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22434
June 6th, 2010 15:00
WWAN antenna in Vostro 3500?
Im thinking of upgrading my Vostro 3500 with a Dell Wireless 5540 card, but my laptop does not seem to have a WWAN antenna - can I buy one and install it myself?
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DELL-Jesse L
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June 10th, 2010 07:00
herman82,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
You do not need an antenna connected to this card.
herman82
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June 15th, 2010 13:00
Thank you for answering my post!
Are you sure i dont need an antenna? This is a link to the card I am looking at: and the product page says: "This product only works with a preinstalled WWAN antenna in the system". Will it work anyway, or is an other card available? I would be happy to install an if I could get a hold of one!
Minihack
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December 23rd, 2010 10:00
Successfully installed a WWAN card myself. I used a 5530 (which works with the 5540 drivers but GPs does not work - maybe with the 5540 it would?) and used a pair of wwan antennae from eBay. You need thin antenna which you can mount behind the LCD screen. In fact I mounted the auxilliary antenna behind the screen and the main antenna I mounted above the screen and wrapped slightly around one of the WLAN antenna.
This arrangement works well and gives reasonable performance (2 bars strength in my weak signal area). For antenna length, you should go for 56cm as this lets you mount at the top of the LCD screen.
Use the online service manual to show you how to remove the display bezel and how to remove the palm rest. it is not too technical and can be done in an hour or so going slowly.