My T23 has the factory built-in wireless antenna and came with the "IBM High Rate wireless LAN MiniPCI Combo Card".

Is it possible to plug in some kind of miniPCI card to harness on the original antenna in order to get the bluetooth capability?

I don't have DSL, and use an USB bluetooth dongle for my phone line internet dial-up. But this permanently takes up one precious USB socket. So, if I can get bluetooth by sticking in a MiniPCI card instead, this would free up my USB socket.

If you have successfully got bluetooth through this method, I would be grateful if you can show me how. Many thanks.

You could go with a PCMCIA bt card..

Thanks for your reply, Raleigh. Found that the PC card bluetooth adapers would cost around $40 each. Meanwhile, I also found two interesting possibilities which, if workable, would also cost around the same:

1. MSI combo wifi/bluetooth PCI card at:
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_sp ... &class=com

The description seems to tell me that this MSI pci card could replace my present IBM High Rate wifi pci card, and would provide the bluetooth capability.

2. Hitachi PCI card bluetooth antenna

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-HITACHI-WLAN-Mini ... h-Antenna-

Notebook_W0QQitemZ6830872375QQcategoryZ31542QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZ

This description seems to say that if I connect this antenna to the Aux socket in my IBM wifi pci card, this antenna would supply me the bluetooth capability. It even shows how the antenna cable can be squeezed into the pci compartment, without having to thread it up into the LCD interior.

Anyone care to comment? Thanks.

Sorry for this repeat posting as I goofed above and somehow got sent in as Guest. Anyway, here it is, hopefully the URL for Hitachi antenna is not broken:


1. MSI combo wifi/bluetooth PCI card at:
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_sp ... &class=com

The description seems to tell me that this MSI pci card could replace my present IBM High Rate wifi pci card, and would provide the bluetooth capability.

2. Hitachi PCI card bluetooth antenna

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-HITACHI-WLAN-Mini ... rdZ1QQcmdZ

This description seems to say that if I connect this antenna to the Aux socket in my IBM wifi pci card, this antenna would supply me the bluetooth capability. It even shows how the antenna cable can be squeezed into the pci compartment, without having to thread it up into the LCD interior.

Anyone care to comment? Thanks.

As I doubt the MSI combo wifi/bluetooth PCI card was an IBM option for your machine you will likely run into the 1802 error problem. If you don't mind receiving the error on every bootup you can hit ESC and ignore, or you can do the no-1802 BIOS fix as discussed in other threads here.

Supposedly that is a proprietay card.. Under features, it says:

"Alert: This Card is MSI's Proprietary Design for MS-1013 and MS-1029 ONLY!! ".

Note: The T23 does not have the NO-1802. Newer models do.