# Change my wireless card



## Nollo (Nov 11, 2010)

Hello all,

Currently, I have a mini pci wireless card Dell 1501 ( broadcom 4313 ) and it's not supported yet.

Could you advice me a good compatible card ? I would like to buy it used and not new, so I would like a "popular" model ( I mean, a model which is easy to find ).


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## SirDice (Nov 11, 2010)

As far as I know Atheros has pretty good support. But you may find that the latest chipset types lack support, at least for the time being. So I think I'd look for a card based on a slightly older Atheros chipset. The brand of the card itself shouldn't really matter.

Tricky bit is finding out which chipset card brand X type Y has :e


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## Nollo (Nov 11, 2010)

Thanks, and if you have some chipset model to advice, don't hesitate!

Something I forgot but, does my wifi card do bluetooth ? I don't use at the moment but it could be interesting ( but not necessary ) if I can get bluetooth on the new wifi card.

Anyway I'll check if the model I find is compatible


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## wblock@ (Nov 11, 2010)

Nollo said:
			
		

> Hello all,
> 
> Currently, I have a mini pci wireless card Dell 1501 ( broadcom 4313 ) and it's not supported yet.
> 
> Could you advice me a good compatible card ? I would like to buy it used and not new, so I would like a "popular" model ( I mean, a model which is easy to find ).



You're going to need to be a bit more specific.  There's mini-PCI, the older cards.  There's mini-PCIe standard cards, which are about 5x3 cm, and there's mini-PCIe half-height, which is about 3x3 cm.  The first two are shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-PCIe#PCI_Express_Mini_Card, the variations of mini-PCIe are shown here: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-9-hardware-upgrades/1288-broadcom-intel-wireless-card.html.

If you can use a mini-PCIe card, the Atheros AR5BXB63 cards are 802.11 b/g and work well.  Should be inexpensive, not too hard to find.

If you need mini-PCIe half-height, well I'd like to know where to find the Atheros cards in that style without having to take one out of an Acer D250.

Cards that have 802.11n may not work as well or be as well supported.


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## Nollo (Nov 11, 2010)

I always thought my card was a Dell 1510 ( due to official website ), but I checked an email of the reseller and he told me it's a 1501 ( which is based on Broadcom 4313 ) so I confirm it's a 1501 !

ROW Dell Wireless 1501 (802.11n) Mini-carte 1/2 hauteur

So it's a half card 1/2 height

EDIT: Are these cards compatible ?
-http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160497361814
-http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370329949596


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## wblock@ (Nov 12, 2010)

Nollo said:
			
		

> ROW Dell Wireless 1501 (802.11n) Mini-carte 1/2 hauteur
> 
> So it's a half card 1/2 height
> 
> ...



Those are both mini-PCIe full height, so no.  Actually, you should really open the notebook and look.  Verify that it's really a half-height card, and also whether the slot might be able to take full-height cards.


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## Nollo (Nov 12, 2010)

wblock said:
			
		

> Those are both mini-PCIe full height, so no.  Actually, you should really open the notebook and look.  Verify that it's really a half-height card, and also whether the slot might be able to take full-height cards.



Here is the slot http://ompldr.org/vNjR4cA

I think I can, can you confirm ?


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## wblock@ (Nov 12, 2010)

Nollo said:
			
		

> Here is the slot http://ompldr.org/vNjR4cA
> 
> I think I can, can you confirm ?



That's a very good shot!  You have both a half-height slot and a full-height slot.  The half-height slot is only meant for half-height cards; note the location of the black hold-down screw.

The full-height slot may have special requirements or not support arbitrary mini-PCIe cards; some are meant for SSD cards.  There's a second slot in the Acer D250 which I tried with a second Atheros card.  It never connected, like there was no signal.  Maybe a problem with the antennas I was using, but there have been similar reports, even one in the threads I saw about your Broadcom yesterday.

The second eBay link from earlier claims to be an AR5BXB63, although it seems a bit pricy.
Can probably find one for about the same price as a movie, and it may provide at least as much entertainment even if it doesn't work.


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## Nollo (Nov 12, 2010)

wblock said:
			
		

> That's a very good shot!  You have both a half-height slot and a full-height slot.  The half-height slot is only meant for half-height cards; note the location of the black hold-down screw.
> 
> The full-height slot may have special requirements or not support arbitrary mini-PCIe cards; some are meant for SSD cards.  There's a second slot in the Acer D250 which I tried with a second Atheros card.  It never connected, like there was no signal.  Maybe a problem with the antennas I was using, but there have been similar reports, even one in the threads I saw about your Broadcom yesterday.
> 
> ...



I didn't understand your last sentence.

So, I have a full-height slot but it might not accept mini pci card. So I need to find a cheap card to try. I could go to a computer store and do some tries.

Thanks for your help. FreeBSD is near in my computer ! ï¿½e


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## wblock@ (Nov 12, 2010)

I was just saying that testing a wireless card can be cheap entertainment.


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