Wireless card
Laptop internal wireless network cards also know as WLAN card or Wi-Fi card come in different shapes ans sizes. On the picture above you see two most common internal wireless card types found in laptops.
Two wireless cards on the top have Mini PCI form factor connector and found mostly in older laptops.
Two wireless cards on the bottom have Mini PCI-E (Mini PCI Express) form factor connector and found mostly in newer laptops.
Mini PCI-E connector is not backward compatible with Mini PCI connector. In other words, you cannot install a Mini PCI-E wireless card into the Mini PCI slot.
The wireless card plugs into the Mini PCI or Mini PCI-E slot on the motherboard. Most internal cards have two small connectors for wireless antenna cables, some newer Mini PCI-E cards have three connectors and require three antenna cables.
On the picture below you see an internal Mini PCI wireless card connected to the laptop. As you see, there are two antenna cables connected to the card. One main antenna cable and one auxiliary antenna cables.
In order to remove the wireless card, you’ll have to disconnect the antenna cables first. Grab firmly the antenna connector with your fingers and unsnap it from the card. Do the same with the second antenna cable. After that you remove the wireless card the same way as you remove the RAM module.
1. Spread latches on both sides of the card with your fingers and the card will pop up at a 20-30 degree angle.
2. Carefully pull the wireless card from the slot.
On the picture below you see a newer Mini PCI-E wireless card pluged into the slot on the motherboard. In my example the card has three antenna cables. Many Mini PCI-E cards have only two antenna cables.
This card connects to the motherboard differently than a Mini PCI card. Ther are no latches on the sides. The card is secured to the motherboard by two screws.
In order to remove this card:
1. Disconnect all antenna cables from the card. Do not forget to make a note how cables are connected.
2. Remove two screws and the card will pop up at a 20-30 degree angle.
3. Carefully pull the wireless card from the slot.
On some laptops the internal wireless card could be accessed throught the hatch on the bottom, on other laptops it’s hidden under the keyboard or laptop cover.
Laptop parts | Repair Man | 
December 26, 2008 3:06 pm
December 12th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
@ Patrick,
Yes, it’s safe.
November 30th, 2011 at 8:20 am
While I was in the process of taking apart my Toshiba Portege M400, I accidentally snapped the primary antenna cable. Is it safe to just plug in the aux cable to the primary connector on the card? If not, what are my options?
November 12th, 2011 at 9:49 am
@ Lee,
Try connecting just two wires instead of three wires. It’s possible the wireless card will work properly with just two wires connected. If the main wire is damaged, it still should work fine with the auxiliary wire.
You can try different wire configurations. Connecting a “wrong” wire shouldn’t damage anything.
November 10th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Hey I’m hoping someone here can help me cause I’m kind of up a creek without a paddle.
I was replacing the WLAN card on my Dell xps m1330 as I took the white antenna wire off, despite my most careful efforts, it broke off part of the receptacle on the existing WLAN card.
This also damaged the end of the antenna wire.
Can i use any of the other antenna wires on the new card instead?
There are 2 groups of 3 wires.
Black, white, black and white
And
Blue, white (broken), black and white
Will any other combo work?
Thanks for the help
November 2nd, 2011 at 6:03 pm
@ David,
I’m not sure why you are replacing antennas if you have them installed already.
By the way, one antenna is the main one and another one auxiliary.
October 3rd, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Hi,
Im getting ready to do a antenna mod on my Dell e1705 laptop. Im ordering the connecter cables for the external antenna on ebay. My question is how would dual antennas work. I plan on mounting a antenna on each side of the top lid/screen. I dont know much about wave types etc and am wondering if the two antennas would some how hurt reception in tandom. Also would tying the antennas in and leaving the existing built in antennas hooked up be better or just disconnect the orginal when i install the new ones. Thanks!
June 26th, 2011 at 5:25 am
Is there anyway to boost the reception for WiFi on my Toshiba Laptop – perhaps by replacing the antenna or card. At work my laptop does get WiFi, but the signal strength is always low and tends to kick in and out.
May 14th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Thank you for answering about the third antenna, but the main question is which card could I use with an AMD motherboard laptop?
May 10th, 2011 at 6:16 am
Hi i have a toshiba equium p200d and am wondering if its possible to upgrade the card to a wirless n card ? i have seen on on the pc world website for £10
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/dynamode-wl-700n-mod-mini-pci-express-wireless-network-card-07843209-pdt.html
May 7th, 2011 at 10:12 am
Tibor Makai,
I believe for this purpose you don’t need another antenna cables. Just two regular cables should be enough.
What you need is the wireless card supporting A/B/G ranges.
Range A works at 5 GHz.
