NC 4000 Mini PCI Card Installation - Wifi

[Leon Batchelor]

I have recently purchased an NC4000 w/o integrated wifi. Looking to buy a Mini-PCI card to install and use rather than PCMCIA.

1. Does the NC4000 allow end user installation of the mini-pci card (IE: Cover on underside of notebook rather than keyboard removal/notebook dissasembly?
2. Are there issues with the notebook being bios locked and not being able to install ANY card and ONLY the HP card?

Thanks,
Leon

[Gary Cantwell]

Hi Leon,

Welcome to the Forums,

you could also post this one over in the Notebook Category:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/categoryhome.do?categoryId=274

The experts there will have some suggestions for you,

Hope this helps,

Gary

[Paul Nicklin_1]

Hi Leon,

First using the forums, but I have been doing some research into this matter. It would appear that there are "whitelisted" products that can be installed on the NC4000 units as "after market" mods, dependant on production dates etc. Two threads I found quite useful to explain, but not much good in that they basically say you have to use HP own parts:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?admit=716493758+1110979098125+28353475&threadId=266432

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=716493758+1110980224711+28353475&threadId=567021

I work for a company selling some of these units and finding cheap Mini PCI cards is a struggle. I haven't tested the latest BIOS upgrades - they might expand the whitelisted cards.

Regards

Paul

[Leon Batchelor]

Hi guys,

Well good news. I actually work for an IT re-seller big on HP.

I managed to get 325525-001 - HP W500 MINI PCI WIRELESS MODULE 802.11A/B/G through HP spares. Normal price is about £50 odd quid - I managed to get one 2nd hand through HP spares company for 20 quid!! And as you can see above its A/B/G :)

Thanks for your help though... seems you have researched this quite a bit!

Thanks again,
Le

[Paul Nicklin_1]

Sounds good Leon,

Have your company got many to sell ... I would certainly be interested in some? We actually have many of the NC 4000 unit for sale w/o WiFi and are trying to source cheap units?

Regards

Paul Nicklin