M11x WWAN card info thread?

I am also curious if you can jumper the wlan wires to work with the WWAN card

 

Any news Mr DoughBoy??

I really want to throw my dongle away and use the 5530

 

I have a m11x w/out the Gobi WWAN installed. I am looking into buying a Gobi WWAN/GPS unlocked from ebay. So do all I do is install the card and I'm ready to go? Do the antennas for th WWAN already exist even though I didn't order it with that option?

 

The WWAN antennas are only installed if you bought the GOBI card with your m11x.
What most people are doing is using 1 of the WLAN antennas. This is fine unless you need the secend antenna for a N network speeds

 

If you want both a good WWAN signal and wireless N speeds you need to do a bit of modification to the system, it does require removal of some parts so not for the faint hearted!

1. Purchase a compatible WWAN card.

2. Purchase 2 additional WWAN aerials - I purchased these: laptop mini pci wireless antenna antena u.fl short UK on eBay (end time 07-May-10 01:06:18 BST)

3. Remove the back panel

4. Remove the battery

5. Remove 2 screws holding the keyboard in place

6. Remove the front panel with a plastic edge, and the 2 screws holding the keyboard in place.

7. Remove the keyboard

8. Place the 2 new ariels under the keyboard, placing them under the back of the computer will be no good as the radio signals cannot penetrate, ensure they do not block the keyboard port holes.

9. Feed the cable through and connect 1 of the new ariels to the WWAN card and the other to the WLAN card.

10. Fit everything back as normal.

This gives me full wireless strengh for both WLAN card and WWAN card with full wireless N.

 

Awesome guys....thanks for the info and workaround

 

Does anyone know where I can get better mobile broadband connection software? The dell/novatel one is horrible and flaky.

 

Hi,

I bougut a similar card (Dell 5520 3G Broadband Card HSDPA LAPTOP WWAN
DELL PART NUMBER DPN FF060 0FF060) and I've the same problem.
I tried all the drivers, several options and the card is not recognized by OS.
Any suggest?
Thanks in advance.
IRJ

 

I don't have the AW M11x, but it's usually the case that I find USB WWAN usually work best. Since almost all laptop have USB. Not only I find WWAN is too restrictive, but PCMCIA or Express Card also too cumber sum. So, in the end I just prefer USB for the use. And also, if i carry it w/ something Ubuntu jump drive, I practically have internet on any computer.

 

Just for the google record.

I found that the A1 bios that came with the machine had a WWAN lockout so only Dell homologated cards would work however - The latest BIOS however has this removed and any WWAN card seems to work (i tested a Sierra Wireless card out of a Clevo).

 

nice one! I got so sick of trying to get the 5530 working I gave up.

How are you getting on with sierra card?

 

Its much much better. no hangs or lockouts, not seem the sim not found error with it.

Neil.

 

thanks mate, will see if I can pick one up off ebay!

 

I'm also interested to know if you can use the same WLAN antennas to connect the WWAN card?

 

Any photos to support your argument before people go into LCD disassembly frenzy...?

 

you lose the N speed for wifi...and regress to G speeds.....if you split the wlan wires.

 

If your going for WiMax you could try the Intel 6250 it has WiMax and WiFi in one.

 

That's more than enought for me,,,, thanks

 

Do you know if the M11x slot will accept a card that supports both functions?
If yes then which slot will accept it, the WLAN or WWAN? or will it work on anyone of them?

 

Its weird, because it will expect WWAN to have it's own slot. If windows can pick it up in device driver, then that's all that matters. So pick one our the other and see what happens.

 

So, wait. I ordered my M11x two weeks ago. It showed up Friday. I wasn't sure which carrier I wanted to go with when I ordered the system, so I ordered it without the wwan card. I've spent the last couple weeks sorting it out and I've decided to go with my phone carrier, T-Mobile. I spent about an hour on the phone with ordering confirming that the 5620 card would work in my m11x and they swore it would, so I ordered it.

The order item reads:

DW 5620 Multi-Mode Gobi Mobile Broadband UCM Mini-Card, Latitude,M Precision,Customer Install

Why would dell offer this part for customer install if the customer can't install it? Also, when I ordered my Lenovo a couple years ago there was bright red bold text next to the wwan option which read: "If you do not order wwan as part of your initial purchase, it is not possible to add it later." If the same is true for the M11x, why wouldn't Dell spell it out? Plus why does the purchase page imply that the wwan cards are locked to specific carriers? The casual consumer (i.e. me) would look at that and assume that you offered two carrier-specific solutions, one for AT&T (which is GSM) and one for Verison (which is CDMA) and that the radios would only support the frequencies used by those carriers. That's really confusing.