May 4th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Tibor,
Quote
“I have a Toshibe A305D-S6848 and I would like to upgrade to a dual band wireless card?
Not sure what you mean by dual band. Most likely your card is already a/b/g compatible.
Do you want your card to be 802.11n compatible? First, I would check if your laptop has three antenna wires installed. I believe for 802.11n cards you need three antenna cables, not two.” end quote
I don’t have three antennas, but I could install one. they are pretty cheap on Ebay, though I’m not sure if any of those antennas would work with 5GHZ?
By dual band I mean 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ. I have a Linksys WRT610n dual band wireless router and I would like to use the 5GHZ also for media sharing.
I would go this way if I could find the right card for my pc which is an AMD motherboard(Turion 64×2 CPU).
May 3rd, 2011 at 4:47 pm
bruno,
Toshiba Satellite P200/P205 has wireless card under the keyboard.
Take a look at the step 11 in this disassembly guide:
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/toshiba-satellite-p205/removing-motherboard-2.htm
May 3rd, 2011 at 4:40 pm
pomawawa,
Yes, they do have cards like that.
You’ll have to buy a separate plan (or maybe you can combine it with your cell phone plan) and get a USB adapter from the wireless provider.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:50 am
Tibor,
Not sure what you mean by dual band. Most likely your card is already a/b/g compatible.
Do you want your card to be 802.11n compatible? First, I would check if your laptop has three antenna wires installed. I believe for 802.11n cards you need three antenna cables, not two.
May 2nd, 2011 at 6:43 pm
I have a Toshibe A305D-S6848 and I would like to upgrade to a dual band wireless card? There is out there a card that will work with my pc? Not sure on how many wires I have for antenna, but if I don’t have enough, how should I install a third one, and how about the antenna? thanks
March 31st, 2011 at 10:11 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop and i need someway to use the internet without using dial up. I have a cell phone and it works fine with a very strong signal. do they make cards for laptops like they do cell phones? We can’t get wireless or broadband where I live because windstream will not iinstall it even though they received grant money from the government for such a purpose. It took over 9 hours to install norton. It takes forever to look at anything online.
March 28th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite P200(I understand very similar to P205).Do you know where the Wireless card is installed:under the keyboard or under the laptop cover?
March 11th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Hi, I have a toshiba equium l350d. I have upgraded to 50mb broadband and need a n type wireless pcie card. If I buy this can I simply swap it with the realtek wireless g card inside my machine?
March 3rd, 2011 at 8:58 am
Hi, I have a question.
I have a dell 1555 laptop with intel 5100 card. One of the connectors on the antenna cables is damaged somehow. And I’m unable to connect to wireless networks even though I can see them in range if I connect the cable with the damaged connector to the card. But I have three antenna cables with one of them not being used. Can I use the spare cable to connect the antenna instead of the one with the damaged connector?
March 2nd, 2011 at 9:04 am
Mohammed,
I doubt you can find just the connector.
I believe most laptops have similar wireless connectors because they have similar wireless card.
You can buy a set of wireless antenna cables on ebay. Cut off one of the connectors and solder to your cable. I think this should work.
February 22nd, 2011 at 7:09 am
I have Acer 8100 travelmate. The connector of the antenna cable came off where we connect it to the wireless module and i want to replace the cable, could not find this cable in maplin. Don’t know what you call this connector and where to get if from for a cheaper price. Please advise?
August 19th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Jaby,
There is a small switch inside the audio jack. It’s possible this switch got stuck in “headphones” mode. Usually it happens if there is dirt inside the jack.
Here’s what you can try.
Turn on the laptop, plug headphones and start playing an audio file.
Now quickly unplug and plug back in headphones. This might help to release the switch inside the audio jack.
August 19th, 2010 at 4:17 am
Dear all
I have got a problem here, the internal AUX is interfering withe the sound input from external speakers please assit. It only plays with internal speakers when I try to use external speakers no sound comes out. How to rectify this error?
June 6th, 2010 at 4:21 am
i have a Wlan card similar to that of intel (picture above) with 3 connectors but mine only have two cables connected at 1 and 2. I have the black connected at 1 and white connected at 2.
1. how do i know whether it is main or aux, since i have 3 connections in my wlan.
2. How do i know what color of the cable is the main and aux? i only have 2 cables in my laptop but my wlan has 3 connections on it.
please help coz i want to make a wifi antenna, i don’t know where to connect it in y wlan card..thanks!
March 29th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Reza,
One cable is the main one, and another one is auxiliary, just in case if the main one fails.
Buy a PCMCIA wireless card with a jack for the external antenna. Something like this: http://www.pbase.com/image/116925312/original.jpg