Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mini-PCI Wireless Cards from Desktop to Laptop?

Posted by Cliff on from the not-covered-under-the-warranty dept.

phyrebyrd asks: "I have been known to pry things apart to see how they work now and then - Especially when I feel something is being deliberately hidden from me. I was rather amused to see that, inside my shiny new NetGear WG311 PCI card for my desktop, was actually a Mini-PCI card! The release clips were soldered onto the adapter, but otherwise extractable. Just for grins, I un-soldered the release tabs, popped it out of the adapter and put it into my Dell laptop, which was ready to receive a Mini-PCI wireless adapter already. This is where I ran into a problem. The drivers loaded, and the monitor popped up, just like it did on my desktop, but all of the configuration tabs had disappeared, even though the status screen showed that it was still scanning for an open network. The model number stamped on the card is T60H677, with a sticker next to it reading T60H677T04. Has anyone actually gotten one of these desktop PCI/MiniPCI cards to work in their laptop successfully?"

22 comments

  1. now that it's been removed.. by ksheff · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does it still work when you put it back into the desktop machine?

    --
    the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
    1. Re:now that it's been removed.. by jo_ham · · Score: 2, Funny

      How in the name of King Kong's left bollock can the very first post on the comments page be modded "redundant" when it asks a question related to the story but otherwise not answered?

      Mods must have been smoking some of that Caldera-brand(tm) crack.

  2. This is quite common, but not always a good idea by SchnauzerGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    This has been discussed to death on the DellTalk Forum.

    Basically, it should work. It sounds like your problem is more of a Windows driver/installation problem. Try going to Device Manager and deleting/removing your 802.11 mini-PCI card. Then reboot and see if it works. If not, you might need to play around with installing/uninstalling the driver, and deleting the card from Device Manager until it works.

    The longer answer is that unless the manufacturer prevents unknown mini-PCI adaptors (IBM Thinkpads prevent non-IBM 802.11 adaptors), any mini-PCI card should be compatable. There are some complications, however. Unless you want to do some soldering, you must insure that the mini-PCI card has an antenna jack that is compatable with your laptop's antenna. Even then, there can be problems - I installed the mini-PCI card from a D-Link DWL-G520 in my Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop. I had to do some soldering, since the G520 doesn't have antenna jacks, and even then, the reception is really bad. The 4100 antenna(s) are in a bad location to begin with, but I suspect that the G520 is tuned to the much larger antennas that D-Link provides.

    So in conclusion, it is possible to save some money by removing the mini-PCI card from a desktop adaptor. But unless you have a really good reason (for example, you need a specific chipset for a non-Windows OS), it is best to stick with the mini-PCI adaptor that is designed for your laptop.

  3. Heat Damage? by caperry · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is it possible that the desolder of the tabs may have damaged or dislodged one of the chips on the card.

    If you want a miniPCI wifi card - I find that buying them alone instead of on a PCI adapter tends to be cheaper. Check out netgate.com - their cards are even supported by the ar5k or madwifi drivers.

    --
    -Carl "No, we already thought of that one. 'Why?' '42' - It doesn't fit." -Hitchhiker'
  4. Re:This is quite common, but not always a good ide by bjkeale · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A little nitpick, the current IBM notebooks (T40/T41) do not prohibit non IBM mini-PCI card use. As with most laptop manufacturers, they probably wont support someone elses cards (and who would??), but I have a Cisco Aironet 350 MPI (MiniPCI) installed in my (formerly) Centrino IBM ThinkPad T40 which works fine (and IBM say this IS a supported configuration).
    The Centrino 802.11b chipset didnt support the security features I needed when I purchased the notebook (MIC, TKIP, LEAP/PEAP, etc) so I turned my Centrino notebook into a basic Pentium M powered device with a Cisco WiFi card.

  5. WRT54g MiniPCI card by boredMDer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's a link to a page concerning removing the MiniPCI card from a Linksys WRT54g to use in your laptop's MiniPCI slot. It's linked to from I think page 7 of the thread...on geocities and has images so likely will be showing an allocation exceeded error soon, so look while you can.

  6. The "Configuration" tab is missing... by akejay · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... because Digital Restrictions Management has kicked in.

    Since you have opted to change the hardware of your laptop (which wasn't in the manual), you have proven yourself to be a hacker! Therefore, you are not Trusted to Configure anything anymore.

