Mini-PCI card upgradable in 800 series?

I have a travelmate 801CLi that comes with an 802.11b PRO/Wireless 2100 Mini-PCI card. Does anyone know if it's possible to simply remove and replace it with the PRO/Wireless 2200 Mini-PCI card, which is 802.11g?

I desperately want to upgrade but don't want to pay $3 a minute to ask Acer this question. Anyone had any luck with other model network adapter upgrades?

 

I did the same thing to my Aspire 2000LCi. I found some Acer drivers for the 2020 series that uses the BG card. It was easy to remove and replace. I'm running WPA encryption with Windows managing the connection (didn't use Intel software).

 

Did you get the drivers from the Acer website or a secondary site? Did you have to mess with the BIOS settings at all or notice any problems with the connectivity on/off button?

I've read in an Acer forum specific to tablet PCs and damn near all of them have upgraded their tablet's mini-pci, but I'm curious if it's that easy with regular laptops.

Thanks for the response!

 

I got the drivers from the Acer website (at the time I got them from the Europe site). The US site may have them now. Intel doesn't have them on their site if I remember correctly but it came on the drivers disk with the mini-pci card. I first tried using the Intel drivers on the disk but had problems so then I got some from the Acer site that were newer with a higher version number (something like ??.20000). I didn't have to change anything in the BIOS and the on/off button works correctly. I bought the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG Mini-PCI card from Newegg (www.newegg.com) for around $45 US. It was real easy to replace. Just remove cover, pull off the 2 wires connected, remove card. Do opposite to install it. Before I replaced the card, I uninstalled the old Intel software, disabled the old 2100B card in the device manager and shut down the laptop. I didn't want the software/drivers from the old card there before I installed the new one.

 

MUCHOS GRACIAS for the help!! I'm going to get crackin' on it right now.

 

Robokam, I ran into a couple more questions...

#1) Does it matter where I buy the mini-pc 802.11g, because there are a ton of sites that advertise the same thing and they aren't specific to a brand or model.

#2) I called Acer and they told me it couldn't be done because the 802.11b has an antenna that is too short for the 802.11g. This is confusing because I would imagine all computers that have a 802.11b would have the same antenna problem, but many are able to manually upgrade. Did you have any problems with your antenna, and do you have any confirmation that your 802.11g is running above 11Mbps?

Thanks for your help!

 

I don't think it matters where you buy it as long as it is the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG mini-pci card. I can give you the specific model number on the box but I can't do that until I get home (i'm at work).
The connections where the antennas connect to the card is at the same place on the B and the G card. I took some pictures of the card so I can send it to you when I get home. Also, I'm pretty confident that it is running at 54Mps since on my laptop I display my wireless network connection in the task bar tray and when I put the mouse pointer over it it displays 54. If I move to another place in my house with a weaker signal strength it displays a slower speed than 54.

 

Thank you very much! I would really appreciate the picture. You can send it to [email protected]

I'm not sure why the Acer folks would steer people in the wrong direction other than they don't want people opening up their own computers. Job security, I guess

 

In case you are interested, I was just in a Barnes and Noble and saw a magazine called Mobile PC (I think that is what it was called) and they had an article on upgrading a Notebook. They had a little section on the mini pci wifi card as well as other parts. I'll send you the pic when I get home.

 

Outstanding! I'll go check that article out...I'm going to end up having to send you a finders fee for all the help you've given me!

Thanks again