The problem seems to be finding a non intel card that has the three MIMO aerial connectors.
Intel do a different model (possibly the same chip though), and there’s one by broadcom … but I’m not sure if bluetooth is on a separate card or not
In searching for a replacement card I discovered two eBay suppliers who offered Intel cards (usually second-hand, I think) with identical identifying numbers but one stated that it was suitable for the T500 and the other stated explicitly that theirs wasn’t. So if I do get a “new” card then I shall to be careful.
I shall try to check if Bluetooth is on a separate card.
Captcha indicates that “Most Bluetooth 3.0-4.0 nowadays have it built into the WiFi card.” but my Bluetooth appears to be 2.0.4
The maintenance manual is here: https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/43y6630.pdf
The Bluetooth daughter card (BDC-2.1) is located under the screen bezel and pages 114-119 show screen bezel and Bluetooth daughter card removal.
Not sure where to go from here. It would be nice to pin down the source of the problem definitively before doing anything drastic. I’m not entirely convinced that the BT or Intel Wireless cards are suspect as there is another symptom: after closing the lid for a cup of tea, re-opening the lid sometimes shows no wireless connectivity, although iwlist scan does indicate comms with the router but Firefox & Thunderbird are not connected.
“Suspend” in 16.04 (and distros based on it) is currently known to cause wireless issues upon resume on some hardware … the workaround (until it’s fixed upstream) appears to be to use “Hibernate” instead of “Suspend”
But “Hibernate” needs to be enabled first.o you want to test this
Do you want to test this ?
If so, open a terminal and run:
sudo pm-hibernate
give it a few seconds and hopefully your PC will go into hibernate
When you resume, all apps that were running should still be open … and hopefully the wireless will also be active.
Was this the case ? … if so, we can enable hibernate system-wide.
Yep, that seemed to work OK.
Okay then let’s enable hibernate and set it as the default action when you close the lid
Open a terminal and run:
sudo gedit /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/com.ubuntu.enable-hibernate.pkla
when a BLANK file opens, make it read:-
[Re-enable hibernate by default in upower]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.upower.hibernate
ResultActive=yes
[Re-enable hibernate by default in logind]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate;org.freedesktop.login1.handle-hibernate-key;org.freedesktop.login1;org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-multiple-sessions;org.freedesktop.login1.hibernate-ignore-inhibit
ResultActive=yes
SAVE the file and exit gedit.
REBOOT.
Once rebooted, the power manager should have the option to select “Hibernate” instead of “Suspend” … I’m not on an Ubuntu machine so can’t really step you through it (they use a different power manager than Peppermint) so you’re going to have to try figure that out on your own, but if you get stuck I’ll see what I can come up with.
When exiting gedit, the terminal showed a number of errors (file attached).
When checking the Settings/Power manager, only the option for “When power is critically low” has the Hibernate option. The “When lid is closed” choice has only “Suspend” or “Do nothing” as options.
When opening the lid after closing it, the screen remains blank although the disc light does flash occasionally.
Keith, can you please NOT keep adding stuff as attachments unless specifically asked to do so by site admin.
For text files … just include the text in the posting main body.
For anything else (including images) … please host them elsewhere and post a link.
There is not unlimited space on the server hosting this forum 
I’ve deleted all your attachments from this topic … the gedit “errors” were only warnings and nothing to worry about.
My apologies, Mark - I didn’t realise. May I suggest that your words are added to the “Attachments and other options” part of the page shown when writing a post. That would help inform all users.
Back to the problem.
The Hibernate option is indeed now in the menu but I’m not sure yet if it has fixed the wireless problem - I shall need to cycle it many times to check.
One minor irritation is that as it takes time to save all the data for hibernation I have to leave the lid open or it goes into suspend mode (it took me while to cotton on to that!). There is also a useful warning in https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/power-hibernate.html:
“Always save your work before hibernating
You should save all of your work before hibernating the computer, just in case something goes wrong and your open applications and documents cannot be recovered when you switch on the computer again.”
as I discovered.
The power options for when closing the lid have only “Do nothing” or “Suspend” but I found here How to Enable Hibernation in Ubuntu 14.04 | UbuntuHandbook the following way of arranging for hibernation upon lid-close:
sudo gedit /etc/systemd/logind.conf
Change the line #HandleLidSwitch=suspend to read HandleLidSwitch=hibernate, save the file and reboot. Remember to delete the “#” character.
I need to cycle it many times before confirming that hibernating solves my wireless problem, but initial observations are not encouraging.
I found in https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/power-suspendfail.html:
If you suspend or hibernate your computer and then resume it again, you may find that your internet connection, mouse, or some other device doesn’t work properly. This could be because the device’s driver doesn’t properly support suspend or hibernate. This is a problem with the driver and not the device itself.
So perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree and the device (wireless or Bluetooth chip) is not compatible with Ubuntu 16.
