT Reform - likely one of the closest computers that while a bit impractical, fills the openness criteria.

Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

#54

Post by Reason077 »

> "connect wirelessly to a USB dongle over RF, providing lower latency and better battery life than Bluetooth."

Is this still true of modern Bluetooth 5.0 LE devices? Not sure about latency, but battery life seems to be extremely good now days. I get at least half a year out of a charge, on a mouse I use nearly every day.

Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

#55

Post by metadat »

mushufasa wrote: post #30

sounds like the author enjoyed the process. of course, if you need more ports the thinkpad x13 is basically the same size/weight of the nano with many more ports

It looks like the X13 is 1/2 lb heavier, as per

https://jcs.org/2021/01/27/x1nano

and

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx/th...

Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

#56

Post by userbinator »

nemosaltat wrote: post #15
utensil4778 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usual line that Lenovo gives is that this is for FCC reasons. The argument goes that the laptop is FCC certified as an entire unit, and changing the WiFi card technically invalidates this. This is quite plainly nonsense. Every other manufacturer allows WiFi adapter replacements because every module on the market must be individually FCC certified. Technically, the claim does make sense under a creative interpreta…

If that sounds silly, while working in commercial construction in Los Angeles, we encountered pushback for placing UL-listed devices in a UL-listed enclosure. The city determined that to be a “new assembly” and required UL listing for the entire unit. UL has a category for this situation; the enclosure is “UL recognized” because all of the devices and the enclosure are UL-listed. Their proposed solution, which UL was…

at our (significant) expense, of course.

When I see situations like this, it's often because someone on the other side, or someone related, benefits from the arrangement. They would never admit so, but that's how things tend to turn out like that.

Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)

#60

Post by Spooky23 »

adolph wrote: post #34
Spooky23 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supply chain integrity comes to mind.

The tao of hardware supply chains. Surely they can do the checksums tho. https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/29/5253226/nsa-cia-fbi-lapt...

That’s one scenario.

Around COVID times, my then employer got stuck with about 40,000 devices, 30% of which had undetectable, counterfeit memory that would eventually cause a complete failure. Replacement was a $80M lesson for that vendor.

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