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Unauthorized Wireless Cards

Of all the laptops I’ve worked on, IBM ThinkPads are by far the easiest to disassemble and fix. They’re also pretty tough machines, as they survive substantially more damage than most of the Dell laptops I’ve seen. If I were a full time Windows user (and I’m not, despite the recent number of PC related posts), I would probably consider purchasing a ThinkPad. If it weren’t for one tiny problem, that is…

Most newer ThinkPad models have a Mini-PCI slot and antennae, ready to be equipped with a standard wireless card. Mini-PCI may be unfamiliar to Mac users reading this blog, just as it was to me several months ago. Think of Mini-PCI as an AirPort Extreme sized connector, but standardized such that any manufacturer can create a compatible communications card. While the slot is standardized, IBM insists on crippling it via software to only accept “IBM brand” wireless cards — which are really just OEM cards made by Philips and others. Upon booting a machine with a non-IBM card installed, the following POST error will be displayed:

1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in
Power off and remove the miniPCI network card.

What a sneaky way to lock people into buying an expensive wireless card, when others can be bought for much much lower prices. (I suppose I can’t complain, though, as AirPort Extreme is even more proprietary. Although, I’ve never had the need to use a different wireless card in my PowerBook — I just bought the “whole widget” from Apple and that was that.) Luckily for ThinkPad owners, there exists a small fix for this “1802″ error: a DOS program which will flip a single bit in the CMOS and allow use of any Mini-PCI wireless card. The program, no-1802.com, can be found here, but I’m unsure of the original author.

To make running this program easier for myself and others, I’ve prepared a floppy disk image as well as a bootable CD.

Download the CD ISO

Download the Floppy Image

Both files will require unzipping before use (use the free 7-Zip instead of WinZip). Once unzipped, the CD version (.iso file) can be burned with Disk Utility or Toast on the Mac, or ImgBurn or Nero on the PC. The floppy disk version can be written with Floppy Image for Windows, or dd if=no1802.img of=/dev/fd0 in a *nix environment. The floppy image is a bit-for-bit copy of what I actually had on disk, and the CD version boots and loads the very same floppy into RAM, using a highly customized Ultimate Boot CD. Hopefully this will allow ThinkPad owners to use any wireless cards, and not just those offered by IBM.

If Asus sold motherboards that were only compatible with Asus graphics cards, people would be less likely to buy Asus hardware. If they placed this information in a small footnote and simultaneously listed an AGP slot in the technical specifications, people who had purchased the hardware with the expectation that they could use their existing graphics card with the same chipset would be justifiably angry. The situation is directly analagous. IBM may feel that US law requires them to implement this restriction in the United States. However, failure to clearly advertise this restriction (especially given that most of the world is not covered by FCC regulations) is unacceptable. — Matthew Garrett

5/17/06 Update
I’m glad to see that people are having success with my pre-made wireless card fix. A list of some of the models affected by IBM’s decision can be found here, thanks to Matthew Garrett. He also has few pages with useful technical details on this topic, as well.

8/30/06 Update
For future reference: IBM “high rate” wireless+56K modem combo cards with FRUs 12P3637, 12P3863, 26P8472 and 91P7661 require separate modem drivers (that aren’t part of the “high rate” package). The cards are made by Actiontec, but the the modem portion is made by Agere/Lucent, and the drivers can be found in IBM’s list of downloads for the R32.

9/10/06 Update
This page was linked to at ThinkWiki, where you’ll find even more information on the 1802 error.

6/7/07 Update
Here’s a list of all the known working an not working Thinkpad models gathered from the comments to date.

