G50V-A2 WiFi upgrade

If any of you are interested in upgrading the Intel WiFi Link 5100 to the more powerful 5300 it can easily be done. Asus was kind enough to pre-wire the A2 (possibly all G50V's) with the necessary three antennas. The third (grey) wire is unused on the 5100 and simply taped to the card itself. See pic below.




I purchased my 5300 from avadirect: http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_parts.asp?PRID=11396. To install, I connected the black wire to connector 1, the white wire to connector 2 and the previously unused grey wire to connector 3. This is exactly how the 5100 was wired except for the addition of the grey wire.

Once I booted the PC, Vista installed drivers for the 5300 then I re-enabled WiFi using the tray icon. I'm back in business now with a much better wifi card.

Enjoy!
mario64

 

Nice, did you do a range check before and after? I don't seem to have any range issues currently with mine and the 5100 but I haven't stress tested it.

 

Very nice post, thanks for this.

When WiMAX comes out, you can just buy it and upgrade just like you did here right? I don't think I want to upgrade to the 5300 card right now since WiMAX will be coming at the end of the year. Will I be able to just upgrade straight to the new 5350 WiMAX card that will be released later?

 

My 5100 gets max signal at work & at home so I have no real reason to upgrade but my networks are also very strong. Maybe sitting at my grandmothers house where it can barely pick up some distant networks it would be of a advantage to upgrade. All in all I think it just depends on cost and it would be great if somebody could benchmark the 2 cards somehow.

 

I'm with Vicious on this one, if I could see the benchmark of the two, I would greatly appreciate that. There are a couple of places, mainly in public where I don't get a good signal at all. So if it increases the range enough, I'd defiantly upgrade it.

Mario, you seem to be quite the enthusiast on this notebook.

 

I have plans to upgrade the intel 5100 in it to this 1000mw mini pci card, but I am wondering if the bios would lock me out from using it or if asus are liberal about other cards.

http://www.wirelesslan.gr/product_info.php?products_id=1028

I know people have upgraded to the 5300, but I figured this might be a different case.

Thanks!

 

Does not look like that card has the same interface so not sure how you can use it. As for the bios blocking it. I do not see that happening ether. Bios has no control over this part of the hardware that would be all driver dependent in your operating system.

 

The WiMax cards will require a WWAN slot. They require more power than the 5100/5300.

 

Sorry to rais the somewhat dead.

Anyway anyone know what is diffrent between 533ANMMWW2 and the 533ANMMWW?

The one in the above link has a 2 at the end of the mfg model number but I can find the one without the 2 for $33 shipped brand new... If you count shipping its around a $20 price diffrence.

They look the same they look the same and I cant find any documetation to say what is diffrent or if they are just listed diffrent... Is one just OEM and one retail or what? Just want to make sure if I buy the cheaper one I dont get in trouble, lol

Thx

 

wouldn't the 5350 wimax card just draw more current if needed? i mean they make the card for a laptop you'd think that a fix for that would available especially from asus. i hope it will works cuz i was really looking froward to wimax. im out in the desert in AZ now and my only options now are the 400kb every 48hrs wifi for free, or 5mb a month usb cell phone company card for $50 - $60 a month. the free is fine for surfing but niether can i p2p anything and if i could it would be slooow.. maybe i should just move?