So, back on 4/10 when I talked about hulu.com some more, I also mentioned that I’d upgraded my wireless adapter. I’d purchased this ThinkPad T40 from Buy.com for $399. I upgraded it to 2GB RAM for $120, so total cost $519 plus some S&H. After awhile of using it, I realized the wireless b card (maxing out at 11mbps) wasn’t going to cut it for me in order to connect to my domain at the office. I needed wireless g (54 mbps). I’m a big fan of the Intel PRO/Wireless adapter series, so I started searching for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200b/g MiniPCI adapter to replace my Cisco Aironet Wireless a/b MiniPCI adapter. I found one on ebay (from dragon_on_the_edge) with total cost about $24 (shipping and handling, card, etc). I was pretty ecstatic, as I was under the impression it would be more. There was one stipulation not to use this card with an IBM ThinkPad, and I thought … bollocks! I’ll use it. Well, after I got the replacement card and installed it (the manual for the ThinkPad is excellent, great guides on user-replaceable parts), I excitedly boot and expect to get right into Windows!
1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in
Power off and remove the miniPCI network card.
What!? What is this garbage? “Unauthorized”? I’ll give you unauthorized! So some Google-fu later, I end up at a Mac site no less, but it happens to contain the links to a software called no-1802.com! It hacks the BIOS to remove this ridiculous restriction off my ThinkPad. I don’t want to pay extra money for an “IBM-approved OEM MiniPCI” card. $20 extra to buy the same card just because its EEPROM has a different identifier in it? Ridiculous! Thanks, whomever the original author of no-1082.com is! Thanks also to you Commad-Tab, for providing your own links to the ISO I was able to use to fix my machine.
