Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Handy Tip On How to Get Mini Pci Card working!!


win2000b
03-19-2004, 12:48 PM
I could not get an Intel Mini PCI wireless Card working on my laptop. As many of u might have read.

It kept saying that the radio switch was turned off on the machine even though it wasn't. I tested the card in another Toshiba laptop and it worked. So I came to the conclusion that the antenna/switch in my machine was faulty. I popped along into my local Toshiba repair centre, where they inserted a Genuine toshiba one in, and it worked. So its incompatible they said. I was almost defeated. ALMOST.

So I looked on forums all over the net, and found no solutions. So I popped back onto ebay where I bought the card off and was almost about to buy another make card when I noticed the small print. It said to work in the 2430 model it needed a small modification done to the card for it to work. I contacted the seller and he informed me of the thing I needed to do. I could not believe that this would work.

He said that I needed to put a small piece of selotape onto pin 13 of the mini pci card. This would trick the card into thinking that the switch was on. I tried it and hey presto it bloody worked. I could not believe it. So if any of you have the same problem just follow what I did.

M/Q
03-19-2004, 02:35 PM
Very cool, and thanks for sharing that information. I appreciate the stick to it attitude and solving the problem.

zaq
03-19-2004, 09:17 PM
what is a mini pci by the way ??
thanx!

M/Q
03-19-2004, 09:30 PM
Welcome to the forum. The wireless miniPCI card is a different form factor that is usually in a compartment of the notebook, rather than slide into the PCMCIA or pc card slots on the side. It has advantages of not sticking out the side. It has disadvantages of not as good of a coverage range, and it uses some of the onboard processing cycles. It appears the in the very near future most notebooks will have one built in. This link might help explain what they are.

http://www.agere.com/client/docs/PB02059-1.pdf