[tnkgrl] has concluded her Sony Vaio P by adding GSM support. We covered the switch to XP earlier, but this should work on Vista too. The Vaio P is sold in the US with support for Verizon’s EVDO wireless broadband, but it uses the same hardware as the European model that uses GSM. This is possible because of the the Qualcomm Gobi radio module. To get GSM support, you trick the VZAccess Manager into loading a different firmware than the stock EVDO. The difficult part is that the Vaio P doesn’t come with a SIM card slot, so you’ll have to solder in your own. When you’ve got the computer reassembled, just change VZAccess Manager to use your carrier.
UPDATE: Wired has an article on the Gobi chipset.
It annoys me very much when manufactures artificially restrict their hardware. Glad to see someone has the balls to rip apart a bran new machine to do this mod and show us all.
well, verizon is the only carrier that works in my area. Fun mod though.
F the man
I just bought a Vaio VGN-Z790 and I have the same problem. I would like to use it in Europe with Vodafone.
Is there an easy way to hack it?
Thanks for your help.
With regards,