Installing an Intel 7260 WiFi + Bluetooth Card in your Thinkpad X220 

Another excellent video - nice work! I added links on the X220 site to this as well as your modified BIOS installation tutorial. Thanks again for everything you do.

Thanks for this, it's given me the confidence to do this upgrade. I love the upgradability of the X220.

Awesome! I use the X220 whenever I'm travelling. It's hard to beat. I wanted to upgrade the wifi to an AC card. I did a whitelist-removal bios upgrade and installed a card from Amazon. I can now connect at 866 Mbps vs. my old card which was 72 Mbps. WOW, what a difference. Hopefully, it's stable.

I'm relieved I found someone who documented exactly what I needed, haha. Thanks for this vid!

Thanks for your video! I really love this old machine and with 16 GB of RAM, a SSD and now with almost gigabit WiFi, I‘m still able to do all my work on it - after 11 years! That’s just amazing. Thanks again for your instructions!

So great so great, finally, with myself quarantine watching your videos convert the sadness into a happiness. keep on moving,

Thank you so much! This is awesome! Thanks for the coinsidance that I watched your video a year ago and now I have a thinkpad x220i and I was really suprised that there was no in built bluetooth and i would never like to use a adapter and the internet connection also was very bad. But when I remembered your video, I looked into my spare parts drawer and guess what, I found a wifi + bluetooth card there from an different laptop. Also in few minutes did the bios update and installed the card hoping for the best. And it works so goood! Thank you so much!

Hi! Thanks for the tutorial. I just BIOS modded my Thinkpad T420 and installed the same wifi card. With your tutorial the Bluetooth is working now!

Everyone be liking this vid cause it is helpful, but can we talk about this man's good music taste? Watching this for my T420

Did the wifi upgrade on my X220. Works great. Thanks

Thanks a lot sir, followed both videos and my new wifi card is working like a charm. 12 years and still going strong #x220

It’s a neat upgrade. I just did it recently on my X220i. Note the Bluetooth icon doesn’t flash even if you’re thinkpad is connected to Bluetooth. Minor issue nonetheless!

Great guide, worked perfectly for me! Did the upgrade to resolve signal issues with my X220. I've still got the signal issues (I'm thinking it's the WiFi antennae) but at least I know it's not the card! Trying to decide whether I can be bothered buying replacement antennae and disassembling the whole thing to replace them (if that's even possible)...

Hi. Thank you for your helpful/useful video. One important & critical question from me is : why and what reason that you had to put that electrical tape on the pin 51? (what is going to happen if I don't put or I missed that part). Thank you

Thanks for the cool video! I have x220t (4984CTO) windows 8.1, not linux. is this still the best option for me (wifi adapter type)? Should I still tape it? And lastly do you know if there is an LTE WWAN adapter upgrade possible?

Thank you! Was a great help to get it to work :-)

I just did this upgrade! The custom bios flash sucked for me but I figured it out eventually. I couldn't get windows PE x86 to boot and amd64 couldn't run the Lenovo exe because it was 32 bit. Windows 10 could execute it but failed with a blue screen. Finally windows 7 pro worked flawlessly for the Lenovo bios upgrade and custom flash. The chip works great too!

One thing I had to dop in addition to covering pin 51 was also covering pin 20. For some reason, my system was reading that my hardware radio switch was turned off (even though it was switched on). I couldn't find a software fix (with Fn+F5), and I couldn't find any issue with the switch on the motherboard. Covering pin 20 just let the wi-fi card ignore the hardware radio switch's signal, so that it could just work.

If I remove the whitelist bios to install a new wifi chip, then does it need a Lenovo FRU or can any generic cards word too?

After installing the 7260 my speedtest actually dropped. I added a tape to the pin 51. Is it possible that the tape slipped or something or wouldn't it work if it did ?

Mine is an i7 with onboard Bluetooth will I still get a boost from this? The Windows 7 driver doesn't support my headset. Guessing the new board might have better functionality?

Great video! I have plans to do this with my x220. But I need to get to whitelist'ing the BIOS. Question; if I go this route should I just remove the Dedicated Bluetooth chip inside altogether?

Do you think this will work in an Alienware M15x? I want the Bluetooth to work but at the same time there was already a Dedicated Bluetooth antenna and wire so idk

Wonderful video, could you tell me what is the compactibily wifi card for lenovo g510 i7 4700mq laptop?

hola! tengo un problema con el cursor de mi notebook lenovo G580, tiende a descender....no entiendo el porque pero se va para abajo y no puedo subir....lo intento con la rueda del mouse pero nada.....se va hacia abajo....podras ayudarme?

