Mini-PCI Wireless Cards from Desktop to Laptop?

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?"

Comments

now that it's been removed..

[ksheff]

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

Re:This is quite common, but not always a good ide

[bjkeale]

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.

Re:WRT54g MiniPCI card: Google cache

[egghat]

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.

Isn't that a common occurrence?

[Corfitz]

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.

Re:Isn't that a common occurrence?

[merlin_jim]

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...

For anyone wanting to try this with Apple hardware

[jo_ham]

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.

Re:This is quite common, but not always a good ide

[SchnauzerGuy]

That is the antenna...