Sager 5620 Internal Wireless Problems... Please Help

[4norris]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is a specific driver for the broadcom mini-pci BCM94306MP 802.11 b/g for the Sager 5620. I intalled the card and antenna wires into my laptop and am using the dell truemobile 1300 driver. The performance is atrocious: I can barely pick up a signal. Do I need a specific wireless card to work for my Sager 5620? There is a driver listed for wireless mini-pci under the Sager 5660 series; it did not work for my card.

UPDATE:
I now have a broadcom driver, but the reception is still poor. I'm thinking it could be the antenna wires. Maybe they are picking up interference from the speakers or other metal around the lcd? I routed them around the perimeter of the lcd screen. Should I have put them behind the lcd instead?

Also, what are the orange flattened ends of the antenna for, and how should they be properly installed?


I ended up just sticking them to the inside of the lcd case with electrical tape.

Or is the card possibly bad? I'm thinking if it was bad, it wouldn't pick up at all? But if so, what card would you recommend to go with the Sager 5620/Clevo 5600P?

Or is it that the reception with my model of laptop isn't going to get any better, and I would be best to just stick with the external PCMCIA card? I still like my trusty 5 year old external wireless lan card, but I thought installing internal would give me better reception (also wireless g capability) and free up the external slot for a USB 2.0 cardbus, etc.

Any ideas? Thanks

[bsmith]

Have you tried swapping the black for white? Also the flat ends are the actual reception pieces (for lack of a better term). They should be placed one on either side of the LCD panel, left and right. There has to be some separation. I don't think there is a specific card that is for the 56xx. I have an Intell2100.

[4norris]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, swapping the leads didn't make a difference. The seperation may very well be the problem. Originally, I installed the "receptors" behind the lcd in top left and top middle. Also, I used electrical tape, which most likely ended up blocking the signal.

Right now I've got the lcd completely off again, and I'm thinking of using super-glue to secure the reception ends of the wires. This time I will try top left and top right. Also, I will put some electrical tape around the wires to give better insulation in areas where it could pick up interference: around the speakers, inverter, etc. Hopefully this will give me a much better result.

UPDATE:

Well, now I've completely reinstalled everything, and the reception is still terrible. I guess it is just a bad card.
At least I'm sure the antennas are properly installed and routed, so the hard part is done.

[4norris]

Installed the card into my brother's dell latitude C640, and the reception is beyond excellent: phenomenal, in fact. The card is definitely not bad.

This is very frustrating for me. I've taken my laptop completely apart, installed antennas, put everything back together, taken everything completely apart again, re-installed antennas, and put everything back together again.

Does anyone know why the exact same card in my Sager 5620 is so ridiculously poor that it's practically unusable. Is there something I am overlooking? Is it the drivers, cheap antennas, metal in chassis? It is quite a mystery.

[rubber_bunny]

are the antennas shorting out to the metal lcd frame?