Make a ThinkPad accept any MiniPCI Card – avoid 1802 error

If after installing your new miniPCI card into your ThinkPad laptop you get an 1802 error at boot, here is the solution.

Disclaimer: This worked for me, but I am unable to make any guarantee that it will work for you. Furthermore, if you really care about IBM’s warranty, you may want to pass this one and buy your miniPCI card from them directly.

After getting my ThinkPad R40 from eBay, I got a wireless miniPCI card from there as well. I bought an Intel card, to avoid any compatibility issues. Little did I know… All recent ThinkPads have an internal list of miniPCI cards they will accept. Note that this is not only based on the model number, but also some internal numbers which are different for different batches of the exact same card.

Here is a detailed explanation. The simplest solution is:

  1. download no-1802.com
  2. boot into DOS mode
  3. run no-1802.com

If nothing happens – you should be able to finally install your card.

If your laptop came without a floppy drive, you may need to create or find a boot CD. I found some free boot-CD-generating program and created a CD with an option to boot into Windows 98. If you have Easy CD Creator, Nero, or some such software, they all let you create boot CDs, but you may need to obtain an image of a bootable floppy disk first (which means you have to create the CD on another computer that does have a floppy.)

This Command-Tab post has links to CD ISO image and a floppy image you can use.

58 thoughts on “Make a ThinkPad accept any MiniPCI Card – avoid 1802 error

  1. Do you know where i can possibly find that no-1802.com since it is not available on the linked site? BTW. “Svemir” means space, right?

  2. The site has not been pulled. Your browser may be playing tricks on you (e.g. Firefox may try to open a .com file directly…)

  3. Thanks worked great on my X31 2672-QG0.
    However Firefox tries to open this directly, so Right click and “Save Link As.”

  4. More info on the need to boot to DOS? I can create a bootable CD that boots to Windows — or I can open a DOS / command.exe window on my PC. Why/how do I boot to DOS directly on my PC?

    I don’t have a floppy drive on my thinkpad; what’s the best/free way to make a DOS bootable CD?

    Thanks.

  5. I could not find the program I originally used to create a bootable CD. However you do it, you should be able to make it not to start Windows directly, but to boot into DOS mode. You may need to press F8 or something while booting. I am not using that ThinkPad anymore, so I can not give you any additional details. Once you get to the command prompt, just run the no-1802.com (I think you can run it from the hard drive, it does not have to be on the CD you boot from.)

  6. If I run this program, what is actually done to the machine? Is it a permanent BIOS change?

    Also, does the blue Access IBM and all the wifi related Thinkpad software still work with an unauthorised card?

    Cheers

  7. no-1802.com makes a (safe) change to CMOS – it does not change the BIOS. Access IBM and all wifi-related Thinkpad software keeps working fine (as far as I remember.)

  8. i read the instructions and they all start with ‘press F1 and deactivate the wlan card. but i can’t find a way to deactivate it in BIOS 3.05a. please help me

  9. sorry but am not so good with computer, I downloaded the ‘no-1802’ cd iso, but I don’t know to install it. I tried writing it to cd as surgested, but it doesn’t boot from cd when I restart, or even when I try running the cd , I just get error msgs. Please can you try to explain the whole process in layman’s terms, so that even me whos not so good in computers can understand how to remove the 1802 error.

  10. worked and ironically had to use it on an ibm card.x40 ibm even with bios update still didnt recognise the 2915 wlan card.So no-1802 fixed that. many thanks for this.

  11. Can somebody please provide a working like to this file, the link is now dead. Or please email it. Thank you.

  12. I have updated the link for no-1802.com in the post, and I also linked to another post which has bootable CD and floppy images you can use (I did not use those myself, but according to the comments on the website they seem to work.) I also updated the “detailed explanation” link, because the old one also went missing…

  13. Hi, I would like to try this file on my Lenovo Thinkpad X61 tablet to installa a new DELL 1490 wireless card mini PCI-E (I have to change the native Intel wireless card because I installed Apple Leopard and Intel is not compatible with Airport)..
    Con I try this hack without collateral effects?!
    Thanks in advance.
    Alex

  14. works flawlessly on my x31 2672-CPA
    solid stuff. thank you so much…
    Broadcom minipci

  15. Hi Rick and all!
    Why do you think that this trick won’t work on an R32? Is it not worth trying it on that ThinkPad at all? Please respond, for I intend to try it on my R32.

  16. According to the thinkwiki.org site linked above:

    On the R32, T43, X41, X60 and probably others, the BIOS hacks and the “no-1802” utility don’t work.

  17. I have a T30 that started throwing the 1802 error on boot for no reason. The error has never happened before. The network card has never been changed and neither has the BIOS been flashed.

    I have a USB floppy with a DOS boot disk and the computer STILL throws this error without letting me boot into DOS to run no-1802.com. I have set the USB floppy to be the 1st boot device and the network card (when it appears in the list – sometimes it does not – to be the last. Still no go. I am exceptionally frustrated. Any ideas?

