Acer 7720G Wireless Card issues thread

Hi guys, I recently acquired an Acer Aspire 7720G on fleabay for £27!! It works fine so far, except for the Intel WiFi card which is inside.

Up until today it was intermittent, I had to reboot a few times to get it to turn on (even though Windows 8 would show it as enabled). However, today I decided to take it out and clean the mini PCI slot to see if it would work any better. Well, guess what... I guess my luck ran out because when I inserted it back in Windows has stopped detecting it all-together.

I guess my first question is... has anyone else faced similar problems?

Second question is, what are the chances of it just being a dud card and not the wires that link the card with the antennae? (ps. I've already bought a card on eBay today... Intel 4965AG card - LAPTOP WIFI CARD WIRELESS WLAN 4965AG MM2 42T0875 | eBay).

Oh and my third question is in relation to that WiFi card, is it the best choice that I could have made or have I been foolish and should have gone for a newer compatible card??

Many thanks guys, and I hope to stick around here coz I'm just starting to MOD this lappy. Already got 4GB Crucial PC2-5300 667Mhz dual-channel arrangement going on and also have Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5Ghz on the way. Then I will start thinking about the Graphics card and improving the cooling as well.

 

Do you have any other notebook that could be a temporary donor of a Wi-Fi card for testing?
It might be the card or the slot- hard to tell.

As for the card- you can buy any mini-PCI Express card you want although you would need an adapter to secure a half height card in your full height slot.
Adapters cost some $5. With that you could use any card you want and there are quite a few better than 4965 (Intel 6200 comes to mind- or even Intel 5300)

 

Sadly not mate, I've got an older Aspire 5612 but that uses an Atheros card so it's not gonna suit as a donor.

As to it being the slot itself, I guess that I should have mentioned that I tried it in mini-PCI slot 2 as well and I get the same results.

That's what initially led me to believe it's the card itself that's the problem. As for getting an adapter to perhaps install a better card in there... yes I will surely explore that at some point but for now I need a quick fix and that 4965AG card should fit the bill. Only cost me £3 anyways.

 

If the card doesn't work in wither slot it looks like it's the culprit. It's rare that W-Fi cards would fail but happens sometimes.
I assume you have Launch Manager installed.

 

Yeah I also think it's a bit strange that it would go from working yesterday to just failing today, and in both mini-PCIe slots...

What is Launch Manager mate?

Just to clarify, Windows doesn't even detect that the card exists in the system.

 

Launch Manager is Acer software that is responsible for switching on and off the Wi-Fi card (among other things)

You probably have it installed but check and/or reinstall it to be sure it's working properly

 

Ok got the Launch Manager installed but WiFi doesnt even show up there.

Also, got the 4695AG card today, have installed it fine but Device Manager just spits out "Cannot start the device error - Code 10" over and over.

Have tried pretty much all drivers that should work, even the ones from Acer Support page.

I really dont know what else to do, it still detects the card which means the card itself is fine so I cant send it back. Also, I really dont think its incompatible. I've seen people using 4695AGN with Aspire 7720G and it seems to work fine for them.

Is it just Windows being stupid??

 

4695AG you got is probably a Lenovo unit which do not work in non-Lenovo laptops hence error code 10.

 

Oh nooo!

That sucks, I didint know there was a Lenovo specific version of it.

Do you think that this one would work mate?
Toshiba Tecra M9 PTM91E-04U00WEN Wireless WIFI Lan card - Intel 4965AGN | eBay its MM1.

Or will this ones taken from Asus Z53S be better??
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111102798362 - MM2

I'm tempted to go with the latter one as I think its the one that will most definitely work, it seems that Asus parts are generally compatible with Acer. Nvidia cards... etc

 

I think Toshiba used to whitelist cards too although unlike Lenovo they did not modify them in any way.
I wouldn't buy it to be on a safe side though.

Go for something unbranded if possible.

 

I would get a brand new one but thats a bit more expensive.

Do you think that second one is a good choice?

 

I don't see a problem with the second one (but that doesn't mean there won't be a problem )

 

Ok mate thanks very much for your input, I think I'm gonna chance it. The guy said I can have it by Thursday.

Also, I still dont know what MM1 and MM2 stand for. Some card have those tags on them. :/