Wifi Card Antenna Cut on G73JH

Hello. I have a huge problem. I bought a laptop off ebay off some scumbag who said everything was okay with it. Turns out the wifi doesn't work. So I open it up and see that the black wire or antenna to the wifi card is cut. The white wire is still there but the black wire is cut. How would I got about replacing this? I know you can buy antenna wires but I was wondering if I have to disassemble the whole thing. Thanks.

Also here is what it looks like:

http://i.imgur.com/LQreaA7.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8rjhKKs.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eMSVjng.jpg

 

It is hard to tell from the pic, but if it is just a single wire inside, I'd go ghetto and try stripping the wire ends, twisting them together and then a little electrical tape.

 

I would do exactly the same of what thegreatsquare said.

 

I see. Thanks. But don't I need a soldering iron to do that. I have no experience with that.

Also will just ghetto tieing the wires together like this effect the performance, I don't want my wifi dropping in and out and I plan on holding onto this computer for a while. Thanks for the answers!

 

If you want to be sure, buy a new generic one and stick it to the inside of the display lid, it should give equal performance.

 

/
Ok. So I'm guessing I have to take apart the whole thing including the glued on keyboard. Or do I not need to go that far.

 

If you want to wire a new antenna, you'll have to disassemble everything, but I'd try the ghetto method first.

 

If you wouldn't know what the ghetto way is, its similar to this, except in your case its only 1 wire you need to worry about, not 3. How To: Fix Broken Headphones (Cut in Half) - YouTube

If I were you, and you do seem a bit troubled over opening it up, just try the ghetto way first, I'm pretty sure it'll work.

 

Thanks a lot for the helps guys. Was lot more helpful then the Asus Rog forums. I'm gonna try the ghetto method. Was reading up on it and gonna go buy some wire strippers and try it.


Edit: On a last note, before I do this or touch anything with the computer, I am going to try to return it back and file a claim with ebay. Of course the seller has not messaged me back when I told him the wifi antennae were cut up.

 

Just make sure you tape up ANY exposed wire as it's a shorting hazard.

 

Yeah I guess I could do that. I wasn't planning on touching it until ebay gets back to me and tells me whether they have contacted the seller or whatever.

 

This might just be me but I wouldn't be bothered by that at all. I would splice it with a little heat shrink tube around the connection and never think of it again. It's a 30 second fix. Unless the seller ticked me off about something else I wouldn't even say anything about it. I would absolutely never consider returning an item I wanted over such an infinitesimally small issue, that wouldn't even enter my mind.

 

Well it might be easy for you, but I have never done this before and I didn't plan on learning how to splice cables and reattaching them when I bought a laptop from ebay. Also if don't do it right, now it's my fault according to ebay for tampering with the laptop and it is unreturnable. He also quit communicating with me when I told him the wifi was not working so I guess he knew the antennae was cut(I mean it's the first thing you see when you open the back panel). The laptop was listed as used with no problems. I don't think it is fine for people to lie like that on ebay and be okay with it.

 

If that fails, just buy an USB WiFi card they are cheap now..

For under $21 Newegg parts Asus USB WIFI card.. ASUS USB-N13 USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter - Newegg.com

Just 1 idea... there ones for under $15

 

If I were in your situation I would ask for a partial refund for the parts and labor. Usually(in my experience) sellers are more than happy to issue you one because they want to avoid negative feedback.
Aside from that, splicing the wire ends together is pretty easy, even if you've never done it before. If you're worried about doing it, just practice with a random wire.
Best of luck!

 

Yeah I even tried that, no reply back. It seems if I do ever come to fixing it, I think I'm going to replace the whole wire because I plan on repasting the GPU and CPU anyway because my temps are always getting up to 90C easily. So I think to make the laptop last longer I should repaste CPU and GPU.

 

Or at least clean out the fans with some compressed air, sounds like they are dusty. If that doesn't help the temps, also check which Bios is installed. In version 211 or 213 they updated the fan profile somewhat (90°C is to hot for a G73jh, it should be way cooler).
About the antenna cable, that is really easy. You only need a sharp knife to remove the isolation of the cut cable, around 5-7mm each, twist it a few times together and put some normal electro isolation tape around it (you get that in every hardware store). That's all you have to do to fix it.

 

The advice you've gotten from everyone in this thread is the best you are going to get. It's not worth your effort to replace the whole wire and dismantle everything including the LCD and route the cable through the chassis.

It will take you approximately 30 seconds to strip the wire, 3 seconds to slip on heatshrink tubing, 10 seconds to twist, and another 10 seconds with a lighter to apply the heatshrink. After that, as long as your twist was secure, you need never think about it again and it will be 'like new'.

If you replaced the wire you would be adding millions of other variables that you could potentially trip on and end up with a non-functioning system.

 

That or get one and bodge it somewhere, but the above is worth a shot before going through all of that.

 

Thanks for all the advice and yes I wasn't planning to take the whole computer apart for just the wifi. But the reason I want to replace the whole antennae now is because like I said the computer gets to 90C very easily so I think I have to repaste the CPU and GPU as well as clean out the fans. And yes I have the latest 213 bios and latest vbios installed so don't think the overheating is a bios problem. I thought about the USB wifi that is probably my temp solution right now as I can't touch the computer until ebay gets back with me. In the end though, I do carry this comp places and would like an internal wifi(just one less thing to plug into USB other then my external hard drive).

 

Fair enough, just be sure to use a quality thermal paste like IC diamond and check all is well before putting it all back together again ^-^.

 

So you say that your wireless is not working at all or only not so fast?
Because it should still work, even if one cable is broken. Only the speed/signal might be a tad lower.

 

That's right it should, unless it's a funky design where the second is for bluetooth or something.

 

Yeah it works when it is right next to the router. But it has to be pretty close for it to work. On a last note is there a good video on taking apart the g73jh and putting it back together. I notice none of the videos show them putting the computer back together.

This seems to be the best one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp90M_N6dzs

 

That video is probably the best so far. Just go slow and don't force anything.

 

Yes, the rebuild should just be a reversal of each step.

 

Just want to leave this last post to say thanks for all the help everyone in this thread offered. I won't have to do any of this because ebay is taking back the computer and refunding me the price I payed for it. Thank god because I really didn't want to deal with doing all this anyway. And I think I'm just going to buy a new laptop now and stay away from used ones. Thanks again for the help.

 

I have a similar problem, i was replacing the LCD screen on my laptop (for the first time on this laptop) and when disconnecting the white antenna cable from the little thing it clicks onto, the wire didnt detach, instead the thing it clicks on/off of snapped and came away from the plastic. I continued with replacing the laptop screen and have put the laptop back together expecting the wifi no to work, however, it still works as normal, what does that white antenna cable do?!? and is it necessary to fix?

 

It's one of two channels for the wireless card, it can operate on one, but depending on the router performance may be reduced.