Mini-pci wireless question

[Robert M. Lee]

I have an HP Pavilion ze4500 (ze4547wm). This was not originaly "wireless ready". I have since installed a set of wireless antennas. What mini-pci wireless cards will work with this laptop? Are there "locks" in the bios that will prevent the laptop from booting with out the "stock" wireless adapter (IBM seems to love this feature)? Thank you for your time.

[Thomas Bianco]

mini-pci is, for the most part, miniturized PCI. it's a bus just like any other. while i'm not ruling it out, i will say it's unlikley that HP would go to the effort of programming in a bios restriction only to have to update it every time they release a new version of the wifi card.

i've had, on more then one occation, IBM branded Cisco 350 wifi cards working in Dell Latitudes.

none of the vendors are happy about it, but they work very well together.

the only real factor you run into is form factor, not all slots are created equil, some are quite a bit smaller then others.

[Robert M. Lee]

Has anyone had any success with using a Dell Trumobile 1450 Mini-pci WIFI card in thier pavilion laptop?

[Philip Doragh]

Thomas,

You are wrong, all HP notebooks engineered in the last year do have a BIOS locking mechanism that makes sure that only legal (as defined by the regulatory agencies) WiFi cards are installed. Whether this particular model is a part of that group is unknown to me.

[Thomas Bianco]

i stand corrected. any guesses why they would do this? corporate greed aside, of course.

[Robert M. Lee]

How do I determine what a "legal" (as defined by the regulatory agencies) WiFi card is? Is there some type of "Intel Inside"-type sticker or "complies with..." standard that is needed?

[Thomas Bianco]

strictly: you're already outside FCC by attaching an aftermarket antenae to a transmitter it wasn't designed for. i think that's only for sale of radio transmitting equipment, but i could be mistaken

the FCC approval process only allows the use (sale?) of approved antenae-trnasmitter combinations. "modular" radio setups (such as linksys's newest soho routers) are simply run through the testing and approval process with every posible combination. you're using a antenae and a transmitter that were both approved for 802.11(whatever), they just were not approved toghether. it's kinda grey here.

but for signals as low as 802.11 (~100 mW), i really doubt a FCC g-man will come knocking down your door if you use the wrong rig. in fact, unless you're using a 21 db Gain antenae (bit bigger then a digital satalite receivere, 24" radius), you don't even have to tune down the power in the states to be within 802.11 RF band regulations.

[Philip Doragh]

It was not corporate greed, but the FCC and other regulatory agencies pre-condition for allowing 11a based radios to be accepted with modular, dual band antennas. It is in the FCC filings for all of the notebooks.

[Anonymous]

I would like to unlock my BIOS to work with a minipci card. I have already purchased the card and an FCC certified internal antenna for it. I will be doing all of the work myself. Please inform me as to how I may enable this FCC certified combination on my ze4560us notebook.

[Anonymous]

*Bump* Please help me.