  18. I encountered similar problem that Lawren had.
    However, I was able to use my USB floppy drive and boot from there to run no1802.com.
    If the USB floppy drive does not work for you, you may want to try a directly attached floppy drive (in place of the CD/DVD drive slot) and go from there.

  19. It worked on my T42p. But the ThinkVantage Access Connection can not recognize my wireless anymore although the Windows built-in wireless manager could easily connect me to my wireless network just perfect!

  20. works flawlessly on my
    (notebook : IBM R32 Series 2659-HT3)
    solid stuff. thank you so much…
    Broadcom minipci
    (Wireless Card : Intel 2915ABG minipci SPEC)
    Con I try this hack without collateral effects?!
    Thanks in advance.
    Please!!Please!!Please!!Please!!Please!!
    @_@ *_* Tomy Zau (Taiwan)

  21. I have a thinkpad a31 laptop and have been trying to install a intel internal wireless card with out progress. I came accross this site but i haven’t see any step that a lay man would take to accomplish this obstacle. Can some one help, step by step instruction would be great.
    Thanks

  22. The person who wrote this no-1802 has done a great service to the world. Hats off and many thanks! Just tell me your paypal address.

  23. IBM T30 mod 2366 , Hamlet and Conceptronic pcmcia WLan make 1802 error.
    Boot whit “not-1802” floppy boot : all ok !
    Very thanks to all !

  24. Worked great on my A31. All I did was put it on a floppy, book my laptop into DOS mode using an old W98 Boot Disk, inserted the floppy with the no1802, ran the program and no more error! This was much easier than the ethtool method I used on my old thinkpad and the command-tab instructions floating around. Thanks much!

  25. Is this reversible? Suppose I try no1802, but it doesn’t work. Can I get it back to what it was before? If yes, how?

  26. It worked perfectly on my A31p, i don’t have words to express how much happy i am, thank you a lot from Argentina!!
    Gustavo.

  27. I tried the ‘no-1802.com’ by booting my laptop into DOS mode via a floppy disk. I run the ‘no-1802.com’ and had a response ‘no1802(C) 2004 congenio GmbH 1802 No-error bit is set now!’. Then I reboot my laptop, unfortunely the ‘error 1802:’ still existed. My model is X41 2525-EV1′.
    Anything else I can do? Pls. help.
    Michael

  28. My trusted x31 “netbook” with original wi-fi suddenly started throwing the 1802 error, just like Lawren and Alex commented earlier. Anyone ever get to the root cause of it? I understand that the utility may alleviate the symptom, but its sudden onset is quite disconcerting — what else is going wrong with the system? Moreover, with no peripherals and only NTFS on the hard drive, it is not so trivial to “boot DOS”…

    Thanks.

  29. Wonderfull for me. Many solutions over the internet ask for dangerous BIOS changes, but this is perfect.

  30. This thread is old and pretty much dead, BUT… If you are having trouble getting the computer to boot from the bootable no-1802 CD or Floppy because the 1802 Error stops the boot process… First, Remove the affected WiFi card before you try to run the program… After the program has run successfully, shut down the laptop and re-install the wifi card and things should be fine.

    The no-1802 program does not reflash or actually repair the problem, it is simply a work-around that changes a BIOS setting which is inaccessible from within the user accessible BIOS settings. If the CMOS battery dies or if your BIOS is reset, your BIOS will again give the 1802 Error. If the CMOS battery dies, Replace the CMOS battery first, then Run the no-1802 program again and you should be fine for more years until the CMOS battery dies again.

    I don’t remember where it was that I had found it, but at one point I had found a site (might have been think-wiki) with modified BIOS downloads for numerous Thinkpad models which completely eliminates the problem from ever re-occurring (like by your CMOS battery dying or by the BIOS being reset) by re-flashing the BIOS with a version with the 1802 error completely removed. If you can find it, that is definitely the best way to go because you’ll never need to worry about it again.

  31. Hey i have a problem
    i have a lenovo thinkpad x230 and i want to use my buyed Ericsson F5521gw WWan card

    i followed tutorials but it dont works….
    error 1802

    pls help me
    i speak german
    i say sorry for my bad english 😀

  32. Thank you for this! I just upgraded a ThinkPad T41 from a 2100 to a 2200. It complained about the 1802. After booting to the CD I made and typing “no-1802” at the DOS prompt, the computer accepted the card after rebooting and I was able to install the driver.

  33. no need to remove the card if you get the 1802 error.
    press F1 when the starting, you’ll get the 1802 error but also the option to run the setup (press F1 again). go to the setup and disable the wireless
    re=start and run no-1802 from a DOS CD or floppy.
    I actually created a bootable DOS partition just in case with the no1802 in it so there is no need of any CD
    if you reset the bios (to default values for example) or the cmos battery didn’t work for any reason then you’ll get the 1802 error again.

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