Thanks. Just did the exact upgrade. works great.

I successfully upgraded the wifi card on my X220 per your instructions. Thanks! I just bought a used W520. can I use the same instructions on the W520?

Surgery done and went well today. i bought the wifi card, exactly as advised on the site from amazon and all went just fine. In addition, Something funny has just happened tough. i has a long time issue , when i pressed Caps lock, and the it would delay before caps were actually changed, after replacing the wifi-nic now the issue is gone? i`m guessing, that might have to do with me tweaking the keyboard while re-assembling. Thanks again for your how-to tutorials.

thanks for great video! did the wifi upgrade few months back and removed dedicated bluetooth card from the laptop new bluetooth worked well for some time, though I rarely used it but now I don't see any bluetooth device in Ubuntu anymore do you think it can be related with that tape on one pin which is may not fit well now? thanks

7:00 I did a "soft reassembly" once when I was dicking around with the radio in my beat up 2000 Mercedes S500. It didnt have an aux cable so I soldered the appropriate wires onto some leads on the cassette player to fit an aux cable . . . The soft reassembly shifted when I set the radio on the passenger seat for testing before reinstallation . . . first a weird smell, then a tiny bit of smoke, then a goddamed raging file in the passenger seat. Managed to hastily disconnect the 10 or so connections on the back of the radio and hurl the fireball out of the passenger window. Damn near burned the car to the ground on account of a "soft reassembly".

Hey there! I'm wondering if you've done any research on using a triband card in the x220. I've heard rumors that the wiring for the 3x3 antennas is in the device... i.e. the Intel Centrino Ultimate N-6300 was an option back in the day. Wifi antennas are black, grey, white WWAN antennas are blue and red.

Do you know if this update can enable the wifi connection between an x220 and a smart tv via miracast?

I need this on my w520, do i need to do this tape or a bios update or something ?

Is there a better version of the intel 7260 Wi-Fi card for the X220i in 2023?

Would you inform me if the 7260 dual band ac device works on DELL model 5537 notebooks?

What are the two chords connected to the WiFi card? I removed the monitor and those two chords were in it and now my WiFi is not working

Thank You. Installing this card is scheduled for tomorrow. I am curious if a firmware update will be required and how to do that. Guess I will find out

I could not find the whitelist removal video. I have a Lenovo G560, and want to do this.

Thanks for your video. Just wondering your X220 used to have bluetooth function before upgrade or it is capable for bluetooth connection after upgrade. I am about going to do the same for my W530. Currently, the laptop doesn't have bluetooth function. Just curious to know those info. Thanks.

I have a X220 with a BCM3422 card inside that I had used as replacement for the fried OG one. My X220 model never had Bluetooth and it is also lacking the Bluetooth status light. Do you think it is possible to put an Intel 7260 card into this one and have Bluetooth?

Whats the best wifi card available for a x220 hackintosh

Could you perhaps say something about the differences between the old and new cards and the reason why you upgraded ? Also a little background about why one pin should be blanked off would also be interesting.

Great job on the content, just discovered your channel! Curious if you are still using the X220 as your daily laptop? I know your videos for the laptop are 4-5 years old now.

Laptop Retrospective Isn't it the Lenovo laptops has whitelist that don't accept other new "WiFi Internet Adapter"? What is the purpose of that cover the tape on pin #1? I've been looking around how to remove whitelist on my Lenovo Thinkpad E40, so I can install new hi-speed Gigabyte "WiFi Internet Adapter". It doesn't recognize. Nice video, thnx.

I have been looking all over the place to figure out how to add bluetooth to my t60 it came from the factory WITHOUT it, can you point me in a direction? Cheers, Bob

My X220 already has bluetooth, but I wanted to get this to boost my wifi. Did you have to remove the old bluetooth card so you don't have two inside?

Sorry mybeifi card not function buy the bluetooth still work n can pair...sould i replace the ecisting wifi catd?

My startup time increased, between bios check and grub, when i added the 7260 card. is there a setting i have to make to the bios after installing the 7260ac?

Will this work in an X201? Right now I'm using dongles for that. Built-in would be better.

Is taht 4.0 or 5.0 bluetooth version? Thank you.

