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Possible alternative for the Intel Pro Wireless 3945 a/b/g?


djtrix
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Well i searched and searched and searched for pci express wireless cards for notebooks to replace my not so functional intel 3945 abg card. and finaly i stumbled across a company called PCD Global. This company manufactures cards using the Atheros AE5006EX (802.11a/b/g single sided chipset). The do say on their website that they only offer sales to OEMs (like laptop OEMs most likely). But i didn't let this stop me, heres a e-mail i sent them, and the response:

 

-----Original Message-----

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

In regards to your product Part # WLL4080PCIX (XB62) Which uses the

Atheros Chipset AR5006EX (AR5423). When will this product be available

on the retail market? or can i possibly order one directly from PCD?

Thanks,

XXXXXXXX

 

-----Reply-----

We have this product available. We typically sell to OEMs. Are you

looking at this for business or personal use? 1pc price is $65.00 each.

We will also sell to individuals, but do not offer any support or return

privileges.

We can ship with a FEDEX or UPS account, or we can bill your credit card

for shipping.

Best Regards,

Chris Bartlett

214-432-0309

www.pcdglobal.com

 

Now i have looked high and low through the wiki and forums for anyone who has tested this card, but i truely think that nobody has. I have been informed Atheros chipsets work in OSx86 but i am kinda doubtful that this one will work, possibly because it is pci-express, and much newer. Does anyone have any input on whether i should get this card or not? I mean, i dont mind being a blind test victem for the forum, if it means others can get rid of those hideous usb sticks protruding from thier shiny new OSx86TOPs.

 

Any input is appreciated.

 

--Dre

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Thanks for the charts. I've looked through the HCL, but its rather shady in terms of specifics. People have said that "Any card with an atheros chip will work" but at the same time, this card is very new, so i have my doubts. I was hoping that perhaps somebody in this forum had purchased a laptop with that card rather than the IPW 3945, because i know that those laptops exist.

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Just buy any Atheros card. I know that Gigabyte makes one. Is there a specific reason you need AR5006EX chipset? all aterhos chipsets are supported, the info.plist matches for a huge amount of PCI id's.

 

Yes, the reason is that i have a laptop which uses the new PCIexpress wireless slot standard. Its a minicard, about half the size of a mini-pci card. and there really are only two cards that fit this slot, that i know of. the one i allready have: Intel Pro Wireless 3945, and this PCD Global - AR5006EX card, if you know of others, please let me know :P

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Yes, the reason is that i have a laptop which uses the new PCIexpress wireless slot standard. Its a minicard, about half the size of a mini-pci card. and there really are only two cards that fit this slot, that i know of. the one i allready have: Intel Pro Wireless 3945, and this PCD Global - AR5006EX card, if you know of others, please let me know :)

 

Thanks for letting us know where to get it! My Acer has the same minicard slot, I was hoping to be able to buy that card but couldn't figure out where to get it.

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Thanks for letting us know where to get it! My Acer has the same minicard slot, I was hoping to be able to buy that card but couldn't figure out where to get it.

 

No problem!

I just hope it actually works :angel:

Also, i wanted to ask you, does your acer's usb ports work? I have the acer 4202, and it has the 82801 Intel chipset, and i haven't been able to get the usb working... at least i think i haven't. People said "delete FPMemDriver.kext", but that doesn't exist on 10.4.5 and others said use the "IOUSBFamily.kext from 10.4.3" but that did not work either. :blink:

I noticed in a different thread you were using the d-link G122 usb-wifi adapter, did u have to do anything tricky to get it working? i cannot seem to get mine working at all (and im guessing it has something to do with my usb ports)

 

Cheers,

Dre

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks for letting us know where to get it! My Acer has the same minicard slot, I was hoping to be able to buy that card but couldn't figure out where to get it.

 

so, guys, did either of you actually pick up this card? if so, what's the feedback?

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  • 2 weeks later...
so, guys, did either of you actually pick up this card? if so, what's the feedback?

 

Yeah, it just arrived a few days ago... but i have some other issues to deal with first, like exams. I tried it briefly, and it installed fine, and i got the windows driver to load, but the wireless toggle switch didn't work, im guessing its incompatible. So the card stays permanently disabled!!!!!

 

In the past people had issues switching from ipw 2200/2195 cards over to other manufactureres. I think intel builds intentionally mallicious code into their interface to prevent people from using alternative cards.

 

There are several hacks existing for workounds if you have mini-pci bus/wireless whitelist/blacklist conflict. But being as this is PCIE and the card literally is the size of a postage stamp, i think im gonna have to wait a while longer for the hackers to figure this one out.

