A31 Is Wifi Card Missing? Pic Included(maybe)

[jrv331]

I won a A31 off Ebay and cant tell if the wireless card is missing - I dont know alot about this model and seller has not responded back.
Thanks John

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... otohosting

Ok so the pic didnt work, heres a link.

[andyP]

AFIK the 2652-C4U didn't have a PCI card from the factory. The question is, are the antenna cables present under the cover? If they are I'm sure someone will be able to help you with a PCI card in the market place.

[jrv331]

Sorry,
Did not know that.
Thanks
John

[rkawakami]

The picture shows the MiniPCI slot empty, which means no internal wireless. Neither do I see the two antenna leads (usually white and black) in that area. Futhermore, the specs on the 2652-C4U indicate no factory install of both card and antennas.

To know if the system is capable of handling the factory antennas, there should be two small plastic "windows" along the side edges of the lid. If those two corrugated panels are not present, then you can't put the antennas into the lid. Well, shouldn't say "can't"... if you did put the antennas in the lid, the metal will block most of the signal. You are better off putting the antennas into the base near the corners.

[jrv331]

Good thing I have an extra PCMCIA card.
Thanks for all the help
John

[RWDPLZ]

You can add the factory antennas to any 15" A31 screen. I'm not sure about the 14" screen because I don't have a 14" A31. I transfered the antennas from a 2652-M6U to a 2653-CU3, and I was able to fit them in an old lid and an NOS (new old stock) lid.

That said, doing it is a royal PITA. If you don't position and route them correctly, the screen won't fit back together right. Once you get the leads down to the base unit, you have to uninstall the right side drive bay and run the wires under there down to the card slot.

The two 'small plastic windows' are actually stickers, I think their only purpose it to show that that screen has antennas installed, though they may have metal in them and help with reception or something?

In my experience, any A31 that didn't have wireless installed from the factory, will not have the antennas either. I was real suprised when I found my A31p 2653-R8U didn't have the antennas.

[underclocker]

FYI, I did a complete LCD lid swap between an A30 15" with wifi built-in and an A31 15" that did not have wifi built-in. The swap was fairly straight foward.

I'm still using the A31, now with internal wifi.