    Trusted Computing is still Trusted though. Relax, sit back, and let the Mini-PCI Wireless Network Setup Wizard take over.

    --
    one, two, one two like a duck
  7. Re:WRT54g MiniPCI card: Google cache by egghat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Google Cache of Page 1
    Google Cache Page 2

    Images are missing though.

    In Europe ripping the Mini PCI card is (IIRC) the only way to get a Linux compatible Mini PCI 811g card. I haven't found a distributor for one of the few available prism based mini-pci cards in Germany.

    Bye egghat.

    --
    -- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel
  8. Re:This is quite common, but not always a good ide by Penis_Envy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Further nitpick:

    They do not prohibit non-IBM mini-PCI card use, but (I am told) the bios will disable/not allow cards other than the Centrino Intel wireless, the IBM a/b (or a/b/g) wireless, and the Cisco Wifi.

    Seeing as they used bios goofyness to hide the rescue partition at the end of the hard drive, this would not surpise me.

    See URL:
    kernel archive email

    So long as you use one of those cards, You should be fine.

  9. Isn't that a common occurrence? by Corfitz · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I been unfortunate enough to own a copy of the buggy and practically useless WR4 wireless router/switch from Longshine. After have tried everything to get it to work and virtually no support from Longshine, I decided to tear it apart. Inside the black plastic box was a regular unbranded PCMCIA wireless card connected to a small circuit board. Esentially the 802.11b receiver part was simple PCMCIA card with external antennas soldered to the card.

    So much for fancy technology... I can understand it makes sense from the producers point of view but it still is a bit surprising when you see it.

    1. Re:Isn't that a common occurrence? by merlin_jim · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Esentially the 802.11b receiver part was simple PCMCIA card with external antennas soldered to the card.
      So much for fancy technology... I can understand it makes sense from the producers point of view but it still is a bit surprising when you see it.

      Actually, we have several high-end WAPs that do the same thing. Except the PCMCIA card is external. The WAP itself serves as router, firewall, authenticator, and all around network appliance (where applicable)... and due to the PCMCIA cards, it is upgradeable. When its time to go to 802.11g, just buy the cards and pop them in... other networking technologies should be similarily supported...

      --
      I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
  10. For anyone wanting to try this with Apple hardware by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Interesting

    An Airport Extreme base station is just a standard AirPort Extreme card fitted to a custom board.

    If your base station breaks but the card is otherwise ok, you can pop it into an Apple laptop or desktop that supports it, or sell it on eBay.

  11. Re:This is quite common, but not always a good ide by fean · · Score: 1

    dell laptops (specifically 8200's) don't have an integrated wireless antenna :-( they have a cable that plugs into the card, but it terminates right around the speaker on the right hand side...

  12. Re:This is quite common, but not always a good ide by SchnauzerGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That is the antenna...

  13. Re:This is quite common, but not always a good ide by fean · · Score: 1

    well, it does my wireless card no good... :-S

    I get the same amount of signal whether it's plugged in or not, though I got an extra terminator piece from the dell service rep here, so I'll be trying to get an external antenna hookup

  14. Hopefully... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    How in the name of King Kong's left bollock can the very first post on the comments page be modded "redundant" when it asks a question related to the story but otherwise not answered?

    That mod gets ass-fucked by king kong.

  15. Easier to buy one by squidwanker · · Score: 1

    I looked into this for my Toshiba laptop. In the end, it was cheaper and way simpler to buy one from Dell (802.11g) and install it. Worked fine!

  16. compaq presario 1216 laptop? by greywire · · Score: 1

    There's a little card containing the 56k modem and I think the ethernet on my laptop; is this a miniPCI? Could I pop a wifi minipci card in there? Because that would be cool.

    --
    -- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
  17. Yep by Heretik · · Score: 1

    I did exactly the same thing, worked just fine.

    Can't tell you anything about the Windows config stuff though. I used linux-wlan.

  18. Not even worth the effort by drix · · Score: 1

    You can pick one of these up on eBay for 25 bucks. In fact, I'm sitting in my school's library right now typing on the one I bought last week. Highly recommended; it worked out of the box in XP and (shockingly) Fedora Core 1. As in plug and play.

    Man we've come a long ways since Slackware 96 :)

    --

    I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.