 

I'll try a bit more myself after exams, perhaps disassembling the laptop further, to get access to the on/off wireless switch leads, and discover how they work exactly.

 

So... i guess a short anwser would be: "kinda"

 

-Adrian

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  • 4 weeks later...

Interesting, despite the fact that the wireless RF toggle switch doesn't work in OSX or WINXP the network card is semi-functional in OSX at least!

By this i mean the card is detected, adn the drivers are installed, and the wifi icon appears on the taskbar, and you can even scan for networks, and see whats available... just not connect to any of them ;)

 

Hopefully i get that last part working sooner or later... i've only tested it on one router so far, so that could be the reason why.

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Interesting, despite the fact that the wireless RF toggle switch doesn't work in OSX or WINXP the network card is semi-functional in OSX at least!

By this i mean the card is detected, adn the drivers are installed, and the wifi icon appears on the taskbar, and you can even scan for networks, and see whats available... just not connect to any of them :gathering:

 

Hopefully i get that last part working sooner or later... i've only tested it on one router so far, so that could be the reason why.

 

Well... this doesn't really make any sense to me but its working now. What i did was plug in the old Intel ro Wireless card again, and booted osx. Suddenly the hardware rf switch was working, but the card obviously didn't work. I switched the card "ON". Then shutdown, installed the Atheros card again, and booted up. Suddenly everything is working now, as well as being able to detect networks, i can now authenticate and get an IP, and this post is proof of it!

 

FINALLY WORKING WIFI IN OSX!!!!

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djtrix, that is excellent news! I own an MSI MS-1057 notebook and the only thing not working is my mini-PCIe wireless card (intel 3945abg). so this mean, no more carrying around a USB dongle with me!

 

thanks for taking a chance and buying this card, even with no return policy or prior testing. :(

 

I wonder if PCD Global would be willing to offer a discount if we organized some sort of group buy for the AR5006EX...

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Ok, the card is on my laptop and works with windows driver provided by PCD but not in OSX (10.4.5)? no icon on menubar (not taskbar :) ) and i got this kernel error on boot:

start [/SourceCache/AirPortDriverAtheros5424/AirPortDriverAtheros5424-100.21/src/driver/AtherosController.cpp:391] loaded unsuccessfully

 

any idea?

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Ok, the card is on my laptop and works with windows driver provided by PCD but not in OSX (10.4.5)? no icon on menubar (not taskbar :) ) and i got this kernel error on boot:

start [/SourceCache/AirPortDriverAtheros5424/AirPortDriverAtheros5424-100.21/src/driver/AtherosController.cpp:391] loaded unsuccessfully

 

any idea?

 

so weird. for you it works in windows and not in osx, for me it works in osx and not in windows. Its definitely something laptop dependant. I'm guessing by your sig that you're using an HP laptop. Mine is an Acer. Perhaps thats the differance. I did get a few errors when i first installed the card. Then i re-installed OSX (10.4.5 - Myzer DVD). and it auto recognized it, and everything worked ok from there. But before you bother re-installing... do you get the wifi icon in the topbar? do you get any options when clicking on this if you do get it?

 

Not sure what else to tell you...

 

Good Luck

-Dre

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thanks for your answer i don't have any icon because the driver didn't load...

 

ok, i just finished to re-install the 10.4.5 and the card still unrecognized... ;)

 

with kissMac the error is :

 

AtheroJack: initHardware: 102: Unable to attach to _hal: status 12

 

??

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	 | |   |   | 
| |   |   +-o PXS2@0  <class IOPCIDevice, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 8>
| |   |	   {
| |   |		 "built-in" = <00>
| |   |		 "IODeviceMemory" = (({"address"=18446744073169469440,"length"=65536}))
| |   |		 "device-id" = <1c000000>
| |   |		 "IOChildIndex" = 1
| |   |		 "name" = "ethernet"
| |   |		 "acpi-path" = "IOACPIPlane:/_SB/PCI0@0/RP02@1c0001/PXS2@0"
| |   |		 "IOName" = "ethernet"
| |   |		 "vendor-id" = <8c160000>
| |   |		 "revision-id" = <01000000>
| |   |		 "subsystem-vendor-id" = <4f140000>
| |   |		 "IOInterruptControllers" = ("io-apic-0")
| |   |		 "Power Management private data" = "{ this object = 04134780, interested driver = 04134780, driverDesire = 0, deviceDesire = 0, ourDesiredPowerState = 0, previousRequest = 0 }"
| |   |		 "Power Management protected data" = "{ theNumberOfPowerStates = 3, version 1, power state 0 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000000, inputPowerRequirement 00000000, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, power state 1 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000400, inputPowerRequirement 00000400, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, power state 2 = { capabilityFlags 00000000, outputPowerCharacter 00000002, inputPowerRequirement 00000002, staticPower 0, unbudgetedPower 0, powerToAttain 0, timeToAttain 0, settleUpTime 0, timeToLower 0, settleDownTime 0, powerDomainBudget 0 }, aggressiveness = 0, myCurrentState = 0, parentsCurrentPowerFlags = 00000000, maxCapability = 0 }"
| |   |		 "acpi-reg" = <00000000>
| |   |		 "IOPCIExpressLinkStatus" = 4113
| |   |		 "class-code" = <00000200>
| |   |		 "compatible" = <"pci144f,7096","pci168c,1c","pciclass,020000">
| |   |		 "subsystem-id" = <96700000>
| |   |		 "assigned-addresses" = <10000c03000000000000cfdf0000000000000100>
| |   |		 "reg" = <00000c00>
| |   |		 "IOInterruptSpecifiers" = (<1100000007000000>)
| |   |	   }