Thanks,I need to know how can I connect my technics sl d3 turntable with X220. Need any installation??

My X220 already came with dual band wifi (maybe the previous owner made an upgrade), works like a charm (on 75% wifi signal I got 300Mbps), but my issue is that I have Bluetooth 3.0, and somehow I can’t detect my Bluetooth mouse or bluetooth keyboard to pair with my laptop… but strangely it detected my iPhone and got it paired. Anyone had an issue like that? Any tips? Is it because of the incompatibility of Bluetooth generation?

Thanks for the video, it's very informative. I tried it with AX210. Arch Linux with latest drivers. Wifi works as expected, but Bluetooth is not detected. Bios modded, factory Broadcom bt removed, tape pin 51 and adjust a few times, no luck. I guess I will stay with the original bt then.

Would this card work with my x200?

I would honestly say installing the tape is the hardest part of the installation process. I'm still figuring out what bluetooth drivers work with this on Windows 10 but the Wifi and Bluetooth work from the start on Linux Mint.

I am assuming this guide is specifically for Thinkpad x220 not the x230?

Can the same procedure be used to get Bluetooth on a T430?

Intel 7260 support for X230?

Does the X230 also need the Bios update (whitelist)?

Hello can you make video on upgrade T430 with Intel 7260 Dual Band AC?

is it possible to install Wifi 6 Wireless Card Intel AX200 Bluetooth 5.1 AX AC NGFF M.2 2G 5G M2 on x230 and get its full speed?

Is this worth upgrading over stock?

Do you need drivers? I have card 7260 installed but wifi will not connect to 11ac only connects 11n. I installed latest from Intel but still only getting 11n connection.

Ok i have installed the chip and it has given me a good boost on my wifi. however i dont apear to have blue tooth, any sugestions? i did tape the pin , but maybe its exposed would that cause no blue tooth?

can you tell me which one should I choose for acer e5 576g? intel 7260 vs 9260???

So I guess this is 802.11ac Wifi which is what I need to use for using a drone. I would use my phone but it`s old. I will look on ebay now and give you another thank you in a week or so. :) Thank you for the Vid.

so the bluetooth is “in” / “with” the wifi card ?

Does this work for the x230?

will this work with the X230T

How can I check which card is compatible without opening the laptop? My old laptop was manufactured in 2011, I'm thinking about installing a dual-band card.

could it work at x61s too ?

I am on t430 and after installing the same chip, I noticed no bluetooth and I believe I need the exact same fix. Thank You very much for sharing.

谢谢！Thanks. X220 i5 2430 Mod BIOS 16G 1899 mSTAT 7260

No Bluetooth on my x220t. I'm deciding between USB 5.0 dongle or this.

Anyone have issues with bluetooth now disconnecting after recent windows 10 updates? Is there a fix?

Nooo you forgot to set the bluetooth speaker from HSP to A2DP to get better audio! That enables proper stereo speaker instead of the bad audio you heard

Will this chip work on a bios-patched x230?

Hi would this work for a t430

Which ThinkPad drivers to use for 7260?

Anyone know if this works on the next generation of machines? **30 laptops i mean

Polyimide tape would be ideal for this.

Where did you buy your wifi card from?

Hi, is this method applicable to newer version of wifi card?

Thanks for the video! I can't get this to work to save my life. I have the modified 1.46 BIOS (I can see the advanced menu) but after trying dozens of times with electrical tape over pin 51 and having it not detect any wireless card I decided to cut the pin instead. Still no luck. I tried re-flashing the BIOS a few times, and no luck. I tried putting the card in my Y580 IdeaPad (also with a modified BIOS to remove the OEM hardware whitelist) and it recognizes the 7260AC card, so I'm pretty sure it's not defective. I'm totally at a loss here, does anyone have any tips?

WHY YOU COVERED THE LAST PIN?

wich brand of ssd you'r using

I actually didn't get it why you covered the pin with tape.....

Why do you need to tape it

why would someone dislike such a vide ?

i have the intel centrino

Great guide, but I accidentally bought an N 7260 instead of the AC. RIP

how much do you pay for that upload speed lmao

why not just grinding it out...the pin completely removed

This DOES NOT work on the Thinkpad W530, unfortunately! You can either use this card in the mini-PCI-E port designated for wifi cards to get wifi, OR the mini-PCI-E port designated for WWAN cards to get bluetooth working. Not both! Whoever came up with this needs to get fired!