Dell 1390 (Brcm4311) WiFi card on Toshiba A6 Notebook

[macbrush]

I have a Toshiba Tecra A6 01100R notebook, which is running on Intel 945GM Express chipset. The built-in WiFi card is an Intel 3945abg, so it is a no go. I grabbed a Dell 1390 (brcm4311 chipset) from eBay, knowing that Apple's Airport Extreme is in fact a Brcm4311.

 

After I installed the card, the hard switch for turning on WiFi on the notebook doesn't work anymore, the LED stay off. But the WiFi card is detected as Airport in OS X, little icon shows on the menu bar, I can see Airport in Network pane, as well as the system says the Airport is active.

 

However, I cannot connect to any network, in fact, I cannot see any network. If I try to connect manually, it just says an error occurred, and if I try to create a network, all it does is return me to status window without creating a network.

 

I have tired many methods, including different versions of kext, editing Info.plist, and swapping en0 and en1 (which actually make things worse), to no avail.

 

I actually suspect two things, either Toshiba/Dell has implemented some kind of lockout so hardware ain't compatible, or since I am in Hong Kong, the Dell 1390's info actually says "Location: USA" while all of my other WiFi card would appears as "Worldwide". Could any of these be a problem? Any clues?

 

Any idea or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

Chipset: 945GM Express

OS: JaS1048 SSE3 and AMD, kernel 8.8.1

WiFi: Dell 1390 (USA edition) Brcm4311

 

Thanks

 

Kenneth

[cubzh29]

Same problem with mine (Dell Latitude D820, which have a TrueMobile 1390 too). Didn't found any solution so bought today a wireless USB DLINK DWL-G122 which works quite fine with the driver downloaded on Ralink site (http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Macintosh.html, i post with ). Just a little annoying thing : not detected as airport and i need to configure with Ralink Utility and need to reconnect manually on each boot. Not a big problem, i have now a quite useful hackintosh

Edited February 28, 2007 by cubzh29

[macbrush]

I found a solution just now! I was actually inspired by earlier posts about the mini PCI version of the card, some people block out pin 7 to permanently turn on the transmitter. So I just look up some Mini PCI-e WiFi card's pin assignment, and found that most manufacturers use pin 20 for hardware on/off control. I just had to block out pin 20 by tape (I actually also blocked pin 18, since I didn't find any smaller tape, and pin 18 is unused anyway), and I can see all networks, can join them, and am typing this reply via WiFi connection right now!

 

Pin 20 is on the back of the card, pin 18 is marked on the board, pin 20 is just next to it.

[FavleX]

I resume this old post.

i got the same card and the same (this is what I suppose..) laptop..so this is very probably the tip whom must apply on my new 1490 card.

The thing is not so clear for me , it's all about How to apply the "tape" on the pin..could u explain a little bit more to guy as me who never been done that??

Thanks.

 

[Edit]

so for finding the right pin mumber u.. hold the card so that the pins, (contacts) are facing you and the key (a little cut in the card) is on the left. Pins are counted up-to-down and left-to-right.

Is this this correct to operate ??

[XGX2007]

I resume this old post.

i got the same card and the same (this is what I suppose..) laptop..so this is very probably the tip whom must apply on my new 1490 card.

The thing is not so clear for me , it's all about How to apply the "tape" on the pin..could u explain a little bit more to guy as me who never been done that??

Thanks.

 

[Edit]

so for finding the right pin mumber u.. hold the card so that the pins, (contacts) are facing you and the key (a little cut in the card) is on the left. Pins are counted up-to-down and left-to-right.

Is this this correct to operate ??

 

yea, can someone post which pins are which... or a link to another page that describes this? my wifi card is the only thing keeping me from using osx as my primary os.

 

XGX

[kkdart]

yea, can someone post which pins are which... or a link to another page that describes this? my wifi card is the only thing keeping me from using osx as my primary os.

 

XGX

 

Open up terminal and do the following..

 

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

(sudo prompts for your password, enter it)

 

A few lines down you'll see:

'en0' under 'BSD Name', change this to 'en1' (no quotes for any of it)

 

A couple lines further down 'IOInterfaceUnit' and just below it '0'.. Change that to a '1' (again, no quotes)

 

Now hit Ctrl+O to WriteOut (save) the file, and Ctrl+X to exit. Reboot. Now once you've rebooted the menubar icon will still say it isn't configured. No worries though! Open up system preferences and click on Network. It should tell you there was a new port discovered (airport) and voila, your airport connection is mapped to the Airport card instead of oddly through the ethernet interface.