NOT Working

  • R32, R60
  • T60
  • Z60t
  • X41 2525-6NH

Confirmed Working

  • A31, A31 2652-Q3U, A31p, A31p 2653-CU5, A31p 2653-R3U
  • R40 2682-HU2, R40 2682-K2G, R40 2681, R40 2896-GZU, R51
  • T30, T30 2637, T40, T40 2373, T40 2373-8CU, T40 2373-94G, T40 2374-GG2, T41, T41 2374-7JG, T42, T42 2373-BX9, T42p
  • X24, X30, X31, X31 2672-U31

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 26th, 2006 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Hacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  1. [...] WiFi upgrade Min efterhÃ¥nden godt brugte (men meget stabile) IBM X31 bærbare er født med et 802.11b trÃ¥dløst netkort i mini-PCI format. Jeg købte glad et 802.11b/g kort for at opgraderet maskinen. Den var lidt sløv i overførslen nÃ¥r jeg nu har investeret i en NAS. Men desværre har IBM lÃ¥st BIOS til en (reletivt lille) række netkort og bryder derfor strakts ud en fejl: “1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in - Power off and remove the miniPCI network card”. Jeg havde egentlig opgivet men tog sÃ¥ problemet op igen. Siden sidst er der kommet en del mere information pÃ¥ nettet. En løsning har vist hele tiden været at ændre lidt i bios og sÃ¥ prøve at flashe maskinen med den mod’ede bios. Ikke lige min kop te - lyder lidt for risky. Nu fandt jeg heldigvis en mulighed for at flippe en bit i CMOS som beskrevet her. Der fandt jeg heldigvis ogsÃ¥ en ISO som kunne bruges da man skal gøre det i real-dos mode. En X31 er som bekendt ikke født med diskette drev (har aldrig savnet det) eller cdrom, men bootede fint med USB cdrom drev. Det var en ganske harmløs operation, man skal dog huske ikke at køre programmet 2 gange, for sÃ¥ er man tilbage til start. SÃ¥ nu kører jeg med mit Intel PROset/Wireless 802.11b/g som jeg fik for kun 200,- istedet for det officielle IBM kort som er pÃ¥ den forkerte side af de 700,- [...]

  2. [...] Step 4: Nasty surprise from IBM with 1802 ERROR!It appears that IBM has locked the user out from being able to add their choice of miniPCI adapters.  I found the solution on Command-Tab which talks about an assembler program called no-1802.com.  Command-Tab even has pre-made boot images ready to go so you can make your own boot floppy or boot CD.  I had to remove the Intel miniPCI card first to get the system to even come up but you should run this procedure before you attempt the upgrade to begin with.  Once you boot the CD or floppy, just type no-1802 and it will modify a CMOS setting that you can’t change any other way.  It’s interesting to note that no-1802.com is written in Assembler and only takes up 18 bytes of space.  Once you remove the 1802 restriction on your IBM ThinkPad, you can put any miniPCI card in.  The affected models are listed here. [...]

  3. [...] Command-Tab Unauthorized Wireless CardsTechnology and Mac geekery. One part exuberance, two parts obsession. Of all the laptops I ve worked on, IBM ThinkPads are by far the easiest to disassemble and fix. [...]

  4. [...] This post has links to CD ISO image and a Floppy image you can use. [...]

  5. [...] cards for their laptops. However, found a great page to fix this too. See these two … 1 and 2. That “no-1802″ iso image is a beauty - worked like a charm. Now Im cruisin at 54Mb [...]

  6. [...] 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 [...]

Comments

  1. Thank you for the images. This was extremely easy to do compared to the other instructions!!
    Did this with your image in less than 5 minutes in all.

    Thanks again.

  2. Commenter
    Thomas Ingold says:
    May 17th, 2006 at 12:53 pm

    Thanks for the wireless card fix for my R51 ThinkPad. I would have never figured it out on my own although your information was so complete that I now understand what the problem was. Thank You, -Thomas

  3. HELP! This looked awesome in one little file but I’m not good with this stuff- I unzipped, and burned a bootable cd in Nero 6. Am I supposed to mess with the advanced settings? If anyone can help, I’ll give you a HUGE $5 paypal payment!