 

could you make an ioreg -l -w 0 to compare, thanks

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Well im currently at work, my laptop is here but it has the intel card currently installed cause i needed wifi in windows the other day. Tonight i have a dinner party to go too. Hopefully, if i get home at a decent hour and in a moderately sobre enough mindstate to swap minipci express cards, i'll do that ioreg thing tonight.

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ok thanks, you can use the atheros with windows but don't use the sofware provided by PCD just install the driver and let windows handle the card (if i remember check that on the network connexion properties)...

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ok thanks, you can use the atheros with windows but don't use the sofware provided by PCD just install the driver and let windows handle the card (if i remember check that on the network connexion properties)...

 

Oh definitely the driver installs fine in windows. I have no difficulties with that. My problem in windows is that the hardware toggle switch on my laptop does nothing whatsoever, except remain permanent off. Does your laptop have an RF switch?

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i installed the atheros miniPCI-express card in my MS-1057 and it sort of works... here was my experience:

 

10.4.6 has a bad AirPortAtheros5424.kext driver. I get a "incompatible superclass: IO80211Family" error when I try to load the driver. When I copied over the entire IO80211Family.kext package from 10.4.5, the OS hangs at the first blue screen, before Finder loads.

 

So, i tried 10.4.5 instead... I ran the installation DVD and everything went well. Then the installer rebooted my machine and the OS X installation on my hard drive ran it's "first-time configuration" utility. During this process, it detected my atheros card and asked me which wireless network I wanted to connect to. I received an IP address and was even able to browse the web! However, the AirPort icon still didn't show any options (the AirPort line was greyed out, and only "network preferences..." was active). The AirPort admin tool also said it couldn't find an airport card. This was wierd because I was able to browse the web fine.

 

Also, after I rebooted later on, I was no longer able to connect to any wireless networks.

 

It seems like the only way to select and connect to a network was by using that first-time configuration tool that gets run when you first install the OS. The AirPort menu icon on the top right didn't show any networks and the AirPort admin tool didn't work either...

 

Any suggestions?

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Success!!!

 

So, on my laptop, the graphical airport tools for configuring the atheros don't work. You have to use the commandline utiliy "airport" that's buried in the "/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/" folder.

 

For ease of use, I created a symbolic link to this tool in the /usr/bin folder so I could run it from anywhere:

 

sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/bin

 

Then, to configure your wireless settings, use the following commands:

 

To list all the detected networks: airport -s

To connect to a non-WEP network: airport -A<ssid>

To connect to a WEP network: airport -A<ssid> --password=0x?????? (use the hex value for the key)

To show the current status of the connection: airport -I

 

If you don't get a valid IP after connecting to the wireless network, run the Network config tool under "System preferences...".

 

This even works in 10.4.6 (except i had to manually load the drivers after Finder loaded since otherwise it would hang during startup).

 

 

This is obviously not as user-friendly as using the graphical AirPort config tools, but for me, it was the only option and it works!!!

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Ok, i just figured out what's going on... all of the above is not necessary. basically, if your ethernet adapter is configured to be en1, then OS X will treat it as an AirPort card. since my built-in ethernet was not detected, it made my atheros card en0. therefore, OS X didn't think i had an Airport installed.

 

To fix this, i forced the atheros to be treated as en1 by editing: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

 

In this file, find where it says <string>en0</string> and change this to <string>en1</string>

Also, 6 lines below that, where it says <integer>0</integer>, change it to <integer>1</integer>

 

that's it! your card should now be detected as an AirPort and all the AirPort config tools should work (including the menu icon)

 

NOTE: this is only necessary if your built-in ethernet port isn't detected (causing your atheros card to be detected as en0 instead of en1)

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