I have an old Dell C610 which is quite in good shape and I wonder if it would be possible to have a wireless lan module working in it.
I am sure I could use the MiniPCI slot for a Dell wlan card but how about the antenna? Thinking about that raises another question. What are those two black covered wires with the small and round connectors for? they seem to belong to the MiniPCI port.

Thanks for your help!
mscrx

Hi

you can buy a wireless lan card for the c610, however you need to purchase the connecting wire, that links the card to the internal aerial,

I found them on ebay here
Regards

Yes better to buy a High Power Wireless PCMICA card instead of using the internal MiniPCI which is good for wired LAN though.

so your saying that an internal MINIPCI WIFI card is not as powerful as a PCMCIA card version tipster.
If that is the case why does my Inspiron 1300 with a built in Broadcom WIFI card have a better connection range than my latitude which uses a Linksys PCMCIA card.

Regards

it's tipstir (with i) not with e that's someone else...

I have both: Buffalo WLI-CB-G54HP and Broadcom with Afterburner speed-enhancement technology in my laptop.Where campared they both operate the same. Do you tweak yours like I do with mine? You didn't say which Linksys PCMICA card your refering too though? CPU and FSB as a lot to do with it also. Most laptops are from 1GHz to 2GHz. Again a lot of factors. I also have a couple of Ver5 Belkin PCMICA Wireless G. They're good with speed.

Oh-by-the-way how did it go with your Zune.. with using as HDD storage. There is a patch for accessing MPEG2 files and a few other things.

Hi TipstIr

Its a linksys WPC54g on the latitude, the laptop is only a 1ghz with 512MB of RAM, the Inspiron is a lot faster so that may be why, I will find out as I have just ordered a MiniPCI card for the latitude and will do some comparitive tests once its installed.

Your last post..was it aimed at me ? if so I think you may be mistaking me for another poster.

Regards

Oh you don't have the Zune... hmmm... oh well... I know that installing the MiniPCI for wired LAN is quick. Wireless uses that wire that attaches to the LCD panel on some models. I use TCP Optimizer on all my wireless I don't set the ISP speed to the max but about 1/2 way. Example 25Mbps down would be 12Mpbs. Internal LAN Optimize or LAN Buffer is 8192Kb instead of 16356Kb. I do a lot of remote control into all the desktop on my network and wireless devices to. Really don't have issues..

On your PCMICA Wi-Fi from Linksys can you change the Power use to AMP the signal spread. 100% or use the 54G High Performance?

thank you both for your replies!
I have a spare MiniPCI wireless card I think out of a broken D600. So that would not be the problem. Maybe you can tell me something about the two black cables (which have the same connector as the cable in your ebay link)? what are they of use for? If this is an antenna link then I could use one or both of them in any way?

thanks! mscrx

Im not to sure about the c610 but the c600 has a little board that the internal antenna's attach to, on the board is a connector onto which you clip the cable then attach the other end to the minipci card.

Have a look inside the minipci slot on the c610 and if possible send me a picture or post one here and I will advise accordingly.

Regards

please find a picture attached. thanks! mscrx

Attached Images

c610_mpci.jpg (68.6 KB, 16 views)

Yes yours has the connecting cables all you need is the card.

Regards

yes, it looks like there is everything set up but I can plug in the card, install the driver in windows but there is signal both send and receive. maybe one of the cables is broken? any idea how to check that?

thanks, mscrx

When you install the MiniPCI card you have to make sure that the BIOS sees the device otherwise it won't work right even if you install the drivers in XP

oh, you're right. the bios says unknown device. nevertheless windows recognizes a new device for which I can install the driver but then nothing. Should I try a different wlan card maybe an older model? any other idea why the bios doesn't recognize the device?

Morning

I just received my new minipci card this morning, the seller had given me a link to the drivers however the install routine didnt work, so I just pointed the found new hardware wizard at the driver location and it installed it as a broadcom network adaptor with no problems whatsoever, then the windows zero config kicked in with "new network found" it asked for my security key and i know have a working minipci card.

Tipstir I didnt have to make any changes to the BIOS in order for it to work, however this was a latitude C600, it may be that others do need something changing.

If you want to buy the same one the seller gave me this item number 200154457614 it cost me £12.99.

regards

Update : I just checked my BIOS and it shows Unknown Device in it for the WIFI card so I take it this is normal.