Lenovo Thinkpad X200s WWAN Retrofit (Antenna and Ericsson F3507g mini-PCIe Card)

My Thinkpad X200s did not had any WWAN card. Also my X200s wasn't WWAN ready so it didn't had any antennas installed. On the other hand there was already installed a SIM card reader.

So the only way to operate was to install both antennas and WWAN card.

For this retrofit project I purchased:

1. Ericsson F3507g  HSDPA WWAN + 7.2M GPS Card, FRU# : 43Y6513
2. 3G WWAN Antenna Kit (Blue and Red)
3. X200s Clear Plate with WWAN Icon 

Total Cost 45 Euros delivered from Singapore.

For the installation and access we need to remove the following parts:

1. Battery pack
2. Keyboard
3. Palm rest with fingerprint reader
4. Keyboard bezel
5. LCD
6. LCD front bezel
7. Inverter card
8. Bluetooth daughter card 
9. Integrated camera
10. LCD panel

STEPS 1 - 3

For the Keyboard and Palm Rest the thing are easy I had to remove from the back the screws that shows at the picture below. RED for the keyboard and YELLOW for the Palm rest. 

What you remove the screws it is easy to remove the keyboard with a push - pull movement as shows at Thinkpad drawing below. 

Then Lift the keyboard a little in the direction shown by arrow 4 , and then detach the connector.

The palm rest you need to detach the connector (models with fingerprint reader) and simply lift the palm rest.

STEP 4 KEYBOARD BEZEL

First you have to remove the screw at the bottom of the laptop

Then you detach the claws by gently pulling as arrow 2 shows. Then remove the keyboard bezel in the direction shown by arrow 3.

Attention: avoid any kind of rough handling.

STEP 5 LCD REMOVAL

Next step is the LCD removal from the chassis. First you have to take apart all the cables in order to be free.

Next unscrew the lcd panel cable and detach the cable from the motherboard.

After that you have to unscrew the LCD screws at the bottom and at the back of the laptop. (4 screws)

Finally gently lift and detach the LCD screen from the body. Take care to take apart all the cables (antennas cables).

STEP 6 LCD front bezel

In order to remove the LCD Panel fort we have to remove the plastic covers and then unscrew the three screws as shown at picture below.

After that and with very gentle moves we detach the bezel from the rest screen body.

After that you see the LCD screen ready for removal. for that we have to unscrew all the screws shown at next picture.

STEP 7-9 Inverter card Bluetooth daughter card, Integrated camera

At the next step you have to remove inverter card (only to some model) in my case I had LED panel so there isn't any inverter card. in case that there is any inverter card you have also to detach it as shown below.

In case of led models like mine you have only to detach the led indicator circuit (un-clip the cable also).

Next is the bluetouth module 

and the camera / led light if there is any (in my case there was only led light.

STEP 10 LCD PANEL

After that you can remove the LCD panel for the screen by pulling it. take care not to damage any cables. All the cables are running in the back of the panel as shown here.

ANTENNAS INSTALLATION

After that you have the body ready for the new antennas installation. have a look at my screen body as it was before.

There was installed only the wifi antennas. also look at the next drawing the correct position for any other antenna installation.

After that stage i had to install the new antennas. They are glued into the body. they are like stickers.

first you have to fit and stick the upper side of the antenna and next if you fit it well mount and the aluminum part to the body.

Same for the right antenna

and the complete job.

at this point you have also to route the new cables in the route direction of the old ones (left and right of the screen case).

After that install the panel again and start mount with the reverse order all the components again to their position.

After that you have to route the new cables blue and red through the direction that shown at the picture above.

INSTALL PCIE WWAN CARD

After all the assembly you must connect the WWAn card to the PCIe slot that was empty. Note it will fit only to the second one slot.

Ericsson F3507g mini-PCIe Card

Card installed (connect red antenna to red arrow point and blue antenna to blue arrow point. 

Assembly laptop back and you are ready for test.

Last thing is to remove the old indicator sticker and install the new one with the WWAN indicator on.

Note you don't have to install other LED indicator plate the already installed has already a led for wwan and it will light up with the card installed and activated.

Also dot forget to install SIM Card at the back of the laptop (it is located under the battery place).

WARNING : after the installation and power on laptop the x200s must automatic recognize the new card. In my case I wasn't lucky I was trying a day to see what was wrong. The system didn't see the card anywhere (not even in device manager). I also run lenovo's update and again nothing. I also run lenovo update and also nothing. The solution was BIOS. I had to set Bios to default and after that like magic after restart my system recognize the card and also lenovo update install both drivers for WWAN and GPS. After that you have to sit and wait just for the automatic update install all the correct programs. 

After that worked PERFECT.