XPS M1330 3rd antenna wre for N-Draft card to short

Hello,

For a couple of month ago i purchased a XPS M1330 i originally bought it with the standard Intel Wireless card 3945ABG.


Now recently i bought the Intel 4965 N draft card, as you all may now it uses 3 antenna wires instead of 2 which the 3945ABG card uses, my problem is that the third cable (the grey one) is to short to fit on the 4965 card, ive tried to pull the cable as much as possible but not to much, not want to break it or something.

See attached picture for the reference. Is there any fix for this or may i have to call Dell and maybe a motherboard replacement is required?

 

You dont use a 3rd antenna. Dell uses only 2 when you get it from them. But btw, you can stick the card in the WWAN slot...it will work there.

 

Well my friend has the same laptop which he purchased with the 4965 card. I opened and checked that for reference, it uses three antenna wires, so?

Yeah, i was thining the same, put the card on the WWAN slot, but if or when i later purchase a WWAN card will it work in the WLAN slot? And will the Intel Turbo card work also?

Will the change of slot affect on any signal loss or anything?

 

If you have 6 antenna wires (most M1330 with standard screen) you need the grey wire which you may have to extend.
If you have 5 antenna wires mainly M1330 led-back lit screens you have to add the wire.
The middle wire (3) on the wlan card is mainly for extended range and speed so I'm lead to believe..
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=51

 

That wire you are talking about is more blue than grey, right?
The blue wire isn't for wi-fi from what I've been able to learn.
(fairly sure it's for wireless USB, or...?)

Anyway, those of us with an LCD screen do NOT have a 3rd wire. I will be doing the same as BlackRuski and going to add a 3rd antenna. EBay has tons of them and taking the screen apart isn't hard.

 

You R correct Blue wire is for wireless USB

 

If this third wire is required to have full n capabilities, so to speak, why did Dell intentially hobble this laptop with the led screen? It does not make sense, especially if you can actually add a wire yourself that does not seem to affect the laptop adversely? BTW, is there a guide to adding this wire? And, what do I search under with ebay? Much thanks, Yasmine

 

Added my one and also using A Gigabyte draft 2 wireless N card
Guide http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1330/fr/index.htm

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1330/en/sm/display.htm#wp1109848

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1330/en/sm/minicard.htm#wp1180188

wire from http://cgi.ebay.com/Atheros-AR5008-...ryZ45000QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I took my wire from a brand new standard M1330 spare lid

 

This is what the inside looks like on a standard screen

Look at the internal

Easy does it!

Wire removed.
Then used in LED back-lit screen.

 

The extra wire probably doesn't make a significant difference. This 'n' card just uses whichever wire gives the best signal... so there is a 50% chance the wire you add will be ignored, and only a real benefit if it happens to give a significantly better signal than the first aerial wire.

 

just wondering - if i get the N card can i just use the three antennas beside the WWLAN slot? and have two wireless cards running at the same time? I'm just curious if this can be done
thanks

 

Does it really matter which antennas you use? You could just take one of the antennas for the wwlan card in that case.. Why should it matter? All the antennas are of the same sort and go to to same place?

 

You could have more than one wireless card, but not use more than one at at time.

 

Sorry but i must disagree with you on that one.

3 antennas are important on 802.11n as it uses a technology called beam forming.

What this does it it will send / recieve signals on all antennas, now because of multipathing each antenna may recieve a slightly different signal, so what happens then is it is kind of like how waves in the sea amplify each other. The 3 antennas will reconstruct the signal from the 3 multipath signals to create a superior signal.

 

JDM,

I don't believe this Intel card supports this feature of wireless 'n'
(it is probably used most at the router end)