  4. My guess is that you’re choosing Bootable CD and adding the ISO, as opposed to just burning the ISO outright. While this option is good for burning a bootable CD with existing files, the ISO offered here is an image of the CD ready to be burned as-is. With Nero Burning ROM open, choose “Recorder” → “Burn Image…”, choose the ISO file, and burn. (If you choose bootable CD and add the ISO to the compilation, you’ll actually end up with a bootable CD with an image of another bootable CD inside it…and that just won’t work, as you’ve seen.)

  5. Thanks a lot for the floppy image, really! I was vey uppset after a whole day installing the antennas and wifi card when found the 1802 error and thanks to you the day had a happy ending, thanks from Spain!

  6. Commenter
    Ron Price says:
    June 11th, 2006 at 8:44 am

    Hi
    Used your CD. Seemed to work fine on my IBM T30. “Found new hardware” but was “unable to install” Tried to use Device Manager to look at the Intel 2915abg but keep getting the Pop up Window “Microsoft Management Controls” with the message MMC cannot open the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\devmgmt.msc

  7. It sounds like the CD was able to disable the check, but you might not have the right drivers. Try searching IBM’s site for the card’s FRU and see if you can get the correct driver package.

  8. Thank alot! I was successful with IBM T30

  9. Thanks for all the info and the utilities provided. Before using it I do have one question: how dangerous is it to use this utility? can I cause an irreversible damage to my machine? what should I do if the fix does not work? is it reversible (if so, how)? — Thanks again!

  10. The “no-1802″ software flips a bit in your computer’s CMOS, where your BIOS settings and current real-time clock data are stored.

    If it does cause a problem, the changes are not permanent and can be erased by removing your CMOS battery and all other power sources (power adapter and battery). In some ThinkPad models, the tiny quarter-sized battery is under the keyboard, and in others it’s hidden behind a panel on the underside of the laptop. Guides for replacing this battery can be obtained from IBM’s support website, and it is advisable to print out the relevant portions prior to performing the hack if you don’t have another computer handy. Your other preferences such as boot order and current time will be reset if you do this.

    In short, though, the change “no-1802″ makes is not permanent and can be undone by removing *all* sources of power.

  11. Thanks again for the detailed reply, sounds like its safe to use. I’ll try it on my X30 and let you know how it works. BTW, does anyone have any experience with the no-1802 on the X30?

  12. So far it seems to be working fine on X30. Thanks!

  13. You da man - it worked straight forward. I got a x31 with an intel 2200bg card. it booted fine and installed the drivers and i was up and running before you could say shananagans! :-) Thanks again!

  14. This is very interesting info. I just purchased a refurbished IBM T30 that has no wireless card. I was wondering why all the ones I saw for sale had ‘b’ cards instead of ‘g’. Would you recommend a good wireless card for me to get, I would like to try the hack with it? Is it something you run once, or on every boot up?

    Thanks.

  15. Just about any MiniPCI wireless card will work. Personally, I like the Intel ones and avoid the Cisco ones, but only because of the more straightforward driver set up and usage.

    You run this software once, and only ever need to repeat it if you replace the CMOS battery (which often outlasts the notebook itself).

  16. omg thank you sooooo much for this!!!!! my god i wish i would have stumbled upon this much earlier before ripping through my room to find a floppy drive and tearing apart my comp before to put it in. this was really nice and easy, and stupid me for not finding it earlier!!!!

    THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!

  17. Do you have to remove the network card to run the boot cd? I keep getting the 1802 message.

    Thanks,
    /scott

  18. Commenter
    JM axioms1 says:
    June 30th, 2006 at 6:13 pm

    Can confirm works on my R40 2682-HU2 with

    Intel® PRO/Wireless
    2200BG Network
    Connection

    Drivers from Intel website
    http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-010623.htm

    Excellent job.
    Thank you

  19. Commenter
    Guillermo says:
    July 4th, 2006 at 1:24 am

    NICE!

