Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Good use of that spare PCI-E. I would have still hacked into one of the internal USB ports for $0, but that's an elegant solution.

I tried that on my last one... didn't work (then again, the slot wasn't offically installed)... I even tried enabling every usb port on the chipset (hacked BIOS)... while I could have here, this is a lot more elegant.

BTW, I have 2 extra PCIe's... the laptop has 2 mini slots (one for wifi, one for whatever) and 1 full (for a WWAN, or whatever). If my D630 still saw signifigant use I'd have bought 2 and put one it it (as it also has an unused WWAN PCIe slot).

If PCIe SSD's were cheaper I'd whack in one of those in this one's WWAN... I already have a dinky 120GB Intel 520 installed but it still would kick ass (are PCIe SSDs faster at all?)

[Uranium-235]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Thanks to having 2 extra mini-pcie slots, I grabbed this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E-C...item3cd879416f

Now I can make my Logitech Unifying adapter internal... No hacks required!

oh THAT is cool. i've been looking for an alternative to getting a bluetooth mouse

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

oh THAT is cool. i've been looking for an alternative to getting a bluetooth mouse

Yeah, IMHO Unifying is better for mice/keyboards... mainly because it's dual-boot friendly (no key copying BS like with BT)... yes, it's "less secure" (since there is no key) but for input devices, it's fine.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

and as far as SSD's go...my laptop has a place for two hard drives

now all I need is an incredible amount of money to buy one, which would cost more than this whole laptop costs

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Good news: PCIe fun came in today

Bad news: Issues...

Intel 6300: works fine in linux, code 10's in windows (after drivers)... the seller made no mention of it being a useless lenovo version (incompatible firmware, FUCK YOU LENOVO) but I'm thinking it is given the symptoms... other than it code 10'ing, I have no way to tell other than it's harware ID's matching somebody who claimed to have gotten such a card in the past:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&SUBSYS_11118086&REV_35
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&SUBSYS_11118086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&CC_0280

I asked the seller if it was a lenovo sourced card... if it is, exchange/refund time

---

USB adapter: found out the hard way that one must CUT and not BEND the vias at the break points... so I had to use the half-size option. which didn't fit, so I had to remove the end cap on my dongle and file the PCB down to the edge of the antenna trace:



It's a hack but it works... won't come loose at least. The antenna still functions well.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Good news: PCIe fun came in today

Bad news: Issues...

Intel 6300: works fine in linux, code 10's in windows (after drivers)... the seller made no mention of it being a useless lenovo version (incompatible firmware, FUCK YOU LENOVO) but I'm thinking it is given the symptoms... other than it code 10'ing, I have no way to tell other than it's harware ID's matching somebody who claimed to have gotten such a card in the past:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&SUBSYS_11118086&REV_35
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&SUBSYS_11118086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4238&CC_0280

I asked the seller if it was a lenovo sourced card... if it is, exchange/refund time

got this reply:

Ia actually do not know what type of machine these cards were pulled from, but our other customers don't have a problem.

Now what?

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Reinstalling 7, try try try again...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

nope, still code 10's. F*ck

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Ordered:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-450Mb-...E/281381108078

The front of my module looks different... which to me, confirms that I accidentally got a lenovo card. I'll return the used one once this new one comes in the mail.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

good news: the new card doesn't code 10

bad news: the wireless light doesn't blink...

I'll live with the solid light... more proof the old card was indeed a lenovo pull.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Updates!

1. The wifi light does blink in linux, and I bet the other card had it not been locked would not have blinked in windows.
2. I upgraded to a brand new PA10 I scored in a brand new D/Port replicator I got at a thrift store for $7.50 (I gave away the dock as I already have 2 or 3 of those sitting). It's newer black (not blue) and has the longest non-grounded wall cord I've seen on a PA-10.
3. The battery began having issues the past few days, 48% wear and ~1 hour battery life with regular use. This should fix that up.

Othwerwise, still running strong. I use it daily for college and it's delivered. Yay dell for another kickass Latitude.

[stj]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

why dont you fix the lenovo card by changing the i.d. bytes in the eeprom?

i did that with an asus wifi dongle to give it a generic i.d.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

why dont you fix the lenovo card by changing the i.d. bytes in the eeprom?

i did that with an asus wifi dongle to give it a generic i.d.

Too late as it was sent back.

Why not? Didn't know I could, I wouldn't have had the tools to do so anyway. Besides, it was a painless swap for a new card anyway.

[Almighty1]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Got a question on the Lenovo, I always thought the card had to have a Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad ID before it can work in a Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad system but it will work fine in non-Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad branded machines so it only works in a Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad? Since basically it has a whitelist in the BIOS of what it accepts and rejects everything else so non-Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad's shouldn't even do that check.

http://art.ified.ca/?page_id=218

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Any BIOS with a whitelist checks PCI ID's against said whitelist, and the allowed ID's are only found on OEM cards. They do that ("officially") for FCC compliance and (more realistically) to force people into paying for their overpriced upgrade cards.

It's not just an IBM/Lenovo thing... I'm pretty sure acer and HP do it, as has ASUS (on EEE PCs, regular laptops less consistently).

What I described is a different issue, where apparently the card has a whitlist of it's own, as for why, I have no idea... and why only the windows driver has an issue is even odder (as both that and the linux driver IIRC come from intel directly).

[stj]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

not true,
the card, all usbcards and most pci variants contain an eeprom.
the eeprom contains the manufacturer and product ID codes and the mac address.

now if you look at the INF file for your windows driver installer, you will see the ID values that it is willing to accept.
or more acuratly, that it will associate with the driver software.

you can change the ID strings in the INF file to match the hardware,
or you can change the data in the eeprom to match the driver.

either way, it works, but if you change the eeprom then it's done for good.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

What I described is a different issue, where apparently the card has a whitlist of it's own, as for why, I have no idea... and why only the windows driver has an issue is even odder (as both that and the linux driver IIRC come from intel directly).

Good chance that it's a whitelist in an .inf file.

[Almighty1]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

I read HP does it too in addition to Lenovo/IBM and the physical fix is in the link I posted, put something covering pin 20. The whitelist is in the BIOS of those brands and seems like some WiFi cards have something so it will only work with the specific brands it's intended for.

[stj]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

the fix to whitelists is a hacked bios - eearch and you will find!

[Compgeke]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Yup - that works. Have a modified BIOS here on my T410 so I can use my Sierra Wireless MC5725 WWAN card rather than an official Lenovo.