M505X 802.11a/b/g Mini-PCI upgrade: Possible, but wireless key is nonfunctional.

Please read the last post regarding the latest updates!

Greetings!

Last night I took delivery of an Atheros AR5212A-based 802.11a/b/g mini-pci card. The following describes the steps I took to get it working, however unsuccessfully. If anyone can help, that'd be lovely

Software preparation:
I removed the references to the Pro/2100 in the registry, deleted the card from the device manager.

Hardware swap:
I proceeded to remove the keyboard as described in the Gateway-supplied PDF.
Then, I removed the metal plate underneath the keyboard. It's secured by four screws. The easiest way to not forget which screws go where, is to unscrew them but not remove them, then lift the metal plate out with screws still in their holes.
Lo and behold, the Intel Pro/2100, in all its glory.
I unclipped the antenna wires, opened the retention clips, and lifted the Pro/2100 out.
I installed the Atheros card by clipping the antenna wires on it, and clipping it in.
There IS enough room in the M505X to physically mount a size 3A (51mm tall) mini-PCI card. The Pro/2100 that ships is a shorter (44.5mm tall) 3B form factor card.
I then reinstalled the keyboard and snapped the keyboard bezel / cover back on, reinstalled the battery, and powered on.

I directed the "found new hardware" wizard to the location of the drivers.. and was immediately faced with a problem.
The wireless indicator light didn't turn on
Hitting the wireless button didn't do anything. It did not put that little window "Wireless Wi-Fi on" on the screen and it didn't make the wireless indicator light come on.
Atheros configuration utility reported "hardware disabled", even though the radio was on in the advanced settings, and the device manager showed it as properly installed.

So, the big question...
Does anyone know if there IS a way, software-wise to force a foreign mini-PCI wireless card on in an M505X? I'd dearly love to have 802.11g

Or do I have a bad card, or is there some sort of a BIOS lockout on foreign mini-PCI cards?


Thanks,

Alex

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Gateway/M505/3501764ul.shtml

See "Replacing the Gateway M505 keyboard" for instructions.

Once you remove the keyboard, there's a metal plate underneath that's screwed by four screws. The metal plate is an RF shield + heatsink for the i855 chipset. Don't lose the thermal pad on the underside of the plate, otherwise the chipset will cook itself. Also, don't remove the screws from the holes in the plate - they are four DISSIMILAR screws, so I found it helpful to lift the plate up with the screws still in there - no chance of messing the arrangement up that way.

Update: It seems that the BIOS (49.01.01) and the WBUTTON.EXE in C:\Program Files\Launch Manager, the EXE that handles the wireless button functionality conspire to disable the Atheros card. You need to 1) Clear the BIOS and 2) remove wbutton.exe to get the thing to run.

Basically, it goes down like this: The Atheros setup software (optional with XP's built-in Wi-Fi management, but a nice piece of code nevertheless) seems to show the card working during bootup, but the card gets disabled upon full OS load. Rebooting doesn't help - the card never gets recognized as active again

So, I pulled the BIOS battery (right next to the Mini-PCI slot), waited ten seconds, and started it up - Again, the card lives for a few seconds, but gets disabled.

So then I rename wbutton.exe to wbutton.exe.bak, remove keyboard again, remove the plate, clear the BIOS by pulling battery, reassemble the plate and keyboard and... IT WORKS. Obviously, the wireless button doesn't disable anything anymore, since its little program doesn't run, but I'm able to use the card. At least until I run wbutton.exe and... it's hardware-disabled again. Pressing the wireless button never makes the on-screen indicator pop up with the Atheros installed.

Exasperated, I try my friend's Dell Truemobile 1300 Mini-PCI. It's a Broadcom-based 802.11b/g only card (no 802.11a). Total and complete success. Installed the drivers, and it works like a champ. Gets enabled and disabled by the wireless button properly, and pulls a MUCH stronger signal than the Pro/Wireless 2100.

So, I bought a Dell Truemobile 1300 on eBay. The only difference now is that, instead of the Centrino logo on bootup, I get the blue/yellow Pentium M logo, and the "Centrino" logo on my laptop is now a lie.

So, confirmed replacement mini-PCI cards that work:
Dell TrueMobile 802.11g, using either Gateway's Broadcom or Dell's Broadcom drivers.

I have a feeling a Pro/Wireless2200BG (The new Centrino mini-pci with 802.11g) will work too.

I'd like to find out if Broadcom 802.11a/b/g, or Atheros 802.11b or b/g cards work. Maybe it's an 802.11A lockout, maybe it's an Atheros lockout...

After managing to shoot my L400's battery in about two years or so of use, I'm running under AC most of the time.

Two of my friends bought laptops at roughly the same time - one got an Inspiron 4100, the other a Latitude C610. The Lat still gets 2 1/2 hours on a charge, the Inspiron 4100, before breaking, was getting 15 minutes. Needless to say, the Latitude owner hardly ran it off battery.

So.. anyone willing to let me borrow an Atheros G mini-PCI card, or a Broadcom A/B/G to test out?

Dell posted the latest drivers / utility for the Truemobile 1300 on 4/15/2004. Unfortunately, I was only able to use the drivers (manually pointing Device Manager to the directory). The installer says that the hardware required is not present, and refused to install the utility.

Have you tried the latest Dell installer on your M505, and did it error out with a similar message..?

There's no reason for it to not work.. I'd be very curious to find out if it does

In case the ebay auction gets out of hand, the 2200BG's are available for about $36 delivered here.

-Alex

LMK if the bootup logo stays as "Centrino" with a 2200BG. Mine was "Centrino" when the 2100 was installed, but switched to the blue/yellow "Pentium M" logo once I got the broadcom card installed.

The place is reputable. The part is new, but I am not sure of the source, so I don't know who's providing the warranty. It certainly won't be intel, since they don't sell the miniPCI cards to endusers.

I installed the drivers for the TrueMobile, and the wireless button's functionalty remained intact. I hit the button - the wireless light turns off, and I get no networking. I hit the button again, and the wireless card and the light turn on, and I'm networked.