  20. I confirm that this works on T41 2374-7JG. I replaced the Cisco 802.11b card wuth an Intel 2915ABG card (.11,abg)
    Make sure you download latest 2915ABG card software
    http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro2915abg/index.htm

    Excellent!!
    Thanks.

  21. Excellent Image. Though it does NOT work with my R32 an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG. :(

  22. I can’t seem to get your file to boot. I’ve copied all the file to a disk, made a bootable disk, copied just the boot “file” contents to a disk. I have even downloaded Image burn, and tried to burn the image to disk. But Nero and Image Burn both tell me that it is an “invalid or unsupported image file format”. Can you PLEASE..help me….

  23. If you’ve copied all the boot disk files to a disk, it sounds like you’re opening the floppy image with the wrong program.

    ImgBurn and Nero are for burning the CD ISO image, and the Floppy Image program is for copying the floppy image directly to a floppy disk. With the two options provided, there should be no need to open either of the files unless you’re curious how they work.

    Try downloading the CD ISO, unzipping it, then opening the unzipped “.iso” file with ImgBurn, and clicking Burn. Doing so will load the image right onto a CD, bootable and all.

    Essentially, the two files above are file-based copies of the CD and floppy I made. There should be no need to make your own bootable CD; Just load the bits provided onto the medium you prefer.

  24. Thanks for the info. What had happened is that after I un-zipped the file, it came up as a WinRar file so I un-zipped it again. Not realizing that it was an ISO file. I can get the cd to boot now but I get an error that says “no valid Fat32 file system on the drive. I’m running Win Xp with a NTFS format. Please tell me that you fix will work for me!! Once again thanks for the help….Scott Oh IBM T30 1.6g p4m

  25. Please disreguard my last question. I found a similar program that will run from Windows.

    Or download at http://www.congenio.de/infos/no1802.com
    PS. buffalo G54 on IBM T30 working great

  26. That filesystem error is very odd, as none of the software provided touches the disk, let alone determines any formatting. I think you may still have burned it incorrectly by accident…

  27. Doesn’t work on a Thinkpad X41 (2525-6NH)

  28. great stuff with that ready cd image. good job. worked great on my T41

  29. Thanks for the excellent info. I tried installing my Dell-branded 1450 b/g Broadcom mini pci wireless card into my T30 and got the 1802 error.
    WTF I thought. A quick search got me here and I think the boot disk image and easy to follow directions are awesome!
    Worked like a charm the 1st time and the card now works great in the T30. Very useful and clear, THANKS!

  30. Works perfect. The card now is 100% functional and working at full 54mbs.

  31. works perfect on T42 with Atheros a/b/g .took one minute or less.Somehow if I plugged the card when Windows XP was in Hibernate modemafter wake-up detected the card without bios modification(maybe helpfull).Choose Atheros 150feet from router still excellent link on 108 Mbps- 9 USD on Ebay.
    Isn’t cool?

  32. burnt to cd and works a treat on T30 with IBM intel pro 2100 download driver from IBM many thanks and thanks to original author too !

  33. I have run the no-1802 utility before on a t30 and it works beautifully. However on this R32, it doesnt seem to set the bit no matter what I do. What is wrong?

    I keep getting the error!
    Thanks.

  34. I ran the iso file on cd on the Lenovo Thinkpad R60, the error message still persist. Could you help me? this is needed for a test enrinvoment where we will test different wireless cards.

    -Thanks, Chris

  35. This does NOT work on my Thinkpad Z60t. Anyway I don’t get that 1802 error, but other things happen:
    If I boot with the “wrong” network adaptor installed, a PXE boot sequence comes up at boot time, displayed overlapping with the lock symbol for entering my bootup-password. Even if I don’t enter a password it continues to boot with grub, where I can’t use my keyboard. Linux then boots, but there’s no wireless adapter in lspci. Any ideas/help?

  36. This seems like a simple solution - I’m having a problem still though - the T30 won’t even get to the boot disk CD. I set the 1st boot device to the CD but I get the error before it can even boot. Anyone have any ideas?

