How hard is it to take apart a Z33a?

Hi, I am planning on replacing my mini-pci card in my Z33a with a TrueMobile 1370 since it has WPA2 support. I've heard that it is not really worth the trouble to upgrade the card since the whole shell of the laptop must be dismantled.

I can see part of the mini-pci card if I expose the cpu upgrade area, but I can't take it out. I assume the larger screws on the bottom of the unit are all that are required to take the bottom shell off.

Is there anything that I am overlooking?

Thanks..

 

Good luck with that...... the mini-pci card in the Z33 is the first piece to go in....... so basically plan to have your entire computer out on a table and give yourself a good 2-3 hours.

 

do not do is all i can tell you. i ve seen this done a few times. I would say there is a 99% probability you will damage it and break off the plastic clips. best case scenrio even if you do crack it open you wont be able to put it back together. on a 1-10 level of difficulty i give it an 11

 

Let's put it this way... there are a lot of screws....... I've been doing this level of assemble/disassembly for five years now and have more than two years alone on the M5 series.........

... We had a shipment of the white M5a chassis' from a promo Asus ran in China and Germany last year and we offer the swap to make the Z33ae pearl like the S5 and W5.... it's a LONG process and although the cost is high, that's really just for the parts... the labor is intense.... the only thing that makes it easier is that once it's apart, we're using a new chassis to build it... so there's no need to worry about damage to the old one. For you, you obviously want to keep your chassis, so you have to be careful.

 

Such a little teeny tiny laptop, no way I'd take it apart to that level. Even with my small hands I'm sure I'd break something. Add RAM or swap out a HDD, maybe, but not disassemble the whole thing. Maybe one of the larger models, but not that one.

 

Hmm yeah, I see this may not be the best way to tackle this..

Thanks for the responses, If I do try it, I will probably try it in a week or so. Although, I think I am pretty good with hardware, I think the point about the small size of the chassis does indeed make this very difficult.

I don't want to break anything, that would not be good at all.

 

as long as you're grounded, you don't need to worry about the hardware.. but that is really worry number one... there's no good a new wifi card is going to do if the motherboard is fried.... just keep that in mind.

Other than that... you just have to worry about the case parts..

 

Okay, I installed the card. I was able to remove the 200bg card without removing the entire shell, I remove the screws to loosen the plate around the hardware. I wedged the Broadcom 4318 (Trumobile 1370) in the mini-pci slot and it should be properly secured. The contact points are even throughout the connector. It is hard see the lower right corner of the minipci slot since it is blocked by the notebook's frame but both of the minipci slot hinges appear to be locked in.

When I boot up the notebook the HD spins, fan goes on, LEDs light up, but no screen is displayed and it powers off within about 5 seconds. I might have to take the entire notebook apart to be 100% sure the card is in place, but I was curious to see if there was a lock in the bios to only accept certain minipci wireless cards.

 

There is no bios lock it will take any card. the only difference is if you use something other than intel card the wireless light doesnt come on and the hotkey to turn on and off doesnt work.

 

hmm. I checked the card again and it is secured properly in the slot. I tried booting without any minipci card and the system booted (pentium m logo). I put in my 2200bg back into the slot and it also booted fine (showed the centrino logo). It seems there is something going on here..I do have the latest bios update.

Either the newly pulled Trumobile 1370 I bought is dead or the bios is locking this card out.

 

Ive heard of that with some HP notebooks where it doesnt allow you to use a different card. But never a Asus. IT could be the card itsself. Maybe the true mobile card needs the same brand notebook it came out of. i know all the built on asus can take atheros cards.

 

Yeah im clueless. I wish I had another minipci card to test, but this one should work it was in a working dell machine. I googled and I was able to find an ASUS A6k with an Broadcom 4318 wlan card, but this of course is an AMD notebook.

Has anyone had experience using Broadcom wlan cards on Asus notebooks w/ intel chipsets?

 

My Compaq X1000 is locked to only old Broadcom (from Dell's Laptitude D400) and old Intel 2100G cards. When I tried Z63a's Intel 2915, it said it does not support the card.

 

Asus does not lock their notebooks. it will work with any intel or atheros card. it would be dumb to lock a built on model.

 

Hmm..maybe justin can weigh in on this or another reseller.

 

A reseller is the only one that would have the answer. Im not sure if the z33 comes with the wlan card installed. because it would be a pain for the reseller to build it from scratch like that.

 

Just curious, since a lot of people here say its difficult to dismantle, will you consider to post a dismantling guide here?

 

There isnt a guide.

 

There is one...for HD, CPU and memory. I've seen it. I'd provide the URL if I had it, but I know one is available in .pdf for the Z33a...it's one of those "Chapter 5 Upgrade and replacement" chapters.

 

Yeah asus has guides for that stuff. But i havent seen one that tells you how to completly dismantel one of their laptops. I guess there might be one though.

 

Only the z70va has a complete dismantle manual. None others. z33a is the hardest to dismantle right after the z63a/w3v. www.geared2play.com/store/products/laptops/asus/z33ae/Z33A-assembly.pdf

 

Since there is Chapter 5, there must be other chapters showing dismantling of the laptop. Its only kept by ASUS and maybe/prolly those resellers have them.

I guess ASUS has already made some laptops for Dell, the dismantling information for Dell's model will probably available on Dell's websites.