I ordered the system expecting to be able to add the card at a later date (I hadn't planned to until around Christmas time, but I was surprised with some business travel next month). Can I send the system back and have them put the antenna in?

I found this thread looking for instructions on where the antennas were after cracking the system open to see where the pcie slot was and not being able to find them.

 

They wouldn't let me send it back. I wish the wwan ordering page wasn't so misleading. If it said "Generic wwan card, supports the following technologies" instead of offering two options for the same card branded for specific carriers I'd have ordered it with my purchase and wouldn't now be stuck with a system that I can't add a modem to. Or, better, just put the antenna in all the systems so that people don't run into this problem.

 

Without reading the thread the answer is no - the WWAN and sim on the motherboard will work - as will swapping out the WLAN aerials. I have fitted a 5530 card (am using it right now to type this) and have installed internal aerials but this is not for the faint hearted. The entire screen needs to be removed so the aerials can be traced correctly for reception - as does the laptop need full disassembly to trace the cables to the card. I had a dell mini 9 which the mobo had died on so for me the card and the aerials were easy to find. I had to modify the aerials so they would fit into the top of the case and found even after fitting that reception was not brilliant.

But by swapping one of the WLAN aerials with the new fitted WWAN that reception was fantastic.

Drivers used are the gps drivers for win 64 bit - you will also need to unhide hidden devices to ensure you have the drivers installed correctly.

I have a couple (bad) shots showing the screen removed from the housing for the correct fitting of the cables if anyone is interested in doing this. The front screen requires very careful removal of the plastic edge to edge plastic to give access to the screen so this can be removed. The front screen simply is secured by clips so care is needed, you also need to removed both hinges from the chassis and screen to allow the cable to follow the correct route as well as removed the screen from the securing holders (small metal catches on each side) then you will also need to lift up the metal taped backing so you can trace the cable under the tabs.

 

I was looking for the WWAN cables too. But I couldn't locate them without having to crack open the notebooks lid to continue the search.
Opening the lid/display is not a smart idea for all sorts of reasons.

The service manual notes the WWAN cables as:

white with gray stripe
black with gray stripe ​

I tend to trust erawneila (Brain) when he says if you didn't order it, you don't have it.

I have WiFi and Bluetooth so I figured I'm not having dongles hanging off the M11xR1 so I use Bluetooth as a 'modem' (DUN) to connect via my 3G mobile phone using UMTS.

Checking...... yerp.

Just dialed my ISP and away I go.
I have seen download speeds over 300Kbps which is great considering the max. I'll get on 3G is 385Kbps.

Just streamed internet radio at 96kbps and it was fine with no impact.

Guessing if I had HSDPA on my mobile, it'd go even faster

So, not mega stressed there's is no WWAN antenna and I save on not having to buy any Dell WWAN card, Telecom SIM cards and etc.

One nearly always has ones mobile phone and I already have a mobile phone data plan.

Some WWAN cards have GPS though, which could be good.

 

Since you already ordered the WWAN card and the data plan from your carrier, your best bet is to use one of the WLAN antennas for the WWAN.

However this comes with a tax: you will lose the N speed for your WLAN, it will operate on G speeds only. But anyway I guess we don't need N speeds for WLANS unless we heavily copy big files using the Wireless LAN. Otherwise if WLAN is used only for internet access, then G speeds are more than enough.

Unless you "really really" need the extra coverage area and speed provided by N WLANs, then you are good with simply swapping one antenna cable from the WLAN to the WWAN card.

Good luck.

PS: if you will go with this solution, i would appreciate if you try first to jumper both cards on the two antennas by using a small copper wire between both connectors of the cards while keeping the antennas attached to the WLAN card, I am interested to see if this will work

 

I really need the wireless N. This system sees use as a dev system and I frequently need to sync large amounts of data (gigabytes) pulling down content builds and such. It's agonizingly slow at G speeds. The Lenovo this is replacing had N (which routinely connected at 300) and if I wa sin a hurry I would still plug in the gigabit wired connection.

This really sucks. They should build the antennas in to all the systems in case the user decides to upgrade. I mean, what if the next cellphone I get doesn't support tethering? Now I'm completely screwed for wireless access.