  37. Hi,

    I am trying to get the no-1802 but the link does not work. Can someone point me to the right link?

    Thanks,

    Scott

  38. http://jcnp.pku.edu.cn/~shadow/1802/ for scott, go to this link of simply type “1802 error” into google and presto.

    Guys In regards to my earlier problem:
    I ran the iso file on cd on the Lenovo Thinkpad R60, the error message still persist. Could you help me? this is needed for a test enrinvoment where we will test different wireless cards.

    Is there a solution for this I ran the ISO file from a bootable CD and it went into the DOS prompt to type “no-1802″ and I did then rebooted soonafter, the card is still not accepting. Any guesses to help me solve this problem, I need to resolve this for my test department at work, help please! :)

  39. Thanks Chris

    I use the link and it has the following:

    [DIR] Parent Directory -
    [ ] 1802.com 13-Jun-2004 15:13 18
    [TXT] 1802.txt 21-Jun-2004 14:52 1.4K
    [ ] no-1802.com 13-Jun-2004 15:13 18

    When I click on no-1802.com it doesn’t let me download anything. I am not very tech oriented so please be a little forgiving if I am doing something wrong. It took me forever to even find this page.

    Thanks again,

    Scott

  40. Please disregard my above post, I just figured it out.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  41. HELP!! I wasn’t sure if I needed to boot the laptop with the CD to run the program, It didn’t seem to do anything so I explorer the CD in Windows and when I reboot the computer will not do anything no error or anything just the fan turns on. I have a T30 and I tried to install an Intel 2200 wireless card.

    Please help!

  42. Thanks for great solution to avoid annoying error!

    Worked with my T40 and Intel Pro Wireless 2200bg (+latest drivers).

    Still there are minor side effects - the wireless network blue light on the bottom of display seems not to function - may be related to Think Vantage software that does not support the 2200bg card on T40. But the signal is strong and even stronger than new R50 I was able to use at the same time.

    It’s worth to mention that I got one confusing error during cd boot but you shouldnt fall into that, during the next power on the 1802 error message was gone ;)

    Thanks!

  43. Little more info how I got the result:

    power on -> press F1 to bios menu, set the cd drive to #1 in boot list (actually it was already #1 by default), disable wireless network card on mpci.
    power on -> to confirm the 1802 error does not appear as the wireless card is disabled, then insert the bootable cd, shut down.
    power on -> let the pc boot the cd, if A:/ appears, then just power off (thats the place I got some error regarding FAT but I ignored it)
    power on -> F1 to bios menu, enable wireless network card on mpci.
    power on -> the card should be accepted and XP prompts to found new hardware wizard, install the latest drivers from manufacturer and thats it.

    This is just for information what worked for me.

  44. I used the no-1802 trick on an R40 and a $19 Atheros a/b/g card I bought off of ebay with great success. The signal is 100% in my bedroom now, whereas it was 42% and reception had been on and off with the Belkin PCMCIA card I was using at that location! The only question is, can this be reversed? Can I just install a bios update and be back to square one?

  45. A BIOS update may well clear out the fix, and so would removing all sources of power from your machine. To do that, unplug the power cord, eject the battery, and unplug the small CMOS battery inside the notebook (often under the keyboard or a panel on the underside of the machine). Tap the power button once or twice to drain all power, and then plug everything back in.

  46. Well once again the world wide web comes to the rescue :-)

    I’ve got an IBM T40 2373 rev 14g Installed an PRO/Wireless 2200BG which, funnily is the card IBM told me to get, although I guess they meant their version. For anyone with the same. Here is the events I went through.

