On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 03:57:25PM +1000, Toby Corkindale wrote:
> > I agree - that's very bad practice. The only reasons that come
> > immediately to mind would be (1) trying to make you purchase
> > cards through them or to upgrade the laptop; or (2) some sort of
> > regulatory issue in one or more of their markets. As I recall,
> > wireless regulators in Japan are particularly strict, but they're
> > not the only example.

if they're using that as an excuse, it's pretty lame...and bogus. there
are plenty of legal, wifi regulation-compliant wireless mini-PCIe cards
that don't have a Lenovo brand or PCI-ID.  Using them is not illegal,
and does not break legal certification of the device.

> Who knows.. Apparently HP do this too, but not really anyone else, and
> they all seem to sell stuff around the world fine.

they get away with it because people let them, they don't complain and
they keep buying crippled standards-breaking shit. the whole point
of PCIe (as for other peripheral connection standards) is that it
is a *standard* for upgrade/replacement modules from any compliant
manufacturer.

refusing to boot when a third-party device is installed in the slot is
anti-competitive, and possibly illegal in this country.

write to the ACCC complaining about Lenovo's false advertising and
anti-competitive practices - crippled mini-PCI Express is not mini-PCI
Express.

also complain to PCI-SIG and advise them of Lenovo abusing their trademark.

and/or just return the laptop due to it being not as advertised
(crippled/non-standard mini-PCIe) and not fit for purpose under your
australian statutory warranty.



> As for adjusting the PCI IDs.. It seems that on some old intel cards, 
> you could write to the EEPROM to do so, with some patches to the drivers.

another alternative: this page lists some hacked bioses without the
PCI-ID whitelist restrictions for some models of thinkpads. might be
worth checking if your model is one of them.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/MiniPCI_Express_slot

craig

-- 
craig sanders <[email protected]>
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