 

Yeah. The same thing happend to me while ordering. I did not realize the unit did not come with the WWAN antennas pre-wired if you did not get the option. Fortunately, I called in to verify if I could add this option later and was informed that it was not possible due the lack of pre-installed antennas. I quickly made a second order, the very next day since Dell could not change the first order. I had two units delivered and returned the one without the WWAN option since I really needed both WWAN and N speeds for work.

 

If you would post them it would be awesome. I rather place the antenna's on the correct place in my laptop.

I'm currently using two extra antenna's from eBay and installed both directly below the plastic left wrist rest of the keyboard. It works for the GSM/3G/HSPDA connection but the GPS does not get any fix.
The mini pci-e card that I'm using is a Ericsson branded F3507g (same type as the Dell 5530). Got everything working after 2 days of (re-)installing various drivers. Finally worked with manually stripped IBM/Lenovo F3507g drivers.

 

If you want both a good WWAN signal and wireless N speeds you need to do a bit of modification to the system, it does require removal of some parts so not for the faint hearted!

1. Purchase a compatible WWAN card.

2. Purchase 2 additional WWAN aerials - I purchased these: laptop mini pci wireless antenna antena u.fl short UK on eBay (end time 31-Aug-10 04:10:31 BST)

3. Remove the back panel

4. Remove the battery

5. Remove 2 screws holding the keyboard in place

6. Remove the front panel with a plastic edge, and the 2 screws holding the keyboard in place.

7. Remove the keyboard

8. Place the 2 new ariels under the keyboard, placing them under the back of the computer will be no good as the radio signals cannot penetrate, ensure they do not block the keyboard port holes.

9. Feed the cable through and connect 1 of the new ariels to the WWAN card and the other to the WLAN card.

10. Fit everything back as normal.

This gives me full wireless strengh for both WLAN card and WWAN card with full wireless N.

 

has anybody tried "SIERRA MC8775" card ?

 

Photo's are on work laptop which is at work - however if your getting good reception then really that is brilliant - I never tried to install them under the palm rest simply because I thought the reception would be rubbish - I would not have thought the location under the palm rest would have caused interference' I'll test the gps reception tomorrow to date all I have tested was to ensure I was getting the data from the GPS which I am. As there is limited software for a GPS on a laptop I have never really bothered to much with it.

 

Do you remember which colored aerial you swapped to the WWAN Card? I am assuming you took one of the aerials off the WLAN card and connected it to the WWAN card, then connected each of the new aerials to the WLAN & WWAN Card?

 

Regarding point number 9, you mean that the WLAN will have 2 antennas connected to one of its ports? or are we swapping or what?
Can you be more clear about where the new antennas go exactly, with mentioning the colors of each cable conencted to where.

Your above post is very much appreciated really. Your solution is excellent.

 

I just ordered a 5520 a few minutes ago off ebay. It came out to like $32 out the door which is a hell of a lot cheaper than $150 from dell.
Gonna try going without wireless n and just thowing that second antenna on it.

I use At&t usually but apparently virgin mobile is about to start offering unlimited data plans for $40... I may have to jump on that seeing as they use sprints network and we get pretty good coverage with sprint here in florida

 

scratch that, I just ordered some aerials that I'll install myself. I'd rather put in some ghetto aerials under the keypad and palmrest than deal with trying to get my lcd replaced. Maybe ill put 1 of the preinstalled antennas on each of the cards and one of the aftermarket ones on each of them and see if that still enables me to get decent n reception...

 

Thanks EvilTchnlgy for your post...

I will really really be so grateful (and sure others too) if you can include photos of your setup especially when you lay the new antennas and the final setup and connections of the antennas to the two cards.

BTW, I don't know if it technically works, but seems a good idea to connect one of the original antennas to each of the cards, maybe it really helps with the reception.

 

I've still no luck on getting a GPS fix. GPS NMEA data is flowing though.

@philby did you had any time on testing if you get a GPS fix with your antenna setup?

 

Have run the GPS but so far have not had a fix - in saying that I was inside at the time but I can see data streaming. I have read others have had problems with the GPS locking on - I have used these cards with XP Pro with no issues in getting a GPS lock. So any issues will be linked to win 7.

 

Im getting the data stream too but never a fix (not even after 30min outside on a cloudless sunny day).

When you tried with XP pro. Was that on the same laptop and/or did you use the same type of antenna?
I'm asking because i think the antenna has to be GPS-signal compliant in order to get a true fix. The antenna you (and I) bought might be only truly suitable for GSM/GPRS signals and not for GPS.

I might even install XP on my m11xR2 to check it out.