    Made the CD boot disk, removed the Network card I had just installed. Pressed F1 to go into the BIOS, wierdly this didn’t boot from the CD despite it being the first boot up device, I tried an XP disk to see if it was the disk image; anyway still no joy, so back in the BIOS I disabled all other boot devices except the Cd/DVD rom device, rebooted with the CD image and it ran happily. After I got to the DOS prompt (Flashing Cursor for those of you not techy) and typed exactly as it said on the screen. and it was done. For those of you not used to this you may think it will take some time, but it is virtually instant.
    I then powered off, installed the controller card and then rebooted back to windows. and installed the drivers. Works fien and dandy :-)

    To answer the question some of you have asked, yes I had to remove the wireless device before I could get to the boot screen.

    Many thanks to all for this, and to the person who wrote the BIOS edit and then to this site owner for being kind enough to make the CD image.

    Regards

  47. Glad to hear people are having successful WiFi card instllations :-)

  48. The no-1802 trick doesn’t work on my Thinpad R32. Now the only option I have is learn how to hack BIOS.

  49. I have an hp/compaq nx5000 notebook with a whitelist and a broadcom minipci card to replace the intel card who’s breakdown.
    I have error “104 ,Unsupported wireless network device detected. System halted. Remove device and restart ”

    My intel pro 2200 have id=”PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4220&SUBSYS_12F6103C”
    My broadcom 54G have id=”PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4320&SUBSYS_12FA103C”

    the backup of my bios with uniflash
    http://defdevil.free.fr/pages/upload/BIOSBQCK.zip

    you can upload the modded bios on
    http://defdevil.free.fr/pages/fup.php

    Thanks a lot
    Caroline

  50. The NO1802.COM solution works with older ThinkPad BIOS that are wired to require an IBM MPCI adapter (and only those MPCI will control the WiFi LED on the cover, BTW). The newer, larger BIOS systems (Z60, T60 et al) require a different patch, which as of yet I have not found.

  51. Hi guys, Hey i cant seem to get my t30 to accept an intel 2915 abg card. I have gone to ibm, downloaded the latest bios update, then applied the no-1802 bios flash. Installed the newest drivers for the 2915 abg card and the latest version of the intel wireless pro set software. The device installs but the pro/set software will not fully install. I get a page fault in a nonpaged area and it fails to finish. Ive tried many times. Im wondering if any of you have a similar problem and if you have gotten the 2915 abg wireless card to install on the ibm t30. Please let me know if its possible and what the solution is. Thanks in advance.. rick

  52. update… i have gotten the software to install but there is still aproblem. the intel proset cannot find a compatable device… device manager shows the wnic as a 2915abg ( which is correct ) but the device has an error code of 10 ( the device has faild to start ).. hope theres a quick fix.. ill keep working and thanks again in advance to any who can help.

  53. anyone found a workaround for z60 series Thinkpads???

  54. Could you confirm that no-1802 will work on an ibm r40e 2684 L8g i cant find any reference to this particular model thank you .

  55. I bought an atheros/philips abg card , i guess is similar with the one ibm sells.Installed it in a r40 2681 L7U and of course i got the 1802 . Followed the instructions here , had to boot once with the normal windows after aplying the cd patch and then reboot.Windows detected the card normally but i had to download the latest wi-fi abg drivers from ibm/lenovo website to make it work.Led is working ok and after aplying the latest hotkey driver from the ibm/lenovo website as well Fn+F5 is also working!
    Thanks for the info , my only remark is that you most likely will need the new drivers to make it work.

  56. I just wanted to say thanks to you and the writer of this hack (hack being a good thing mind you) for making this available to the online community. It is a service to us all. (as opposed to the dis-service that manufacturers like IBM/Lenovo and HP do to us by forcing us to buy their shit) We…the online community…thank you!

  57. Commenter
    John Downe says:
    August 25th, 2006 at 6:08 am

    Absolute magic, bought two very cheap Cisco 350 mini PCI cards on eBay and both now working well and accepted as standard IBM/Cisco cards on 2 Thinkpad T30s. “no-1802″ worked flawlessly and drivers downloaded easily from ibm.com.
    Many thanks to the author / CD image builder!