Thinkpads Forum

I have a T61 6465CTO that I bought in '08. I've been running linux on it most of the time and I've never noticed that I apparently don't have BT. My original order status doc's don't show BT on the configuration list so I guess back in '08 I didn't think I needed BT

So reading about dongles, I see a Panda Nano Adapter as a possible solution. I'm looking for a suggestion on this device or any other options that don't require me opening the case (been there, done that and don't want to do it again).

Finally, I just bought a dongle for the usb port

jharrison29 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 09, 2023 8:47 pm

So reading about dongles, I see a Panda Nano Adapter as a possible solution. I'm looking for a suggestion on this device or any other options that don't require me opening the case (been there, done that and don't want to do it again).

I have been on the same boat with many other laptops that I want bluetooth on. Aside from finding the original bluetooth modules or plugging in a wifi card that has bluetooth built in (I always have reliability issues with these), I would buy a cheap USB bluetooth dongle and heavily mod the laptop to "embed" it. T61 is not the best candidate for this but on laptops with a small USB daughter board I would just shift the daughter board inwards and then plug in the dongle so that the dongle does not stick out much, or on newer laptops with a simpler bluetooth connector I would just use the USB lanes off that and then hook up 5V power from an USB port - but if you do that on a ThinkPad you'll not finish POST since their bluetooth are also whitelisted afaik.

kfzhu1229 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 08, 2023 12:58 pm

then plug in the dongle so that the dongle does not stick out much

I don't use BT very often on my TP. I bought a low profile dongle, it sticks out less than 1/2". I do remove it when moving the TP because that 1/2" is too much in case it hits something.
I didn't but BT when I bought that machine because back then I failed to understand how popular and useful BT would become. Silly me.

jharrison29 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 08, 2023 2:48 pm

I don't use BT very often on my TP. I bought a low profile dongle, it sticks out less than 1/2". I do remove it when moving the TP because that 1/2" is too much in case it hits something.
I didn't but BT when I bought that machine because back then I failed to understand how popular and useful BT would become. Silly me.

yeah I make it inconspicuous so that nothing sticks out and I can just leave it in there.
Actually there is more to it than just how it would become popular today. If today's wireless earbuds is what you want to use it with (like what I am doing), you're gonna have to pray that your bluetooth drivers are actually reliable enough to work under windows 10/11. I didn't have much problems with that with the HP integrated bluetooth module and Dell Truemobile 355 and 360, but earlier ones than that are simply incapable of handling the bandwidth required for that connection and some later ones had some weird driver implementations that force you to use the bluetooth stack (which don't work with my earbuds), while only Windows 10/11's built in bluetooth stack work properly for me.

jharrison29 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 08, 2023 2:48 pm

kfzhu1229 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 08, 2023 12:58 pm

then plug in the dongle so that the dongle does not stick out much

I don't use BT very often on my TP. I bought a low profile dongle, it sticks out less than 1/2". I do remove it when moving the TP because that 1/2" is too much in case it hits something.
I didn't but BT when I bought that machine because back then I failed to understand how popular and useful BT would become. Silly me.

Maybe you can put an adapter like this in one of the minipcie ports and insert the dongle inside the laptop.

Thanks but for as little as I use BT on the TP I'm good with my current solution.

Gonzaleitor wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 21, 2023 10:25 am

Maybe you can put an adapter like this in one of the minipcie ports and insert the dongle inside the laptop.

Yes it's possible but you also gotta be careful about the placement. If you just naively put it in you may get almost zero signal reception if there is either a metal shield above it or plastic with copper paint inside (these block EMR).
On my Acer laptop I put it right by the location where the bluetooth module would've gone to for higher end models, that way there is less signal reception problems. Or in the case of plastics with copper paint you can also sand the paint off and you're good to go.

That's something I didn't thought about. Maybe you're right but it's worth a try!