Anybody ever upgrade a MiniPCI wireless card?

Yes,

Certain HP notebooks only accept wireless cards that are on the 'good' list on the BIOS. Any other card will not be recognised by the BIOS. So this locks out any non-HP wireless cards.

Ya, Buy it an put it in the notebook.

Then try to boot, if the lights just blink at you, the hard drive spins, the CD starts clicking, but nothing shows up on the Screen, then it means it is not on the list.

If the machine boots up OK and everything works, then it is on the list.

It was stated that some combinations of wifi cards and HP notebooks could exceed FCC comliance standards for RF transmissiion and interference, or so HP officially says and thats why they added this neet feature. Personally I think its the ugly vestige of Compaq showing its ugly face by convincing the design department that selling proprietary, where other generic non-OEM parts would not work, some how generated more money, and therefore they could advertise this change as generating revenue for the company and justifying raises and bonuses for the idiots who come up with this $hit. When HP bought compaq what really happen is they bought the $hitty compaq business model and customer service and management style to help HP make money, but it pretty much destroyed HP in the process.

HP started adding this to the BIOS on or about June 2004. If you have an older machine you should be OK.

Also many report success if they buy HP lableled wifi cards of the model originally offered for that notebook.

GOOD LUCK!

I suppose the only way to know whether the card will work is to get a HP labelled/certified part from any retailer or on ebay.
or get one directly from HP.

I have an NC6000 notebook and I attempted to put in one of those INTEL 2200B/G miniPCI cards and the bios rejected it and would not boot into windows until I removed the INTEL miniPCI card.

I have since purchased from a local guy here in Toronto, an HP certified W500 A/B/G miniPCI card and it works great.

I have a compaq 2199us which did NOT come with built-in wifi. Has any of you experimented by chance with this laptop adding a mini-PCI card. I called Compaq and the rep said that there is supposed to be a mini-PCI slot in there but I am not sure he is right about that. He sent me the generic specs on this laptop and it says "some models" have it .

I had a Presario 2110 before my current notebook and it had an empty mini-PCI slot in it. I put in a card and it recognized it just fine. Only problem is the antenna....there isn't one.

Thanks Jason,
Did you thread an antenna into the computer? What type of card did you use...a Broadband, Atheros? I believe Broadband is the one that compaq uses and the Bios accepts.

i think you mean broadcom, but either way, buying a generic broadcom card wont work either, i think. it has to be HP branded broadcom.

Your correct... Or atleast should be... HP locks out other Mini-PCI cards that they dont want in the system...

I've been to many stores (2-Best Buys, Circuit City, Office Depot, Computer Heaven, 2-CompUSA's) and they have no idea what I'm talking about , in refernce to a "mini-PCI" wireless card. You guys are more knowledgeable than all those repair techies I've talked to. Thanks for your responses.

Im sorry to say, but many of those people are high school graduates who have never touched the soul of a laptop. They will never feel its beating heart... They will never be a laptop doctor... They will... lol, J/k...


Nice thing of you to say though, Many of us are simply smart...

Never tried to get an antenna for it, just went back to using my PCMCIA wireless card. I used a netgear Atheros mini-pci a/b/g card and it recognized it fine in the presario 2110. (Netgear and Dlink A+B+G cards are nothing but a PCI card with a mini-pci slot on it with a mini-pci card in it). Tried the same card in my current notebook and on boot it told me something like "unsupported PCI card, remove to continue"

Yet another example of a company locking the minipci slot to only their branded/allowed cards...

I believe it also has to do with FCC compliance. They don't know what card you are going to put in there, so they wouldn't be able to say the notebook complies with all FCC regulations or whatever. If they limit it to HP cards or cards that they've tested, then they know it will meet FCC regulations. Just a guess.

I'll bet your right... But Alienware, Hypersonic, etc... dont do that...

BTW...its absolutely not the mini-PCI cards themselves...its the combo of the card and the laptop vender. For example, the HP/Compaq sold Broadcom cards are 100% identical to the stock Broadcom cards EXCEPT the PCI ID has been changed to a something Compaq specific. Install a stock card in a machine with a BIOS whitelist or BIOS lock, it fails the BIOS whitelist check and the machine will not boot. If you could change the PCI ID on the stock card to match the PCI ID on the HP/Compaq cards, it will be accepted just fine. I'm trying to get the PCI ID of one of these cards now...but the last time I asked, no one responded. I'm working on a utility that will allow the ID to be changed so that $25 ebay cards will work exactly like the > $100 OEM cards.

Anyone have a HP/Compaq Broadcom that works in a machine with a known BIOS lock? If so, anyone wanna pony up the PCI ID?