Replacing notebook's intenal wifi card, do i need to change the antennas too? Vaio FW series results

[argotera]

Hi, I am an owner of a Vaio FW laptop. I currently have 10.5.8. installed along with W7.(no audio or graphics card yet though)

 

My laptop carries the intel5100 wifi card for which i haven't find a way to make it work.

I intend to replace that internal card with another one,

 

My problem is the following.

the current card's antennas are inside the lid of the laptop so i d rather not touched that.

replacing the card only is fairly easy.

Do i need to change the antennas too? or can i just connect my new card to the old antennas?

 

Also,

 

which card would you recommend? considering the fact that i need it to be Half-height and i would like it to support 802.11 N too.

not just b/g

 

I have found bcm4322 from broadcom on ebay

 

thanx in advance

 

 

To be more specific the laptop is sony vaio vgn-fw51zf

[CharredPC]

Your current antennas will work fine, no need to change them. They should have standard connectors that simply pop on and off. I changed out my old Intel Mini PCIe card with a Dell 1505 (BCM4321) 802.11n card, and the original antennas work perfectly.

 

I've heard good things about the Dell 1510 half-sized card for OSX. It's an 802.11n card, and available new or used on eBay, etc. Just like mine, it's picked up by Leopard and works natively.

 

Hope this helps!

[argotera]

Cool. thanx. yes, i've seen how easy is to pop the antennas in and out. that;s why i asked. i wouldn't think to start soldering on my mobo.

It seems that the dell 150 afterall carries the broadcom bcm4322 or bcm94322.

i will post back with results. thanx again

[argotera]

hi to all. i just bump this thread to post the results in case i help someone

 

I used the

 

dell1510 or broadcomm bcm94322 or bcm4322

half-height pci-e wifi card

 

with the following id

 

PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_432B&SUBSYS_000D1028&REV_01

 

and replaced the Intel 5100 which my notebook originally had.

 

It works just fine under leopard 10.5.8 and is seen natively as airport in Vaio FW series.No problem at all. I am under the impression that it does have a better reception too, but did not have any tools to verify that

 

 

Although thre are two issues probably for the specific series:

 

first, you ll have to have the wireless switch on when you boot or else it won't work. you can switch it off and on later, but when you power on the laptop must be on.

 

second, bluetooth boots always deactivated, And it can't be just activated via network or bluetooth preferences.

i don't know what is wrong, probably something to do with the FW havng one wireless switch common for wifi and bluetooth.

 

Solution is to erase all paired bt devices, and then open the connect a device assistant. then it pops up a dialog asking to activate bluetooth. if you press ok the bluetooth works fine.

Tried this already having some paired devices and just choosing to add one more using the + button,but it didn't work. Only if there are NO paired devices at all.

 

If anyone has any idea pls share

 

bluetooth for fw is

 

ALPS-UGPZ9-BCM2046

id:

USB\VID_044E&PID_3017&REV_0227