Asus UL30VT-A1 (silver) also missing an antenna

I'd love to hear how that goes. Any particular reason you chose a 5300 over a 6300?

 

It has been quite a ride indeed. Overall, I have purchased:
a) Intel 5100 - I think it's a fake from eBay. The 5ghz band doesn't work.
b) Intel 5300 - seems to work on, but signal is not as strong as I would like.
c) Atheros 9280 (SparkLAN WPEA-111N) - that card was awful. Much weaker than the original Atheros. I thought I had a lemon. I think I will have that replaced.

What I think I will do is systematically try each of them on the new replacement A1 and see. I need the 5ghz band and want to find the card with the best reception and least power usage. Haven't found one yet.

 

What about the Intel 6300?

 

What does it cost?

I just ordered an Intel Wifi Link 1000, $25 delivered, because it's what came with the X1s so compatibility is known, I don't need a lot of features, and the price is right.

 

I chose the 5300 because it seemed like it was the best half height card available....I actually had no idea there was a 6300 ! Should be coming in the couple of days. I'm hoping to connect to my router at 300 mbps at the end of the day.

 

It's got a $10 premium over the 5300. ~$50 vs ~$40. Most of the new features are security related, but according to Intel the 6300 offers an "...enhanced receiver algorithm that can provide in some instances up to a 40% performance improvement over the previous receiver algorithm we had used in the 5300."

I don't know what that actually translates into in terms of performance...

 

I looked at the 6300. It was too expensive and only seems to be available from China. It's too expensive to risk getting a fake. It's too much trouble to deal with shipping back to China. If I can find a seller in the US, I would consider it.

 

It can be had on eBay for ~$50.

Linky

 

Yes, from China. If you checked my previous post, I mentioned I got a fake 5100 from China. I do not want to deal with sending it back to China. I think it's too expensive to do that and too much trouble.

 

When I looked at all those advanced features on the 6300 (even the 5300 as well) I had to ask myself how well they would work with two out of three home-grown antennas sort of stuffed where I could manage to put them as opposed to being optimized (length, resistance, etc.) and properly routed and tested. Didn't seem like a safe bet to me I'd really see much benefit in this case from the high-priced spread, but YMMV.

 

OK, this was a near disaster. Pulling out the Atheros card was harder than pulling wisdom teeth! That black tape was really on there pretty good. I had to use a needle nose plier to get it out. And subsequently destroyed the antenna connectors. Oh well, I have the new Intel 5300 card here, right? Well that card is slightly thicker than the Atheros card. I couldn't get the darn thing past the plastic housing!!! I had to pry a piece of the plastic case up with the pliers, then sand some of it down . Even then I had to wedge the card. I finally got it into the socket, booted up.....and the device manager didn't recognize it! Tried going into the BIOS, installing the drivers, nothing. Put the Atheros card back, and it was recognized. So either I damaged the Intel card, it's not recognized by the BIOS, or it's just a dead card. I'm going to contact the seller about an exchange.
Anyway, the trackpad was being problematic, the battery to loose, etc so i exercised by 30 day exchange policy.
Got the new one laptop yesterday, everything is great so far! I swapped out the hard drive for a 500gb 7200rpm seagate. I also added the second antenna, which now sees a dozen or so networks towards the front of my house. I routed it next to the wireless card towards the front speaker. I couldn't get it under the hard drive bay. I'm not messing with that card again!

But I do have one question: I'm getting 150mbps according to the network icon. I thought I could achieve 300mbps with wireless N (in theory). Is there any setting to change for channel bonding (at least that's what I think it is) to show 20 / 40khz ? My eeepc has a Gigabyte card and yields 300mbps.

 

Thanks so much for this, I was considering trying an Intel 5300 I have coming in that spot, guess I'll give it a pass and try in another computer later, or maybe this one (U80V).

Anyway yes there is a setting; go to Control Panel>Device Manager>Network Adapters>Atheros wifi and double click; then click on the Advanced tab and make your selections.

 

Where did you order & exchange your UL30VT from?