 

Just letting everyone know I installed a 5520 into my m11xr2 with 2 aftermarket antennas. I just ran them under the keyboard above the battery!

 

I post this to confirm that "Sierra MC7587" wwan works perfectly with M11x-R1 (Bios A04). I played TF2 over UK's T-Mobile 3G network and it is flawless

 

Great thanks for letting us know i guess im going to order this one

 

Hi, would you be able to elaborate more on where you installed the 2 antennas? I've installed 2 antennas under the keyboard, probably somewhere under the 5 or 6 keys and attached one of each to the WLAN and WWAN card while attaching one of each of the original WLAN antenna to both cards as well.

Even after doing this I'm still not getting full signal for my WWAN connection. I'm thinking of moving the placement of the antennas that I've installed but I can't really see where I can place them without causing a bulge on the keyboard, which will cause even more problem cause the keyboard is already touching the screen even before I installed the antennas.

Also wondering, would installing additional antennas have any implication towards the validity of my warranty ?

 

I posted this in another thread, but I thought it might be helpful here as well...

________________________________________

I did not order my M11xR2 with the WiMax card, so I only have one set of antennae. I just replaced the WiFi card that came with the system with the Intel 6250. I attached the two antennae cables that were connected to the previous card. Wifi works great with the new card, I get 130mb/s and it seems to maintain more bars than the existing card (could be my imagination - but it definitely works either way).

The WiMax seems to work as well. I don't have service yet, so I could not test it out 100%, but the Intel WiMax connection utility did find the 4 WiMax networks in my area (Sprint, Clear, Comcast, and Time Warner). I am hopeful that since it can see the networks and identify the signal strength that this means the service would work as well.

A couple of points:

1. You can't use WiFi and WiMax at the same time, so the HotSpot sharing software that allows you to use the system as a hot spot won't work for sharing WiMax service with other near by non-WiMax devices.

2. I had to download and Install two different drivers, the Intel Pro Set drivers AND the Intel WiMax connection utility. Confusingly enough they have the same file name, but one file is close to 40Mb and one is 9Mb or so. If you only install the first set of drivers the WiMax network controller will show as not having a driver installed in Device Manager, but it will still list.

3. I enabled the WiMax setting in the Bios for the system before I installed the card. I am not sure this is really necessary, as I am guessing this setting only affects the full height WiMax card slot, not the WiFi half card slot which is where I installed the 6250.

I will be testing the WiMax service in a few days and when I do I will update this post with my results... looks hopeful so far.

 

On the 5530 there are 2 connections, one for MAIN and another for AUX, I connected the wireless cable from the screen to the MAIN and the second antenna to AUX.

Did the same to the wireless card, but make sure you add the cable directly under the keyboard not under the computer or the radio signals cannot penetrate and you will get a low signal.

To make the keyboard flat ensure you put one of the antennas on the left and the other on the right and fix down with sticky tape. Ensure you buy the correct antennas small and completely flat, any large or uneven antennas will make the keyboard bulge.

 

Is there a way to tell if a card is compatible with the m11x other then the list of the ones here? I can only seem to find the Sierra Wireless MC8775 Model here. Anyone know if thats compatible?

EDIT: Is this the kind of antenna I would need to install if I were to install the WWAN card?

http://buy.id.ebay.com/buying/id/di...fsrc=1&cguid=ec4ef67612b0a47a44e47014ffdeaa57

 

For the record, the 8775 works with newer bios. A01 of the BIOS seemed to lock out third party cards. New versions don't

I tried installing aeriels under the keyboard and they really don't deliver enough signal and its a real pain to get the keyboad absolutely flat. gone back to splitting the Wifi cable between the two drivers.

Neil.

 

Thanks for the info about the 8775 card, Neil. Is it impossible (or not worth it) to put the cables in the LCD where they are suppose to go? Oh, and which cable do you take out of the wifi card? The black one or the white one? Thanks in advance

 

I think the white one, but I don't think it matters

If the screen didn't have the plastic gloss frame over it I might install them in the top part of the screen, I just don't fancy the risk of opening it up and then getting dust between the screen and the plastic part. The worst part of this machine is that gloss plastic overlay IMO.

Other than that though this machine is kick . I had a R1 and now with the R2 I don't think I've had such an overwhelming "kick " feeling about a laptop. It does everything really well. Went on holiday for a couple of weeks and took the machine with me, plugged it into the big TV at the resort and had 2 weeks of sun, beer and Call of Duty.

Neil.

Neil.

 

What drivers did you use for the 5520?

I have been trying for hours to get this card working without any success.