Help getting another wireless card working in Y580 (I hate whitelists).

Been a long time since I rapped at ya.

I am having one heck of a time trying to replace the stock (terrible) n2200 wireless card in my Y580. I have a intel 4965 agn card that I would love to just pop in, but...

The bios has a whitelist to only allow overpriced Lenovo cards, or for whatever reason they claim.

I know there is an unlocked bios, but this thing is warranted until 2015, so I would rather not chance botching my warranty. Don't feel like I should HAVE to muck around with the bios, to replace this awful excuse for a wireless card.

So- anyone have an easy solution for this (other than not buying a laptop with a bios whitelist)? The 4965 fits in the PCIe slot (which sometimes has a mSATA drive in the Y580), but the Y580 won't detect it in the device manager. I have tried the simple "tape over pin 20" solution, but no dice.

I would prefer to hear from people that have actual experience getting a wireless card off the whitelist running in their lenovo!

P.S.- dear Lenovo, I will not buy another laptop with a whitelist. I prefer a laptop that doesn't play lawyer ball.

 

Buy a Clevo next time. Most laptops that are from major manufacturers have locked BIOSes to prevent less computer-literate users from messing up their devices.

 

I do believe I will stay from the major manufacturers next time, but for now I have a computer with a bad wireless card I would like to replace (with this 4965 I had laying around). Anyone out there had real life experience getting an "unapproved" wireless card working in the PCIe slot of a Y580?

The 4965 mini PCIe card is full height, the n2200 is half height, so they can both be in the laptop at the same time. Maybe I should just try running the 4965 (with pin 20 covered) with the n2200 removed? I had been trying to get the device manager to see the 4965 while the n2200 was still in there...

 

The 30$ Intel 7260 is compatible with the Y510p, as long as you mod the BIOS. It's the best choice if you are not Hackintoshing or don't mind dealing with Intel drivers.

I personally care about the latter two.

 

Not sure if I was clear in the OP-

1) I would like help finding a way to install the intel 4965 card.
2) I would rather not mod the bios to do it.

 

Installed the no whitelist bios from slv7, works fine. Y580 still would not recognize the 4965 card. It would recognize an intel 5300 from a T400 though. Is there any setting to get the mini PCI slot to recognize a wlan card? Won't even bring it up in device manager as unknown.

 

Got it working!
Two things-
1) Laptop can only have one card.

2) The card MUST GO INTO THE MINI PCI SLOT THAT THE N2200 SAT IN. That's right, it won't work in the extra slot! I have the full height card taped down for now, there is no screw for a full height card in the Y580 wlan slot.

Sweet no whitelist bios slv7! Got it here-
Lenovo Y580 / Y480 BIOS V2.07 'unlocked/NWL/660m' - Downloads - Tech|Inferno Forums

Make sure you don't have version 8.0x, only 2.0x will work with the above download. If you currently have version 2.07 or above, you will have to change RESSDIN TO RESSEN on line three of platform.ini file to get it to work (as slv7 has informed us in the thread).

I am not responsible for you bricking your laptop. Read the techinferno thread below and BE SURE before you install.
Lenovo Y580 / Y480 'unlocked' BIOS versions

P.S. if anyone knows how to get a full height PCI card screwed down in a PCI slot meant for a half height card, let me know! Don't want to have this thing just taped down forever.

 

Glad to see you got it working! This is my first and only Lenovo. Never had these issues with Alienware. Probably going back to Alienware on my next gaming system.

Cheers,

 

But didnt you just sell your AW14?

 

Another interesting tidbit- possibly worth an information post of its own:

Lenovo drivers work on other computers.

Perhaps this seems obvious- to get my N2200 that I took out of the Y580 working on a compal ifl-90 I used the Lenovo wireless card driver for xp for the Y580. Wacky stuff you got there with your whitelists and what not, Lenovo!

So, if there is a driver for your formerly useless whitelisted Lenovo wireless card on the Lenovo site in the operating system you need, perhaps you too can use a finicky Lenovo wireless card in a different computer.

 

nah, I have both , for now...