Adding A Wireless MiniPCI Card

Question

Hello;

Please excuse me if this question has been asked and answered before. I tried search but only have a modest knowledge of some of the technical jargon. I inherited an Inspiron 8100 from my daughter after the HD died. Now that it's up and running with a new HD, I'd like to do a few relatively low cost upgrades. It currently has the factory installed MINIPCI 56K+10/1000, Inspiron 4000/8000 card and I'm using a Linksys PC card which has spotty reception at best on our home network (Linksys was of no help in inproving the situation but that's another story). I was thinking of replacing the MiniPCI card with a Intel WIFI Wireless Pro 2200 B/G MINI PCI TrueMobile WLAN WI-FI Card(from eBay)which is supposed to fit the 8100. I've located the Dell instructions on how to replace the card and it looks pretty straight forward and within my abilities.

My obvious question is, can this be done? Are there any additional parts that I would need and if so, what and where would I be able to get them? Is it even worth doing? As far as eBay goes, I'm well aware of the predators and charlatins out there and have had no problems with any seller that wasn't satisfactorilly resolved.

I appreciate any advise help or direction any of you fine folks could offer. The Dell Forum Community has also been the one consistant shining star about Dell and has always amanged to bail me out of potentially costly and scary trouble with every Dell my family has owned.

Gerry

esquire · Answer

PS.  You may be able to improve reception, but you need to describe your wireless network in details, such as its layout (where is every wireless network device in the house), equipment hardware version (Linksys in particular releases a different hardware version of the same product whenever it changes hardware components), driver and firmware versions, operating system version, wireless client software version, etc., and what have you tried already to improve the situation.  The more details the better.

esquire · Answer

Even if it can be done, it is likely it does not have the antenna wires for the adapter, thus leaving your wireless connection worse than before.

The antenna on a PC card wireless network adapter is housed in the part that protrudes from the notebook slot, but notebooks with internal adapter have the antennae housed in the display and connected to the adapters by wires.

ispfenwick · Answer

Esquire;

I appreciate the response. As far as the Linksys card goes, I've been down the whole nine yards, both with Linksys and several other forums dealing with Linksys equipment. The only one fix that might work would be repositioning the router but at the moment, there's no place available other than near my Dimension 8200.

I was kind of hoping that the antenna wire for the MiniPCI might be present as part of a standard assembly it; connected if someone chose the wireless option or left unconnected such as in my case, much like some of the accessory/option wires left unconnected in a car. I suppose I could just pull the present card and see if an antenna wire is there but am a little worried that some gremlin might sneak in and really foul things up until I HAVE to get a replacement.

This is not a critical upgrade, more convience than anything else. Getting a new DVD/CD ROM replacement and battery is of more pressing nature as the old ones are failing. My daughter did take the best of care of both hardware and software. Just have to be patient, like I was getting the new 60GB 5400 rpm hard drive, and snag a new one on eBay at a bargain price.

Again thanks for the input.

Gerry

esquire · Answer

I suppose taking the mini PCI cover off just to take a peek wouldn't do much harm.  However, the extra benefit with the internal adapter and antenna may not be significant.  Take my notebooks for example.  I have a 6000 with an internal wireless adapter and an ancient 3200 with a Linksys WPC54G PC card adapter, and the performance gain is minimal.  The only time I saw a difference with the 6000 was at a friend's office where his signal had to travel a 100ft and through an elevator shaft to cover the entire office - the WPC54G could not detect the network at the other end whereas the 6000 detected a faint signal but not enough to sustain a constant connection, mostly due to the antennae in the display.   Are you using a Linksys router?  If repositioning the router helps, you can also consider replacing factory antennae with high gain versions.  There are also high gain adapters for notebooks available: http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/index.php?CatID=32&FamID=60.  Hopefully, someone has also told you your router can be placed up to 100 metres on a LAN cable from your computer, so repositioning the router may be a good cost effective alternative.

rwm32 · Answer

Just to confirm: the 8100 does have a built-in antenna. But for reasons best known to Dell, you need a short 'pigtail' connector to link the wireless mini-PCI card to the antenna. This was originally supplied by Dell with the TrueMobile card sold for 8100s, so if you're buying such an original Dell card, check with the e-Bay vendor that the pigtail is included. If it's not, search these forums for 'hirose' (the manufacturer) to find info on sourcing such a pigtail in the US and the UK. Dell no longer supply the pigtail.

My personal preference was to remove the modem/ethernet combo card from the mini-PCI slot and use that slot for wi-fi. I use the PCMCIA slots for V92 modem and 10/100 wired ethernet cards as (rarely) needed. But that was simply because I would rather not have a wi-fi PCMCIA card's aerial sticking out at the side when I'm moving the notebook round the house...

I would totally endorse what Esquire says about trying relocating the router. Moving ours 10ft extended the usable range of the WLAN by around 30ft.

Message Edited by rwm32 on 07-03-200610:29 AM

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Adding A Wireless MiniPCI Card

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