Repurposing WWAN Slot on Lenovo X280 Laptop

EdTittel · 18 May 2018

Warning: This is a "Does Anybody Know?" question. I've been looking for this info everywhere and can't find it anywhere. Here goes:

I'm thinking seriously about buying a Lenovo ThinkPad X280 laptop. I've got a predecessor model, the X220 Tablet and it's been a great, great road machine. My question needs a little background first. These ThinkPads have WWAN slots that often can be repurposed to accommodate SSDs. Thus, for example, the X220 had an mSATA compatible slot for WWAN into which I was able to drop a Plextor 256GB SSD that now serves as that unit's primary hard disk. Also, the X270 has an m.2 WWAN slot into which other users have been able to drop 2242 m.2 drives from the handful of suppliers who make such tiny devices (2242 means 22mm wide and 42mm long, which is about 20mm shorter than a typical mSATA device).

The X280 has the same kind of WWAN slot, too. So here's my question: does anybody know if this will also work in the X280? If so, that will probably clinch the deal for me and I'll buy a unit with a 512GB SSD installed, and then install my own 512GB Transcend unit in the device when it comes into my possession.

TIA for your help and input with this. I've checked all the usual places including NotebookReviews.com, but this is the community to which I turn with my toughest questions. Help me out if you can, please?

--Ed--

sophieee8902 · 06 Mar 2019

Hello Ed,

I was wondering if you ever got to the bottom of this issue? Sadly you have no replies.
I am considering purchasing this laptop and would really love to know if I could benefit from a second SSD.

I'm guessing, but I imagine a PCI NVME SSD would fit, but perhaps run at x1/x2 speeds. Have you seen the new WD/Sandisk drives here....

https://www.westerndigital.com/produ...s/pc-sn520-ssd

kind regards,
S

a4aLien · 31 Dec 2019

Can confirm I got my x280 to work with a 2nd NVMe on the WWAN slot. I'm using a Toshiba RC100 2242 form-factor.

Although the drive has two keys (two cuts, similar to a M2 SATA chip) while the WWAN slot only has one (typical PCIe), it still fits and works fine. However when using it as a boot device, it does not show up in the boot menu by default unless there is OS with a bootloader present on the disc.

Megahertz · 31 Dec 2019

a4aLien said:

Can confirm I got my x280 to work with a 2nd NVMe on the WWAN slot. I'm using a Toshiba RC100 2242 form-factor.

Although the drive has two keys (two cuts, similar to a M2 SATA chip) while the WWAN slot only has one (typical PCIe), it still fits and works fine. However when using it as a boot device, it does not show up in the boot menu by default unless there is OS with a bootloader present on the disc.

Welcome to the Forum a4aLien
On a Legacy BIOS, BIOS looks for disks to boot from.
On a UEFI BIOS, the BIOS looks for a boot loader to boot from on the Fat32 EFI partition in all drives.
If there is no boot loader on the Fat32 EFI partition it wont show on the Boot menu.

x509 · 01 Jan 2020

a4aLien said:

Can confirm I got my x280 to work with a 2nd NVMe on the WWAN slot. I'm using a Toshiba RC100 2242 form-factor.

Although the drive has two keys (two cuts, similar to a M2 SATA chip) while the WWAN slot only has one (typical PCIe), it still fits and works fine. However when using it as a boot device, it does not show up in the boot menu by default unless there is OS with a bootloader present on the disc.

a4aLien,

I had no idea that you could put an SSD into that W-WAN slot. Kudos to you for finding this thread.

After you installed the Toshiba SSD, did you have to do anything special to get your x280 to recognize the drive. Did you do any performance comparisons between the Toshiba device and the SSD that came with your x280?

Myself, I have a Lenovo T560, and I just checked the hardware maintenance manual. Indeed there is a W-WAN slot, even though I didn't get any sort of W-WAN functionality when I bought my T560.