The guaranteed work-around is (when wireless fails) to edit the options line in /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf file (doesn’t seem to matter what the change is) and wireless connectivity returns.
I shall report back after more tests.
If wireless worked after the initial test of pm-hibernate I can see no reason it wouldn’t do it when pm-hibernate is triggered automagically.
I’ll await your test results
I can’t (easily) add anything to the “Attachments” section … the only option would be to disable it entirely, not something we want to do unless it becomes necessary … so we just ask
[EDIT]
The guaranteed work-around is (when wireless fails) to edit the options line in /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf file (doesn't seem to matter what the change is) and wireless connectivity returns.
Can you explain that please … why not just leave the edit in place then ?
After editing the file, wireless connectivity returned. For a while. When it failed again, I just restored the original values or chose new ones, and hey presto, connectivity returned. And so on. Bizarre.
However…I think I have solved the problem, quite by chance. But rather than make a twit of myself, I continue tests until I am sure.
Cool … fingers crossed 
If it stands the testing, can you please post what the fix was so others can benefit … TIA
It’s been a while since my last post – this being because the phenomenon was very haphazard and infrequent so I needed some considerable time to get a measure of it.
I had thought that the “suspend” function was at the heart of the problem as opening the lid (set to suspend) appeared to be the most frequent precursor of the wireless failure. However, if it is a contributing factor, then it’s not the only one as there seems to be no particular pattern.
Just to compound matters, the wireless-to-internet non-connection has diminished of late, to be replaced with other problems associated with LibreOffice. Often, when Alt-tabbing between applications, returning to, say, a document shows missing icons in the menu bar or, more frequently, overlapping, blank icon tabs from a previous application. Sometimes, the machine boots with some of the top panel (classic view) icons missing. The icon positions are present, as I can click on the blank spaces and they appear, even if only briefly, and work OK.
Overall, I am thinking that a complete re-install might be in order, but the effects are probably not frequent enough now to make it worth while. I have just loaded Ubuntu 16.04 onto a mate’s brand new Lenovo B50-10 and I have seen a few minor glitches…perhaps it’s a Lenovo thing. Neither the B50-10 nor my T500 appear in the Ubuntu/Lenovo tested list https://certification.ubuntu.com/certification/make/Lenovo/ (although the T510 does) but I’m clutching at straws here.
The verdict: I have no idea. Sorry. But thanks for your support.
Keith
Well, possibly resolved.
When booting up an old desktop I noticed similar connection problems so guessed that the router was to blame.
It seems that the problem is caused by the router synchronising the 2.4 & 5GHz services and I found a source of useful info here:
which describes how to un-synchronise them.
The result has been a dramatic improvement in the reliability of my computer - only once in a month has the connection dropped out, and who knows what that may have been due to. Just BT, probably.
I am not happy with the idea of BT using my router as a Hot-spot (BTWiFi-X and BTWiFi-with-FON) so would like to change it for something over which I have more control. If one of my readers has suggestions, I would be grateful.
Keith
How about one of these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Connections-UK-Archer-VR900/dp/B01132GCP0
you can find loads of reviews about it on Google
or
But truth be told you’ll probably not get much better wireless performance that an HH5 … unless you’re on 5Ghz 802.11n or 802.11AC
Thank you, Mark.
By chance, this is one that I had earmarked as a possible replacement - it does see rather good.
I guess my main quibbles are with the BT service rather than the router itself - now that I seem to have cured the drop-outs. I can’t complain about my LAN communication speeds so, yes, you are right that I probably won’t see any change there.
I do use the 5GHz, more by accident than design, and find it very good.
The cost is something to consider, too, for the mere satisfaction of snubbing BT!
Cheers, Mark.
Keith
Well that Archer VR900 is certainly faster in the 5Ghz band (see the performance section of the Hexus.net review, where they specifically rate it against a HH5) … but you have to ask yourself if the ‘possible’ extra speed is worth £109.
IIRC there used to be a way to ask BT to disable the public hotspot … I’ll see what I can dig up tomorrow.
[EDIT]
Found it … read this topic from here:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=10570.msg79751#msg79751
Now that looks interesting! But the comments by Sezo indicate a possible contractual problem. I shall read that topic at length before adopting the method. Replacing the router with my own certainly does not infringe any contract but, as you mention, is a very expensive “route” for what in practice would probably be a small gain. Anyway, you have given me much food for thought and I shall let you know how I get on.
My thanks as usual.
Keith
That “opt out” is from BT themselves … so I can’t see it presenting a contractual issue.
It may mean that you no longer get access to other peoples BT hotspots, but do you even use that (?)
Nope, never do - and only now realise what it’s all about.
I did follow the link to BT’s opt out but the login only accepts BT internet login addresses - and I don’t have a BT email address (how’s that, I wonder?).
So… I think I shall forget about it for now and just change my router when I am feeling flush.
At least I have learnt something more about BT’s modus operandi, although it hasn’t reduced my blood pressure.
Keith