 

Ummm... I was able to work in the Intel 5300 and didn't mutilate my laptop in the process. No broken pieces needed. You've got to be patient. I tugged the original Atheros card until it came off the tape. Then I slide the Intel 5300 card in. I was even able to leave the tape with the Intel 5300. It's a bit snug, but once it clear a certain part of the chassis, it slid right in just fine. I think RockyM went a little nuts with pliers and stuff. It will fit, trust me.

 

Panic does set in after a while! But there was no way the card was coming out off the tape without some force. There was also no way to slide the Intel card in. What keeps it from fitting in (besides the slightly increased thickness of the card), is the nut that the card's screw screws into (specifically the left one if you're looking at the laptop woth the speakers facing away from you). You could manage sliding the card in from the right side, but ultimately it gets stuck between the plastic housing and the nut when trying to slide it into the pci slot.

 

I need to check if there are any updated drivers out there for the Atheros card. There are very few options to change with the stock drivers. Definately no option for channel bonding that I can see. I wonder if they're designed that way because Asus went the single antenna route?

 

I just checked on my G73JH which is the newest release from ASUS and also has the AR9285, and there is no channel bonding offered via its driver either, even tho it is a 2-antenna system on this machine. I checked my U80V earlier, with the Intel 1000 Wifi link, and it had it under "Ad Hoc Channel Selection" so I'm guessing that it's a feature missing from the Atheros cards; sorry to have steered you wrong.

 

No worries, Tallan. I actually had a look at the Atheros website, the max for this card is 150mbps. I'm getting FIOS installed on Friday, so I'll be curious to test the speed of this card against my wired desktop gigabit connection (I'm signed up for 35 up / 35 down).

 

<-- green with envy, and

Jealous!!

Wish it were me...:cry:

 

I pull using a mechanical pencil tip in the screw hole on the card, start on the left hole. Once it is off the socket, continue to pull on the left hold until the card is sideway (almost 90 degrees). Then half the card will be out. You can now peel off the tape.

I was able to shimmy my Intel 5300 card in, on TWO UL30VTs. So I know for a fact it will fit. Again, slide the Intel card on one corner and then just push it in. It will be tight, but it will clear something, and then the whole thing just go in.

 

Anyone know if the VT-A1 has 1 single antenna or 2 antennas? I just got an intel 6300 wifi card and hoping it will fit.

 

The UL30VT-A1 only comes with 1 antenna. The Intel 6300 wifi card will work with just 1 antenna but you can always install an additional 2.

 

David (above) is right for the most part but some early VT-A1s were reported to have 2 antennas even tho they shipped with the Atheros wifi card... if yours is one of them, BONUS!

 

Has anyone had severe download speed issues with this computer. I got one a couple of days ago and it downloads at 700K. If I hardwire to the router or use a usb wireless N dongle, I get my full 5 megabits that my service provides. I also get the weak signal issue - about 3 bars just 10 feet from my router.

I just set up an exchange with Amazon - it can actually be done online, no questions asked, and they ship out the replacement and don't charge you unless you don't ship the original back by the return date.

 

Curious which router your using? I see those speeds on my old G router. Have you tried a hot spot for comparison?

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but....

I just purchased a ul30vt-a1 for my wife and when we got it up and running the wireless wasn't performing up to what I thought it should. It wouldn't connect to my old g router and was only getting 2 or 3 bars on my new n router downstairs next to my dell which was getting 5 bars. I was a little frustrated and did a lot of reading, etc... Mine has an atheros, one antenna wireless card.

I was ready to buy a Intel 5100 and install it, had the disassembly guide read, etc.... Was checking out if I could wiggle the card out from the hhd bay like someone mentioned in this thread when I noticed that the antenna cable was only plugged in half way!!!!! Pushed it in all the way, put the hdd back and rebooted. Full bars, more available networks, etc... Still not as powerful as my Dell, but very acceptable.

As with all physical connections.... always check them.

Hope this helps. If someone has already posted this fix, my apologies.

ddgill