Moving MiniPCI Wireless from Westell 327w to Dell Laptop???

My spare Westell 327w wireless router has a mini-pci wireless-G card with the TI chipset TNETW1130GVF.

My Dell Latitude 600 has a mini-pci slot that's just begging to have the wireless card installed. Sure would be nice to be able to pack up the laptop without removing the protruding cardbus card.

Anybody done this can advise??

First thing I'm gonna need is drivers for windows 2000. Google has let me down here. Suggestions?

I'm also concerned that the laptop has a board that looks like it can switch between two internal antennas. The mini-pci card also has what looks like an antenna switch. Looks like I need to bypass one of them. How does the switching work? Since there's no other power source to the little Dell board, I'm assuming that the diodes must get switched by positive or negative bias on the antenna wire???

Ideas? Thanks, mike

Reply to
mike
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Yes, I pulled a card out of a device and put it in a Toshiba. Make sure the card you're removing has the ability to connect using a cable. Some have their antenna connections soldered into place. Then make sure there's an antenna in the Dell and that it uses the same connectors as the card. If there's already an antenna inside and the card's connectors match up you should be able to give it a try.

See what the computer thinks the card model is and then google for that. Or figure out who uses that chipset in one of their cards and try their driver. For most cards there are windows drivers. For linux it's more difficult.

Haven't seen the inside of the Dell but I can tell you the switch on my Toshiba is software-only. It doesn't actually connect with the antenna cables or control the power to the mini-PCI slot. But you may want to ask Dell or visit one of their support forums to ask for more info about it.

Hmm, never seen that on the card itself. If your laptop only has a single antenna connector then use the one on the card marked MAIN (not aux) or tell the software driver to use whichever one you got connected. As in, if the only feed that fits your cable is AUX then tell the driver to use that, assuming the driver will let you, not all do.

It's a mini-PCI slot, that handles the power for the card.

-Bill Kearney

Reply to
Bill Kearney

On Sat, 01 Jul 2006 07:27:27 GMT, mike wrote in :

To Bill's advice I add this comment by Jeff Liebermann:

Be advised that current IBM, HP, and possibly Compaq laptops all have a "feature" which prevents MiniPCI cards that have not been type certified with the specific laptop from working. The BIOS detects the card and won't let the machine boot. There are workarounds but most are no fun.

I can't say if this also applies to Dell or not. The best way to know for sure is to try it.

Another option is to pick up a Dell mini PCI Wi-Fi card on eBay, where they often go for under $20.

Reply to
John Navas

On Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:19:16 GMT, John Navas wrote: : On Sat, 01 Jul 2006 07:27:27 GMT, mike wrote in : : : : >My spare Westell 327w wireless router has a mini-pci : >wireless-G card with the TI chipset TNETW1130GVF. : >

: >My Dell Latitude 600 has a mini-pci slot that's just : >begging to have the wireless card installed. Sure would : >be nice to be able to pack up the laptop without removing : >the protruding cardbus card. : >

: >Anybody done this can advise?? : : To Bill's advice I add this comment by Jeff Liebermann: : : Be advised that current IBM, HP, and possibly Compaq laptops all have : a "feature" which prevents MiniPCI cards that have not been type : certified with the specific laptop from working. The BIOS detects the : card and won't let the machine boot. There are workarounds but most : are no fun. : : I can't say if this also applies to Dell or not. The best way to know : for sure is to try it. : : Another option is to pick up a Dell mini PCI Wi-Fi card on eBay, where : they often go for under $20.

Even at retail from Dell, they're only about twice that.

I assume it's a C600, not a D600, that's under discussion. The description of the slot earlier in the thread seems to suggest that.

On a C600, I can think of two potential problems:

- If the computer has a modem/ethernet mini-PCI card, you'll have to remove it. So if you need those capabilities, you'll have to get them with a PCMCIA card (which, OTOH, won't stick out like your wireless card does).

- There's a mismatch in the connectors. If you install a Dell wireless card in, say, a C610, there are two antenna wires waiting to be connected to the card. A C600 doesn't have those. I don't have a C600 in front of me, but I believe it has a single connector like the connectors on the card. So you'll need to supply your own wire with appropriate connectors of the opposite gender. (YMMV with a 3rd-party card, of course.)

All this has been enough to keep me from upgrading a C600 to built-in wireless, although I've done it on a fair number of C610s and C640s. I consider the C600s to be near the end of their useful life anyway (they're awfully slow running Windows XP), and we don't have very many of them. So coming up with a satisfactory hack hasn't been worth the trouble.

Reply to
Robert Coe

Robert Coe hath wroth:

The adapter cable part number is a Dell #37THY. It goes from the connector labelled "COM" to the "MAIN" connector on the MiniPCI card.

formatting link
available on eBay.
formatting link
$5 to $15ea.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks for the inputs. I was gonna just do this if I could do it for free. Neither the laptop nor my motivation is sufficient to actually spend any money on it. Yes, it's the Dell C600. It has the antenna switch board shown in the above link. There's also a diode switch on the PCI card. Don't think there's any way to make it work without bypassing at least one of them. But I can handle that. I'll just stick a TDR on the cable splice and hack on it until it looks good.

The problem is drivers. It's been suggested that XP might just work with internal drivers, but the expense of upgrading to XP is WAAAAAY out of my price range. And my XP laptop doesn't have the MINI-PCI slot. It's always something.... mike

Reply to
mike

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